Studenia

Unless Austria turns out to be one big nursery then Slovenia’s capital of Ljubljana has hit the lowest average age on the scale. We stayed in what was a former military prison that had been cleverly redeveloped into a hostel/art gallery. As it happened this turned out to be the most interesting thing about our stay as the student population of the northern ‘arty’ district of Ljubljana have, it appears, total free reign to graffiti everything, dress trees in clothes and lock loads of padlocks onto things, very odd this one, art again I suppose?
The rest of the city was nice enough in a more thoughtful ‘arty’ way and has some nice old buildings and statues around but really with the less developed countries beneath and including Slovenia we were both ready to rejoin the more ‘upmarket’ parts (for now) of Europe and try and find some restaurants that don’t serve pizza and pasta, which isn’t easy as it has taken over big time.

For anyone that’s planning a similar motorcycle tour of the Balkans I’m sure that you’ve noticed one huge omission since Albania which is of course the riding of the much famed Dalmation coast. Well a mixture of being behind schedule and an overdose of ‘wow’ after each coast road bend the last week has pretty much been about the destination and not falling further behind and as result we’ve had to dig deep and cough up for the odd toll road. Yawn.

Croatia

A 3am session with a load of England and Montenegrin fans in the hostel back in Podgorica meant that our intended arrival in Dubrovnik was delayed by one of those late and slow days when you never seem to make any progress at all. Slightly unfortunately this has had a knock on effect further up the coast but first after finding our apartment in one of Dubrovnik’s old narrow streets the view of the place seemed to be as impressive as expected. By night, within the walls of the old city everything seems to shine impossibly brightly, mostly due to the light stone buildings and its complete marble floor which has apparently been gradually polished glass smooth by the millions of shoes that have passed across it over the years. I’m still not sure about that but whatever; it’s a very special place to be. I also discovered that rather be left to turn into the boresome ruins that we all know and love it’s been repaired and maintained over the years, recently of course after the Balkans conflict of not so long ago. Another nice thing is that within the walls it’s pedestrian only except for a few hours during the evening for deliveries I guess.
By day it’s for me at least, not quite as pretty as it’s full of tourists but of course the coastline visible from a nice ‘wall walk’ only adds to it. It’s probably just me and my short attention span but a full day was more than enough as I quickly tired of seeing what seemed like thousands of vacant cafe tables and chairs covering huge parts of the little city.
With what ended up being a day lost it was Split that unfortunately missed out on our Kunas as we only stopped for lunch, a walk around and a few pictures on our way to Zadar. Split though did seem like more of a place that you could stay for longer than a day. With a full view of the coast and marina it’s more of a typical sunny holiday place complete with a few lively bars and an average age of less than fifty, allowing for Dubrovnik’s guided tour parties.
And so finally onto Zadar...The more youthful theme continued north this time and overall I like this place the best of these three. It feels fresh and the town sits just in between the other two in terms of niceness. Still the same marble floor but it this time it looks like it’s been walked on, some nice little trendy cafes and bars, decent shops and the highlight, Zadar’s ‘Sea Organ’ which is played by the sea’s waves and the ‘Greeting to the Sun’ which is a huge solar disc that absorbs the sunlight by day and omits some sort of weird glow during the night. I say some sort as unfortunately I didn’t get to see it by night but even by day it was far more interesting than some of the so called ‘must sees’ that I’ve had to see further up the road.

Are you in yet?

Surely the worst question a man would wish to hear but on this occasion* had I’ve been asked I would not have been able to give an accurate answer. Bosnia and Herzegovina may well be another little country sticker to stick on my panniers if I was the attention seeking type that does that sort of thing but then maybe not? You see I’d wondered exactly what was what when I first studied and planned my route a few months ago and depending on where I looked the E65 either passes under, over or not at all through B&H. As it turned out, we were waved through some sort of toll/border, I think I saw a B&H Euro blue sign and then 20km or so further up the road we passed through a proper border post for Croatia. The 20km stretch in between seemed like it must have been B&H however except for a few small settlings and maybe a petrol station there were no roads (that I could see) east into the mainland nor a port. So if it was in fact B&H what is the point?
*"On this occasion" doesn't imply that I've heard this question before...*Ahem*

Showers in the black mountains

Crna Gora or the Italian spelling that we use of Montenegro must surely be the most correctly descriptive name of a country. Immediately over the border there they are, black mountains. Only staying for a night, most travellers head to the nice seaside town of Budva or the stunning (better even than Lakes Como, Garda and Ioannina) Kotor. We though stayed in the rather plain but clean capital of Podgorica. A fairly late discovery that a Euro 2012 qualification match was to be played against England right on our time of being there anyway meant that a few beers in the sun with the England fans and €90 later two tickets were in hand to watch from the Montenegrin end what was actually a crucial game with both teams requiring points in order to qualify for next year’s tournament. I should confess to not exactly being England’s most passionate supporter after having (like many it seems) become tired of the under achieving, over paid and over rated players. Still at 2-0 up things seemed to be ticking along nicely until a combination of being out fought and out thought meant that the home side with what I think was the last piece of action of the night snatched a well deserved 2-2 draw. Our almost double price seats were though near the front of the stand that of course became involved in the biggest downpour since we left the UK, a real heavy one, thunder and all. So as we battled to remain even slightly dry once again the shower of (mis)hit strolled around the park only this time in a simply dreadful pale blue third kit. An observation that I’ve observed from many of these relatively new countries is that they feel far more passionate and full of energy than good old creaking England ever will in my lifetime. Oh hang on...I’m forgetting the Olympics aren’t I? That’ll make everything better I’m sure...
Something that did cheer me up though was the discovery of the many off licences here that are suitably named Diskont Pića or 'Discount Drinks' in English or...'Discount (first letter two down from Aunt) in Czech!!' I didn't realise that such a thing existed?

Land of the carwash... Republika e Shqipërisë

A refusal to pay Macedonia’s border police €65 for vehicle paper ‘irregularities’ meant that a second entry back into Greece and a break for Albania before sunset was made. I wasn’t complaning too much though as the ride was yet more mountain passes and although a bit tired we’d find some place to stay soon enough once in right? Thankfully, as we made the border the roads both flattened and quickened and a cheerfull police officer welcomed us in with some Albanian language lessons. So far so good then but this always was the country that I had the most doubts about on this trip. Despite being all too aware of the wrong stereotype that the ill informed can make of a country or its people I, like many would’ve summed up Albania as Gypsies/Mafia/Borat. So, after a couple of nights here was that far from the truth? Well yes actually as it’s been the surprise of the trip and one which I doubt will be surpassed. Here’s why... Our intended stay in Macedonia was on Lake Ohrid’s namsake Ohrid. Having left the Macedonian police to explain to their hotellier and restaurenteur as to why they will have an empty bed and table we aimed for Pogradec which sits on Lake Ohrid albeit on the Albanian side. Immediately travelling through Albania gives a feeling of ‘proper’ travel. The motorway speed roads through the open countryside only allow for glimpses of the people plouging the fields, or roofing as virtually all concentration is reserved on the road trying to ensure that the police speedtraps, horses and carts (and I should know!), pedestrians and fast moving vehicles are not collected. My nearest comparison would be Azerbaijan in terms of the ‘Wild West’ feel of the place. An Albanian driving one of the many suspiciously UK number plated cars informed me that €5 is the bribe fee that allows for anything you like to be done. With that in mind we chased the sunset at fairly silly speeds and made Pogradec as darkness fell. Also falling was us!! A last minute notice of what looked like a ‘stinger’ meant that a handful of brakes, minor lock up and subsequent ‘off’ at almost a stop meant that my shiny new Motor Guzzi had been dropped for the first time *sob* A couple of locals managed to hold back any laughter and help to pick Soul up before demonstrating the collapsible spikes for the correct direction traffic, of which we were. Tired and hungry (always the sign of a good day) we checked into the first place we saw which was a very posh looking Royal Pogradec Hotel. Finally starting to reduce the daily spend due to the cheapness of things here €40 was the price of sheer luxury and after a cleanup we wondered the slightly sinister feeling town before finding a nice little kebab shop which is the number one food here. The friendly owners and some attempts to overcome the language barrier ended the night nicely and helped to dispell the initial feel of the town before waiting for daybreak to see if Lake Ohrid was anything like its name suggests... Certainly not was the definite verdict and a further walk around town and next to the lake after a cracking breakfast allowed for many photo opportunities before heading off to the capital Tirana.
The ride thus far has naturally started to ‘square off’ Soul’s rear tyre but yet more mountain twisty roads “must be rounding it off again” I thought as we trundled into a hot busy capital not before treating Soul to one of the numerous vehicle washes available on the way. 100 Lek (70p) helped me to say sorry to him for the earlier spill and now half way through the trip it was about time anyway. Accommodation found, a walk around the city unveiled more surprises; with the district of Blloku in particular being a lovely place to hang out amongst the many nice bars, cafes and restaurants. Not for quite long enough though as we must press on. It still seems a bit odd to type this but here we go...Albania has now gone on the list of places that I’d like to revisit.

Hello, is anybody in..? ςΓΣΣζΣ

After rolling off the ferry at Patras we headed north over the bridge having decided against visiting Athens for only half a day. Instead the day was banked and we arrived in Delphi for lunchtime. Up high in the mountains yet more ancient ruins awaited us however the cool weather and empty roads made for a lovely ride. Also there are very few tourists now; perhaps they’re all scared of the so called unrest that our media are so happy to show over and over? Or maybe it’s just the time of year? Anyhow, it’s nice to travel into Greece’s interior as like most I’ve only really been to its islands for a bit of the old triple S’s. And so what of it then? Well, as expected the amount of half built buildings, closed businesses and a growing sense of desperation is for all to see. Still tourism is tourism and the empty restaurants, shops and hotels make for some pretty cheap costs. Back to Delphi then and the ruin walk was helped to be worthwhile as firstly it was free being a Sunday and secondly the awesome backdrop looking down onto the land way down below. More open mountain road riding later we made Kastraki which is the smaller of two towns surrounding an area known as Meteora. Wow. For any James Bond fans out there you would have seen bits of the area from ‘For Your Eyes Only.’ Notably the rock climbing bit up to the top of...well, the rock! Half a dozen individual monasteries were built there somehow a thousand or so years ago each on one of these many odd rock formations. Nowadays mostly museums we took a look in ‘Vaarlem’ and even I was amazed at how this could’ve been achieved. Spectacular.
Our banked day was used further up the road on Lake Ioannina’s town of Perama. Having been to lakes Como and Garda earlier on in the trip perhaps we’ve been spoilt a little as it was nice but a bit ‘seen it.’ A walk through Perama’s recently discovered cave though was a nice little change and quite interesting before we saddled up for country number seven...

Heading for the heel

Taking all the suggestions we bypassed Naples and stayed in Sorrento. On the way though we stopped in Pompeii for what ended up being one of those ‘went there for the sake of it’ places. Unsurprisingly yet more ruins weren’t helped by the fact that there were no maps and without a guide we, like many we met just walked around not knowing if we’re missing something apart from the endless walls and streets. We did though find some so called human remains that are preserved by ash either praying or perhaps they too were visitors some centuries after the initial eruption and got stuck in with no map. Thankfully we got out and got to our accommodation up the hill from Sorrento. Due to the Pompeii horror show we got there a little too late to fully look around but a little ride down the hill showed that it’s a nice place but perhaps not quite as nice as I had always assumed it to be. It turned out that just over the hill from where we were staying the Amalfi coast was actually nearer and as we rode that coastline it seemed pretty clear that should we go back someday then that is the place that looks the business, the towns Postalino and Almalfi in particular. Unfortunately though like the French Riviera these places are no secret and the painfully slow traffic was a testament to this. With a boat waiting still some hundreds of kilometres away eventually we got off the coast road and hit the fast forward button to Brindisi. There wasn’t too much to report on the crossing really so I won’t.

No great pity about the Vatican City

After some very brief research I’m still not entirely sure if despite the name, Vatican City is a country, state or just a city but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. I’ve assumed that like Monaco it’s a separate country and as such can have its own entry all to itself. Clearly one for the insecure types to visit to do whatever makes them feel a bit better about things, our stay was intended to be brief. However not even I could have hoped err, sorry thought, that it would have totalled mere seconds. In trying to find Michelangelo’s ceiling painting we ended up in a big church (St. Peter’s basilica I believe) and after the religious police on the door begrudgingly let us in, after all of 5-10 seconds and this photo we were escorted off the premises for what appeared be a problem with Mirka’s dress showing half a shoulder and therefore no doubt being deemed too slutty. Triple thumbs up from me as this shows that -1, the church doesn’t approve of my partner -2, we went for a beer and -3, I saved €28 on the museum where the ceiling painting actually is. Result!