Well i am back again, and what a great time I had overall.
After travelling through Belgium Holland Germany Austria I arrived in
Venice, for the ferry, the Italians know how to charge on their motorways
from the Brunner Pass to Venice cost me €28.50 and that was after paying
€4.40 in Austria and another €8.00 for the pass, the ferry trip to Greece
was uneventful 26 hours I stayed in Igoumenitsa for the first night, lots of
mosquitoes.
In the morning I then took the A2 through the mountains in north Greece  to
Kozani and then north to Florina where I hit my first snag.
Unbeknown to me the Greeks hate the Macedonians and because of this there
are no road signs saying Macedonia or Skopje consequently I had to ask a
Greek woman which was the way to Macedonia, so I was rather surprised to
arrive in Albania, fortunately I was given the full sp on the problems over
the border by a border policeman. You have to look for a sign with F.Y.R.O.M
former Yugoslavian republic of Macedonia, I hit the border at around 7pm and
after buying insurance €50 drove on to Skopje.
I did not get there until 11pm and as Skopje is a mad house to drive in
after dark, well it is if you do not know where you are going, I found a
hotel (very posh) and expensive I had a bath and crashed out.
Next morning after breakfast I phoned my friend in Skopje and he got one of
the motorcycle minions to show me where the party site was.
Boy was it hot, however it was a great weekend met loads of bikers from all
over eastern Europe as well as some from Germany and Chopper Club from
England, as they had flown there it was respect all round that I had ridden
there, as I had previously mentioned there were bike clubs from many
countries so lots of friends to make.
The party went on non stop Friday Saturday and on the Sunday morning
everyone apart from me the local bike club and the guys from England packed
up and left for home.
The locals all make their own home made slivovitz each claiming his is the
best, to me it was all good and potent, not too sure about having it for
breakfast though, but it seems to be the rule over there.
On the way back I had a lot of trouble with the Greek border police, I drove
into the lane for EU vehicles only to be met by stony silence from the man
in the booth, he pointed to the NON EU line and told me to join the queue
there which of course I refused," You have good time with your friends over
border you now wait with them" they often leave the Macedonians sitting
there for hours there were also a couple of Belgians in that line who said
they had been waiting for two hours, I however was not taking this crap from
a thick Greek passport checker and told him if he did not check my passport
and open the barrier I would drive around it, he said I would get arrested
so I offered to let him do it, pointing out that his refusal to allow
through a citizen of the EU would look good in the newspaper and that I was
going to telephone the British Embassy, so he decided that retreat was the
best policy and opened the barrier, I returned this time to Igoumetisa via
the new motorways, where they had been built, god only know why the EU has
given Greece €68 billion for new motorways as there is very little traffic
in northern Greece and when finished will be toll roads.
Returning to Italy I took the motorway to Cortina and returned via Leinz and
Kitzbuhel to Germany up to Hof to visit friends and then to Antwerp for a
further party, one night, and thence by ferry to England and home.
I may do it again in September although this time through Czech Republic
Slovenia Serbia etc.
I have so far had e-mails from five countries, which is nice.
Bad bit : some one nicked my camera so I have as yet no pictures though
people have said they will send me some, and the strippers were rubbish.
Regards Chris