Eastern Europe

2025 Moto Trip to Eastern Europe #

Track and POIs on Google My Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1-hnJ2sYAd7xVeXgO-gmcTWH4QKqK0Sc&usp=sharing

Introduction #

Preparation for the last year’s trip to Italy was so much easier because i was clueless and was ready to solve any problem with a wad of cash.

This time I’m very aware of every weakness of my plan and build. I had a long list of things to build, test, verify and pack, and even though i prioritized as much as i could, it still felt like I’m not well prepared on departure day.

As for the route and POIs - i did not have any specific goals or milestones in mind, but i wanted to visit a friend in Bulgaria, and there were two optional plan extensions:

  • Travel through Greece and take a ferry to Cyprus to visit another friend
  • Visit Serbia and Croatia

What may look like lack of clear plan, is actually a more efficient way to go on adventure. I had no idea how much money and time i will spend in countries i never visited or even thoroughly researched. I knew i had enough time and money to plan the way back when i reach the far end of the area I’m about to visit.

As now usual, i pinned locations of Automuseums when deciding which city to visit next (i developed Automuseums-gpx specifically for that), but there weren’t many museums worth a detour.

There are two great driving roads in Romania i’d like to ride on - Transfăgărășan and Transalpina, but they would only be open towards the end of my trip.

I intend to test a bunch of different navigation apps on this trip, but it’s a side-quest, and part of my effort to collect more information for my tldrtravel.info website.

On this adventure i’m riding a bike i never intended to be my long distance tourer, but i decided that manual gearbox and reduced storage capacity are not as big of an issue as low ground clearance and small wheels of my Burgman 650. I also wasn’t confident i could get the Burgman fixed in the countries I’m going to visit.

Setup #

2025.04.12 #

Sprained my foot during the J-Tsoon event, paid 125 EUR for X-ray to confirm no broken bones. I guess this will be a test of the Platinum Visa that supposedly includes travel insurance. That’s the entire reason i switched from a lower tier credit card - annual cost difference was cheaper than travel insurance for this single moto adventure.

Update 2025.04.19: Bank reimbursed my X-ray bill, yay! Basically, this one accident covered the 5-year card service cost difference between Platinum Visa and whatever tier i had previously.

2025.04.13-14 #

Two full days were spent organizing Retro PC Games at J-Tsoon.

2025.04.15 #

It was a long day, i made a European Health Insurance Card as it was suggested by Estonian doctors even if i don’t have health insurance.

Then went to my garage to replace Himalayan windscreen with a taller one, install oil temperature gauge, fiddle with RAM mounts to make sure both iPhone 13 mini and Galaxy Tab Active3 can be positioned just above bike’s dashboard for best ergonomics.

In the couple hours i spent here i was surprised the bike wouldn’t start when cranked, and even had to recharge the battery a couple times. Then i realized the bike was in gear with a side stand unfolded. This is, to say lightly, a legendary UI/UX bug. I understand it’s a cheap bike, but i expected a starter circuit to be disabled in this situation, not just ignition cut.

2025.04.16 #

Weather was crap so i was making lists of stuff to pack, and making sure i actually pack the things on the list.

I also called the bank to confirm my visit to East Tallinn Central Hospital does look like a valid insurance claim.

Ran out steam at midnight again. A good to wake up early tomorrow and finish packing.

2025.04.17 #

Spent another day packing and preparing.

2025.04.18: Riga -> Marijampolė #

I set an ambitious goal to reach Zakopane in two days. Since i have to be back in Riga on June 5th, i want to spend most of the time in countries further away from home. Taking the fastest route that’s 1100km, so two full days of riding.

But of course i had to stop for a kebab in Kaunas, Lithuania, and have a chat with a friend.

Then i had stop in Marijampolė, Lithuania, and decided to call it a day because i was invited to join a groupride to Białystok the next morning, and that seemed more fun than whatever i could plan on my own.

I booked a room in BHB Hotel and went for a dinner and discussion of Honda superiority with a friend.

2025.04.19: Marijampolė -> Kraków #

A groupride to Białystok was as usual. There were 4x 1200cc bikes and everyone was riding way faster than i was comfortable, and capable on a 400cc air-cooled thumper. I mean, it’s kinda fun, but also one of the major reasons i travel solo and don’t go on any grouprides.

The list of animals we saw on the way to, and in Białystok:

  • Rabbit
  • Dog
  • Cat
  • Mouse
  • Horse
  • Squirrel

After an underwhelming breakfast i departed towards Zakopane, intending to ride as far as possible until i feel dangerously tired.

If you have extra time to spend on the road, i highly suggest not taking highways on a bike with top speed of 130km/h (downhill). This was a long day of full throttle in top gear, trying to keep up with trucks.

I was happy to reach Krakow around 9pm. I booked a room in Hotel Junior 2, and had a good sleep knowing I’m just 100km away from the first milestone, and it took two days as i wanted.

2025.04.20: Zakopane, Poland #

Woke up reasonably early in the morning and looked up some POIs in Zakopane to start the day.

In a bit over one hour of riding i parked the bike near two POIs and a couple places that serve breakfast.

The first location was Papugarnia Krupówki Zakopane and it was a massive disappointment. I visited Papugarnia locations in other cities previously, but this one was a very small chicken coop, the birds were loud and not very social. As I’m writing this the next day, i discovered there are two Papugarnia locations in Zakopane, and the other one looks much bigger and better equipped for well-being of birds.

MYSZOGRÓD ZAKOPANE was excellent. It had the vibe of model railroad diorama venues - it was very fun to see structures built for the mice. Some spots seemed unreachable at first, like a helicopter with a rope hanging down, but then you notice mice inside, that obviously had no other option to get there. There were some information tablets with very basic info about different species of mice.

I had a zapiekanka for dinner in the small cafe across the street from Papugarnia, but i can’t find it on Google Maps so can’t provide a link. The food and local lemonade were good.

I booked a room in Willa 14. It was excellent, and the host was very friendly. We had a good chat every time i encountered him.

After failing to find more fun POIs i decided to go for a hike. After all, this area is most known for exactly that (and also ski resort). Rode my bike to the parking area near entrance to national park and was greeted by a bunch of “salesmen” waving flags and fighting for every vehicle slowing down to choose the lot. I had checked reviews on Google Maps beforehand, so i entered Parking pod Nosem and got even better deal than advertised - 20 EUR to park my bike.

I’m fat and i had to walk slowly to avoid more injuries to my foot, but i walked 3km uphill (300m elevation), took some pictures, bought a bottle of water at Hotel Górski PTTK Kalatówki and walked back hungry.

I went to a nearby restaurant, but they had live music that day with no option of terrace or anything. Not to disrespect the musicians, but i wanted to have my dinner in a more quiet place, so i walked to REGINA RESTAURACJA and booked a table near screaming infants instead. AirPods Pro 2 are pretty good at cancelling human noises and i had my pizza and beer in peace.

2025.04.21 #

It doesn’t make much sense to stay in hiking-focused location with injured foot so i found some cool POIs and a cheap hotel in Košice and departed through Tatra mountains.

The choice of bike finally made sense rolling through curvy mountain roads with patchwork pavement at 80km/h. The choice of tires didn’t, but they’re old enough that hoarding them in the garage doesn’t make sense, i will just wear them out and replace later.

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On the way to my destination i encountered Biker’s Garage Cafe and stopped for pancakes. They were good.

I checked into a “1-star” Hotel Štadión for 35 EUR/night and can’t complain because anything air-conditioned will be at least double the price, and it’s “culturally accurate”. I am not a football enjoyer nor architect but i found it very cool that hotel building is structurally a part of stadium and support beams are exposed through the hallway leading to rooms.

The culture we’re talking about is “Eastern Czechoslovakia”. Driving culture, city planning, road pavement quality - everything confirmed i have entered the Eastern Europe memes are made about. When i visited Czechia last year it was not much different from Poland, but here i see influence of USSR and Russia is still strong in Slovakia.

I spent the rest of the day writing this report and working on my other hobby projects. It was a nice change of pace compared to previous days of pretty much non-stop riding.

Much like in smaller cities of Italy, bars were not open in times stated on Google Maps, so i bought a beer from hotel’s reception and went to sleep early.

2025.04.22: Košice, Slovakia #

I started the day by visiting a coffee shop that was cash only. Then i went to a different coffee shop that accepted Apple Pay.

Slovak Technical Museum had the vibe similar to the one in Brno, Czechia - not every topic covered, but honest effort taken in organizing good expositions for topics like metallurgy, measurement devices, early consumer electronics, dentistry… and a very detailed history of clothes irons.

Had a very good breakfast in a local-ish medium-speed food place on the same street. Sorry, did not write down the name, and cannot find them on Google Maps, but it had a half-cut of tuk-tuk near entrance.

Took a taxi to Múzeum letectva Košice - it was much smaller than Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego but was still pretty cool to visit. Besides a bunch of planes it also had a hangar with cars, motorcycles, bicycles and a tank.

The rest of the day was spent looking at Tripadvisor and a giant blister on my toe. Both were equally depressing.

2025.04.23 #

It was raining since yesterday’s afternoon, so i decided to put on contact lenses to avoid fogging of glasses. That took 40 minutes. I really hope with more practice i can do it faster and not irritate my eyelids so much, because benefits of contacts while riding in humid weather are undeniable.

I spent a lot of time researching eastern Hungary last night and decided to skip it completely, and go straight to Transylvania. That was 400km away, and good chunk of that were curvy mountain roads. I was about to spend all day on this transfer.

I stopped at Cigánd, Hungary to have a snack, and it looked like Dobele, Latvia, i.e. random rooster noises from back yards and most cars looked like 2-star effort in Need for Speed Underground.

Three hours later i reached Sărmășag, Romania and stopped at Balogh Pizza. While stuffing my face with the food i noticed the change of scenery. In Slovakia mountains were gray, in Romania they’re green. The sun is much less forgiving and there was a disproportionate amount of white cars on the roads. Those that weren’t white had bad clear coat damage. There’s a reason Dracula doesn’t go outside.

The rest of the route towards Cluj-Napoca was a super nice touge where i was trying to keep up with local commercial vehicles.

As i expected, the entire day was spent riding and i managed to arrive to a Hotel Olimp right before a massive thunderstorm started. For 45 EUR you can have air-conditioned room, and there’s connected cafe that serves passable fast food and beer. Getting my laundry washed cost 10 EUR extra.

I went to bed early, knowing from my videogame experience i will wake up well rested.

2025.04.24: Cluj-Napoca, Romania #

Woke up early and spent the entire day walking the old town. Transylvania is what i expected Italy to be. Hot weather, nice walkable streets, good food, solid museums. Everything is cheaper than it looks. If the rest of my trip is similar cost-wise - i can stretch my budget really far and still have money left for more touring later this year.

I had to compare Pharmacy Museum with the one in Kaunas, Lithuania. Romanian seemed to have more “modern” equipment on exhibit, while at the same time preserving aesthetic side of retro medicine. It really made me reconsider how good matte white glass can look if the texture is irregular. The difference between witch doctor and public toilet look is within videogame graphics quality slider range.

Both Ethnographical Museum of Transylvania and The National Museum of the History of Transylvania were a blur, likely because they cover technology and events i can’t put into context. None of my meme and racist prejudice knowledge matches what I’ve seen there.

Steampunk Transylvania is a personal art gallery. It’s always cool to see obsolete tech and literal garbage be repurposed into art pieces, and when there’s so many of them to fill a two-story space it becomes its own form of escapism. Previously I’ve only seen this kind of scale in Menų rezidencija “Taškas” at Visaginas, Lithuania.

Had a lunch at Shepherd’s pub&kitchen. It was delicious and affordable, but the place itself was nothing to write about.

Zoological Museum was just a bunch of taxidermy and frogs in jars, but at the basement they have a secret level with a bunch of snakes and lizards in well built terrariums. And i was lucky enough to visit at the feeding time. It was fun to see reptiles munch mice like it’s a big bucket of KFC.

Steampunk museum staff suggested to visit Joben Experience Bar that was decorated by the same artist. The food was good and bartenders were fun to talk to, but i have a hard time recommending it for the interior design.

While walking the city i noticed the brutal efficiency of local police. There’s lots of them, they patrol on electric scooters, and looks like they have some kind of phone app that rapid-fires parking tickets. As the result, the usual dark-skinned delivery guys all ride scooters, because if they were to illegally park a car like they do in Latvia, they’d receive a ticket before they load a kebab into their square bag.

I also saw a Dacia Solenza on the street. It brought much joy.

2025.04.25 #

I spent all day on my laptop going through mail, news, personal projects and other stuff.

2025.04.26: Cluj-Napoca -> Rădăuți #

I wanted to visit a motorcycle museum in Rădăuți, and the road there through the mountains looked like a worthwhile waste of time and fuel in itself.

This was my second day riding in Romania, so i was still learning about local driving culture. It’s pretty normal to ride 90km/h in 30km/h zone and be overtaken by a Dacia Logan. As much as Romanians enjoy speeding, they also enjoy slamming on brakes, so attention is required when riding behind a queue of vehicles. The vehicles are of surprising variety here. I saw a horse drawn carriage in front of a Tesla branded workshop. Lots of agricultural equipment as well. Most of the time my underpowered bike kept up with well paced traffic, but sometimes i wish it had 4x the power to safely overtake some stupid BMW X5 driving 30km/h. Please reconsider your life choices when you’re being tailgated by a 24hp motorcycle uphill.

A fun highlight of the day was stumbling upon a horse show across the street from Valea Străjii. I stopped to watch for a bit.

I also must mention Dionisus Vatra Dornei for having one of the best kebab plates i ever tasted.

I reached the underwhelming hotel i booked and went to sleep.

2025.04.27: Rădăuți -> Brașov #

The game plan was to ride ~400km over the mountains to Brașov.

But first, i had to visit Expo Moto Bucovina. They state 24/7 opening times, and i thought it could be a regional biker club house, or attached to some 24/7 workshop. When i arrived at 9am - there was no staff inside, but doors were unlocked. I managed to see 2/3 of the exposition when one of the staff arrived. Friendly grandpa didn’t speak any English, but was very welcoming.

The variety of exhibits in the museum was excellent, and one of them was a local police bike with a fire extinguisher strapped to a saddlebag. A bartender in Cluj-Napoca mentioned about the stupid law that required motorcyclists to carry a fire extinguisher, and while it was recently fixed, the police bike had to comply with the law.

When i finished my walkthrough, staff managed to disappear again, so i left 100 PLN in a donation box, had a good coffee and a cinnamon bun at Krew Coffee drive in and spent the rest of the day riding to Brașov.

Besides a stop at Baroc Pub to have pasta bolognese, the rest of the day was just a lot of riding.

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2025.04.28: Brașov, Romania #

I found out the main museum i wanted to visit is closed for renovation, and all the others are closed because it’s Monday.

Walked the city towards Tractor District, because obviously i had to see a Tractor District. Had a solid breakfast at Le Petit Bistro and ice cream floating in coffee at Kafea in Park.

Brașov looked a bit less chill than Cluj-Napoca. It’s busier, dirtier, less organized, but still very exotic-looking, with huge green mountains in the background. It kinda reminds me of how Wrocław compares to Kraków.

The hotel staff informed me they don’t accept any kinds of digital payment, so i had to remember how to use plastic cards and got some local cash. It’s surprisingly good looking.

With the local attractions not really worth extending the stay, i decided to spend the rest of the day on my laptop.

2025.04.29: Bucharest, Romania #

The day started with the Libearty Bear Sanctuary Zarnesti. The tour was pretty short but insightful. There were a couple bears and some horses. We were told horses are not a snack for bears. Not worth a major detour, but i did not regret visiting.

The next was Muzeul Automobilului Românesc and it was cash only. Luckily i had some change after paying for hotel in Brașov. Inside there was lots of memorabilia and contemporary advertisement for Romanian vehicles. In the back yard were vehicles in a very rough state. It’s pretty hard to call it a “museum” when I’ve seen junkyards with cleaner donor cars than these “exhibits”. But the variety of vehicles was pretty good and now i have a better reference point for vehicles built by communist Romania.

The rest of the day was spent in traffic. Later in the evening i met a friend who i worked with in Latvia, and we had some fast food and walked the city.

2025.04.30 #

The tires of my bike looked rough, especially the front one, and i called a couple workshops and tire stores to ask if they have any replacements in stock today, because the next day was national holiday. The best solution i found was ordering a front tire to be delivered to my hotel in two days, and a workshop nearby told me they can mount it the same day. The rear tire looked like it could handle another 1000km and friends in Bulgaria offered to order a replacement for me to be delivered by the time i reach Blagoevgrad.

In between all the calls to tire shops i tried to find a replacement for one of my power banks that decided it doesn’t want to charge my laptop anymore. I found a Samsung bank in the nearby cellphone store, that cost about the same as Chinese equivalents.

I found a place called Noodle Pack and they had Buldak noodles with chicken nuggets. Not the best meal i had, but it was fun to try.

After i had the order placed for the tire, i spent the rest of the day walking the city, attempting to find any open museums. Weirdly, unlike every other country that has museums closed on Mondays, in Bucharest most of them are closed on Wednesdays.

For dinner i visited Bossman’s Burgr Factory Romana and they actually make those impossible to stuff into a face burgers you see on social media. Since i like to eat with a fork, i managed to find a menu item that was a regular size burger cut and spread onto a dish. It was tasty and convenient to eat. They also had their own branded beer and it was delightfully average.

2025.05.01 #

It was a national holiday in Romania and i had no other plans but to walk the city again and try to get into some of the museums that were closed yesterday. I couldn’t trust any of the opening times stated on Google Maps and Tripadvisor, but my Crocs were fresh enough i didn’t mind to walk a couple extra kilometers.

I’m not a fan of football, but The Museum of Football was pretty cool. They had good information in English about exhibits that included historical shoes and balls, but mostly famous players’ shirts and other memorabilia.

The next stop was Museum of Communism in Bucharest, and the story is slightly different every time, but the end result is as usual. I visited a bunch of communism museums in different countries and all of them just make me love capitalism. I’ve been telling for a couple years now - don’t take money advise from russians and muslims.

I went to The Museum of Romanian Railroad History but entrance was cash only and i had no cash.

The National Military Museum accepted card payments so i went to see a bunch of flags, armor and weapons. The focus of the museum is on pre-XX century mostly, and back then the vehicle of choice was a horse, so i didn’t get to see a lot of what i like. Still pretty fun museum, they had horse chainmail on display.

Ordered an average pizza in an average restaurant and walked some more to make conclusions about Bucharest.

Traffic is absolutely fucked 24/7. If you’ve been to Netherlands and hate bicycles - come to Bucharest and you will hate everything else as well. My bike was parked in the hotel since i arrived to the city because i just don’t want to participate in this clusterfuck. This is the first time i see gridlocks in person, i always thought it’s some kind of theoretical scary bullshit bicycle enjoyers come up with to demand bike lanes. There’s parking on every street, but you can’t find any free space. Some streets don’t have any bollards and i just walked in the car lanes because traffic doesn’t move anyway, but there’s more free space and pavement is better. Taxi drivers keep the palm on the horn button unless taking sharp turns. All of this looks like India but car bodywork is not damaged. You have to respect how many dangerous encounters end up with just honks and curses, drivers actually check the blind spots and don’t speed. This is probably the only place in Romania where driver’s don’t speed, because it’s fucking impossible to do so.

There’s lots of random shoes on the streets as well.

2025.05.02: New front tire #

I packed my bags and spent most of the day in hotel lobby. First - waiting for new tire to be delivered, then - waiting for my workshop appointment time.

I received the new front tire i ordered, and booked the workshop to get the new rubber on. Grant Racing Garage changed and balanced the front tire, and also suggested i should change my chain and sprockets ASAP. Overall good experience, highly recommended workshop.

The only time slot available was for late afternoon, that meant I’m staying in Bucharest for one more night, but i decided to book a different hotel further away from the city center.

When i arrived to the hotel, i was told the room i booked is not available anymore and it was a listing bug by Booking.com. As I’m writing this report a week later, i still haven’t got my money back, and the host of the hotel doesn’t even see my reservation on his host app. Not sure how long it will take, hopefully i don’t have to file a chargeback with my credit card issuer.

The second hotel i booked was smooth sailing, i had a good pizza in Pizzeria Terra Mia and went to sleep before a long day of riding to Bulgaria.

2025.05.03: Bucharest -> Varna #

My next stop was Varna, Bulgaria, and there were a couple ways to reach it.

I found a small ferry that looked like a fun mini-adventure, but comments on Google Maps revealed it’s slow, overpriced, and has hidden fees.

Surprised “Avoid ferries” checkbox actually changes the route between two countries sharing a sizeable land border, i added a checkpoint at Dobrich and went for a few hours of mostly boring highway riding.

The border was a bit more intense than i expected. Bulgaria requires vignettes for most highways, so i assume they’re just reminding tourists to buy one. Motorcycles don’t need a vignette though.

I stopped for a very average sandwich and a drink, and proceeded to ride some more boring “highways” until i reached Dobrich Zoo. It’s not exciting, definitely not worth a detour, but as a checkpoint on the long way between two big cities - quite enjoyable. They had bunnies, horses, llamas, some birds and few other farm animals. Entry was cash only.

On the way to my hotel i saw a turtle trying to cross the road. While i was getting off my bike to take a picture it ran away back into tall grass.

Originally, i was going to stay for a night in Dobrich, but i had enough daylight left to reach Varna the same day, and it seemed like a good idea to start the day in a bigger city with more POIs.

I checked into Campus 90 hotel for 50 EUR/night, which is more than i wanted to pay, but it had all the features i wanted and was close to the city center.

I was recommended the Doner “Osman Baba” place, but while in queue i saw seagulls steal a kebab from a customer. There was no indoor seating, and i was not willing to fight the birds after a long day of riding.

I went to Rosa D’Oro. They had no birds, but also no Wi-Fi, but pizza was good.

2025.05.04 #

I started the day by pulling a whole dead bee out of my helmet’s ventilation channel. I need to figure out how to disassemble the ventilation to clean it properly after the trip.

I discovered Uber-like taxi apps are banned in Bulgaria, because legacy taxi companies were complaining. Instead of wasting my time figuring out which taxi companies are legitimate and not overpriced, i walked to my destination.

Varna looks a lot like Liepāja - there are newly developed buildings and infrastructure, but still lots of legacy and even outright slums, and they’re often on the same street.

Retro Museum was located inside a shopping mall, and is the most elaborate commie vibe museum i visited so far. All vehicles are in showroom condition, but memorabilia and everyday items of their corresponding time period go way beyond being set pieces. There’s a collection of soviet vacuum cleaners that looks like a completed Pokédex, and also other kinds of home appliances, electronics, toys, and even Pravetz computers made in Bulgaria. “Car tuning parts” on display were also notable, as very few museums display cars beyond their stock form.

After a brief stop at mall’s food court i walked in the wrong direction for a couple kilometers because Apple Maps. Saw more of the same - a wild mix of new developments and classic eastern european vibes.

A pretty cool feature of Bulgarian urban infrastructure is arrows on pedestrian crossings suggesting which way traffic may come from. Unfortunately, i found multiple places where these arrows were drawn incorrectly. Unreliable specific information is usually worse than having no information at all.

The rest of the day was derailed by family members trying to trick me into spending money on things i don’t need.

In the evening i decided to ride my bike to the seaside. I don’t like swimming, but i wanted to see the Black sea before taking a route away from it. Surprisingly, there’s a road alongside shore, and even a small parking lot. I took a few pictures, smelled the sea that is a bit different from Baltic, and went back to the hotel.

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Parked my bike, walked to Fratelli Food & Bar, then had another 40 minute call before i could order my food. The pizza was good, and Birra Moretti was as usual.

2025.05.05: Varna -> Veliko Tarnovo #

The day started with a headache, but i needed to go to Veliko Tarnovo.

A few hours later i discovered the reason of my headache - the weather would flip between rain and heat every 15 minutes. I stopped at the gas station to buy a waffle and a can of Monster Energy, and it started and stopped raining while i was having a drink.

I arrived to Family Hotel Silvestar late afternoon and still having mild headache. I went for a walk, visited Mini-Bulgaria Park and got wet, then dry, in the process.

The restaurant i was going to visit was closed, so i walked into Kira’sushi and ordered a bowl of rice and chicken. They had nice artwork on the walls.

2025.05.06: Veliko Tarnovo #

I started the day waking into Кафе Бар “РЕТРО” and opening the laptop with furry porn still open. I didn’t have a lot of specific plans for the city so i wrote some of this report and planned the following week while having coffee and croissants. I needed to be in Blagoevgrad for the upcoming weekend to meet up with a friend and get my bike serviced, and there were a couple POIs along the way.

Prison museum was cash-only so i skipped it and walked to the Tsarevets Fortress. It was pretty fun and a good workout. On the top of the fortress there was a church, with a dog sleeping in its shadow.

After burning some calories at the fortress i was looking to replace them. Google Maps review for Малкия Интер stated they have a cat. I had to verify. I verified. They do have a cat. Pasta was pretty good.

With no plan for the rest of the day i just walked the city and enjoyed the variety. It’s a pretty fun city to explore with lots of legacy. There are narrow historical streets that look almost stereotypically Italian, there are commie era districts with TV and early Internet wiring stretched between the buildings, and some modern looking buildings that didn’t look out of place in a semi-medieval city. Not dropping a motorcycle while navigating this city is definitely a challenge. This was one of the few cities i enjoyed looking at architecture.

I ended the day making sure furry porn is closed, then having a few beers in the same cafe i started it. I planned a good route for the next day and got wet again on the way back to the hotel.

2025.05.07: Veliko Tarnovo -> Plovdiv #

I started the day by packing my bags and walking out of the hotel with the key left inside, locking myself out of half my shit. Staff did not answer my calls but 10 minutes later another traveler walked out and i managed to leave early, as i had planned.

I had an excellent route planned, but weather forecast suggested there might be a heavy rain later that day. I was rushing towards Plovdiv without breakfast and pit stops, enjoying the curvy roads and adventure bike suspension. I cannot honestly recommend this particular special stage for road bikes though, as pavement was all patchwork and occasional sand/gravel spills.

As i was approaching Museum of Aviation the skies got darker and i saw lightning up in the mountains. I parked my bike near museum entrance and was immediately drenched to (and including) my underwear. I hid under an awning for a while until skies cleared up, booked a hotel just a few kilometers away and sprinted to it through a flooded road. Luckily, i’m not on my Burgman this time, so instead of destroying my wheel bearings i was just getting even more wet.

I checked into Ubis Hotel that had power outage due to thunderstorm. I was told it’s gonna get fixed in a couple hours, and i had 3x power banks charged, so i took a shower, changed into dry clothes and spent some time writing this report.

Later that day weather got really nice, and Автомузей Марково had generous opening hours, so i hopped on my bike and went for a chill cruise. The museum was really good. Cars were in excellent condition and had information tablets. The variety was good, i saw some cars and bikes made in Bulgaria (both original and licensed), as well as globally significant historical vehicles.

For a dinner i visited Pizza Lab in Plovdiv Plaza Mall. It’s like Subway but for pizzas instead of sandwiches. Every meal is built to order, you choose your own toppings from a sizeable assortment.

It was an exhausting day and the hotel did not have any ergonomic office space, so i went to bed early.

2025.05.08: Plovdiv -> Blagoevgrad #

The day started early, i was shaping a route towards Blagoevgrad on the couch near reception, and was greeted by an old contractor working on conference hall of the hotel. He told me Tallinn is the capital city of Lithuania and Putin is fighting nazis in Ukraine. That confirmed my idea to not stay for another night in Plovdiv. I packed my bags and departed.

Went back to Museum of Aviation and was told it’s cash only. I had no cash.

I discovered the geo coordinates on Cars of Socialism Museum, Peshtera | Automuseums.info were wrong and the actual location of the museum makes me choose between a really fun looking curvy route and some old common cars in a crowded garage. I submitted a report to the website and decided to skip the museum. If the coordinates are not fixed on the upstream website by the time I’m back to Latvia, i intend to implement a patch overlay in my Automuseums-gpx project.

After rotting in Plovdiv’s morning traffic for a while, the rest of the day was just a lot of excellent curvy mountain roads, this time perfectly rideable even on sportbikes, so i highly suggest taking this specific route instead of the highways.

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I booked a room in Hotel Chamishki. For 30 EUR/night i had a room with air conditioning, balcony, desk and a big TV above it. They also had a lockable back yard to park my bike safely. Highly recommended hotel, but cash only.

I walked to #meatlove by Kebap13 and met a Warframe clan mate i played with for years, but never met IRL before. We had pretty good kebab and even better chat.

2025.05.09 #

I woke up to a push notification from Slack about 64696 unread messages. Bruh, I’m unemployed.

I needed cash to pay for hotel and motorcycle parts, so i walked towards a street that had a couple banks.

After a solid breakfast at Апетито, дюнер и бургер i tried 3 different banks’ ATMs until i got cash from Fibank, and not just an error message. Turns out not every bank here in Bulgaria allows to withdraw cash from foreign credit cards. To celebrate a wad of monopoly money i acquired, i walked into Espresso Cultura. I would suggest this place just for the vibe if you’re tired of fancy hipster coffee shops. This is complete opposite. No MacBooks in sight, no hair products, no jewelry, just a bunch of middle aged dudes enjoying morning coffee and small talk. The coffee was cheap and good. Cash only, but this time it was not an issue.

I decided to visit the local Zoo. The entrance was free, i assume it was sponsored by monkeys, because one of them started masturbating while i was walking by their enclosure.

The rest of the afternoon was a chill lap around the city, through gypsy slums , industrial area, and then back towards the hotel.

After my local friend got hit with a forklift at work, we bought some beers, ordered a pizza and discussed motorcycles until his girlfriend got angry.

2025.05.10 #

I had a chance to visit a retro car meetup. This is Balkans, so half of the cars were old Mercedes. The other half was also German, but from West Germany. Very few French, Italian and Japanese cars. The most interesting exhibit was LPG-converted Honda Gold Wing GL1200. The gas tank was hanging off a top case and there was lots of extra stuff around the engine to accommodate LPG injection. Usually these kinds of projects are very well built to show off craftsmanship of a particular LPG conversion workshop, but this bike looked like someone’s attempt to save money, which was highly questionable.

I bought a new rear tire, chain and sprockets for my Himalayan, and the rest of the day was wasted on food, drinks, small talk, and trying to install a custom ringtone on iPhone 15 Pro (we failed).

2025.05.11 #

Woke up a bit cranky and immediately got worse after discovering Wi-Fi doesn’t work, and trying out the new random shower gel i bought because Old Spice was out of stock.

Found and power cycled the hotel’s Wi-Fi router. It fixed the issue.

Went for a walk to buy Monster Juiced and proper genuine Old Spice. Managed to find Monster Khaotic and bergamot flavored Old Spice in nearby stores. Walked back to the hotel to reshower.

The day was spent on a laptop writing this report, watching YouTube and researching travel destinations.

Invited my local friend for a pizza and beer, found out his girlfriend banned him from socializing with me. Well, that’s not the first time, and definitely not the last time. Had pizza and beer for a dinner, solo.

It was a bit suspicious the moto workshop i was booked for did not answer the phone all day.

2025.05.12: Blagoevgrad -> Sofia #

The workshop did not answer the phone because the guy crashed his bike in the mountains and is now in hospital or something. We needed to find another place to service my bike. The organizational inconvenience was whether i should extend my stay in the hotel, or go to Sofia for more opportunities to find a workshop.

“Official” Royal Enfield dealer in Sofia could take me for tomorrow morning, so i needed to pack my bags and ride to Sofia.

I routed to avoid highways and had a pretty good run through twisties.

After checking into Victory Apartments i decided to try my luck and drop off the bike for service today, instead of dealing with morning rush hour traffic tomorrow. Traffic in Sofia didn’t look as bad as Bucharest (and it isn’t), but I’m not a morning person. I left my top case in the hotel, strapped the tire, chain and sprockets directly to the rack (yay Voile Straps!) and went for a short ride, leaving more gear shifter marks on my left Croc.

Royal Enfield Bulgaria was a pretty small semi-official dealership, but they agreed to do the job i needed in the timeframe that doesn’t interfere with my travel schedule. After some yapping with staff and checking out new Himalayan 450, I left my bike and walked towards a city center.

I had a lunch at Los Muchachos, then walked to Retro Gaming Bar. Behind the bar was the owner, so up until he closed the venue we had excellent deep chat about retrogaming, community building and event organization. The bar is interesting for the technical implementation of gaming setups. Yes, they’re emulated, but the ROMs are dumped from owner’s private collection, and network is set up to prevent running more than one copy of the game at the same time - to make it 100% legal (confirmed with the local IP lawyers).

I had 2% battery left in my phone when i got back to the hotel, my body felt the same, so i went to bed early.

2025.05.13 #

Spent the entire day walking around Sofia. I don’t track my walks, but maybe i should. In ~20km i saw quite a few interesting districts.

Finding a self-service and same-day laundry service in Sofia took me a while. It seems like these kinds of businesses are not in demand in less “touristy” cities. Dropped a bag of stinky shirts at Дон Арт and walked to museums.

National Polytechnic Museum was small and not worth a detour.

Automuseums.info listed Euratek Showroom for having a small museum, but stated wrong location. Staff told me the correct address, and it was on the other end of the city.

MOTO-PFOHE had two Ford Model A cars and one mint condition Ford Scorpio. Entry was free, but not worth a detour in my opinion.

By that time it was already late afternoon, i walked back to city center, picked up my bag of socks that were not stinky anymore, and went to the hotel. After taking shower i had just enough energy left to visit KANAAL for some local lager and loaded fries.

2025.05.14 #

Went for a breakfast to Пекарна Бистро Хлябът на Нена. They had coffee, croissants, Wi-Fi, 220V outlets, and white glossy desks incompatible with my Razer mouse. Spent some time there writing this report, then went for a walk to Royal Enfield dealership to pick up my bike.

While i was rolling the bike out of the dealership i managed to break the mirror, so the final bill was 30 EUR more than i was told on the phone. I got new rear tire, chain and sprockets, and also had engine oil and filter replaced. The bike was set to be good for another 5000km, so riding back to Latvia + maybe a trip to Estonia and Finland I’m considering, before me, or the next owner, need to do anything besides refueling.

I checked the remaining POIs on my list and decided to visit two more museums before going back to the hotel.

The closest to the dealership was National Museum of Military History. As I’m writing this report i found out there was also an indoors part of the museum i didn’t visit, but the park with historical military vehicles was pretty cool, considering free entrance and free parking.

Yesterday i went to the wrong Škoda dealership because Automuseums.info had the wrong address and geolocation, today i had the correct address, and the museum was actually very worth visiting. Besides commie cars they had a sizeable collection of older Škoda models, and also some “modern classics” like mint condition pre-facelift Fiat Multipla. The entrance is free.

I went back to the hotel, parked my bike and walked to SkaraBar for dinner. The food was pretty good and the interior design was cool.

This was my last evening in Sofia, and i sat down to plan the next destination. I had less than 3 weeks left, considering it takes 2-3 days to cross Poland and Lithuania. I needed to plan the route around western half of Slovakia and Hungary to understand, if i have time left for Serbia.

2025.05.15: Sofia -> Belgrade #

It was a big challenge to find POIs to visit in Serbia outside of Belgrade, and i failed. I ballparked the route with a checkpoint in Niš and expected to spend all day in the saddle.

I did not know what to expect at the border control, considering my cellphone carrier and insurance company consider it basically a part of EU already. I rolled up to the Bulgarian part, some chill staff asked me about the contents of my top case and believed me when i told it’s just a personal laptop and extra clothes. Serbian parts took a closer look at my documents and stamped my brand new passport. I spent like 10 minutes crossing the border total, and 5 of them was getting on and off the bike.

I don’t know what Serbian highways look like, as i set my Waze to avoid them, but rural roads are not for beginner motorcyclists. It’s a major skill and maturity check. Pavement is pretty good most of the time, but there are random spills of sand and gravel to look for and dodge. Roads are very narrow, and most of the corners are blind. You will never have enough power and confidence to safely overtake, it’s all about reading corners and terrain. I’d guess tractors here are red to make it easier to wash off motorcyclists. On a slower bike - just stay in a queue of traffic and enjoy the scenery like i did. It’s a bit worse than Bulgaria and Romania, but still a great view, unlike Poland. Honda, please add a radar cruise control for 2026 Africa Twin!

On the route to Belgrade, the only POI worth visiting for me seemed to be Science and Technology Park Niš. The “museum” was just a small room with some appliances and computers made in Yugoslavia, but entrance and parking was free, so why not.

I stopped at the Delta Planet for a coffee, parked my bike in the shade near the coffee shop terrace, and as i was about to leave, security and management came to complain about my choice of parking spot. Well, you marked a separate location for bicycles, but no designated spot for motorcycles. I’m not saying I’m entitled to park wherever i like, but IKEA and some other shopping chains make their policy clear and easy to follow. I also noticed that stickers with my phone number on the bike probably earned me some respect points, the management and security were pointing at them as i was walking out of the coffee shop. In short, don’t be a dick, and foreign numberplates will get you out trouble with a polite declaration of bad behavior.

I departed out of Sofia early, and Serbia was in a different timezone. That meant i still had enough daylight to reach Belgrade if i don’t waste time trying to find the perfect hotel, but book whatever is on the periphery for one night. I booked a room in Hotel Slodes and went for a couple more hours of chill riding, averaging 3 liters of fuel per 100km.

As i was checking into the hotel, it went dark and started raining. The on-site bar was too loud, so i walked across the parking lot to Restaurant Чачанин. At first i was about to complain my chicken fillet was served without any sauce, but then i tasted it and STFU because it was really well seasoned. Had proper restaurant-grade meal for the price of McDonalds and went to rest.

2025.05.16 #

I booked my next hotel that was cheap and within city center, but was cash-only. Went to an ATM to withdraw 5th kind of monopoly money to add to my diverse and inclusive secondary wallet.

A few months ago i was sent an IG reel about a food spot. I had the location added to my travel planner, and today was the perfect opportunity to visit it for a breakfast. It was located in suburbs of Serbia that looked like a Balkan version of San Francisco. Area was so stereotypically eastern-european that Wolt couriers with their blue bags looked like a silly mod in a videogame. Picerija Kod Naše Babe looked closed, but as i was double-checking the address the grandma walked out, greeted me, and told me to wait 5 minutes. I ordered ham pancakes and declined an offer of Rakia. While being the complete opposite of last nights’ meal at Чачанин, this was the best breakfast i had in a long time. I could barely communicate with the hosts, resorting to Google Translate app, but i would definitely visit them again in the future. I paid 2x of the asked price and it was still cheaper than anywhere else.

It was still way too early to check into the next hotel, so i looked at the POIs i marked on my map and rode to Museum of Yugoslavia. Unlike some of my Russian clan mates who full-time celebrate every possible way to hate NATO, i did not know anything about Balkan geopolitics. I read about late 19th and early 20th century history of Yugoslavia thinking “this doesn’t seem like a good idea”, and then the next exhibit was a photo of the leader of Yugoslavia with Adolf Hitler. And then they had a commie phase that may be slightly more free market biased than USSR, but still pretty bad from my own political/economical view. I left the museum hoping humanity will at some point gather enough data to abandon the idea of grouping barely related nations into a single political entities, and the current empires cosplaying as countries will be split into separate republics they occupied.

I checked into Hotel Duga. It’s cash only, but has proper private parking behind closed gate, perfect to leave my bike and walk the Belgrade for a few days.

Museum of Science & Technology was excellent. It looks small, but is very well designed with diverse exhibits laid out in chronological order and information tablets in english. Inexpensive and super enjoyable. Computer section was excellent, exhibiting early calculation machines, mainframes and home computers. Cash only though.

Walked into Agi pasta away. The portion size was smaller than I expected but tasty.

Visited Postal Museum. Entrance was free, exhibits were pretty interesting. Nothing to complain about.

For the dinner i randomly walked into Matto Napoletano. The venue is very small with smoking allowed, and the pizza was average at best. Disappointing experience. Indoor smoking is something to be aware of in Serbia - many venues allow it.

I was pretty tired to do anything productive, so had another beer and went to sleep.

2025.05.17 #

Woke up to no Wi-Fi. Turns out the entire hotel was out of power. Took a shower and went to the nearest coffee shop.

Spent a couple hours in Coffeedream. The entire cafe is a smoking area, but coffee, cake, Wi-Fi and power outlets were ok. Wrote this report, researched nearby POIs, and walked out with all my devices and power banks charged.

While walking to the next location, had some time to review local urban infrastructure. Most drivers have no awareness of traffic flow and on every traffic light cycle some cars block the road and pedestrian crossings. The traffic lights themselves are pretty funky. Pedestrian lights have animated suggestions to press the beg button, and for short cycle intersections instead of displaying seconds as a number they animate a hourglass icon.

I walked up to Nikola Tesla Museum to see a sizeable queue outside. I checked the Google Maps reviews and some of them stated the museum is open for groups only, and the guide rushes through, with no option to thoughtfully research the exhibits.

This set the theme for the entire day. Railway Museum was closed until monday, Belgrade City Museum was closed for reconstruction, Chocolate Museum was for groups only (and in Serbian language). Skipped all three.

In between these failures it started raining, and i waited out the downpour at Burrito Madre. They had pretty good burritos, but no Wi-Fi.

Belgrade Fortress was a very fresh take, with restaurants, museums and archery ranges inside. A very chill place to walk around. Entrance to public spaces is free, highly recommended location.

I walked back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening looking for POIs in Budapest, Hungary. I had the hotel booked for another full day, with not many POIs left to visit.

2025.05.18 #

Woke up with power and Wi-Fi.

Spent some time in Kafeterija Čarli Čaplin looking for POIs in Bratislava. Together with Budapest, i have pinned enough things to do next week, and then i likely have enough time to visit some cities in Poland and Czechia on the way back home.

I’m feeling a burnout from traveling. Like last year, i gathered so many ideas to improve my projects and be much better prepared for the upcoming adventures, and now i want to be back to my 2x1440p setup. Automuseums-gpx and Tripadvisor-gpx i built last year, improved my planning flow so much, I’m very motivated to build even more tools after this trip is over.

On my way to the Sava river i hopped into McDonalds because they had some weird chicken burger on the menu. The big surprise was the plastic straw i got with my drink. Makes sense though, Serbia is not a EU member state yet. Unsurprisingly, non-white children begging for money are in the center of every capital city except Poland. I don’t remember having sex with women of color so i ignored the kid.

I walked through what looks like Ķīpsala but bigger, found a Harley-Davidson and Royal Enfield dealership that was closed on sundays, and sat down for a beer in the nearby motorcycle-themed bar. Looked up a Honda dealership nearby, but it’s also closed on sundays. I guess i will spend the rest of the day on the laptop.

I found out public transport is free in Belgrade, so took a bus back to the hotel and went to bed early.

2025.05.19: Belgrade -> Budapest #

On my way out of Serbia i noticed Žeravica Museum should be open on mondays, and after i found out the tickets are sold in the nearby Bosch office - it was indeed open. Pretty cool museum with lots of tractors, electronics and other vintage products.

I stopped in the small city in the middle of nowhere for a burger at Hamburgerija Lala. The “restaurant” was on Nikola Tesla street, and the banknote i got as a change also featured Nikola Tesla.

The last stop was in Horgoš, 1km from border checkpoint. I bought a can of Monster Energy, and was buying a Hungarian vignette at the parking lot when an old Zastava pulled up. As I thought “Big Shitbox Energy”, the driver reached out through the window to exterior door handle to open the door and get out.

I got my passport stamped, and reconfigured Waze to use highways. Northern part of Serbia was flat and boring, i assumed i won’t miss anything taking a toll road in Hungary.

After a few more hours of full throttle riding, I stopped at the IKEA just a few kilometers from Budapest to buy a coffee and book a hotel, then went directly to Triple M Hotel. It has a safe underground parking, but costs 10 EUR/night. However, this seems to be normal for Budapest, i couldn’t find any hotels with free parking in the price range of <50 EUR/night.

I went for a short walk to see the area, and walked into BarCraft Corvin. It had no food, but the beer was ok. While i was once again confirming that buying a used 2020+ Africa Twin doesn’t make any financial sense, all the food spots closed, so i went to sleep.

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2025.05.20 #

I went for a walk way too early. Cat museum was card only, but still closed, Underground railroad museum was open, but cash only. I was really tired of cash at this point, and all the ATMs in the area looked scammy (as i researched - they indeed were). I set my YouTube playlist to some long interviews and went for a long walk, away from dirty and disgustingly multicultural city center.

In general, Budapest looks a lot like Riga. Older architecture around city center, and more modern apartment blocks on the periphery.

Street signs in Budapest are pretty cool. They display building numbers for a particular block, and numbering direction.

Halfway through a 4-hour interview i reached Hungarian Railway Museum and it was pretty cool, very similar to a railway museum near Prague, Czechia. This one had scale railroad tracks looped around the entire museum for kids to ride, while Czechs had full scale narrow gauge steam locomotive for the similar purpose.

As i looped my route back to the hotel, i ran out of energy. After ~5 hours and >15km of walking i doomscrolled for a while to recover, then walked outside again, for a couple more kilometers of walking.

The challenge to have a dinner after 9 PM in a place that is not an utter shithole seemed impossible, but eventually i found a curious Master Italian Restaurant. The entire staff was Chinese, and pizza was a bit more greasy than i like, but it was still a pretty good experience.

2025.05.21 #

Woke up with a headache. Decided to go to a cat cafe to write this report, and get my clothes washed along the way.

On the way to the cafe i had a light breakfast at Erzsike Espresso & Lángos. The sandwich was ok, nothing special, not worth a detour.

Got my clothes washed at Bubbles Mosoda, VI. Paulay Ede. Did not find a Wi-Fi password, but there were couches and the delicate wash cycle was just 30 minutes and 7 EUR. Did not pay extra for a dryer.

With a bag of slightly damp but clean clothes i went to the Cat Cafe. Cats there seem to lose interest in the toys they previously enjoyed, as soon as i touch them. But i enjoyed the commotion, and good enough furniture, to spend hours on a laptop. No indoor smoking and not too loud. Coffee was ok. Wrote this report here.

For a late dinner i went to OINOS. Pizza, beer, and the venue itself - were all good, just a bit on the expensive side.

I drained all of my power banks in cat cafe, so i set up a charging experiment and went to sleep.

2025.05.22: Budapest -> Bratislava #

Guess what, unlike Xiaomi, the Samsung power bank can be charged with a regular 5V USB 2.0 source. Sure, it takes a long time, but it’s still better than blinking lights for 3 days and accumulating no charge, like Xiaomi does.

I couldn’t find any interesting routes between two capital cities, so i had 200km of boring full throttle (110km/h) riding on a straight highway.

I was in a bad mood all day until i reached the hotel i booked in Bratislava. It’s weird AF, everything is painted weird colors, there’s a two page essay with homeopathic product ads to welcome guests (with the Wi-Fi password on the very last line of the second page). I don’t mind the “Looming Hostel from Temu” vibe, but the fact it was one of the very few affordable hotels close to the city center is annoying. I liked Romanian and Bulgarian hotel prices much better. Budapest and Bratislava are significantly more expensive with lower quality of service.

I went for a walk to Mačkafé cat cafe. It was cash only, so i had to take another lap around the block to withdraw paper money. Fortunately, unlike Budapest, i quickly found a real bank with non-predatory ATM.

Spent some time in the cafe with a laptop, then walked back to the hotel to sleep.

2025.05.23 #

I started the day with a cheap baguette and Monster Doctor, waiting for a museum to open.

Bratislava Transport Museum was pretty cool. It had bicycles, motorcycles, cars and trains. A very interesting part was a gallery of historical railroad photos compared to the photos of the same area at present time. Quote of the day (from 1838): “Railway is a modern invention, spreading immorality and sin”.

Walked around the old town, saw a cool statue of the witch and visited Clock museum. Then, walked towards the railroad museum, but at some point i realized my pace is not enough to see the exhibits before the museum is closed, so i turned around and closed the lap through some rich people’s area with expensive looking houses and cars.

I spent some time in the hotel planning a route to (and through) Poland, then went to Pizzeria Metropol for cheap pizza and beer.

2025.05.24 #

It was saturday, so i decided to ride my bike to the museums.

The first was Railway Museum. Some cool exhibits, but i wouldn’t consider it a true museum, it’s more of a dumping ground for some train-related stuff. Free parking and free entrance though. Enjoyed the walkaround.

Next was Oldtimer Gallery - Múzeum Veteránov. Very good collection of vehicles made in Czechoslovakia, and also a small coffee bar.

I ran out of ideas, went back to the hotel to leave my bike there, and to walk to Horský park i saw on the map. Petting zoo was closed, and bars there didn’t offer any food I’d enjoy, so i just hiked through the park. It looked hardcore with very steep hills and stairs, but as i kept looking for an easier route i realized there are many trails of various difficulty, interlinked to provide all kinds of running/hiking routes, and quite a few opportunities to take a break with benches, swings etc.

I walked out of the park and found the Laksa & Grill place. I did not expect this kind of quality meal, but rice and chicken bowl they serve was excellent and highly recommended. Beer was pretty good as well.

I went back to the hotel to get a good sleep, because my plan for the next day was to just ride all day towards home.

2025.05.25: Bratislava -> Katowice #

My attempts to find a less boring route failed. What looked like curvy roads on the map, was in fact just villages with slow traffic and speed bumps.

I switched off “Avoid Highways” option in Waze and was riding full throttle on faster roads for a while. In Dolná Ves i stopped to check the map for a nearby fuel station, confirmed there is one in 3km, and couldn’t restart the engine. Even though by my estimates this was unlikely, I assumed the fuel level got too low for the pump to pick it up reliably and was plotting a plan to push the bike for 3km, refuel and continue. I asked a guy riding a bicycle who looked local, if he had a few liters of fuel to sell me, and he brought some, but the engine still did not start. Now that looked suspicious. He suggested we push the bike for a few hundred meters to a local mechanic, and i had no better ideas.

During increasingly demotivating 3 hours we verified that injector injects and spark is sparkly, but for some reason we can’t start the bike unless we crank it for like 5 minutes, and even if it manages to run - it wouldn’t idle reliably.

Our last idea was, that maybe the emergency fuel we filled was old, so we drained the tank and refueled with fresh 100 octane. The engine started and was idling reliably. We thought we solved the issue, but as i will discover the next day - we did not. However, i reached Katowice by the end of the day with no technical difficulties.

How good the food must be for GRILLOWNIA to have 4.9-star average review on Google Maps while not serving any beer? Got my order of a very well seasoned chicken steak with no sauce. I was about to bitch about the lack of sauce, turns out the meat is so good i didn’t need any extra sauce.

I went to sleep confident i will spend the entire next day riding to reach Marijampolė.

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2025.05.26: Katowice -> Warsaw #

Woke up in a good mood and rode for 300km from Katowice to Kotowice. Stopped to refuel, and the bike refused to restart.

This looked like the same issue as yesterday, except i had a full tank of fresh, seemingly good quality fuel. In the next hour of drained the battery trying to encourage it with different throttle positions and swear words. Well, at least I was ~20km away from a Royal Enfield dealership, so i waited for a trailer.

The engine had low compression and there was smoke coming from airbox when cranking. Valvetrain needed a rebuild, and one of the mechanics stated these Himalayan 411 engines usually need a head rebuild every 10000km. My bike had 9300km on the odometer.

Overly optimistic mechanics told me they will try to revive the engine by adjusting valves and letting it idle for a while, so i booked a room barely big enough for a single bed and went to Semolino to drown my sorrow in average beer.

2025.05.27: Warsaw -> Riga (on a bus) #

I wanted to give the workshop more time to revive my bike so i had a deliberately slow morning.

I had a nice breakfast at Przystanek Piekarnia, withdrew some cash from a predatory ATM, and walked to the workshop.

Surprisingly, they added 25km to the odometer since i left the bike the day before. It started and idled reliably, and gave me no reason to take a bus. I packed all my luggage and departed.

Nope, bike’s dead again after just 1km. Pushed it back to the workshop and bought a bus ticket. The Quick serwis motocyklowy will rebuild the head, and i will come back to Warsaw in 2-3 weeks to ride back home.

I had a few more hours to waste in Warsaw, so i walked through the parks, had a noodle bowl at Fugu Sushi, and bought my last (in a while) can of Monster Doctor at the bus station.

The trip is to be considered over.

Conclusions #

I planned to try Kurviger and OsmAnd to find better routes, but ended up using Waze exclusively, and just shaped the route with extra milestones. In Romania and Bulgaria enabling “Avoid highways” resulted in very enjoyable routes most of the time. Sure, if you’re stuck in a flat and boring location like Poland - you might need extra tools to find fun roads to ride, but if you have the opportunity to reach mountains - just do that, and anywhere you go will be fun.

The choice of bike was right. I did not go offroad, but good suspension made quite a few routes properly enjoyable. There are lots of “old” roads around Eastern Europe that have excellent curvature and views, but worn out surface. As for low power - on fun roads i didn’t feel short of it, unless i was stuck behind some slow BMW that wouldn’t go uphill faster than 30km/h. To overtake those though, i would need a heavy and expensive liter bike, which might bring some drawbacks elsewhere. I am not convinced a mid-size bike would be any better for the job, besides saving a couple hours skipping Poland on highways. For my next trip, whenever it comes, i would like to get a mid-high end adventure bike, now when I understand why this class is so popular.

I had a very good time and spent considerably less money than in Central Europe last year. Food cost about as much as elsewhere, but fuel, museums and accommodation were cheaper. I spent much more time riding between cities as very few locations had fun things to do for longer than 2 days, but with mountain roads there - I did not mind.

In 5 weeks i was traveling, i did not get tired, as much as i accumulated a backlog for all my travel planning app projects. Tools i developed between this and last years’ trip were used daily, and saving me a lot of time and effort, but I saw new opportunities for improvement, and wanted to go back home to spend time building better tools to plan my next adventures, hopefully to more Balkan countries.