CAN I BUY A VOWEL?

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you who have not been watching BBC weather lately I wish to report that it is raining in Europe. I mean the whole continent. Even Italy. I am tired of it. The other people on the trip to Mongolia are tired of it. And I intend to lodge a formal complaint with the EU Commission when I get the chance. 

I have not reported much in the past few days since Sarajevo because there has not been much to report, and the places are not that photogenic. The road from Sarajevo in Bosnia to the City of Nis in Serbia took me all day, and the first half was through fog and mountains. I am a little tired of having “thrill a minute” rides. When sitting in Omaha in January I dreamed of the charming, twisting and exotic roads I would take. I have reconsidered.  

In both Bosnia and Serbia the roads are generally poor. The major problem for a motorcycle is that the truck traffic rolls in the same spot day after day, and the asphalt has sunk in the place where the truck tires run. Fine enough. But for the motorcycle it is like trying to jump the wake on a slalom water ski. So when I have to pass someone I have to jump the wake. As all of you water skiers know, jumping the wake takes you out of the most placid place and puts you in the rough water. Here it is worse. So when you get out of the rut for the eastbound traffic to pass, you encounter the rut for the west bound traffic, and then have to get your happy little ass back in the east bound lane pronto. It is not fun to do that when the roads are slick and wet. 

The other thing about Bosnia and Serbia I had a problem with was the smell. I do not know what they burn for diesel, but it really stinks. Bulgaria is fresh and pretty, and the trucks do not stink. 

I think the weather was also working on me mentally. I was starting to lose my nerve.  But as I rode along today I realized it is only one half day at a time.  

Borders were not much to comment on. My bike is licensed in Ireland, and has EU insurance. Neither Bosnia or Serbia are EU countries. I tried to buy insurance, but nothing was open; and the border guys were not even asking for insurance papers. Still, I was not comfortable riding bare. I am glad I am in Bulgaria with good insurance. 

But Bulgaria does have a “Vignette” system to collect road tax. When you enter the country you are supposed to buy a Vignette and stick it on your windshield to show you paid the tax. It applies to foreigners too. But apparently not to motorcycles. When I tried to buy it the guy waived me off. So I went to a gas station and got the official answer from the minimum wage guy pumping gas. He said “Nyet Vignetta” – that is “ not needed for a motorcycle”. I think he must be right because I passed a police checkpoint and no one stopped me. 

So you will recall from a prior post that my gps map needed up dating. Here is my letter to Garmin. Anyone near Overland Park, Kansas has my permission to tape it on the windshield of anyone in the Garmin parking lot: 

“Dear Garmin People,

You need to do some work! Garmin maps takes the scenic route, which is not often good. When pulling into Nis, Serbia the gps insisted that I turn left on an overpass! So your software read the place where the two roads met as a crossroads. It wasn’t. I ended up doing one of my off road things to get to a crappy road. This is not the first time I was forced to take the scenic route. The maps are supposed to be all up to date, but once again today it yelled at me “recalculating” when I was driving down the 4 lane main highway to the correct location. The map showed me crossing plowed ground. Let’s get it together people.   But it did get me to my hostel. Geez, isn’t that what it is supposed to do?

Fritz” 

I stayed at the BeMyGuest Hostel in Sofia. It was great. Very reasonable and with a terrific location. Find it on www.hostelworld.com.  The prices have fallen rapidly as I have gone further east. I do not expect that in Istanbul. But once I got out of Croatia the prices for everything are about half what they were in the EuroZone. The hostel has great parking for a motorbike. And the owner, Georgi, is a very solicitous guy. There was always someone at the hostel to look after guests. Quite the change from Zagreb last weekend. 

Anyway, Bulgaria is mostly Cyrillic alphabet and I used my time to study Russian and practice reading in Cyrillic. The languages are not the same, but close enough to be helpful. Georgi spoke Russian, as did Constantin, the night reception guy. They very patiently helped me with my reading. 

I also took the free walking tour of Sofia. It was a good deal (as most free things are) and I met some nice people with whom I had dinner. Our tour guide gave me a little bracelet thingy for knowing that we were standing at the Roman Forum in the original city. But I kind of think we might actually be engaged. It is hard to know what the local customs really mean. So far no one has approached me asking how many goats I am prepared to hand over. But I have not got out of the country yet. We’ll see.

 

 

I am now sitting at MotoCamp. http://motosapiens.org/motocamp/  It is out in the sticks. But I have new tires here. I am going to do something a bit out of character. I am putting on new rubber before the wear bars and cross plys are showing. Normally, I am a very poor judge of when I will need new tires, and it only occurs to me that I should get them when I approach a trackless waste, such as the Atacama Desert. But this time I am on it! I even have some tread left. I am surprised because the tires have 16,000 km on them, and usually they would be toast by now.

 

Next stop is Istanbul.