Zen trip to the Balkans and to the Alpes

[wildbilly]

I don’t know where to begin …I suppose I should introduce myself before I start telling my story of this trip…So, I´m Vasilis, just another Greek biker with great love for 2 wheels…(My “love affair” goes way back in 1988 starting with a …) I have a long history with this love, beginning in1988 with a Honda 50cc followed by a Honda CX400, a Suzuki DR800S (the “BIG”), a KTM SX250 and a Kawasaki Versys 650 for the last 4 years …
I have ridden many km with all these bikes throughout Greece but I’ve never crossed the borders despite the fact that I do so frequently by car…
Anyway, after 4 years of doing nothing with my bike and using it only as a town bike, I decided to take a trip around Europe, a trip that would take off the rust from my everyday life…
So I began searching the net for travelling stories and preparing my bike, purchasing new gear for me, preparing all the documents needed, talking with new friends from mybike.gr….After 2 moths of preparation, I finally decided on the route and made the hotel reservations, I programmed my gps for every day route and I was ready!

[wildbilly]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64207914@N04/5899984323/

[wildbilly]

Originally Posted by wildbilly

I don’t know where to begin …I suppose I should introduce myself before I start telling my story of this trip…So, I´m Vasilis, just another Greek biker with great love for 2 wheels…(My “love affair” goes way back in 1988 starting with a …) I have a long history with this love, beginning in1988 with a Honda 50cc followed by a Honda CX400, a Suzuki DR800S (the “BIG”), a KTM SX250 and a Kawasaki Versys 650 for the last 4 years …
I have ridden many km with all these bikes throughout Greece but I’ve never crossed the borders despite the fact that I do so frequently by car…
Anyway, after 4 years of doing nothing with my bike and using it only as a town bike, I decided to take a trip around Europe, a trip that would take off the rust from my everyday life…
So I began searching the net for travelling stories and preparing my bike, purchasing new gear for me, preparing all the documents needed, talking with new friends from mybike.gr….After 2 moths of preparation, I finally decided on the route and made the hotel reservations, I programmed my gps for every day route and I was ready!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64207914@N04/5899984323/

[wildbilly]

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=719181

Day 1: Korinthos-Thessaloniki (580 km in Greece)
The plan is to go directly to Thessaloniki using the shortest highway. I travelled this road so many times as a student and I am really bored to do so again. All I want is to get to there as soon as possible to have enough time to play with my 3 year-old nephew who lives there.

[wildbilly]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64207914@N04/5899984323/

[wildbilly]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64207914@N04/5899981009/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64207914@N04/5899984323/

[Connito]

Cool. I am subscribed. I want pictures, many!

[wildbilly]

[wildbilly]

I am new in this forum and searching the right way to post my photos. I have a lot of them so please help me with that. I am doing the following but it doesn`t work: I copy the url adress of the photo from flickr and paste it in the box that appears when I press the "insert image" button but it appears in the post as an adress, not as a photo...what I can do?

[tserts]

Hey Bill, this is how to do it from flickr




Carry on!!

[tserts]

Actually, click on "all sizes" then select the size you want, right click and copy link location, then paste it in the add image field on this forum.

[wildbilly]

I m still trying, forgive me...

[wildbilly]

Ok so let's go! This is the "English" tavern at Ano Poli of Thessaloniki. The area is very old and near the old walls of the town. The owner is one of my best friends and the tavern is very old and classic...

[wildbilly]

Day 2: Thessaloniki-Skopje-Belgrade (630 km)
The day begins with a nice espresso and a sweet cream pie, a Nothern Greece delicacy called “bougatsa”. You must try some of this, it is delicious…
After driving for an hour I reach Evzoni border pass and enter F.Y.R.O.M..


The road goes along the “Vardaris” river and through some nice tunnels.



I pass Negotino and Veles (nice small town with a river crossing it).





After a while I enter the so called highway. The tarmac is new but the road is bumpy and dangerous. The passing through country is short and I enter Serbia.
The road is curvy, the tarmac is destroyed and everybody overpasses staying longer than usual in the opposite lane…This is the way that Serbs and Bosnians drive, and I must have my eyes open at every turn of the road (thanks God I am used to driving in Greece where everybody drives without following any rules (after all, rules are made to be broken, aren’t they?!))…
Later I approach Nis and I´m happy to enter the Nis-Belgrade highway. The tarmac is good enough but the road is relatively bumpy…
Late afternoon I arrive in Belgrade, unload the bike and get ready to go out for a ride in the city. Searching for parking space near the river, I find a nice little place where many bikers hang around. After a long walk along the river, I accidentally come across a biker’s bar and sit down for a cold beer. 2 bikers are sitting next to me, so we start to talk about their country and the financial problems…Nice talking to them, we exchange telephone numbers etc and they escort me to a nice pedestrian street where I find something to eat…

[wildbilly]

My new friends







Some photos of the new town and of the river...

Beograd entrance!



Town center











The river is very nice. There are a lot of boat-bars and clubs and the night is wild...

Nice path leading to nice litle bar in the river...





love bench?





Buda club?



Let me fall...



5x5 football field