Eugene
Registered user
Had a conference for work in Istanbul, had some spare holiday time more than my wife so bollo.. to Ryanair, I went overland.
First camp in Signy-le-petit, 1st time tent used. Not bad effort seeing I put it up with a head torch in the wet, owner gave me a room temp Leffe and charged me 8euros, could get used to this camping thing
Hotel in Vizzeville at start of Route Napoleon, arrived too late in dark to find the campsites, Rte Napoleon had the 'mines of Moria' feel about them so bottled it and took credit card camping option
I promised the big some curves, so off to the Rte Napoleon, quite good too!
Slab then to Nice and Monaco and into Italy
Stayed at campsite north of Florence (Fiesole) and next day took this pretentious shot of Tuscan sunrise then off across the Dolomites to Ancona, bloody good roads across dolomite SS67, too busy enjoying it and not dying to photo it, trust me and try it.
bye bye Italy
After usual hand-waving, got onto ferry for Ingoumenista, Superfast ferries, like a nice floating service station, efficent and unmemorable, chucked us onto Grecian dock at 4.30am, pushed on for a few hours and ended up in Thessaloníki by 11am and Turkish border by lunch, totally surprised by pace of progress, tried to think of a reason not to cross border, couldn't think of one, 5euro for bike insurance, 15euros for my visa and I was in. Sorry Greece, maybe next time eh!
Found campsite 80km north of Istanbul (crude and basic with the traditional unsanitary foul smelling loos and I was only camper, a common theme for the trip).
Bought provisions for 1st night in Turkey in this roadside grocery shop.
Owner spoke no english, so shopping through the medium of mime, honey is hard to mime adequately by the way, sliced bread needs karate like chopping motion, cow cheese versus goat versus ewe, needs a decent farmyard impression, locals thought I was mad and a bit loopy. As I'm leaving an older guy in tache and leather coat comes up to me when I'm loading the bike, gives me a great smile and thumbs up and said 'SuperLife', yes I said, yes it is. Hence the 'title'. Could have been 'dash for a doner', 'bop to the Bosphorus', bollox to Ryanair, but Superlife it was.
Pretty location though, daybreak broke camp and went into Istanbul, sans any GPS worth a damn however maps and dumb luck did the trick. The hotel not too bad to find in the Labyrinthine Sultanemet old district. A really nice carpet seller showed me directions and then tried to sell me a carpet on the bike, stuffing a card for me and the wife to return to later, hard sell or what!
Boys at hotel let me park outside and chain it up to their lamppost, top chaps.
Okay, feeling a bit hairy, work presentation to do, went to barber, thats the owners son in the blue, tee-shirt outside, didn't take a good picture of 'Ahmed' my barber as I was been stalked by 'Butterfly' the waiter from the cafe opposite who wanted me to come back latter so he could 'teach me Turkish' and I could 'teach him English', jeessus! Okay good haircut, great shave, wasn't really prepared for the hot waxing of my 'unibrow' cheekbones, ears and piece de la resistance, 2 q-tips of hot wax jammed up my nose, all without much warning and well afterwards (ears was the most painful) it was like puberty never happened. Didn't shave for 2 days!
Day-break on the Bosphorus
http://i35.tinypic.com/1el9cn.jpg
Tourist thing
Blue Mosque
Hagia Sophia
After uncovering old Christian Icons in Hagia Sophia, who'd they find behind the paint but a young Tony Blair, well I think it looks like 'Tone'.
Spice Market
Into Bazaar, truly mesmerizing, hard sell, not as hard as the Souk in Marrakesh but bloody close
My wife flys in and joins me for a couple of days prior to the conference, this one is taken after we've secured a carpet (sorry Kilm) she's awfully happy to Grand Bazaar. Mission accomplished, carpet sought and bought
Great general markets, lots of ironmongers, bought a great adjustable wrench for the trip back (one thing I forgot to pack)
Work, it's not all a jolly
Our presentation to the great European virologists, I'm not a virologist, just work with them, I'm a molecular biologist (DNA fiddler).
Wife went back to London and colleagues got in taxi, I had over 2.5K miles back through Bulgaria and Romania, Austria, Germany, Hungary etc and a week to do it. Off I went, crossing bulgarian border, no problem.
Starter motor taking 3 goes, worrying. From now on, less photos, more riding, didn't want to have to negotiate 'starter motor kaput' in either Bulgaria or Romania.Ploughed across both.
Camp Neptune, Bulgarian campsite/gulag South of Varna.
Bulgarian Blacksea coast, or Costa-del-Sol circa 1973, except without the sympathetic hotel building and care for the environment
Camp Neptune
Campunlung motel between Pitesti and Brasov. Found at night in the rain when 'vampire camping' proved elusive and never so glad to find it too!
Romanian hotels are thin on the ground in this area. Headed off after a rough night, dose of the of the Bucharest two-step basically, onto slippy roads up a Transylvanian moutain, past Vlad's gaff, into fog, then those nice Romanian's arranged for all the nasty switchbacks to have resurfacing grooves cut into the road (sphincter tightening helped with previous problem) and just when I thought it couldn't get more interesting, a woman emerged from the fog on a corner leading a cow on a rope, then dived into a ditch. Gotta love those Romanina roads
Survived vampire-death-cow experience and headed for Hungary, pretty much uneventfully. Arrived at Erd Hungary near Budapest, while searching for a campsite found this, not sure what it meant but seems welcoming
Hungarians like chain-saws, go figure!
Nice campsite, friendly hosts and guests, served Hungarian beer while explaining my trip/life with mime and pictures serenaded by Hungarian fiddle players, you had to be there, weird. Hungary is truly 'western europe'. Started to relax about iffy starter, still away long enough, pressed on for next couple of days, trip felt 'over', just needed to get home.
After Austria, again at indecent pace, came Germany and a stay in Seefeld campsite south of Munich, next day went to BMW HQ
However, bloody museum closed Mondays
Hotel that GPS fairy brought me to after I'd had enough of being cold and miserable in the rain and being up the chuff of lorries in autobahn contraflows
Mettlach, little bit of Germany next to Luxembourg, has it's own brewery and is quite pretty
After a wet hasty dash across Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and France the boat home to England from Dunkerque.
Roughly 5000miles in 12days riding. Too much linear riding to enjoy this many countries properly, but good reconnaissance , more a biopsy of Europe than a tour. The scope of trip and work commitment gave the trip a pointed focus, would have liked to wander more. Bike was great, dodgy stater aside.
Should have packed lighter, camping was great, enjoyed it.
Fewer countries, more wandering next time.
First camp in Signy-le-petit, 1st time tent used. Not bad effort seeing I put it up with a head torch in the wet, owner gave me a room temp Leffe and charged me 8euros, could get used to this camping thing
Hotel in Vizzeville at start of Route Napoleon, arrived too late in dark to find the campsites, Rte Napoleon had the 'mines of Moria' feel about them so bottled it and took credit card camping option
I promised the big some curves, so off to the Rte Napoleon, quite good too!
Slab then to Nice and Monaco and into Italy
Stayed at campsite north of Florence (Fiesole) and next day took this pretentious shot of Tuscan sunrise then off across the Dolomites to Ancona, bloody good roads across dolomite SS67, too busy enjoying it and not dying to photo it, trust me and try it.
bye bye Italy
After usual hand-waving, got onto ferry for Ingoumenista, Superfast ferries, like a nice floating service station, efficent and unmemorable, chucked us onto Grecian dock at 4.30am, pushed on for a few hours and ended up in Thessaloníki by 11am and Turkish border by lunch, totally surprised by pace of progress, tried to think of a reason not to cross border, couldn't think of one, 5euro for bike insurance, 15euros for my visa and I was in. Sorry Greece, maybe next time eh!
Found campsite 80km north of Istanbul (crude and basic with the traditional unsanitary foul smelling loos and I was only camper, a common theme for the trip).
Bought provisions for 1st night in Turkey in this roadside grocery shop.
Owner spoke no english, so shopping through the medium of mime, honey is hard to mime adequately by the way, sliced bread needs karate like chopping motion, cow cheese versus goat versus ewe, needs a decent farmyard impression, locals thought I was mad and a bit loopy. As I'm leaving an older guy in tache and leather coat comes up to me when I'm loading the bike, gives me a great smile and thumbs up and said 'SuperLife', yes I said, yes it is. Hence the 'title'. Could have been 'dash for a doner', 'bop to the Bosphorus', bollox to Ryanair, but Superlife it was.
Pretty location though, daybreak broke camp and went into Istanbul, sans any GPS worth a damn however maps and dumb luck did the trick. The hotel not too bad to find in the Labyrinthine Sultanemet old district. A really nice carpet seller showed me directions and then tried to sell me a carpet on the bike, stuffing a card for me and the wife to return to later, hard sell or what!
Boys at hotel let me park outside and chain it up to their lamppost, top chaps.
Okay, feeling a bit hairy, work presentation to do, went to barber, thats the owners son in the blue, tee-shirt outside, didn't take a good picture of 'Ahmed' my barber as I was been stalked by 'Butterfly' the waiter from the cafe opposite who wanted me to come back latter so he could 'teach me Turkish' and I could 'teach him English', jeessus! Okay good haircut, great shave, wasn't really prepared for the hot waxing of my 'unibrow' cheekbones, ears and piece de la resistance, 2 q-tips of hot wax jammed up my nose, all without much warning and well afterwards (ears was the most painful) it was like puberty never happened. Didn't shave for 2 days!
Day-break on the Bosphorus
http://i35.tinypic.com/1el9cn.jpg
Tourist thing
Blue Mosque
Hagia Sophia
After uncovering old Christian Icons in Hagia Sophia, who'd they find behind the paint but a young Tony Blair, well I think it looks like 'Tone'.
Spice Market
Into Bazaar, truly mesmerizing, hard sell, not as hard as the Souk in Marrakesh but bloody close
My wife flys in and joins me for a couple of days prior to the conference, this one is taken after we've secured a carpet (sorry Kilm) she's awfully happy to Grand Bazaar. Mission accomplished, carpet sought and bought
Great general markets, lots of ironmongers, bought a great adjustable wrench for the trip back (one thing I forgot to pack)
Work, it's not all a jolly
Our presentation to the great European virologists, I'm not a virologist, just work with them, I'm a molecular biologist (DNA fiddler).
Wife went back to London and colleagues got in taxi, I had over 2.5K miles back through Bulgaria and Romania, Austria, Germany, Hungary etc and a week to do it. Off I went, crossing bulgarian border, no problem.
Starter motor taking 3 goes, worrying. From now on, less photos, more riding, didn't want to have to negotiate 'starter motor kaput' in either Bulgaria or Romania.Ploughed across both.
Camp Neptune, Bulgarian campsite/gulag South of Varna.
Bulgarian Blacksea coast, or Costa-del-Sol circa 1973, except without the sympathetic hotel building and care for the environment
Camp Neptune
Campunlung motel between Pitesti and Brasov. Found at night in the rain when 'vampire camping' proved elusive and never so glad to find it too!
Romanian hotels are thin on the ground in this area. Headed off after a rough night, dose of the of the Bucharest two-step basically, onto slippy roads up a Transylvanian moutain, past Vlad's gaff, into fog, then those nice Romanian's arranged for all the nasty switchbacks to have resurfacing grooves cut into the road (sphincter tightening helped with previous problem) and just when I thought it couldn't get more interesting, a woman emerged from the fog on a corner leading a cow on a rope, then dived into a ditch. Gotta love those Romanina roads
Survived vampire-death-cow experience and headed for Hungary, pretty much uneventfully. Arrived at Erd Hungary near Budapest, while searching for a campsite found this, not sure what it meant but seems welcoming
Hungarians like chain-saws, go figure!
Nice campsite, friendly hosts and guests, served Hungarian beer while explaining my trip/life with mime and pictures serenaded by Hungarian fiddle players, you had to be there, weird. Hungary is truly 'western europe'. Started to relax about iffy starter, still away long enough, pressed on for next couple of days, trip felt 'over', just needed to get home.
After Austria, again at indecent pace, came Germany and a stay in Seefeld campsite south of Munich, next day went to BMW HQ
However, bloody museum closed Mondays
Hotel that GPS fairy brought me to after I'd had enough of being cold and miserable in the rain and being up the chuff of lorries in autobahn contraflows
Mettlach, little bit of Germany next to Luxembourg, has it's own brewery and is quite pretty
After a wet hasty dash across Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and France the boat home to England from Dunkerque.
Roughly 5000miles in 12days riding. Too much linear riding to enjoy this many countries properly, but good reconnaissance , more a biopsy of Europe than a tour. The scope of trip and work commitment gave the trip a pointed focus, would have liked to wander more. Bike was great, dodgy stater aside.
Should have packed lighter, camping was great, enjoyed it.
Fewer countries, more wandering next time.
!
ng!
