Greece is the word..

great write up, glad you had a good time with your dad, i think i will have a look at going to some of those places
 
Down Bulgaria way..

I’m up very early to pad the streets of Bitola.

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Maybe it’s a little bit too early for me, eh.

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Breakfast and route planning.

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For some reason Garmin wants to route us into Greece no matter how we try to direct it to skirt us directly along into Bulgaria. Per below, we don’t want no Drama, right!

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We leave Bitola and head East.

Macedonian borderlands

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We reach the border which was crossed really simply at an almost deserted spot. We’re through in minutes. We continue to buzz Eastwards with only a brief roadside stop for a drink.

My riding wan’t very good today at all. For no apparent reason really. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Early in the afternoon it started to rain, the roads were poor, and I was feeling a bit anxious. We put on boil in the bag gear. The rain got heavier. We got diverted into some hillside village and had to get ourselves out, which was interesting.

I thought about my mum for a bit, and everything calmed down. My riding became good. I think mum was on the back for a little while there.

Earlier in nicer weather we’d booked the Hotel Luxor in Smoylen using the good old app. Very cheap - we each indulge and get a Junior Suite in a hotel for 23 Euros equivalent in the local Bulgarian groat. No breakfast but what the hell.

It continues to rain though is at least letting up a bit by the time we reach our destination A very smiley and friendly lady welcomes us and directs us down to a garage underneath the hotel. We didn’t know about that so that was a bonus.

My budget friendly swanky pad for the night :thumb2

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Another day, another beer.

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And yet it still rains, heavy again. Meh.

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Another day, another currency.

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There’s not much going on here. Probably best to come back in ski season. We find a restaurant that is open in the gloom and the rain which has an interesting menu.

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All is ok, nothing amazing. The highlight is the background music soundtrack in the restaurant, which I happen to think is hilarious. I get the waiter to write down what it is.

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Scenic Smoylen by night

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We have an odd Irish coffee sort of thing with some god awful brandy to accompany it (in all fairness, the waiter warned me it was shit) but that made me all the more curious.
He was right.
 
Mmmmmmmm Backlava.. ( post 94 - 4th picture )
 
Greece is the word... yep, again..

I sleep well, lost in a huge bed that has its own postcode. Nevertheless, up early and down to sort the bike. There is no breakfast but the same smiley lady who welcomed us yesterday points out that there is coffee and buns, so we have a coffee and a bun.

Last night I downloaded the comedy music from the restaurant so this is played whilst I pack up the bike. It sorts of speeds up the process..


.. See what I mean? :D

The weather has really picked up. We stop for petrol. The girl behind the counter asks where we’re going? I tell her to the east. ‘Take me with you’ she says ‘I finish at 7’. I at least should have took a picture, idiot.

The riding is decent, driving standards continuing to decline, but traffic thins out and we’re able to have a good play. Around midday we pass through the Bulgarian border town of Zlatograd and work our way up to a deserted border post using a pass. It’s a nice modern two way road on the way up. Up at the top, there’s no traffic. All there is to see is a miserable Buglarian and an ever so slightly more cheery Greek chap. The Bulgarian bloke looked particularly put out, obviously he was very busy doing nothing at all, and we’d interrupted him being in the zone.

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Well hello again, Hellas!

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The dog under the tree never moved at any point apart to have a quick look at me.

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I stop at the top to look at a LAMPF message which looks to be a loose connection. It goes and we have light. Sorted, we put a bit of music on. Heading down the other side of the pass it’s a real contrast. A worn single track road with plenty of loose stuff lurking about. I’m almost taken out by Postman Patos in his little red van. Careful now and concentrate, old chap.

The view south, in the distance the town town of Medousa..

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We join decent roads and riding is enjoyable for an hour before we hit a town and then the main road down towards Akexandroupoli, the destination tonight. It’s dull and hot. I can’t help but marvel at the amount of concrete used to create a some of the junctions. Just for a left turn off of the main road, the concreted area is huge, almost as though they had so much concrete around they had no idea what to do with it. Of course, at many of these the road markings have work away, so they’re just huge wide expanses of tarmac. All a bit odd. Hey ho.

The last half an hour of the tide is entertaining, leaving the newer main road and heading through what would have been I guess the old road which winds up and over the hills. Any more fun, and the fun meter will break..
We meet up at our very average hotel, significantly more expensive than last night, and for one room rather than the two and nowhere near as good. Oh well, that’s Greece versus Bulgaria for you.

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Today has been a relatively quick day, only 160 odd miles, so we have a decent amount of afternoon remaining. I have the urge for a walk, a greek salad and a sticker so off I jolly well go.

A decent beer, that. Not your Mythos style fizzy piss.

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The Greek salad box is ticked :thumb

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Mind the corners. If you get it wrong you get your own small church. Yikes.

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Greek DAS. Flip flops, shorts, Hi Viz. The chap in the red car appears to be supervising – well, he’s looking at his phone a lot.

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Alexandropouli Five-O

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Still World Cup time out here now so we watch the France v Belgium semi final over dinner in a decent spot.

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Tasty, tasty.

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Later in the evening the seafront road is closed in the town. Two touring bikers get parking tickets as souvenirs.

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Further east beckons tomorrow! :beerjug:
 
M’off .. to Asia

Actually, what’s the plural of M’off? W’off, I suppose :nenau

So, as I’d said, we’re still planning to head East crossing into Turkey this morning :thumb2

I’d read a few things about this border crossing in July and August and tried to make sense of various travel sites, Crapadviser and various Google reviews. Some stuff I’d read said it could be 3-4 hours in July. Bringing that subject up last night didn’t exactly lighten the mood. Given these internet nuggets of ‘wisdom’, we decided to get up early and do the off. We were out on the road just after 8 and it was as brief and rapid float up the main road which found us at the border an hour later. With nothing ahead of us we’re right up to the first window and through with a passport check at the Greek exit. After seeing Brian’s bits, the guy waves me through. Ooh, a good start.
Next we have passport control for Turkey, which again doesn’t take a few minutes. My downloaded Turkish visa is on my phone, obtained poolside in Corfu, so not printed out. Hell, it is supposed to be an e-visa after all. Its not a problem- the border guy scrolls and zooms in competently around the screen of my phone and wishes me a good trip. Stage 3 is customs. They take a brief look but aren’t particularly interested in my bike. The big thing seems to be them searching various cars in front whilst walking around them very slowly which takes an age, even longer if you take into account the compulsory and extended cigarette breaks that everyone seems ot be indulging in.

We get through the final obstacle and into a main car park. We get a coffee from some friendly types who take some Euros in change.

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Ah, the ambience of the Greek/Turkish border.

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We’re pretty happy with our border cross- though in about 35 or so minutes. We go to make off but find we’re not done. Ah. There’s another V5 and Passport checkpoint. Blimey. But we’re through in just a few minutes, courtesy of some queue jumping and a sympathetic lorry driver who waves us in front. Soon where breezing along the almost deserted main E84 route towards Istanbul. For an hour or so, the traffic is light.

So we also have to work out the obstacle of the road tolls here. I have a KGS tollcard from my last visit to Turkey, so we stop at a Shell Station where you could top them up to try and work out what the score is. At the first station they tell us no- they can’t do that here- and to stop at the next Shell station in x kilometers. At the next one they tell us no, we can’t do that here- and to stop at the next Shell station in y kilometres. ‘By the end of this’ I tell Brian ‘you’ll be a Shell of a man’ :D

At the third stop, a local speaks with us and tells us these particular toll cards don’t work anymore. That all stopped in 2013. That explains a lot then. He asks where I’m from. London I say, and whereabouts he asks. I tell him. He immediately runs off and grabs his brother who is sat under an umbrella having a drink. He runs a shop about half a mile from where I live. Funny old world.
We have a chat and the quality of information improves as you might expect. He tells us we need to find a Post Office. Look for the ‘PTT’ and you will need to buy a toll card. 50 Lira should be more than enough. Good stuff.

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We continue our way eastwards and ride through Istanbul on the main E80 road, following the signs for Ankara.

If you ever have the misfortune of planning to take the road through Istanbul my advice to you is not to do it. There is a route to the North which is apparently far more manageable. Anyway, on this particular drag when you can see the very large blocks of flats, and Istanbul in the far distance, well, you’re still probably half an hour of complete madness from the middle of town and. Probably more. There are traffic accidents. People stopping traffic in the fast lane of the motorway to buy water from vendors standing in the central reservation. Everything dodges left and right. Motorcycles are just something else in the way. I’d be as generous to call it an interesting experience but not one I’d like to repeat in a hurry. No wait.. not ever again actually.

Eventually after crossing the Bosphorous and reaching Asia (gosh that sounds exotic) the traffic begins to very gradually thin out. Driving is still mad, and anything is fair game. Relaxing it is not.

Later we leave the main highway and head North towards our coastal destination of the day, Karasu. We find a hotel through luck, the amusingly named Koc Otel. The room is nice, the electricity variable and the lift is a bit of a gamble by all accounts. It goes off a couple of times. At least we got the bags up to the fourth floor before it went on the blink.

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A stroll out, a sticker bought and eventually we plump on getting a kebab, which is handy as the menu option appears to be almost entirely kebab. We’ve sort of worked out that getting a beer here is going to be tricky, but at least the hotel sold Efes which works for us.

We have the nicest mixed kebab ever at this spot. The sign featured a picture of the owner on it, and at the time we went in the owner was sat in a chair beneath it, which was a bit odd.

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They were friendly; the chap who served us was polite, good humoured, spoke English and talked fondly of his days in Edmonton. The food was fantastic.

Me just doing my warm up exercises..

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So, so different from falling out of the pub into my local kebab shop, you know.

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We were as you might probably guess full up as we went back to our hotel to sit in reception, drink Efes and watch England get booted out of the World Cup by Croatia. Hey ho.

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Reflecting back on the day, ballistic had said how he wanted to visit central Istanbul but I was reluctant having been through the pantomime before. With the bike well loaded I didn’t want to be trapped in 30 plus degree heat. Later on he’d said he was happy that we didn’t go having seen the antics of the traffic which made me feel a little bit better about passing it up.

We buy some Juice for the bike tomorrow. Cappy is the brand, which we call Crappy. Funny guys, eh? It’s nice stuff. Orange Juice seems harder to get than any other which seems peculiar.

A decent sleep under decent aircon which lasted through the night, which was cool (quite literally) :cool: :thumb
 
The Epic East

Well, Good morning Turkey. Here’s the view from the top of the Koc, as I retrieve my now dried smalls from last nights washing duty.

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I’ve got up to do some scribbling in the morning quite early leaving Brian to snooze.

Chips and Onion Rings for breakfast?

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We don’t recall the guy mentioning there was breakfast, but on the other hand as he didn’t seem to speak much English. I wander in to the restaurant and whilst being examined by the man in the chefs hat I point at the food at which point man with hat behind the counter points at me and points at the food, which I see as the international signal for ‘fill your boots’.

It’s a very constructive part of the morning. I also manage to get a cup of tea with Milk which I consider a real achievement. I recall Arthur Dent managing to shut down a spaceship in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy whilst trying to do so. It seemed all very familiar as most of the hotel staff gathered as I tried to explain I needed squirt of cow to make my drink complete.
Ah, a triumphant breakfast indeed. Tea was a high point now that we seem to have left the coffee zone (there was Nescafe, but we're in agreement that this doesn’t count).

Back to the Nescafe Zone to pack. Its not coffee, I mither to myself.

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‘Crappy Pulpy’, the now staple of our riding refreshment hitched for handy access later.

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Well.

What an absolute fizzer of a day we had. I’d said later this evening that it was probably the best day I’ve ever had on a motorcycle. Having done a few decent rides now I think that speaks volumes. Yesterday, cannonballing across the Bosphorous was a proper ball ache but the happy reward today just made it all worth it. Very special indeed.

We set out from the hotel in Karasu and it was a fairly standard start. A fill up with petrol and then off to standard dual carriageway stuff; nothing special, but plenty to look at anyhow. Then the dual carriageway starts becoming interesting. Winding up and down, round and up, round and down. Super stuff.

We pass through a place called Zonguldak stopping for refreshment. We are happier than we look, trust us.

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Suitably refreshed we head off again along the coast. We transition into fantastic mountain pass stuff but all by the sea. This is followed by more excellent fast road stuff, and then back to the coast for seemingly endless mile upon mile of narrow twisty mountain roads again by the sea. The roads are varied and quite tough and the motoring standard is terrible. But it is all simply epic.

During the morning and heading through a small town, we dart off to the main square to try and sort out our toll road card thing out. We find the ‘PTT’ place..

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.. although the charming young girl behind the counter doesn’t seem to get what we’re after :D

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After an entertaining exchange, involving Google Translate, me drawing a road and a picture of money, and our generally giggling a bit we get the news that we need to go to a larger main post office to get what we want.

More fun roads are quickly accessed.

Later in a bigger town, we find a larger main post office and with our documentation in hand we get our toll cards :thumb

They’re now called ‘HGS’ by the way.

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Mine is stowed into the top of the tank bag.

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Brian stuffs his into the arm of his BMW twat jacket. We’re sorted.

Out of the town and swiftly into even more fun roads. As we chatted at a later stop, Brian put it well ‘You’ve got to earn it here’. This was very true. With very unreliable surfaces, gravel, potholes, sand, bits of old road, bits of melted road.. local drivers who are complete loons.. narrow twisty mountain roads, mountain passes by the sea(!) .. all incredible.

And I guess I say it again. What other bike could do this the way it has. Incredible.

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After an ice cream which saw our retreat from the warm afternoon we decided to do another hour or so and then try and find somewhere to stay.

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Our destination is Inebolu, with our never having again left the coast in the final run in. Brian decides to ride down a section of the empty dual carriageway on the wrong side which gives us a chuckle when we pull up. The signage wasn’t exactly clear.

We enquire at a hotel on the seafront who can put us up and we do a deal. Its only a few steps and one flight of stairs up to the room and that’s welcome. My pedometer isn’t getting a lot of work today.

There’s no beer at the hotel. The girl serving me giggles when I ask. I get tea with no milk but that’s OK. Later we stroll around the town. We stick out like sore thumbs as outsiders and you can feel the eyes peering at you. Maybe it is my imagination, but when I rode in Turkey back in 2012 things felt a little friendlier.

Wandering about..

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We find a kebab shop.

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Opposite is a tiny shop that sells beer.

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The joy of kebabs.

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The kebab shop and and tiny shop folks are friendly. We buy a few cans each from the tiny shop and tuck away our treasure. Beer is now very scarce and probably not a good idea to flash it about. We don’t want to go back to our room to drink, and it wouldn’t be a good idea we think to be drinking sat out somewhere in the open. Kebabs and beers swinging from plastic bags, we walk back down to the seafront and peer over the sea wall to have a look at the rocky shoreline below. As I lean over there are two chaps sitting below, having a drink. Seems like the place to be. ‘My friend’ he calls out ‘Where are you from?’ I tell him, and he asks if we’re looking for somewhere to drink our beer. He can’t actually see we’ve got beer but he appears to have our number. Yes, we own up, at which point he tells us to clamber over and grab a spot.

“Stay in the pink, with kebabs and drink”. Can you see the other boozehounds in the background?

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Best of gear.

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And so, another tasty kebab is had, looking out to sea drinking beer from our tins and chatting like two sixth formers smoking behind the bike sheds. We’re there for a while watching the sun going down over the Black Sea.

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Its very pretty.

Sweet, sweet beer.

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Brian attempts a closer examination of the Black Sea.

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A day of 242 miles of perfection :thumby:

Life is pretty damn good today :beerjug:

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Great stuff, love it :thumb2

By the way, i hadn't taken you for a man that likes a beer or two Rob :rolleyes: :D :beer:

I like the reference to Arthur Dent's tea procurring activity managing to fook a space ship up :D
 
I’ve only just got home and you’re planting seeds in my head for next year. Keep it up :thumb2
 


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