Turkey

Leaving Bulgaria was quite a nice drive. The roads held up, and I only saw one more snake and it was heading away from me at speed! Getting into Turkey however was a bit annoying. Getting across the border wasn't difficult, just annoying, the border is very poorly laid out and thought out. There are 25 booths on each side for your car to come in, of course that means that there is only one booth open, a long que of cars and 10 other guards standing around doing nothing. The temperature was sitting at 30degree's, which is bearable when you are moving, but when you are stuck in a long que of cars, under all my bike layers it's no fun at all. Roll up the booth number one, show passport, booth two, show passport again and bike license, booth number 3, ohh you need a visa, just 100meters that way, so park up the bike out of the path of cars, walk across, pay 15Euro's for a scrap of paper in my passport, go back, almost get run over by a car who think's I'm cutting into the que, get stamp on a separate page from the visa(Remember this because it was important when I left Turkey), booth number 4, 'why visa and stamp on two pages?', don't know ask your man!, booth 5, passport, green card insurance? I had to walk 1Km back to the office that issues insurance, and was charged 40Euro's for the privilege, booth 6 passport and bike license. Phew! 6 booths all doing the same thing, what the what? They also had a vehicle search, where all the cars had to empty their luggage and open it all up, thankfully when I pulled up all they were interested in was how fast my bike went. So with that I was in turkey!

On the road, first thing that fell back into place was that I had to pay road tolls. I didn't mind too much because it meant that I could drive on nice flat highways. The only small problem, was that the third lane, which is usually reserved for lorries was pretty warped from heavy lorry loads, I think because the roads get so hot they change shape quite easily. I headed to a small town called Cerkezkoy, which is about 100km's outside Istanbul, I booked a hotel here to have a few days to myself. It was fun and games finding the place, my GPS didn't have map data for the town, just a compass pointing in the direction to go. After about an hour riding though an industrial estate, I realised the GPS coords were probably wrong. Felt like a plonker asking someone where to go, when I was only 100meters away. The hotel owner was a nice guy, he had worked in Scotland so was very friendly to me, and was quite interested in my trip.
Since my hotel had a bath tub, I decided to take advantage and wash my bike suit, which hadn't had a chance to do....ever.

This is the third rinse too!

After a couple of days off, I headed to Istanbul. On the road I filled up for the first time in Turkey, where I almost fainted at the petrol prices. £2 a litre! Apparently it's due to their taxes, which is still strange since they are next door to several oil producing nations. Driving into Istanbul, I had an inner monologue in my head about how to describe the driving standards, and it's a very hard thing to put into words. Think of any morning you have gone into work, or told your partner at the end of the day about some idiot-hole who cut you off, drove you off the road, took your space, ran a light, beeped their horns at you, basically any driving incident that's annoyed you, well those incidents are like having a run in with Snow White compared to driving in Istanbul. 

Everyone drives nose to tail, you can't relax at lights, as soon as the light turns amber, someone is at your tail and beeping their horn! You have to avoid the trams, who share the same road space as you. The roads in Istanbul were simply never designed to cope with the amount of traffic that flows through it's streets. After two hours, my GPS told me I had moved a total of 5 miles. So when I finally found the hotel I was relieved, although not for long. The private parking, turned out to be street side parking, which means I can't relax! I'm only ever happy somewhere if my bike is hidden out of sight. And the cherry on the cake was that the hotel stank of olive leaves. I think I was just getting worked up after all the traffic, and the fact it was my birthday! I was just wanting a nice relaxing day. After I unpacked and cranked the A/C as low as it would go I headed off to see the sights. 

Birthday meal for one, how sad :(

I spent the next day in Istanbul, just walking around, looking beyond the touristy area's and seeing what life is really like. But there isn't too much to do once you have seen the main sights in Istanbul. After Istanbul I headed to Ankara, which is the capital of Turkey. The journey was about 400Km's, but the scenery was really nice and I enjoyed the ride.

Even though Ankara is the capital of Turkey, it's not really tourist orientated, there isn't a great deal to see and do. So I only stayed one day and had a walk around. The city reminded me of New York a little, there are wide side walks up and down the main shopping area, and there are yellow cabs everywhere.

Leaving Ankara I headed west towards Izmir, but had no intention if reaching it since it was over 600Km's away! The journey west was quite eventful. My first petrol stop allowed me to have chat with a group of workers, neither of us could speak a word of each others language. Where ever you stop, there is always a free cup of Cay offered to you, and it's considered quite rude to say no. But I'm getting used to it, and it gives you a chance to get to know they people of the country. 

Some of the roads are quite nice and it makes the miles fly by.

Not sure if I should be more worried by the sign or the smoke?

On my GPS I spotted a hostel in a place called Pamukkale. The place was a little off the beaten track, but as with all places a little out the way, it was worth it. Pamukkale has a lot of minerals pushed up to the surface, which means there are nice hot pools and great calcium mountains. When I pulled into town I was soaked to my skin, but I didn't mind too much, it cleans everything out. I stopped to check my GPS and was shouted over by a restaurant owner, he wasn't trying to get me to eat, he spotted my license plate and just wanted a chat over some Cay. I might just be suspicious, but five minutes later his hotel owning friend arrived, and I haggled with him to get a cheap night's stay. 

Battle of the Bulgaria!

Crossing the border to Bulgaria is the first real border crossing I've had to do. However, the crossing was easy, just showing my passport. The border guards were a little confused when I had to unzip my trousers to get my passport! I keep it well hidden in a money belt that sits below my waist you see! Once in Bulgaria the first thing I noticed, after seeing how lush and green everything is, was how smooth the road was. I should have made the most of it!
When crossing the border, it is about 200Km's before you hit any civilized parts, which meant I was in the outback. There were a lot of people walking the highway, using it like a path between villages, only problem is each village was about 20-40 Km's apart! After the first bend I drove up behind a horse and cart being driven along. The cart is a flat bed, about 15feet long and the wheels are old car tyres. The whole family were on board, enjoying the ride. I was taken aback when I saw this, but after passing several more I soon realised that this was quite normal. About one quarter of all the vehicles are horse and cart!

I would love to see one on Top Gear!

I would love to have taken a picture, but I didn't want to patronise these people, big westerner rolling into town on a big bike, also I didn't know if they had a spare AK-47 tucked away in the glovehorse-box. 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have two fears. One is a bit unusual, clowns seriously freak me out!

Also available for kids parties!

The other creature, is a more common phobia, snakes! I remember when I was in 2nd year at school one of the teachers brought his pet snake in so we could see it eat a mouse! I was on the other side of the room, petrified, and ever since I have had the biggest fear of them! 

So riding along I was enjoying the scenery when I looked down on the road to see two of the biggest, blackest and slimiest snakes I have ever seen. They were about 5 feet long each, and wrapped around each other, I noticed them just in time to swerve the bike, they were about 1 inch away from my tyre, and I almost had a heart attack! After that I was on full hunting mode! Every shadow, piece of rope and broken fan belt on the road had me in a panic! Later I looked up the snake and found a picture to show you what I rode past!

Eeeeeeek!

I only saw one other snake on the road, which I crossed to the other side to get passed. The reason snakes are on the road in Bulgaria is because there is so little traffic on the road they get a chance to crawl on the tarmac which can retain the heat of the sun, making it perfect for them to warm their cold blood!

After this, the road got worse. Think of the worst pot hole you have driven through, the one you thought would rip your tyre apart, or maybe did. Well those are child's play compared to the roads in Bulgaria. The pot holes are insane, I smacked my tyres more than once and had to cut back to third gear for about 40Km's. One hole I didn't see I pulled the front wheel up so hard I almost ripped my arms out of their sockets! At many points I had to drop to first gear and find a path around the holes, which were greater than any actual road surface! It was not unusual to see an oncoming car on your side of the road, trying to avoid the potholes on their side!

I travelled to a town called Razlog, where I thought that I only had about 40Km's left to go to get to my hotel. I was stopped by the police, who were just wanting a nosey at me and the bike. I asked how to get to where my hotel was, where I was told it was still 200Km's away and it would take over 3 hours. It suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't going to make my hotel. I drove on for a few hours to a main city, called Pazardzhik, while rolls off the tongue. 

Here I found a cheap hotel, although that's a contradiction in terms, Bulgaria is a very cheap country. Their currency, Lev, is 2 Lev to the Euro. Petrol is about 90p a litre, and the hotel was only about £18 a night, with Wifi, which for me, is a deal-breaker! The next day I fancied a day off, after I felt like I had been beaten up riding the roads through Bulgaria. I spent the day relaxing and headed out for a few pics.

The hotel was like the Shinning

Another deal breaker for the hotel was that the receptionist let me park in the lobby. The only problem was the 10 step the bike had to climb to get up there. The receptionist went to get a worker from the kitchen, but that wasn't enough, we managed the top two steps, then she got the local newsagent, and we got a few more steps, then 5 people passing by all came to help and we managed to get the bike up the stairs, which was all very amusing!

On site parking is always a bonus!

Greece-y bikers!

After all the fun on Corfu, it was time to leave. We decided to head to Larissa, which is about 400Km's north of Athens, far away from all the troubles. Packed up and was on the road nice and early, got down for 10 and the ferry was leaving at 10.30, so timed it well. While waiting on the boat, another biker pulled in on a rather fancy looking 1200GS! He paid for his ticket and came over for a chat. By chance he was also going to Larissa and we all agreed to ride together. The bikers name was George, that name might not mean anything to you, but it's the most common name in Greece, more importantly if you have ever visited Corfu, you will have had a run in with George. All the little trinkets you see at tourist shops are imported by George.
The ferry we caught was the slow ferry, so took 2 hours to get back to Greece, giving us plenty of time to get to know each other. George was heading to Larissa to visit his girlfriend, Elena, who is studying at the university there. Poor guy has quite a time getting through, the ferry takes 2 hours, the ride to Larissa is 4 hours, all this for one night, and then he has the return trip to do tomorrow! We headed along at a steady 60kph, and enjoyed the scenery. It was refreshing not to pay road tolls everywhere we went. George took us off the highway and through the mountains for some nice winding roads, where we had a chance for a photo stop.

Once in Larissa we drove around to find Elena, and went for a coffee. The roads in Larissa were like riding on a sheet of glass, no grip at all, very scary stuff!

George and Elena in the coffee house

The three (hairy) bikers cool down with ice coffee!

After coffee we left George and Elena, since he had such a small window to spent some time in Larissa! We rode 60Km's to Neo Politza for a few days. Finding the hotel was fun and games, the GPS coords on the hotel website are always out, so rode around the ghost town for a while, trying to find the place. But when we did, we couldn't believe our luck. The hotel was really nice and the room was excellent for the price we paid!

A wee treat, don't worry there was a second bedroom, no top to tail sleeping arrangements!

For the next few days we relaxed. Headed into Larissa by train, which again was very cheap. We were looking for some cheap netbooks, since Magnus' was broken and my laptop was quite heavy. First we headed to a DHL office to see how much it would cost to post my laptop home, and Magnus to post some excess gear back home. We walked out with raised eyebrows, to post a Laptop back home, they wanted 150Euro's, which was unbelievable. We finally tracked down a netbook store, but they were a lot more expensive than I thought. 340Euro's was a bit too much for me, but Magnus bought one. 

An unfortunate effect of being in someone's company all day everyday is that you can get on each other's nerves, and I was getting a bit fed up. The following day we headed to Thessaloniki, where we had a small beach cabin booked for the night. On the way down, a small tortoise has parked itself in the center of the road, not a problem for cars who can ride over it, but was glad I spotted it before my front wheel did!

I decided that night that it was time to head out on my own again, I had enjoyed riding with someone for a while, life is a little cheaper, but didn't like being limited in what I could do, always having to think what someone else was wanting, which meant that I was missing parts of Greece. So with that in mind I decided to head north to Bulgaria, I wanted a new country to see and take in. The border was only 50Km's north. However, I did not have any GPS maps of Bulgaria, and wouldn't be able to get any. So with this, I made the age old mistake of relying on a map, and looking at where I needed to go and saying to myself, 'it's only this far on the map', shouldn't be a problem. Have you ever heard a story where those immortal words have worked out for the best?

My niece went to Greece, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt

Was on the road nice and early and heading towards Napoli A.K.A Naples. Getting on the road down was quite easy, which was surprising considering how confusing the road system is in Italy, especially in Rome. On the road down I spotted a biker in my mirror who I gave a wave to, when I pulled into the next petrol station for a break, so did the fellow biker. I went over for a chat. The biker was called Magnus, he was from Denmark and had taken 3 months off to travel to Jordan and Syria. After an hour chatting he told me that he was heading to Bari to catch the ferry to Greece, I mentioned that I was planning to do the same in about a weeks time, before I knew where I was, we were on the road, bombing along to Bari to catch the same ferry!

The ferry was 78Euro's for cheap class. The reclining chairs were 50Euro's more, and a cabin was 100Euro's more. The ferry ride was 8 hours through the night, which mean I was awake for the whole night. At 6am Greek time we were thrown off the ferry, with the workers shouting at us to get off, no sooner had our tyres touched the soil but the ferry was leaving!
From one ferry to another, at the port we hopped on another ferry leaving for Corfu, it was 19Euro's for me and the bike, I can't tell you how long it took because we both fell asleep onboard! Once in Corfu, Magnus needed petrol, which was a shocking 1.80Euro a litre. At the petrol station we had the map out looking at where we wanted to go when a very Long Way Round moment happened! A man pulled up in his car and insisted that we stayed in his hotel and we should follow him. Only 15Euro's a night sounded reasonable enough. When we arrived the hotel was actually apartments, they were nice enough, the owner argued 2 nights out of us, but I was happy enough since it meant we could leave our gear and explore the island on nice and light bikes. Tired from the ferry we had a lazy day.
At night, the most magical thing happened! About 50 fireflies came out to light up the garden! I've never see a firefly in my life, it was amazing, jumped into the garden and chased them for a while!

Sunsets in Italy as I leave

Luxury Liner? Not when you are awake all night!

Catching a firefly, camera couldn't pick them up in the garden!

This cheeky chappy popped in to see his new neighbours

The next day we snaked up the coast to a small village called Kalami, which is where my family had our first holiday abroad! The village is quite possibly Corfu's best kept secret, it hadn't changed very much in 12 years, but was stunning! The water was so clear that we crashed and bought some swimming shorts, 16Euro's and sun screen 18Euro's, in hindsight we should have thought ahead that morning! The water was so nice I didn't want to get out, must have stayed in for  close to an hour! After the swim we sat and skimmed stone like a couple of kids for half an hour.

Heading further around the island, we stopped off for a coffee and didn't feel like moving! We didn't get to half the places we wanted to, but didn't care since it was such a nice day, and great ride. We had to rush home in the last part of the day because my front light had popped and I didn't have a replacement, so we couldn't really ride a night. On the way back I passed my first snake! Luckily it was only a baby, about 6 inches long and it was dead!

Me outside the hotel I stayed in over 12 years ago!

Nice!

Me and Olaf trying to dry off!

Kassioppi

Sadly, it's midnight and I can hardly keep my eyes open, so Greece part two coming soon, where we're back on the mainland, we meet another biker, have a treat and miss a tortoise!

When in Rome...

Woke up early, to the local wildlife making some unusual noises. Went down stairs for breakfast at the hotel to find a guy staring at me saying 'Alright', I must have looked like I was still asleep because I just looked back at him blankly. It took me a minute to register that the voice I was hearing was in english, and not only that but it was Scottish!
The guy was on holiday with some friends from Ayr, they were due to leave that day, but a new Ash cloud had erupted and they were worried about their plane. They gave me a few good tips for getting around Rome and with that in mind I hopped on the train into Rome. I love the public transport system in Europe, it's mostly on time, clean and more importantly cheap. It only cost 1.30Euro to hop on the train. The week before I left Scotland, a cheap day return to Edinburgh(which was the same distance into Rome) cost £16, the train was late, over crowded and had a poor interior!
In Rome, the first thing I saw was the Rain, which didn't let up all day! When I went outside there were lots of 'Lookie Lookie' men running about with umbrella's for sale, one came right up to me and I said no, I'd rather walk in the rain, when he asked why, I laughed and replied 'I'm Scottish, this is an average day for me'. In return, I received the strangest look, but made me laugh all the way down the street! Because of the rain, I got a 5Euro discount on the tour bus. So the hop-on, hop-off tour only cost 15Euro's for 24 hours, which was quite cheap, by Rome prices. With my saved money, I caved in and bought an umbrella.
When I hopped on the tour bus, the bus had an advert over the side of the bus, making the down stair seating a waste. There were 4 seats at the front of the bus, which had cover. The only downside was that everytime the bus slammed on the breaks, which with Italian drivers is a lot, all the rain water would swoosh forward like a tidal wave.

First stop on the tour was the Vatican. But more importantly I could get off to take a leak! The Vatican is very beautiful. The que to get in was very long, so I didn't bother to go inside, and a personal tour could cost 40Euro's or more! When I was walking about I kept thinking about a good documentary that I once saw, where an ex-priest was stood outside the Vatican, where I was standing, and asked, if Jesus were alive, do you think he would live in a house like this? The more interesting part for me was spotting places from the Angels and Demon's movie!

I'm sure this was in Angels and Demon's

Next stop was the Colosseum which was very nice. So many movies shot here it was nice to see it for real. The only downside, which plagues most of Italy was the works going on to keep the place together. Also, a large part has been rebuilt and is very noticeable.  

I like tigers, I also like Gladiators, but which one is best?

There's only one way to find out....FIGHT!

After being rained out, I went to the Trevi fountain, which was very nice, but is in a small back street, and is packed to the rafters with tourists!

Strange to see something, which I have seen re-created twice in other locations around the world!

After the fountain I went to a small church, where the bones of all the monks who studied there were transformed into works of art. The whole experience was very strange, you had to pay 1Euro donation to get in, and there were only 4 rooms of bones on display. Over 3000 bones were used, but the whole process was very morbid. And I didn't hang about. You weren't allowed to take pictures, but that's probably no bad thing. However, while I was there, some teenager tried to sneak a picture, I've never seen a nun fly into action before! 'Who took that picture, don't lie to me' as she came storming up the hall, I snuck out, but she stayed with all the group to look through their camera's!

After all that I was tired, and started to head back to the train station. When I got there, my umbrella was still clean and I had all the packaging, so I handed it back to one of the 'Lookie Lookie' men, again I got the strangest look, he couldn't quite believe his luck!

Tuscany, I finally get it, but I'm still not middle class!

This post will cover my time spent in Tuscany, it's a bit out of date since I've not had wifi for a few days, but bear with me.
After my couple of nights in a hotel in Venice I decided to offset my budget and try camping a bit more. Which sounds good in principle, but doesn't really work out any cheaper than a hostel. I pulled into a campsite, off the beaten track, and looking like it was set out in the Borat movie. It cost 14 Euro's for the night, which is only a few Euro's cheaper than a hostel! But I paid and pitched up since I was tired from riding all day. But since it was such a nice evening I didn't complain too much!

My laundry was still a wee bit wet, so letting it dry in the sun!

Home for the night!

How's this for room with a view?

Trying to keep my diary up to date.

Home(ish) cooked meal.

Woke up at 8am with my airbed flat, so I was freezing. So the puncture is getting worse! Packed up and was on the road by 9.30. Headed towards Pisa, where I had originally planned to stay at a hostel half way, but since I was making such good time I decided to just head straight on to Pisa. The hostel was located about 20 Km's outside, and probably the hardest to find, it took me well over an hour of driving though small towns and back tracking before I got there, but like all things in life, the harder they are, the greater the reward!

I had to ask twice to make sure I got the right place!

Back garden much?

I've never stayed somewhere with such a drive!

I had the room to myself, I think partly due to the remoteness of the Hostel, so being well rested I travelled to Pisa first thing, to get a peek at this tower everyone keeps talking about. Drove into Pisa, and was able to park on a side street just behind the tower. One thing I love in Italy is that bikes and mopeds can park almost anywhere for free!

The tower itself, it's hard to capture the lean, but it really is stuck in. There are three steps on one side, and six on the other!

I always remember my Gran had this statue in the living room, I found out later it was Remus and Romulus who apparently founded Rome!

After the morning in Pisa, I headed south where I wanted a few days on the coast before hitting Rome. However, there's no such thing as a simple plan. The bike was running low on petrol, so needed to top up, usually not a problem, but after driving into 7 petrol stations which were all closed I was starting to get a bit worried. There were automated pay stations, but they were useless. In the UK you pay at the pump, in Italy, you pay at one station for all pumps. None of the my bank cards would work in the machine, and I only had a 20 in my wallet. My bike can take 18 euro's on an empty tank, so when forced I managed to put 15 Euro's in, but petrol was spilling back out, but the machine wouldn't give change, so I wasted 5 Euro's. I tried to pass the excess to the scooter next to me, but by this time the machine had swallowed the money. The man at the next pump was very kind, he gave me 5 Euro's from his pocket and took the receipt off me gesturing that he would get the money back for himself. It renewed my faith in humanity, although his wife was not happy as they drove off!

Later down the road I needed to re-supply my food for camping, but all the super markets were closed, and every town I rode through was like a ghost town! Finally I found a camp site that was open after passing about 5 that were shut. I asked the owner what was going on. Apparently May 1st is Workers Day, so basically they get a day off. Camped for the night, and fell asleep to some light rain. When I woke up, the rain was thundering down and had been all night. Everything was soaked. When I sat up I unzipped the front of the tent and had a look outside. I was seriously contemplating spending the day in the tent. I don't know too many languages, but even I was able to work out that everyone who walked past was saying, 'Don't fancy being that poor bugger'

After 5 minutes of sitting I decided to pack up and get on the road! I headed to Tuscania, where a nice looking hostel was located and I could dry everything out, but it was full, so had to stay at a hotel instead.

Nice wee hotel, wish I'd taken a picture of the carpet, made you think there was something wrong with the colours in your eye, bright green!

Nice view, this is what I always picture when I think of Tuscany!

Err, there appears to be something wrong here, I believe I ordered the Large...HELLO!!!

Look at the size of that thing!