Nomadonwheels: Pig on The Spit

After a lot of rain in northern Europe I headed south in the hope of sunnier skies, now on the way I stopped at Mc Donald’s in the hope that I could get WIFI and update my blog, my lap top is absolutely hopeless for picking up WIFI signals, everyone around is busy chatting on Skype, watching YouTube videos...etc..etc...and I am still trying to connect!!!.arghhh WIFI rage!...anyway I noticed in McDonalds that the staff were wearing yellow “Hamburger University” tee shirts....gee wizz Mc Donald’s!! Absolutely no need to rub their face in it!

I found out that a good friend from NZ was going to be in Croatia for a couple weeks, no more reason needed! I was headed for the Croatian coast!...shot through Prague, someone said I should have seen the famous bridge there at least, I did see something as I was stuck in a Friday afternoon traffic jam but as we all know “I missed the bridge”.....but as it was raining and 22 Euros a night in a crappy hostel I decided not to stick around and see the cultural delights of Prague after all my job is to ride!

"Where are you from"

The owner of the campsite was a sweet old dear around 80 years old, she wanted me to stick a pin in where I was from, I did stick it in Australia but then changed it to NZ, when I did all the other pins fell out....mmm where were they from?...sorry dear!

The usual night in for me

Another abandoned border post

Watch out for exploding balls?

Ahh perfect!'

I think Slovenia has it correct....all people, bikes and tractors?...should remain in large open fields and be banned from public roads!

I was contemplating camping when I noticed this sign, either they have bears here or they work for the local council picking up trash?

As I wasn't in Alaska and carrying bear spray so I decided against it!

This one was my favorite...so for the next 8.5 km I kepted my eyes peeled for Monkey's in space helmets break dancing beside their motocycles!....Didn't see any :- (

The Croatian Border

I did stop in Vienna and educate myself visually as you saw in my last blog post....anyhoo also whipped through Slovenia...looked lovely but the coast was calling and I love the sea air on a bike!..I arrived at the border none the wiser when it was actually manned and they asked for my passport which I smartly handed over with a slight glazed look, I realised just then that Croatia isn’t part of the fancy pants E.U...Oh yes...wonder no more this lad hasn’t planned a thing!!

Needless to say I didn't order the "Pizza Scorpion" I though enough risk travelling without ordering the "Scurvy" mind you if I had the orange juice with it it should have been ok...right?

I did however order the Bacon and olive pizza...Apparently bacon and olives are in short supply...I had a little nibble at the olive with every slice!

The 6.00am market!

As it was late I found a cheap hotel near the border and took a blissful rest, the next morning I was awoken by talking, not one or two but it sounded like about 10-15 people, it was 6.00am and with red half opened eyes I wearily looked out the window to discover that the street below had become a produce market!...just to put that sweet Croatian cheery on top it was raining heavily, throughout the morning I started having my normal internal debate about if I should leave in the rain or stay another night in the hotel...the other voice won over in the end “HTFU” it said....I was leaving for the coast after all it was only 70km away!

After about 45 minutes the road started winding down the hill, the mist and rain just cleared and from then on it was sunny blue skies!...oh yeah these are the days!

The coast road is now in my top ten of best motorcycle roads in the world! The great thing about the coast road is the Croatians love there spit roasts, so imagine riding on this fantastic road...blue skies...the smell of the ocean and the occasional waft of roasting pork..oh yeah good to be alive...(I’m sure you vegies secretly enjoy that smell of roast meat too but you won’t admit it eh!)

The ferry to Korcula

After a good day’s ride I arrived in Split and stayed the night in a “Should have free camped” type of camp ground as I wasn’t sure of the ferry timetable...oh and never would be! I did my usual pack up, made a coffee and got on the road about 9.30am...oh yeah crack of dawn biker me!..I was about 10km from where the ferries left for Korcula where my friend was staying, I zipped passed all the ferries not recognising any names finally coming to the last boat as they were about to close the doors and leave, the guy told me I would need to go back to the terminal building to purchase a ticket and that would be no good as the ferry was about to depart, a quick word with other crew and they waved me on. Oh yeah plan the shit out of your holiday and watch me bluff my way around the world! Chaos theory!....well if you’re going Korcula then the ferry leaves at 10.15am sharp!

Three hours later I arrived in Korcula the second most popular destination in Croatia, well worth the visit if you ask me, you can even see where Marco Polo was born and left for his more than famous journeys around the world, I stayed for about a week and was privileged to enjoy quite a few special family occasions, great to eat some simple home cooked but tasty food...mind you the local delicacy of sardines is certainly an acquired taste!