23rd June 2017 – The Evening

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Whato my lovelies. Today has been a funny old day. I woke this morning to a huge thunderstorm and heavy rain but it had stopped by about eight so I pack up and left around nine.

Riding through Slovakia was mesmerising, sure it’s got it’s rough parts but once out in the countryside it’s just beautiful, I’ll do my best to upload some photographs. It’s interesting, even though I only briefly visited Switzerland, Austria and Slovakia, I feel able to draw a comparison in my head. Sometimes the natural element of rough and ready is far more beautiful than the perfectly manicured elements of prim and proper. Slovakia being the former and Switzerland being the latter. Austria is like Switzerland but just a little less so. I think that sums them up for me.

The rough part I spoke of earlier was Brezno. It wasn’t pretty and there were parts where it looked most dodgy. As I rode through one of these dodgy looking places a car rode up along side me and a chap in the back waived his hand asking me to pull over, when I didn’t pull over he waived a plastic bottle full of a horrid looking brown liquid out of the window at me. When I still didn’t stop he waived a bloody big knife at me. To be fair he was grinning like a weirdo and probably either drunk or trying to sell me something, but waiving a knife out of the window was not the best way to get me to pull over.

Anyway, I decided not to stop for a while after that just in case and zipped through village after village. In one of the towns that I passed through I saw a huge billboard with a picture of Kylie on it. As I rode passed I raised both my hands up and shouted

“Kylie!” and blew her a kiss. The truck driver coming the other way obviously saw this and honked his bloody loud air horn twice. Then, as I looked up he waived his hands out the window in a very funny breast squeezing gesture. Made me laugh and brightened up my day.

So, at this point it was time to fill up with petrol again. As the bike has been struggling with altitude I decided to take my mates advice and fill up with better petrol. I passed the garages I’d not heard of and finally stopped at a Shell garage. I looked over at my options; the petrol labelled ‘Super-Plus’ had a weird picture of a huge, bald man wearing a brown leotard with a wooden pole across his back, sitting on the pole was a pair of luscious ladies in bikinis. I’m not sure I understand the innuendo but that was definitely the fuel for me. I filled her up and departed. I only went up to about 3,000 feet today but the bike showed no signs whatsoever of any altitude sickness. Thanks Tim!

I crossed from Slovakia and into Hungary and immediately felt the need to eat, perhaps there is something in the name. I stopped at the first place I came across, parked the bike and made my way to the door. As I opened the door the noise stopped and everyone turned and stared. It’s always good to have a witty line ready for moments such as this but my head was all but empty. The first thing that came to me was a line from a film.

“Say! Any of you guys know how to Madison?” As you can probably imagine, it wasn’t the ice breaker I was after, instead everyone went back to their discussions and I took a seat. I looked for Hungarian Goulash, being that I was in Hungary, but it was an eggs and bacon kind of joint. I ended up with a chicken kebab and a salad.

So, here’s the list of some of the places I rode through today. Ivatchnova, Jaraba, Brezno, Telgart, Dobsina, Gocovo, Petrovo, Rostar, Kuntapolca, Kunova Teplica, Paskova, Aggtelek, Trizs, Ragaly, Zubogy, Kurityan, Mucsony and finally Hortobagy where I am now in a nice camp site.

My odometer is currently sitting at 32,727 bringing my total so far to 2,085 miles.

Enjoy your evening! Rich. xx

About the author

Richard

7 Comments

  • Hi Rich,

    I have been away at Le Mans so have only just started to read your blog. A great read as ever!

    Compulsive reading, fantastic pictures, it has made me belly laugh and brightened my day!

    Keep up the good work, enjoy yourself and stay safe!

    P.S. I could have given you a huge bag of coffee for the trip, if I had thought about it. Sorry mate…!

    All the best

    Richard Collyer

    • Awww, bless you mate. Glad you’re enjoying it with me. Hope you had a good time at Le Mans. Will catchup upon my return. 🙂

  • Evening,
    Glad fuel appears to be working. Keep me informed.

    Just looking at your pictures, the last one looks distinctly like a ferry, no mention in your blog. Always wanted to go on something like that, just look so rural and outback. Must make you feel,you are far away from anywhere. Have fun.

    Not sure about your coffee though!!

    • Yep, the ferry was to cross a river in Hungary. It didn’t have any Hungarian doobreywhatsits so it cost two Euros. It was interesting departing as it didn’t dock properly. I had to wheel my bike to the back and get a good run at it.

    • Oh, and to be honest, I can’t really shake the feeling of being in Europe. All the cars are nice, everything is signposted and it’s all much the same as England. I’m hoping Romania and Bulgaria are a little less samie and a little more adventurous.

  • Hungary looks lovely! Lush and green and scarcely populated
    Did you want to swim in that lake?
    I love the kylie story but hope you could outside the knife wielding bastards
    Keep safe
    Miss you
    Flo
    Xxxxxxxxx

    • I think the photographs you are referring to are Of Slovakia. And the lake was actually a river in Hungary that I had to cross on a ferry. No need to worry about me my lovely, I’m a tough little fella and only in Europe.

      Husb xx

By Richard