The tale of two.

Arse.  That’s what I work up to this morning.  Not mine and not, in fact, anyone I know.  Just a random guy on his way to the shower waving at a naked couple.  The naked couple seemed to be doing a morning stretching routine and the woman had her back to me, once I saw her touch her toes the first time, I had my back to her.

I decided that it was time to leave and packed in quick time leaving without breakfast on route to Brasov.

I have a contact in Brasov so I was making a beeline for his house on the outskirts of town.  The ride in was dull but 30°+ heat was making life uncomfortable.  I drank 5 litres of water and was still a bit dehydrated at the end of the day.  On top of that the constant wind blast was tring to force me off the back of the bike and my grip on the bars was becoming noticeable.  All that is from lack of time on the bike and it’ll go over the next few days.  Probably just as I pull into the garage at home.

Gavin must have heard me arrive because as I took my helmet off a cold drink was thrust into my hand. After a quick bit of bike, kit and personal admin Gavin took me into town for something to eat and to meet one of the guys from a local bike club.  In the meantime, James had escaped the Blue Oyster boys and was in still Budapest.

James:

After a wonderful breakfast in the ‘Mirage Medic’ hotel I popped up to my room, opened the curtains and realised I was right on Heroes Square in the centre of Budapest. Great view. The word great cant be used in relation to the breakfast however. Egg tea, fungi salad and mushroom coffee were the only real options. Odd thought I until I then read the hotel info book and realised it is the home of Chinese medicine in Hungary! I suppose the name gave it away.

I got to the dealership where the biked was (still) parked and did some hand signals to try and get some help. I explained about the immobiliser drama to the mechanic and said I thought it was the ring antenna. I was asked if I was German (again), then he got to work.

After a few minutes he confirmed it was the ring antenna and said they would fix ‘very quickly’. By that they meant 7 hours as they didn’t have the right screwdriver to swap out the part.

At least I was in a concrete, white painted, air conditioned, sound-proofed, immaculately clean building with free wifi, coffee and some chairs. The chairs were so designed that I wasn’t able to fully ‘get my head down’, so I read and walked around the building site next door, pretending to be sightseeing as it was too far to go back to the town centre. I also stupidly thought if I hand around with all my minging bike kit, the management might speed up the repair. I was wrong!

Come 1630hrs, bike fixed and paid for – the cashier was so excited when she found out I had lots of Euros in change for which she promptly exchanged me notes – I mounted up. I wanted to catch up with Guy who was near Brasov, so I though in light of the bike dramas I could be excused for changing the GPS settings to allow motorway use, something we have avoided thus far wherever possible.

So the distance was 444 miles on the fastest route. You may think that isn’t too bad on the motorway and you would be correct if this was the UK, Germany etc and it was actually motorway. It wasn’t. GPS ETA was 0100 the next day. I got cracking, enjoyed the views in Budapest and after some ‘aggressive’ filtering was informed by a fellow biker I could use the ‘Buzs’ lane. I seemed to be the only one though…. Ticket to follow?

The motorway in Hungary is well surfaced and I tonked along at a fair old speed across the border making significant ‘progress’ and clawing back my ETA to midnight. Then the motorway stopped, though it is shown on the map and GPS. So honking back roads became the order of the day (well it was dark actually) and dodging pot holes, wolves (no joke), maniac lorry drivers and suicidal overtakers was basically the journey from there on in. I arrived around 0200 after 8 hours riding to the best of ability, and not missing too many opportunities to be early. Still, despite the speed limit (perhaps exceeded?) being 81 mph the average speed was 55 mph. And that is despite the fact that everyone drives 60 mph through towns and villages.

I arrived fooked and cold (34 deg C when I left Budapest and only 14 deg C when I arrived at my destination – a very big drop when you are tired).