Well here goes THE BALKANS PART 2  2755 miles 
DOs and Don’ts #1
 
1 Unless you want to ride behind gawking tourists, do not take the coast roads down the Dalmatian coast,
2.  People will tell you that the Euro is accepted everywhere in the Balkans, DON’T believe them.
3 There are no speed limits on the motorways, not true but everyone seems to ignore them, however ordinary roads are often patrolled by police with little better to do than GET tourists.
 
 
So we left England on the Sunday night, it was raining when we left home, but had cleared up by the time we crossed the Pennines,
I had better explain that the WE was me and a friend/shadow who would for ever be a small headlight in my, mirror except for the times he was either lost, well behind on twisty mountain roads, or after I sent him to a place in Germany whilst I went to Berlin.
The first leg of the trip was to a camp site in Ingoldstadt home of Audi where I discovered the minuses of having a tent where the poles support the inner tent, a short sharp shower, try saying that with your teeth out, left me with a wet tent for the night however we would be heading for hot places so no real problem.
    Next day down to Graz in Austria and into Slovenia, well I did, Rob on the other hand being unable to read the road signs, he is Dyslexic, took the wrong lane in the long tunnel and ended up in the town of Graz, by the time that I had contacted him, thank technology for mobile phones, we had lost three hours, so pressing on to through Maribor we went to Ptuj, pronounced toy, on and over the Croatian /Hrvatska border and after a couple of phone calls, we were met at Cakovec by one of the lads from Miners Mc and taken to their club house at Mursko Sredisce, where we were entertained to a drink or six.
Next morning we took their advice and travelled south to Zagreb and Karlovac to the seaside resort of Zadar, not the best advice I have taken however we did manage to cover the last 100 miles in 1 hour and five minutes but we had lost a lot of time going that way and it would also have unforeseen consequences later. We should have taken the road to Belgrade.
After a night in the camp site, very hot, and once again the consequences of having an inner tent supported by the poles worked this time to my advantage, as I did not have to put up the outer cover, so it was cool.
So on down to Omis but having to travel behind slow moving, Under 60MPH traffic I cut off into the hills and on deserted but very twisty roads we got to Dubrovnik crossed the Bosnia Herzegovina bit on the coast then back into Croatia and on to Montenegro/Crna Gora and stayed that night in Zelenica where Rob to add a bit of hilarity to the trip fell off his bike turning around in a car park, to add insult to injury he was helped to pick his bike up by two lads on mopeds,(oh the shame)
Next day we took the ferry across the narrow strip of water from Bijela to Proanj and off to Podgorica.
Rob suffered another setback when once again he was as usual not keeping up and had to speed up to catch me up doing 80KPH in a 50KPH zone near Kolasin so he got pulled by the local police but they let him go with a caution, twenty minutes later and once again not keeping up and not reading the road signs he got lost again, I had travelled about 15 Miles along very twisty mountain roads before stopping for him to catch up, when he still had not turned up, I turned round and found him at the bend in the road only about fifty feet from a sign clearly showing that the main road turned to the right,Grrrrr.
We had by now lost over all some six hours so it was through Rosaje and into Kosovo surprise surprise there was a Border post, where we were invited to buy third party insurance 20Euros and had our passports stamped with Republic of Kosovo, and down to Pec where we encountered KFOR troops and UN troops, anyway the road from Pec to Prishtina is horrendous just one long road work, then south to Macedonia I am not a enthusiast of driving over the Skopje Crna Gora at night, on the map it is a straight line when in fact it twists and turns as it drops down to Skopje, but we did find the Custom Pub which is also the club house for Potfat MC, where my friend Ljubisha with whom we were staying came to collect us.
Don’ts #4  do not expect your mobile phone to work in parts of the Balkans, ask the hundreds of Scots who were in Skopje for the Football, Macedonia 1 Scotland 0, I had eventually to buy a Sim card from cosmofon as I needed to call friends in Serbia.
It was also the Macedonian Independence day celebrations on the Monday, this being Friday there is a ride around the borders by a large contingent of bikers however we were advised against it and as things happened it was good advice as the organization turned out to be chaotic.
We on the other hand went on a ride with some of the lads from Potfat and other lads from South Serbia Croatia and Bulgaria and the French bloke we had a meal in a place that elf-n safety would not have allowed to stand but it was good and with good company, this was near Kicevo we then rode down to Demir Hisar and a night club and hotel,
Rob and me did not stay too long at this venue after all who wants to be surrounded by young women wearing micro mini skirts and handkerchiefs for tops?
So we returned to the Hotel and had a few drinks with some locals including the Chief of Police.
I think that I should say something about the Macedonian women/girls, I though that the girls in Venezuela were the most attractive until I went to Metz in France but my vote must go to the Balkans Skopje or Nis in Serbia take the biscuit so far.
Monday was independence day in the evening very large crowds in the main square with popular Macedonian bands/groups then a very stirring speech from the Prime Minister, I did not understand a word but decided that it was prudent to cheer when the crowd cheered and boo when they did and wave my little Macedonian flag.
Next day off to Serbia. Rob once again fell off his bike trying to get rid of gypsies/Roma trying to get money by cleaning his windscreen at the Macedonian border post, more damage. The next bit is copied and pasted from a letter I have already sent to my friend in Macedonia
  
 
Hi Ljubisha.
Well your prediction that we would not have any trouble at the Serbian border was a bit out. First of all we were met by armed Serbians, probably soldiers, who indicated that we should get off our bikes by waving a gun, then the Border police having seen Republic of Kosovo in our Passports had some discussion as to whether we would be allowed in, or at least I think that is what they were discussing, however maybe they were trying to decide whether to shoot us or not, we were the handed over to some other police who took our passports away, after making us park our bikes on an out of the way dirt patch at the side of the police station, I was then asked why I had gone through the territory of Kosovan Serbia now a breakaway region supported by America and the British Government.
I did point out that the British Government had in no way consulted me on its decision over Kosovo and that had it done so, I would have advised it to keep out of Serbian affairs, which being ironic would have got me into trouble anywhere else, but the Serbians decided that this was support for them and after having to prove that I really did have FRIENDS in Nis, I showed them Nenad's phone number, they also said that any future travels within the disputed Serbian territory of the breakaway region of Kosovo would mean that the only way back out that way would be through Makedonia,Kosovo and into Cerna Gora, they then stamped ANNULED in Serbian and English all over the Kosovo stamp and let us go.
Apart from that I had a good ride home; I will fill in all the details at a later date
 
We got to Nis and visited my friend from Shadows Mc, took him out for the evening and next day left to go north, he wanted us to stay for another day or two and as things turned out we could have done so but north we went pulled into Belgrade to get some money changed, we had so far had Euros Croatian Kuna Macedonian Dinars and Serbian Denars on to Novi Sad for a meal and revolting Turkish coffee it is like mud I did not drink it on to Hungary Keksemet and Belgrade, no doubt there are a lot of improvements since communism, but most of these cities are still large chunks of what were grey concrete apartment blocks, now painted different colours to stop them looking drab, but they now look like a collection of soap powder boxes with windows.
I finally left Rob in Gyor Hungary pointing him in the direction of Wien/Vienna as he was visiting our friend in Hof Bavaria and proceeded north through Slovakia and on to Prague, It may be a great place for stag and hen parties but I drove around the city centre and was not all that impressed, I have not got any photos of these places as there are loads on the internet.
I had been invited to stay with some people in Liberec in the Chec republic however after phoning a few times and getting no reply, I had already e-mailed them from Skopje I took the hint and travelled on to Neustadt in Germany.
Next day on to Berlin, I was there some years ago but never saw the east side of the Brandenburg gate, so I got a ubiquitous Japanese/Chinese how do you tell? To take some photos for me then three or four hundred miles later I attended a party by the Chopper club just outside Dortmund great night Ruhrpott.
And so next day on to Rotterdam where Rob and I met up again at the ferry port and so to home, following day.
The weather did not let us down all the way nothing but wall-to-wall sun most of the time, we followed the rain right across Europe on the way back and missed all the rain.
Will I do it again; anyone got any spare money they do not want?
Finally all the very long tunnels through the mountains and there are many are well lit except the ones that are not lit at all going from blinding sun into pitch darkness is an experience
Regards Chris Fagan Freedom Riders Nomad
 Ps If you intend to go there make sure that you 
(a) know the politics 
(b) make sure you know which ethnic group you are talking with. 
(c) Do not make any jokes at anyone’s expense concerning Muslim Albanians; orthodox people are likely to get very agitated and some are armed