I spent 5 days in Budapest in an AirBnB apartment. In hindsight this was two more days than I really needed, as I tired of the crowds of tourists. That said, the city has a very scenic location on the Danube and many many fantastic buildings, squares, avenues and bridges - like the Parliament Building, Heroes Square, and Buda Castle to name but a few.

After checking the bucket list items I tried to get off the beaten track a little more. The ruin bars were fun. So too was watching the UEFA and Champions League finals in various bars. I also
visited an excellent David Lynch photography exhibition at the Kunsthalle.

For any of you that stay here, buy a multi day metro pass. It allows you to travel on all the subways, trams and buses. I parked up the GS for my entire time in the city (this was probably a mistake - I should have used it to explore more far flung locations).

Food was very good and cheap. A two course meal was about $4. The local hungarian red was about $3 and was acceptable. I did notice that when I went to the very local bar near my apartment, the price was massively less than the downtown price - 60 cents for a pint vs $2.40.

I managed to pick up a RAM X mount for my Honor Lite 10, which has made it much more usable. I got it from a Honda dealer close to where I was staying.

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I had a couple of days in Zagreb and one important task to accomplish - new tires.

With the last minute help of Dooby, who runs a hotel, tourism and motorcycle services company in the city, tires were ordered and fitted. The price of the tires themselves was comparable to the US, but fittingwas cheaper at about 45 EU total. I went with Michelin Road Trail 5s to replace the Road Trail 4s I had been using.

My rear had about 1,000 miles of tread left, and the front probably 4,000. It was irritating to “throw away” a half used front, but I was not sure of my next chance to get any tires. The rear also had a lot of tread left except for the middle section that had suffered from too many freeway miles (the Trail 5s have been redesigned to avoid this) I also have many more miles to ride..

With that job done, I also picked up a tire repair kit from Viktor Motorcycles. I had not been able to take one on the airplane due to the compressed gas cylinder, and it had been nagging at me since. Viktor are a KTM dealer, and I took another opportunity to sit on a 790 Adventure R, which I will surely buy once back in the us.

Oh, and I did manage to lock the front wheel while braking on some gravel on the way to Viktor. Fortunately my off road reflexes kicked in and without even knowing it I released the front brake and the bike slid back to vertical.

Zagreb itself is a grimy kind of city, with some nice architecture. I wandered around fairly aimlessly taking pictures. I would probably skip it as a destination, but maybe I was still recovering from 5 days in Budapest, which was kinda similar but bigger ...

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I have not really described my bike much in this blog. So I’m going to put that right:

It’s a 2005 R1200GS which I have owned about 5 or 6 years. I am the third owner. It has 34,000 miles on it now, of which I have done about 10,000. In California it was mainly used for commuting, while my 2017 R1200GS and 2012 K1600GTL handled my long distance needs.

Here are the mods in no particular order

The ABS has been removed as it is a known issue with the bike. This hopefully makes the bike more reliable and … lighter!!

I removed a Remus can in favor of a stock exhaust. The makes the bike quieter and .. heavier!!

I removed a Sargent seat and put a low factory seat on it. This makes it easier to handle for my 5’ 8”s and is only slightly less comfortable.

I removed a throttle lock as using it on the move was a pain. I thought I would miss cruise control more than I do.

Clearwater lights. I installed them as my commute included a narrow, dark 5 mile stretch followed by a 10 mile wide, dark stretch. They were expensive. I also use them in freeway traffic to make myself visible. They have lens covers fitted to protect them, although the covers attract condensation.

Heed crash bars. Inexpensive, fit well and so far totally durable. They have 3 mounting bolts per side, which should spread impact load.

Givi V46 top box. Big and it works. I check the mounting bolts regularly to ensure they have not loosened up, which they can do over thousands of miles. The lock was getting a bit stiff which might have been dirt related. I should probably give it a squirt of WD40 .. if I had any with me.

Givi screen. The mounting bolts on the lower front edge broke. I use zip ties to secure the screen. The failure was due to sustained high speed cruising. I will be reinstalling the factory screen due to this failure, which is a pity as the Givi offers good wind protection and adjustability. I also love being able to slide the upper screen off to wash off all the bugs.

PivotPegz. They are awesome. They provide a very wide surface area, work well when standing, and are comfortable when touring. They are also really easy to fit.

Barkbusters handguards. They have some cheesy screws for the plastic bits but supposedly will hold up well in a fall and preserve the brake and clutch levers. They have not really been tested yet ..

SW Motech bag mount (for my City bag). Unobtrusive. Works well.

Rock straps. Excellent. Carry whatever you want. Easy to fit. Easy to adjust. I usually use them to mount a small backpack to the rear seat, which frees up room elsewhere for groceries.

Garmin X / RAM mount for my Honor Lite 10 smartphone. Great mount and the phone works well as a GPS. I wonder about the durability of the rubber phone retainer.

RAM mount for Garmin 2595LM GPS. I love its adjustability. The GPS cradle is also now acting as a windshield support.

USB two port power supply. Cheap And from China. It works fine, although it is now zip tied in place as the original bar mount broke after not much use.

SW Motech Side stand extension plate. The aluminum has bent during use, and it can make the stand slightly more difficult to extend, but overall I like the added sense of security it provides - on soft ground in particular.

Here are the current issues with the bike, and things I might change:

The speedo works intermittently. This is almost certainly a wiring issue. The dealer has had the bike twice and failed to fix it. It seems worse when it is cold and wet - but don’t we all. I no longer worry about it.

The heated grips started to work intermittently on this trip. Also wiring I think. Also working at the moment. I no longer worry about this.

I need to rotate the factory bars and maybe also fit bar risers to help when I am standing on the bike. It will also stop the horn button hitting the tank on full lock.

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Split is full of tourists thanks to the cruise liners that dock there, but I could not resist getting some shots of the old Roman ruins, at the center of which is Diocletian’s palace.

I stayed in the hills overlooking the city, which enabled me to get away from the crowds and enjoy a cold one at the end of the day.

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A quick overnight stop in Mostar to photograph the old bridge. It was totally worth it.

I stayed at a basic AirBnB, but it was cheap and had secure off road parking, which is high on my list of requirements. It was about 30 minutes walk into the center of town, but I like this after time in the saddle.

The weather is really heating up. It will be interesting if my riding gear handles it well. So far the signs are good.

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Berat was on my route as a photo opp to capture the “city of a thousand windows”.

That turned out to be a disappointment. There just aren't enough windows, and the backdrop just isn't good enough for my meagre camera skills.

However, I did stay in a great AirBnB complete with turtles and a walled garden. And I made the truly gruelling trek up to Berat Castle, which made me feel virtuous.

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Getting from Mostar to Tirana took a lot longer than I anticipated. What should have been a 6 hour drive became 10.

My green card - purchased well in advance of the trip - did not cover either Bosnia, which I was leaving, or Montenegro, which I was driving through.

I was able to purchase additional coverage at 30 EU for Bosnia and 10 EU for Montenegro but only by driving to a different border control point that had the necessary services. This was my own fault for not studying my Green Card well enough, not being diligent with my research, and changing route to go through a country (Montenegro) that I had not planned to.

That said, the scenery in Montenegro was great, especially Skader lake, so I do not regret it. Actually the scenery for the whole day was fantastic, with mountains, lakes, rolling hills, bunkers and buildings shot to pieces, you name it. Bosnia and Montenegro go to the top of my list of biking must.

I really felt like I deserved a big cold that night, and with the help of my host, had a fantastic meal for about $12 in the Blloku district.

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I work up early on my second day in Tirana and decide to hit the streets and get some s.. done.

First up was a SIM card.

Navigating into a big city without a GPS is hard. How did we manage it in the good old days? Well to answer my own question, we used a map, pen and paper.
No one was more surprised than me to find my inner city AirBnB with minimal delay. Early the next morning I was in the Vodafone story buying a SIM card that gave coverage in Albania, and enabled my phone GPS to do the heavy lifting

Next up, it was time for some GS mods..

The bars on my GS had been annoying me for a while, as they were oriented too low, meaning they hit the horn button on full lock, and make standing on the pegs hard.

Fortunately my apartment was right next to a bike store, iMoto, and they adjusted the bars for free. The new position will take some getting used to but should be much better.

Then the excitement began...

During my city photo stroll, I first found myself in the middle of the protest marches surrounding the cancellation of Albania’s election...

Imagine my surprise when I then realized I was at the start of Rally Albania’s liaison stage ..

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Himara is a coastal resort in southern Albania. It has a very nice beach, but the local restaurants REALLY want you to eat pizza. I think this is because they are primarily geared to meet the expectations of Albanian tourists who don’t want “local” cuisine. So, despite not wanting to, I ordered spaghetti. What a disappointment!

It was pretty much the same story at my AirBnB, which was half finished - building in anticipation of the Albanian tourists, who arrive in July, and leave in August.

My room had ants, and one of those crazy showers that sprays the whole bathroom, with a big drain hole in the middle of the bathroom floor. Call me a sheltered Ameican, but WTH is that all about

That said, it was $17, including a welcome , farewell coffee and some really nice dried fig snacks (with nutella dip)! In addition, I had a really long conversation with the owners son, who had just returned from working in Glasgow (Glasgow again!).

Oh, and I found a great Albanian cabernet sauvignon in the local supermarket. No joke, it was excellent!

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Are all Greek cities covered in graffiti? Are they all filled with cool old bikes?

Maybe, but Patras - my entry point into Greece - definitely is.

I wandered around the city, taking pictures and then had an excellent early dinner at a local restaurant - a pea/potato mix, with beef burgers.

Looking at all the bikes, the original Africa Twin is probably very close to the top of my wish list of bikes. I saw a LOT of them. So if I ever want one, I know where to buy it.

I stayed in a pretty crappy apartment, in what I thought was a bad neighbourhood. That said, with graffiti (and trash) everywhere, who knows, it may have been upper middle class.

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As my hobby is photography, I thought long and hard about which camera or cameras to take on my trip.

My initial plan had been one film and one digital camera, but I didn’t have the carrying capacity.

I settled on the Sony A6000 mirrorless 24MP as it is smallish, accepts E mount lenses and I already had one!

Then I had to decide which of my lenses to take. I primarily needed to handle street photography, some landscape and architectural shots and general purpose bike on the road shots. This was where I made a mistake - I took WAY too many lenses, when in fact I could probably have survived with only one….

Here is what I took:

Rokinon 12mm 2.0 manual focus - for landscapes
Sigma 19mm 2.8 - for street photography
Sony 16-50 3.5-5.6 - general purpose
Rokinon 85mm 1.4 manual focus for street portraits - for street portraits
Sony 55-210 4.5-6.3 - general purpose

In hindsight, the 16-50 would have been fine as my one and only lense, and I would have saved a TON of space. Roughly enough for a sleeping bag or tent.
For future trips, I will probably go with that setup, or maybe my Canon 5D Mark 3 with a 16-35 L lense. The Canon is a lot bigger, but has a lot better battery life and is more “fun”.

At the end of every day, I downloaded all shots to my iPad, and then used Lightroom to edit the best. Some of which you see in this blog. I used Sony’s ImagingEdge app for the file transfer, coupled with the A6000 built in wifi. The whole set up worked well. Better in fact than if I did go with the 5D..

I have 3 batteries for the Sony, each of which is OK for a days shooting. I brought a LOT of memory cards, but 2 months into the trip, I have only filled one 32GB and and am in the process of filling up a 64GB card.

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I headed south from Patras to Lefkada, a Greek Island, but connected to the mainland via a bridge. The bridge opens at one end to let boats through. This was extremely cool to watch.

I had a great place to stay - well, a micro sized room, but a swimming pool!! I immediately plunged in. What a relief from the Greek heat.

After I cooled down, I drove narrow (often very narrow) winding (often very winding) mountain roads to Katsiki, which is in the south of the Island. What a view! Breathtaking, and definitely up there with the highlights of the trip to date.

I went back to Lefkada for dinner (grilled lambs liver, yum yum), and got some good sunset pictures too.

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The castle was built in 1820. I was the only guest. Did someone say haunted…

It was a good base for exploring nearby towns and beaches, in particular the beautiful Gerolimenas, which had been my original destination based on the advise of a Greek advrider. Very few tourists were around.

I had a dubious cured pork salad in Gerolimenas. I wanted Mousaka but resisted. Bad move. I was saved by a neighbourhood dog hanging around my table...

The host, an ex merchant navy radio operator, was super informative. He gave me the telephone number of every hotel for miles around as I discussed. Y next destination. Sadly, I ended up not using any of them.

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A mini island complete with a mediaeval fortress/town connected via a short bridge to the mainland. Amazing. So too were the huge sea turtles swimming in the harbor. Not so much my first Mousaka in Greece …

Feral cats were prevalent once more. It is gut wrenching for an animal lover.

The temperature hovered around 30 and so was not too terrible. I found a deserted beach outside the town and managed a quick swim, before - shockingly - clouds hid the sun for the first time in weeks.

I also met a British couple in a mini van, which was one of the few British cars I had seen. We exchanged horror stories of expensive green cards. A lot of intrepid Dutch and German travellers. Three German bikers - 1100GS, 1200GSA and a Tiger something or other.

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My original goal had been Nafplion, but at the suggestion of the hotel owner in Monemvasia, I tweaked this and instead headed for the “nice” seaside town of Tolo.

Also at his suggestion, I decided not to book accommodation in advance.

Both were huge mistakes. Perhaps it was the long weekend, but the entire population of Greece also headed for Tolo. It was packed. To be honest, it didn’t actually look that nice - densely packed with hotels and bars.

I then reverted to my original plan ans started calling hotels in Nafplion. All fully booked. Fortunately, I made all my calls from a. Ice bakery outside the city, so I didn’t waste time visiting them.

I took a deep breath, and came up with plan C. Mycenae. A cultural stop, and only about 15 miles. I found an excellent, reasonably priced hotel, with a pool, and the following morning visited the ruins of the city.

I learned some lessons from this saga. First, what a hotelier thinks is “nice” may be the polar opposite of his customer. Second, booking in advance is a REALLY good idea in touristy spots during peak vacation times. Third, don’t panic if your plans breakdown

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