Silence of the Lambs

I decided that if I can get a new muffler I will drive to Asia, otherwise I will make a hasty escape out of Turkey (I'm sure I'm not the first person to do that) and head straight back to Croatia.

Success!!!

It cost me a fortune but the new high performance muffler is something else. The guys at the shop took every muffler they had and tried to fit it before we got to this little beauty.


500 Euro. How am I going to pay my credit card when I get home? I'm going to be in shit when my wife sees my credit card bill. But on the plus side, think of all the Aeroplan points I accumulated.

I think when all is said and done this trip is going to cost me the Range Rover Izabel wants. In all fairness how can I say no to the woman who lets me tour Eastern Europe alone?

Not Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe and now Asia. I am going to cross the bridge to the Asian continent. My bike is purring like a tiger and when I hit the throttle it growls now. I like this. Of course for 500 Euro I could have bought a new bike at home.

As I made my way to Asia, I noticed alot of traffic coming the other way. That's traffic I will have to sit in when I turn around.

When I cross the bridge to Asia, I take my time. The view is spectacular! More importantly my psyche is spectacular. So many thoughts rush through me as I think about all the hard kilometers I rode to get to this spot right now. The bridge doesn't last long and it seems a little anticlimactic. I really have no one to share this moment with. Everyone I know and love are 9000 kilometers away.

Hey! There's a couple of bikers waving at me. Maybe they will be my friend?

I stopped on the Asian side of Istanbul and pulled up to this couple riding "two up" on this beautiful BMW. I won't lie. After the countless days on the road I wondered to myself how these two manage to look like movie stars! Their license plate reads Italy and that's a long way away. I do 30 kilometers on my bike and I look like something that should live under bridges and eat goats. These two look like they just walked out of a BMW commercial.


Needless to say they were as happy to meet me as I was to meet them. Marco and Stephanie. They were doing the exact thing I was doing. Checking off their bucket list.

Europe to Asia on a motorcycle..... Done that!

We sat at the bridge for awhile and they informed me that it will cost me 20 Euro to buy a card to get through the tolls booth to turn around. What a scam. Fortunately Stephanie is smarter than Marco and myself and she came up with a cunning plan.

Since they paid for their card already and it has ten uses they will go through first and leave the card for me to scan myself through.

I like this plan.

Of course I like any plan that saves me money after this mornings "bad beat" (poker term) with the muffler.

We didn't get on the road quickly. We took our time and talked about Vancouver and the Olympics and we exchanged contact information.

The people you meet when you're touring the world motorcycle can be amazing. In the fifteen minutes that I talked with this couple from northern Italy I know that I will meet them again. There is a strange bond between people out on the open road without a cage around to imprison them from the world. Until you actually get out there and do it you can never know. Needless to say I could tell that I would know these two for a long time. So, Marco and Stephanie... this posting is dedicated to you. Thank you for helping me out. You have my contact information if you show up on my doorstep there will always be a bed for you.

We rode together through Istanbul rush hour and when our time came to part ways we just raised our hands and gave a little honk of our underpowered horns.

arrivederci