Riceburner
Well-known member
I'm trying to sell everything I can to chase that dream one day....not making much headway. Stuff just keeps piling up....
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Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding...
- Thread starter Lightcycle
- Start date
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/310.html
It's been a while since I've posted up a video. So to say goodbye (for now) to Thailand, here's a little retrospective of the places we saw and the things we did!
[video=youtube;L2Y1DLTSUiE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2Y1DLTSUiE[/video]
It's been a while since I've posted up a video. So to say goodbye (for now) to Thailand, here's a little retrospective of the places we saw and the things we did!
[video=youtube;L2Y1DLTSUiE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2Y1DLTSUiE[/video]
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/311.html
The border official at Zagreb Airport glances at our European passports and pushes them back to us, unstamped.
And just like that, we're done with Border Runs and foreign embassy visa applications. This is what home is supposed to feel like, isn't it? Not being kicked out of the country every 90 days and begging to be let back in the next day?
We've slept in fits and bursts for the last 36 hours. In airport terminals and shivering on the benches of the cold outdoor bus terminal, waiting for the morning run to Pula.
On the bus, I stare out the window as the early morning sun hits the terra-cotta roofs of Istria's small villages along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. What a change from Lanna temples, searing temperatures, Buddha statues, high humidity and Islamic mosques! Not exactly Culture Shock, more of a Culture Jolt.
We are staying in Medulin again. This time Iva is helping us out with yet another Culture Jolt - the prices for rentals in Istria have skyrocketed because tourist season has officially kicked off here and we're unable to afford a place to sleep in while we pick up our bikes and prepare for our European tour (part III). So she's graciously offered us her apartment to stay in, while she moves in with her mom. That really helps us out a lot.
It's so expensive here and now, compared to Thailand.
The border official at Zagreb Airport glances at our European passports and pushes them back to us, unstamped.
And just like that, we're done with Border Runs and foreign embassy visa applications. This is what home is supposed to feel like, isn't it? Not being kicked out of the country every 90 days and begging to be let back in the next day?
We've slept in fits and bursts for the last 36 hours. In airport terminals and shivering on the benches of the cold outdoor bus terminal, waiting for the morning run to Pula.
On the bus, I stare out the window as the early morning sun hits the terra-cotta roofs of Istria's small villages along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. What a change from Lanna temples, searing temperatures, Buddha statues, high humidity and Islamic mosques! Not exactly Culture Shock, more of a Culture Jolt.
We are staying in Medulin again. This time Iva is helping us out with yet another Culture Jolt - the prices for rentals in Istria have skyrocketed because tourist season has officially kicked off here and we're unable to afford a place to sleep in while we pick up our bikes and prepare for our European tour (part III). So she's graciously offered us her apartment to stay in, while she moves in with her mom. That really helps us out a lot.
It's so expensive here and now, compared to Thailand.
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The next day, we're giddy with anticipation as we throw open the barn doors to be reunited with our bikes
We never really bonded with the Honda dirtbikes. They were too small and uncomfortable, and they couldn't carry any luggage at all. Neda is beaming as she quickly threw off the covers to reveal her F650GS. "My baby! I've missed you so much!", she proudly exclaims.
The next hour we spent hooking up our batteries and stacking all our RTW luggage on the back of our patient mules
We wheel the bikes outside. Before we thumb the starter motors, we nervously whisper small prayers. We've had really bad luck with drained batteries all throughout our trip. We finally got wise to disconnecting the terminals before storing them and this time, we've even splashed out on trickle chargers and Iva has been maintaining our batteries all winter long for us in her apartment.
There should be no drama this time round.
Will they start? Or will we be catching the bus back to Medulin?
The moment of truth: Neda's bike starts up with a small cough and starts chugging away healthily. My bike is more middle-aged (mileage-wise) and turns over less exuberantly. And then it dies almost immediately. I closed my eyes and thumbed the starter again. More pleading under my breath, "please... please... please..."
*BRRROOOOM*! But its vital signs are faint. The engine chugs along with a sickly air and settles to a tentative idle: Brm... Brm... Brm... It sounds like the crankshaft is revolving at vinyl record speeds. 33 1/3 rpm. It's as if I can count each individual Brm and I fear touching the throttle will kill the engine. And in my mind, this death will be punctuated by the cartoon sound of a needle scratching the vinyl.
We let my bike idle for a couple of minutes until the revs rise and sound more confident. I goose the throttle and after six long months of hibernation, my GS roars to life. SHE'S ALIVE!!! WAHOOOOOO!!!
I'm very happy. But this exhilaration will be short-lived.
We suit up to head back to Medulin, but as soon as I put my leg over the seat and try to lift it off the side-stand I notice something horribly wrong. Somebody must have broken into the garage and tampered with my motorcycle. Because it feels like someone has been feeding it a steady diet of potato chips, KFC chicken, hamburgers, pizza and high-sugar drinks every single day while we've been away. It's so friggin' heavy!!!!
We ride off and I'm wobbling all over the place because the weight of the bike+luggage is so heavy and high up on the motorcycle. If feels like I'm trying to ride while balancing a bowling ball on top of a broomstick. And to do all this, while trying to remember to stay on the *right* side of the road, after so long in SE Asia.
I've owned this bike for over 10 years. I've personally put over 200,000 kms on it. And now because we've gotten used to booting around on 100lb dirtbikes for the last half year, I feel like I've never ridden this motorcycle before in my life. I'm scared to death I'll drop it.
I radio Neda, "I don't think I can ride this thing. It's too heavy".
Neda's voice is just as shaky as mine. "Me too."
We wobble back the 7 kms to Medulin. At every stoplight, I put both feet out like a newbie rider, unsure about which side it'll lean towards.
This sucks.
Neda is reunited with the rest of her clothing!
We haul all the luggage off the motorcycles and bring them back in to the apartment to enumerate the contents.
Stuff that we had sorely missed while in Asia was hastily unpacked. Neda took out all of the clothes she left behind in Europe and spread it out on the bed and flopped happily onto the modest pile. You know, like how rich people sprinkle $100 dollar bills on top of their bed every night and fall into it before they go to sleep - like in all the Instagram photos we see.
We have 10 days worth of clothing again, and we feel wealthy beyond belief!!!
We pay a visit to Neda's grandmother and she feeds us
After we took off all the luggage, we've been taking the bikes out and running errands and visiting friends and family around Pula. The bikes feel sooo much lighter without the bags on. We are slowly getting used to the weight. I never thought I'd say this, but the seating position on the GSes is soooo low - compared to the dirtbikes. The CRF seats were 3 or 4 inches higher than the GS. I feel like I'm sitting inside the bike, whereas on the CRF, it felt like I was perched on top of it like a horse. It'll take some getting used to again.
However, I do like having over 100 horses at my command within the grip of my right fist once again. BRRRRRM!!!!
We rode our steeds to the local autopraonica (Car Wash) and gave them a good scrubbing down
This is for everyone who has been ragging on me about my dirty windshield. I did this for you.
It's nice being in Europe, but one reservation Neda had about departing Asia was all of the delicious food she'd be leaving behind. "Everything is going to taste so bland in Europe!", she lamented.
Then in Pula, one of the first places we visited was Neda's favorite bakery to get some Burek
Mmmm... chowing down on some delicious Bosnian cheese pastries
Then after, we went to the grocery store where Neda loaded the cart with Istrian prosciutto, Istrian truffle spread, Istrian olive oil, fresh fish caught that morning just off Pula's coast. She literally skipped down the aisles of the market like a kid in a candy store.
Yeah, you really look like you're missing Asian food, Neda...
Then we loaded all the heavy groceries in the panniers of the bike and wobbled all the way back to Medulin.
We are only in Medulin for a few days, but to re-pay Iva back for her generosity, Neda does some yardwork
I'm working on the blog. It's months behind and it's tempting just to let it slide and go outside to enjoy the nice sunny weather in Istria.
But we stay in the apartment most of the time. Medulin is sooo crowded! Foreign tourists have invaded Istria and cling to its streets and beaches like flies. I remember when we were here back in October before we left for Thailand, the streets were absolutely empty. The local restaurants and stores, which were boarded up in the Autumn have flung open overnight, as if the doors and the windows and the signs behind them were spring-loaded. Now we can't even find parking for our bikes amidst the German, British and Russian-plated cars and SUVs clogging up the laneways outside Iva's apartment.
We spend most of the time just relaxing in the apartment, away from the tourists.
Iva's apartment is not the land of Milk and Honey, though...
We... well actually Neda, has been victimized by the neighbourhood cats who hang out in Iva's back yard. Every morning, she finds footprints on the seat of her motorcycle. They like sleeping under the bike cover because it's sheltered and warm in the night. However, they've scratched up our seats pretty badly.
Neda's Nemesis #1
Neda's Nemesis #2
I'm also very allergic to cats, so we keep shooing them away from the yard, but they keep coming back.
And then one day, we go out to grab some stuff out of our drybags, which we've left in the corner of the yard. Only to discover that the cats have peed all over the bags, either in a display of territorial behaviour, or maybe just to get back at us for chasing them away every day...
Cat pee is a sharp, acrid smell that permeates and invades the furthest corners of your nostrils. Thankfully, the dry bags do their job and keep the contents safe from the smell. But the outsides of our bags... such a stink! Then on another day, we walk out to the bikes and found that they had peed on Neda's seat as well. She is ******!!! No pun intended. I've never heard her swear more in my life.
All-out war has been declared.
I hid inside and watched Neda cursing away while trying to rid our bags of cat pee
You don't want to get in Neda's way when she's mad.
But other than that, our short time in Medulin was quite nice. For once, Neda is able to go outside during the day and her brain doesn't melt like it did in the soaring temperatures of SE Asia. She is much more used to the Nedaterranean weather here.
Also, she takes the opportunity to spend as much time with her friends, going out to concerts and parties
The Pula Girls, Iva and Tajana, help plan our European motorcycle trip
We are really looking forward to riding around Europe this season. I hope the weather holds up for us. Fingers crossed!
Also, she takes the opportunity to spend as much time with her friends, going out to concerts and parties
The Pula Girls, Iva and Tajana, help plan our European motorcycle trip
We are really looking forward to riding around Europe this season. I hope the weather holds up for us. Fingers crossed!
Riceburner
Well-known member
Amazing how you get used to something new and then the old is foreign. Kinda like getting on the bike every spring. Fortunately it doesn't take long to acclimatize again.
The suitcase only looks like that because cats threw up on it.
Took us well over a week!
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/312.html
And we're off!
Kind of. It took us forever to get out of Medulin. First Neda's GPS lost power, so we had to trace the fault. Turns out all this plugging and unplugging of the batteries every season has taken its toll on the devices tied into the battery terminals. The GPS power cable had shorn itself off at the ring terminal, so I had to cut and re-splice the lead. We have a few devices tied into the battery. I'm planning on getting some kind of external fuse box so the terminals don't look like the top of a palm tree...
And then my rear bulb burnt out. Add another 15 minutes to find where I hid the replacement bulbs I bought last year...
Thankfully, there is so much daylight now that we're in the Northern Hemisphere. While in SE Asia, near the equator, we only got 12 hours of sunlight a day regardless of the time of year. But here, the sun doesn't set till 8PM and the days are only going to get longer! More time to sleep in in the mornings! Sweet!
Pula has basically been our European home base and we've already spent quite some time roaming all over Istria. So we hit the highway till we were off the peninsula and rounded the curve past Rijeka. The coastal roads were a great way to get accustomed to our BMWs again.
And we're off!
Kind of. It took us forever to get out of Medulin. First Neda's GPS lost power, so we had to trace the fault. Turns out all this plugging and unplugging of the batteries every season has taken its toll on the devices tied into the battery terminals. The GPS power cable had shorn itself off at the ring terminal, so I had to cut and re-splice the lead. We have a few devices tied into the battery. I'm planning on getting some kind of external fuse box so the terminals don't look like the top of a palm tree...
And then my rear bulb burnt out. Add another 15 minutes to find where I hid the replacement bulbs I bought last year...
Thankfully, there is so much daylight now that we're in the Northern Hemisphere. While in SE Asia, near the equator, we only got 12 hours of sunlight a day regardless of the time of year. But here, the sun doesn't set till 8PM and the days are only going to get longer! More time to sleep in in the mornings! Sweet!
Pula has basically been our European home base and we've already spent quite some time roaming all over Istria. So we hit the highway till we were off the peninsula and rounded the curve past Rijeka. The coastal roads were a great way to get accustomed to our BMWs again.
Stopping in the pretty town of Senj for a late lunch
The minute we parked, a group of Italian bikers spied our license plates and had a million and one questions for us
Thankfully, Neda can speak Italian, so she spent several minutes explaining where and what we've done over the last four years! Apart from our license plates, I think they were also marveling at how much stuff we were carrying!
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Cevapcici, skinless sausages - traditional Croatian grilled meat
I can already tell I'm not going to lose any weight while we're traveling down the Adriatic!
Main square in Senj
Back on the coastal road south out of Senj
The weather is beautiful: sun shining, blue skies, high teens - really pleasant riding weather. The same kind of conditions we've had all week while in Pula. We've timed our arrival back to Croatia perfectly! I think we've lucked out a bit too because all of the reports from Western Europe are of heavy showers. Our Belgian friends haven't even brought their bikes out for the season yet! It really feels like the RideDOT.com rains lost our scent when we hopped on a plane and flew to SE ASia. And now those rainclouds are wandering around the wrong part of Europe looking for us. Haha!
Fingers crossed that we may finally have broken the rain curse...
Beautiful coastal scenery
Stampingboy
Member
Ride safe!
South of Senj, we cut inland through an awesome twisty road through Vratnik
The roads here are narrower and twistier than the main roads on the coast. I know Neda is starting to get more comfortable with her bike because she pulls away from me at each corner. I have to put the camera away and focus on the turns in front of me if I want to catch up to her!
Natural motion blur!
We want to visit Plitvice National Park, but it's too expensive to find a place right in the park, so we are staying in Korenica, which is about 20 minutes south of it. One nice thing about having our own transportation is that we can find cheaper accommodations further away from tourist places and just ride in the next day.
We rented a small apartment outside of town
The owners helped take all our luggage up to the second floor and we were a bit embarrassed that all the dry bags smelled like cat pee. Those damn cats! Still can't get rid of the scent!
The next day we rode into Plitvice Lakes National Park. Neda had been here once before and she really wanted to show this to me. Unfortunately, there was a lot of hiking involved. But I was told there would be great pictures. After much haggling and bargaining over how much mileage we were going to hike, we shook hands on a number. I managed to talk Neda down to 10 kms (she originally wanted to do 18!). I can live with that, as long as the scenery is good...
I was not disappointed.
There are literally a million waterfalls in Plitvice Park. Well, maybe not literally... But there's a lot.
The hiking trail takes us past a few large lakes. There are actually sixteen lakes in total and because the limestone which they're on have eroded at different rates, the whole area is teeming with waterfalls and cascades. You can't walk 10 feet without seeing a new waterfall!
I had too many pictures of waterfalls, so I had to make a collage, otherwise this blog post would have 50 pictures of waterfalls
Neda is just happy because she got me to hike!
Cool sinkholes in one of the lakes
I was not disappointed.
There are literally a million waterfalls in Plitvice Park. Well, maybe not literally... But there's a lot.
The hiking trail takes us past a few large lakes. There are actually sixteen lakes in total and because the limestone which they're on have eroded at different rates, the whole area is teeming with waterfalls and cascades. You can't walk 10 feet without seeing a new waterfall!
I had too many pictures of waterfalls, so I had to make a collage, otherwise this blog post would have 50 pictures of waterfalls
Neda is just happy because she got me to hike!
Cool sinkholes in one of the lakes
Another collage. So many cascades of different shapes and sizes!
Our cameras were firing non-stop with all the beauty surrounding us
Best of all, there are so few tourists around. Plitvice is one of Croatia's most visited attractions - every year over a million people come to see the lakes and waterfalls. We're early enough in the season that we're avoiding the rush, but late enough that the weather and the colours were vibrant to make the hike worthwhile (at least for me...)
And more waterfalls!
The park has done a really nice job in providing a mixture of groomed trails and raised wooden pathways
Some of the paths take you up high so you can get an aerial view of some of the falls
Some of the footpaths were closed due to them still being flooded by the late spring runoff
These will be fixed and opened later on in the season
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