Elvis on the Move - Motorcycle Adventure Travel

So the trip from Munich to Croatia was brutal. Thirteen hours on a bus sharing a seat with a 300 pound woman with no sense of personal space. The only saving grace were the regular rest stops and the fact that she got off the bus in Rjeka. The other thing that made the bus tolerable was a young man named Marco Vasilj who enjoyed speaking English with me. As it turns out he speaks German, Croatian, English, and Russian. I barely speak English. We talked about anything and everything and he was so interested in everything I had to say. I like this guy! We finally had an extended rest stop in Zadar (about half way down the Croatian coast) and I bought Marco a beer. The dicotomy of people in Croatia never ceases to amaze me. You have the absolutely rude and standoffish ones (usually the older generations) and then you have the one that would give you the shirt off their back. It's really great when you meet the latter. I can understand why the Croatians wouldn't want to share this ...

Traveling can be so much fun. I just met a great couple while I was drinking a cider. I happened upon them only because I was sitting in their seats in the lounge. The husband, I believe his name was Vince, approached me and informed me I was in their spot. I should have noticed, the purse the luggage, the food on the tables should have clued me in. The great thing about my being completely oblivious to the world around me is I meet fantastic people by chance. I did notice that he didn't have an English accent so I asked him where he was from, a great opening line. San Diego meet Vancouver. Vancouver meet San Diego. The conversation quickly turned to my favorite subject... ME! I explained my trip to him and he got very excited. He said I needed to talk to his wife she would have all sorts of great places for me to visit when traveling through Greece. When she arrived I was a little shocked to find out she was deaf. Vince signed our entire conversation to her and explained what i wa...

Well this is fantastic! After all the worry about Eastern European hassles I find my first hurdle right here in Canada. Watch this Video: I was totally strong armed by this Air Canada employee I use the word employee because bitch was being used by the people one table over from me. For a moment I forgot that we live in a communist country run by a bunch of pseudo republicans. Meaning a bunch of bleeding heart Liberals who would take away all your rights by any means possible. Here's a company that has been bailed out countless times with MY money telling me that I can't video tape myself on THEIR property. Listen up Air Canada and listen close. This AINT your property. This is federal land paid for by my tax dollars. You're still a company because I haven't managed to take control of the government and I truly don't care if you call the RCMP because I'm pretty sure they have been neutered by the Robert Dziekanski brutal taser attack. So I can hold my stapler i...

I have arrived in Calgary. What more do I need to say.................. Alright! I can say a few things about Calgary. Calgary is one of the best cities in the world... that start with a 'C'. I mean seriously, who wants to go to Cincinnati, or Chernobyl, or Cleveland? With the exception of Chicago, which is a great place, Calgary tops the cities named with the third letter of the alphabet. And hey... don't forget all the pancake breakfasts. Don't get me wrong, I could live here. Just not for more than say 36 hours in a row. Fortunately, my loyover is only four hours.

Please forgive the abreviated post. I'm sitting in the airport typing this article on a tiny netbook. I'm hoping I find Internet along my travels so I can actually post from the road. So it has actuually happened!!! I'm on my way to Europe and in about three days I will be mounted firmly on the back of my bike cannonballing through Eastern Europe like a bat out of hell. I just did a quick check of my audio visual equipment and everything is working top notch. I can't wait to start filming the actual motorcycling part of the trip but the pregame footage is alot of fun too. I really need to get over my shyness when it comes to filming while other people are watching. I never thought I could use the word 'shy' to describe me, but I find myself uncomfortable talking into a camera while people are around. My flight is about to board so I need to cut this one off now.

It's my last day at work today before I go on my motorcycle adventure and I'm feeling at peace with myself this morning. I woke up earlier than normal and I decided not to run or workout. There's not much more I can do with my body before I leave and I think a rest might do me some good. I've been pushing myself really hard the last few weeks so I don't want to risk hurting myself this close to my departure. I have time for one last weigh in... 221 Pounds!!! You heard right I've managed to drop 25 pounds in less than three weeks. I'm very impressed with myself. I never thought I could lose it so quickly. Don't get me wrong, it was very hard and painful but I think now that I've surpassed my goal it was all worth it. I feel great! I took my time readying myself for work. I had breakfast and took my coffee out into the garage. I still haven't put my toolkit together for the trip so I need to get it together. The nice thing about these older Japanes...

I’m starting to get very anxious and excited. I have two more sleeps before I board the plane for Munich and get this show on the road. I’ve been finishing off every evening by watching a bit of Ewen McGregor and Charlie Boorman’s ‘Long Way Down’ series for inspiration. It’s amazing how much time and preperation goes into putting their trips together. A full administration staff, support crew, camera men, fixers in every country, off road riding training, assault training, outdoor training, potty training... It’s kinda of ridiculous. Of course, I’m the flip side. Buy ticket and go. Maybe write a few inconsequential stories prior to leaving and then take a year to write about each day of my trip. The point I’m tryng to make is I wish I was rich and good looking and could have a support crew do all my thinking for me. I don’t even have time or money to buy a blanket but I did find a small tent at Canadian Tire (A local Canadian hardware plus store) for $16. I would call that disposable ...

So I woke up yesterday morning and weighed myself on my Nintendo WII. It would seem that all my hard work and sacrifice has paid off. In the last three weeks I have lost quite a bit of weight and I’m now 224 pounds. I’m very shocked. I don’t really notice it but I feel sore enough to have lost that weight. I would like to celebrate with a dozen beers right now but I guess I can wait until the trip starts. Then I can work hard on getting all those pounds back. I mean... why not? I can lose it in three weeks why should I have to sacrifice and eat and drink healthy. What fun is that? I want bratwurst and beer and nachos and sour cream and steaks and pig... Lots of Pig.....   Was that my inner fat child trying to get out?   I can’t get that fat again. It was such a joyous morning when I weighed myself and the Nintendo downgraded me from ‘Obese’ to ‘Overweight’. You wouldn’t believe how happy I was to be overweight. Bu...

I can't believe I did it! I woke up at 5am the day after seeing my weight at 246lbs and went for a run. You heard right, I went running. Well jogging actually. No... more like a forced forward movement at not very high speeds... sorry that's optimistic... at absolutely slow speeds. I have heard about marathon runners hitting “the wall” somewhere around mile 18 and how they force themselves past it. Well I hit my “wall” about twenty paces into my “jog”. I was ready to quit and walk home and climb into bed. I saw a green light post about twenty feet up ahead of me and I made a deal with myself that if I could just make it to there I could quit. After I made it to the post there was a tree thirty feet away and so on and so on until I did a short loop in the area. The feeling of death came over me as I stumbled up my driveway. Why did I have to live on a hill? Will I ever stop sweating? I took a nice long shower and had an egg white omelet for breakfast. I Grabbed a cup of coffee ...

I booked my flights to Europe three and a half weeks ago. Up until that moment I honestly didn't believe I was going and with that mindset I didn't do any preparation for the trip beyond imagining a route. It was two days later when I bent down to pick a towel up off the ground in the bathroom and I couldn't get back up that I realized the folly of my lack of prep work. I'm really out of shape! After I managed to get myself upright again I dried off and got dressed. I dug through my closet to find my motorcycle jacket and lo and behold I'm busting out at the seams? I'm not just out of shape, I'm obese as well! OK don't panic! I still have time to get it together. I have three weeks before I go. If I drop 5 pounds and get myself down to around 225 pounds I'll be fine for this trip. I can stop drinking beer until I get there and I will lose weight without any effort. Good plan. I better get to weighing myself. I fire up my Nintendo Wii and drag out the...

So the story picks up where I left off. It only took me eight months to write all the stories from last year’s trip so I think I can safely say that I can do better this year. I’ve been given a green light to take another trip and my tickets are booked so there is no turning back now. A few months ago I placed a widget on the blog with four destinations for my next trip. I guess it’s about time I reveal the results. If you remember the choices were: Istanbul, Turkey Odessa, Ukraine St. Petersburg, Russia Helsinki, Finland The results were quite a shock to me. I personally thought that St. Petersburg would have been the runaway winner in this survey. As it turns out it came in third just in front of Helsinki. In second place was Istanbul and the surprising winner turned out to be Odessa by a whopping 6 votes. So I have put together some preliminary plans to travel to Odessa starting on August 8, 2009. I fly into Munich and from there I go to Jadrtovac in Croatia where I left my bike las...

(Somewhere over the Atlantic- Monday, September 1, 2008) The flight out of Germany was terrible. There was a three hour line up just to get tickets so I went unknowingly to the first class line, which was still 45 minutes long. When I took my turn the girl questioned me about being in the wrong line and I told her that the guy over there (imagine me pointing at a nondescript crowd) told me to come here because my flight was leaving in half an hour. She didn't even think of putting me through secondary questioning. Something was going down at the airport and the crowds were getting ready to turn into a complete riot. I have never seen anything like it. Needless to say my flight was delayed for two hours. But on the bright side I was given a coupon to go eat. Yay! I wasn't looking forward to the flight home anyways. I went through security a little worried that I was going to have to drink the contents of my pilfered mini bar right there on the spot but I caught a break and they ...

(Frankfurt- Sunday, August 31, 2008)It was easy finding the right train to Frankfurt this time. Hans actually walked me to the proper deck and made sure I got on. He wasn't surprised that I knew which door to get on to get quickest access to the bar car. There were only a handful of people waiting at this door as most people were fighting to get themselves a decent berth. Little did they know the lounge seats are more comfortable and there's quite a bit of storage space for luggage that doesn't require lifting your luggage above your head. I decided to take it easy and pace myself a little. I actually started my trip with a nice strong coffee. Yes..s you heard right, coffee. I was a little tired from last evening and I needed a pick me up. I did a little house keeping with my gear and packed up what I wouldn't be using and put everything I needed to survive the next 18 hours in my shoulder pack. Moving my luggage around is thirsty work so I ordered a beer and the moment...

(Berlin - Saturday, August 30, 2008) If you have ever been to the train station in Munich you know how many platforms there are. Add to the complications that the trains all run on time and the signage is less then straight forward to non Germans and oh yeah... I'm drunk! I make it to my train and immediately grab a seat. I make myself comfortable and have a little cat nap. I'm awoken by the conductor asking for tickets. He takes a little longer with mine and then stamps away. Good, everything is okay. The person across from me isn't the same person that was across from me when I left Munich. That's always a little troubling. I check the time to make sure it hasn't been hours. It hasn't. Perhaps I was snoring and it bothered the other person. Being awake now I head to the bar car to spend some of my winnings. I sit down with my beer and strike up a conversation with a couple at the same table. I show them pictures of my bike and tell them the places I've be...

(Munich - Saturday, August 30, 2008) The bus ride to Zagreb was long, uncomfortable, and nondescript. The sun was just starting to come up as we entered Zagreb and I wasn't looking forward to the long walk from the bus terminal to the train station. At least it's not raining! The walk wasn't as bad as it was two years ago when I made this trip in reverse. There wasn't many people out at 5 in the morning and the sun wasn't beating down hard yet. Plus knowing the way helps tremendously. So after a brisk walk I make it to there with plenty of time to spare. None of the kiosks are open so I plunge into my daypack to eat a sandwich that I brought along with me. I have a beer in my pack as well but even I have my limits. I'll wait until at least 6am before I start drinking. If I were already drinking that would be a different story then the rule is don't stop drinking until you pass out. I buy my ticket to Frankfurt and notice that it is alot cheaper than my tick...

I have buttoned up the motorcycle for a year's worth of storage. I drained the remaining gas into the boat's gas tank, disconnected the battery, and put a bit of oil into each of the cylinders. I took a bit of maneuvering but I managed to bring the bike inside the house for storage. I really hope that 11 months sitting doesn't have any adverse affects. My bus from Sibenik to Zagreb is scheduled to leave at 11pm so I still had time to pack and say my goodbyes. Packing was easier than expected. I decided to leave almost all of my summer clothes here so I wouldn't have to pack as much next year. This was handy as I had to pack 10 bottles of Karlovacko to take home with me. By the time I had replaced my clothes with beer (a good trade in my opinion) my luggage must have weighed 100 pounds. I hope those wheels can handle the weight or I will have to drink my luggage lighter. My daughter was so sad that I was leaving that my heart was breaking. She had waited almost two month...

Last night I could barely sleep. I knew I would have to say goodbye to Croatia today and I was trying to savor every moment until I crossed the border into Slovenia. My motorcycle adventure was coming to an end and I honestly didn't want to leave. I stayed awake until 3am drinking Karlovacko on the patio overlooking the bay in Jadrtovac. I was going over some last details in my mind and preparing myself for what lay ahead tomorrow. I had finished most of my packing but I still needed to put my motorcycle away until next year. The gas would need to be drained, or used up and the bike would need to be put inside out of the way. The funny thing is I knew I would need to drain the tank yet I filled up with gas yesterday. I guess I will have to go for one last motorcycle adventure. I woke up around 5:30am and snuck out of the house as quietly as I possibly could. I was actually like a ninja. Not quite a super ninja like you see in the old samurai movies, more of a hungover 235lb ninja w...

We woke up in Slovenia at the Hotel Jama right at the famous Postonja Caves. Having no cash we took full advantage of the included breakfast. It was absolutely gorgeous out. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the beer looked really cold. I just wish my motorcycle was parked outside. Not that it would matter, I still don't have any money for a beer! Fortunately I could buy tickets for the tour on my credit card otherwise it would have been a complete waste of a trip. Lining up for the tour you had to walk by all the kiosks flogging food, drink, and ice cream, but they were all cash only. Now I normally don't take to the tourist traps but I gotta tell you the caves were impressive. I believe there were 50 kilometers underground and the tour covered about 10 of them.The open train takes you down to a huge amphitheater and there you begin the tour. After the tour we got right in the car and started driving. We were thinking about going to Italy until we saw a sign t...

After the motorcycle accident on the way to Postonja in Slovenia I couldn't get it out of my mind that I had failed so miserably. I mean I had been given the go ahead to take a longer trip and I didn't even make it half way to my destination before dumping my motorcycle at the side of the autobahn. My wife had been very understanding but she could see I wasn't right in the head since the event. There was no way I would be allowed to go off by myself on one last motorcycle adventure before I left but a compromise was reached and we decided to travel together... in a car. We rented a car in Split and brought it back to Jadrtovac to pack up and go. We hadn't decided on a destination but we really only had to directions to choose from... left or right. Regular readers of my blog would know what my choice would be but because I had a co-pilot along the decision wasn't as easy. We finally decided to choose democratically and flip a coin. So after turning left we still had...

You know there is more to life than just riding your motorcycle across Eastern Europe and drinking beer in beautiful sunny weather. When you get tired of endless rides down curvy roads overlooking beautiful seasides and cutting through historical towns there are other things you can do... Like fishing for octopus. Now I'm an avid fisherman but nothing in my experience could have prepared me for this kind of fishing. Octopus fishing is unlike anything I have ever done. (author's note: the person taking the pictures will not allow me to post pictures of her on my blog.) One of the first things you need to do when octopus fishing is relax. Patience is truly a virtue. One of the best and most tried and true way to relax when fishing is to drink beer. This technique has been used many times all over the world and I swear by it. Now as for catching octopus, let me explain the way this is done. For bait you take a fresh crab and poke two holes through it. You string your fishing line ...

It would seem I heal fast. Two days after the accident I was walking around fine. I could even fake that I didn't have a limp for a minute or two at a time and it only hurt if I wasn't drinking. I decided to go exploring on my motorcycle and see if I could get lost without traveling too far. I cruised into Sibenik and stopped at a corner store that sold beer for half a Kuna less than most other places. I picked up a liter and stuffed them in my day pack. I decided instead of heading towards the water I would travel the other way and find high ground. I had been rewarded with some great views of the sea the last time I did that so I thought I should try again. Plus, I was feeling really antisocial today and staying away from the water meant no crowds. I could see some ruins on the big hill behind Sibenik and I decided I would try to ride up there. I circled around the hill and found another part of town where the soccer pitch was. I don't know how I never saw this part of to...

So I had a couple of beers at the corner store and I'm starting to feel better. The sun was rising in the sky, my motorcycle was starting to shine, and the temperature was rising too. The cold beer and the warm sun loosened me up and I started thinking about changing venues. Don't get me wrong, I could sit here all day and drink beer but I would like to see as much of this countryside as I possibly can. Here's a good tip if you're planning on touring Eastern Europe and you like to drink beer out of glass bottles as much as I do. Stores and store owners take deposit on glass bottles seriously! The deposit on a glass bottle in some countries is as much, or more, than the price of the beer. They really discourage you walking away with a bottle. Some stores won't even sell you a glass bottle if you don't return one at the same time. If you want to save yourself the argument with the shopkeeper every time you pull a nice cold glass bottle out of the cooler do what I ...

It was hard to get to sleep last night but it was even harder to sleep in. The motorcycle crash was being replayed every fifteen minutes like that accursed CNN Headline News channel. I really tried to sleep but my throbbing leg just wouldn't let me get comfortable. It was nine in the morning and I had to get up. I could feel my body was in need of a morning beer and if I didn't secure that somehow there would be an all out rebellion. The only problem is I'm really not sure how I'm going to walk. I've had this problem before. I remember when I left the womb all those years ago I had a hard time walking. It took me a couple of years to figure it out but this time I could use past experience to shorten my learning curve. What did I do again? Right! I crawled first. So I rolled myself out of bed, thankful that the bed was the European style without a box spring. My arms prevented my crash to the floor. I had a lot of trouble straightening my leg so I did a one legged cr...