Heading west, to Serbia

We are on our way west, to Serbia. We stopped to get gas and a snack and I found this woman selling onions, garlic and chili and some pickled stuff or jam or whatever it was in her jars. Again these friendly people start talking to you and you don’t understand a single word! But we both laughed and I think she thought we were from “anglia”, and I just nodded my head. She was very sweet and waved to us when we took off on our bikes.

Opposite the onion woman

Serbia. After showing our passports twice, the green card once (when entering Serbia) we were here. Didn’t take much time at all. I’m glad I’m not a truck driver though – the never ending line of trucks on the Bulgarian side of the border that we passed must take days for to get in to the country.

Serbia. The roads were just fine here so far. On the Bulgarian side before getting to Sofia the highway was pretty bumpy.

An 8 km drive along this ravine was spectacular and with beautiful scenery. It was soon getting dark and we were almost in Nis when this picture was taken. Doug called his Serbian friend Ica earlier today and we were invited to his place in Nis where he lives with his family and runs an auto repair shop. We really appreciate Doug’s advice, and Ica’s hospitality! We were invited for dinner but first we were offered his own delicious plum rakia and some turkish coffee. More about that later.
We do think his name is little funny though – ICA is actually the name of one of the largest food chains in Sweden! 🙂
//T.

What a great weekend! Horizons unlimited meeting is over.

Left Idilevo Moto camp today, monday around lunch time that is. We’ve had such great time at Doug and Pollys moto camp and just hate to leave. The sun is still shining as every day so far and it’s still around 27-30 degrees. We’ve met all these wonderful people that Jan knew most of from before when he was here with his girlfriend last year but are all new to me; Doug the motorbike globetrotter and his lovely girlfriend Polly, Terry the english guy, Andy and Debbie who sold their house in rainy Britain and moved to Bulgaria, happy Janos from Hungary with his Rakia in an olive oil bottle (very dangerous drink), David who lives in Turkey, Adrian and Oana from Bucharest, Pollys brother Ivo, Dimitry from Moscow that actually has a few friends in common with me, the unicycle guy plus all the other nice people from different countries that we met during these days. Most of all thank’s to Doug and Polly that you’ve created this place with this lovely atmosphere and nice and interesting people. Hope to meet you all again some day!

Doug + Jan

The camp

Ivo, Polys brother who also works at the camp.

Adrian + Oana from Bucharest, very nice couple.

Dimitry from Moscow that runs a motorcycle magazine and is a photographer talking to Terry from England

Convertible trousers…

The french guy on his unicycle plans to be in Bucharest in 5 days. It’s a 2 hours drive with a normal bike! – that has an engine 🙂

Harley the dog is also amazed – or confused…

Cool guy on cool bike 😉

A happy local. All locals seemed happy and waved to us and some of the babas told us long stories and laughed and seemed very amuzed. We didn’t understand a single word, but a big smile and a laugh back is also an answer 🙂

Happy Jan

Happy puppies, and very cute too.

Jan and Debbie

Andy, Terry and David

One of Dougs toys

It’s a Fiat!?

Polish shower 🙂 A bucket of cold water with the pants on, hmm..

Polly, Bobby (the Cat), David and Doug

Cows showed up all of a sudden, and their “shepherd” 🙂

One of the polish guys off road bikes

Off road dirt

Local beer

So cute this cat.

Bicycle burn out

This is just so funny, we had many good laughs at the moto camp. Thank’s Dimitry for sharing 🙂

Motocamp Bulgaria, Idilevo

Some pics from Idilevo today. Hopefully Jan will fill in with some clever info tomorrow 🙂 Yesterday was a long day in many aspects, starting up with Transfagarasan and then riding all the way down to Idilevo, approx 500 km. And when arriving here there were beers and Bulgarian liquor and lots of laughs and it got really late too…. Life is good 🙂

Part of the moto camp

Many people are out for a bike ride together today, there will be more bikes later.

There are actually 2 Harleys in this picture…

This is a 2003 HD Sportster! Converted into unrecognizability… And Pollys father. Dough who lives here with his wife Polly just came back from a trip to Magadan in far east Russia this morning. Later this evening he showed us pictures from this long and rough trip. Truly amazing and inspiring to hear about.

Well it may not be a Sportster anymore…

Moto camp Idilevo

Pollys brother

Dough is trying the unicycle that this french guy has been riding all the way around the Black Sea for 4 months! He also showed some pictures and talked about the trip.

Jan is showing pics and tells about his and Eva’s trip to Faroe islands and Island this summer.

www.motosapiens.org

Transfagarasan and we have arrived to the bike meet in Bulgaria!!

Left Sibiu yesterday rather early and crossed the Transylvanian mountains. Transfagarasan is a magnificent road indeed. Much better weather this time compared to when I and my fine girlfriend took the same road last year. Some pics…..:

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Fantastic road indeed and most people think that Transfagarasan, Transalpina (located about 60 kilometers west of Transfagarasan) and the Stelvio pass in Italy are the best/most impressive roads in Europe. I´ve not done the Stelvio pass yet but these three roads are a must for bikers I´d say. And they fixed much of the really (!!!!) bad road surface on the southern parts of Transfagarasan! It was a NIGHTMARE last year. The best parts along the lake from last year was the worst parts this year. Yeah! Me like…..! We passed Vlad Tepes castle up on the cliff far above the road. Tina said many times earlier that she should would climb the 1.000 + steps up to the castle but decided not to when she saw how far up it was…… :o) Ok. I have to run for cover now after writing this…… HER version is that we did not have enough time. My version is that she is lazy and refuse to admit it. We all know that I am lazy but I don´t pretend to be otherwise. BBBIIIIGGGG difference. 😉

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We drove all the way to the HU bike meet at Moto Camp Bulgaria in the small village called Idilevo after crossing the mountains. Arrived at midnight after having driving in the dark for 4,5 hours. I would NEVER have done this if the bike meet would have been in Romania. The roads are better in Bulgaria and people seem to respect bikers more. Romania is great and I really like the country, this was my third time visiting, but the driving can be……intense……. Any way…… We made it to Idilevo and had some beers and good laughs before hitting the sack. Good day yesterday. Really look forward to the bike meet. Good folks here from Russia, Austria, France, USA, Bulgaria, Romania and perhaps some other countries…… Good fun. More later. Need breakfast now. Or lunch……. Or both……. :o)

Cheers//Jan