4 CAPItals and another continent
At 5am Monday morning the alarm went off and I regretfully forfeited the extensive all-inclusive buffet breakfast to attempt to get back to Bulgaria in one hit. There was a very strange woman outside the hotel, not sure of her nationality, not sure she was drunk, she was so overwhelmed that I’d ridden from Bulgaria, found it incredulous.
‘So you do this adventure?’ I didn’t dare tell her about other trips for fear her head might explode, she wanted a photo by my bike ‘Oh and you have the hair and everything’ yes I do I suppose, I have a bike and hair and everything, I’m a bit peckish though.
Off I go into the first light. The staggering craggy cliffs barely silhouetted as I weaved through a pre-dawn valley. Down to Ljubljana with the first of the rush hour for the first day of the working week. With my bike and hair and everything I headed east into the rising sun and briefly against the flow, into Croatia and towards my second capital Zagreb and another rush hour. There can’t be a better way to waste Croatia but the motorway was swift and efficient as I headed to my third capital Belgrade and hit Serbia at lunchtime. The last clean page of my passport now getting stamped. Then south and back into Bulgaria, bypassing my fourth capital Sofia, and sprint with the sun behind me back home.
13 hours, 1230kms literally dawn to dusk on the equinox. It was perfect, I pushed the faithful bike into the shed knowing there was no better way I wanted to return from the trip. Why the endurance? Well firstly I’m enjoying this style of riding more a more lately. I did it on my way back from the summer trip to Kyrgyzstan, home in 10 continuous days riding, then though east to west but that’s another story. Anyway there was a reason for it… I’d caught a lot of bugs, now I had a flight to catch…
In December of 83 when I was 18, I flew to Denver Colorado for the first time so visit some friends I used to go to school with in the UK. I stayed for 3 days and spontaneously bought a waterbed, because excess luggage was no big deal back then, anyway I didn’t buy the frame just the mattress and heater because we had wood and water in England. Those 3 days changed my life forever and it wasn’t just the intrigue of the girls in my little English village as to my big new American bed.
My visit wasn’t quite pure wholesome Happy Days 50’s America but still I saw and felt something that I wanted more of.
So there was this girl who having witnessed the waterbed wanted more so we hatched a plan to go to the USA next year. Consequently I spent my 19th birthday there and we pooled our money and bought a Harley Davidson Sportster and brought it back to the UK. I got a Harley wallet with a chain for my birthday too.
However, the downtown skyline hasn’t changed much nor the Rockies to the west. Some changes are subtle, some visits indistinguishable and others are slap in the face instant indelible memories forever. This arrival was one such significant one.
This arrival was one such significant one. In 83 I was met by my 2 American/Americanised old school friends. This time I was met by my Colorado born and bred daughter. That’s pretty awesome, I know the road system and gave her more direct directions than her phone was. Off we went to meet one of those two friends from 42 years ago in a bar.
And so the holiday begun, familiar, company, location, all be it a microbrewery I’ve not been to before. It would only take another friend to drive past in his bus and I would have had Déjà vu all over again.
When you have a friend who becomes a bus driver you look at ever bus to see if its them. In Denver that’s a futile practice, the infrastructure is immense and the routes infinite. But once many years ago we were sitting at the window table at a bar on a main street and serendipitously looked out at a bus outside as the driver looked in at the people around the table inside. It was him. We all saw each other, waved like crazy, this was long before mobile phones it was pure coincidence. I don’t expect it to ever reoccur so rather that relay on that chance meeting I found him on Facebook to invite him to my birthday party next month. That’s what this trip is me celebrating a ‘Zero’ birthday with some quality people, all important, some imported, some permanent, and some not seen (other than through a window) for a very long time. 17 years a truck driver that wallet from my 19th birthday has been sat on for many miles many years, through many countries. And now 41 years later is just about worn out. I scanned eBay for a long time to by a replacement, it was waiting for me. There will be a ritualistic change over soon.
There are changes and there are somethings that endure through it all. First a bike ride and if I can endure that, they’ll be a little celebration next month. We are heading to the Mexican border next week to ride the Arizona BDR back. My feet have barely touched the ground and now I have to master the critically speed so my front wheel barely does. I have to face my least favourite riding surface after back ice, and that is bloody sand. I have enough of an idea of what awaits me to be quite apprehensive, but if it doesn’t give you butterflies it’s too easy.
Anyway I’ve got a new wallet to break in, so I can’t be sitting around.
