Midnight Express

So I decided to give'er balls and just go for it. Evening was falling on the Greek border and I had hooked up with an Italian motorcyclist for a stretch of road. I had taken pictures of his bike in a little Greek village and then we met up by chance at a gas station. He was going to spend the night in Alexandropolis (which in hindsight would have been wise) and wanted to know if we could bunk up and share some accommodations.

I agreed and I followed him out of town but he motioned me to go ahead. Well I did, and I think I got too far ahead because I didn't see him after awhile. Did I just miss the Alexandropolis turn. Damn it. I did! Well no turning back on these roads. I continued forth and I was at the Turkish border within the hour. Talk about a cluster%$#%. You would think a civilization as old as their's could streamline a few things. I had four, count them, four different checkpoints to go through. Each of them requiring a different thing. The first just wanted to see if I had some documents, I did. The second, needed me to go buy a Visa, 45 Euro later I had one, great. The third guy needed proof of Turkish insurance for the bike, I had to go back near the beginning and buy it, 5 Euro, no biggie. Then the forth guy had to make sure that the first three guys looked at everything. Terrible.

Needless to say it didn't get much better after that. I had already lost my helmet camera so what more could go wrong? Well with no moon and no lights with the exception of traffic, which there was alot of, it was dark. I mean dark dark dark. Then all of a sudden my bike got super loud. Damn it all to hell. I'm breaking down in the middle of no where. Sorry. In the middle of nowhere Turkey. I was still moving, it was just ubnoxiously loud. I figured I must have rattled of a bolt on my exhaust header, but I brought spares. Good thinking Elvis. I made it about 20 kilometers before I found a gas station to pull into. When I got there I was devastated.

Where's my muffler?

Oh know! I'm screwed. What do I do?

This was the first major mistake I made along the trip. I was exhausted (pardon the pun) and I wasn't thinking straight. The right decision would be to go back and find the muffler, and I did try to do that, but there was no way to cross the highway. I should have turned around when I did get the opportunity. It was about 30 more kilometers ahead plus the twenty plus another twenty to get turned around again plus the twenty to the gas station would have been another 90 kilometers added to the trip. It was so dark and I was so tired and I was scared. It was a bad combination.

The bike still ran but by the time I made it to Istanbul I was done. I came off the toll plaza and I escaped to the first hotel I could see. The Holiday Inn. How very adventurous of me.

I was deaf, tired, and cold from the days travel and I'm ready to give up.

I'm done. I want to go home. This is bullshit.

I quit.