Almost 2 months into this one... Iceland Italy Slovenia Austria Hungary Poland Ukraine Romania Bulgaria Croatia Montenegro Albania Greece Italy Next up is Slovenia & Croatia again, then off to Africa. We really enjoyed Greece. The Ex liked the empty roads (nobody can afford gas) and the pretty seaside villages. I'm trying to get into the Ferrari factory on Monday... we'll see. I think they banned me for all the shit I gave them with my Challenge Stradale ownership. Spending less than I would at home ordering crap on Amazon and bike parts! We try to do the 4 star thing and hotels have averaged about $70 a night. Typical souvlaki in Greece was around 10 euro We pickup local vino rosso in Italy from Lidl stores for about 1 euro a litre. Seriously! Hey @Boman Forklift I stashed my T7 next to your POS Africa Twin in Bulgaria. Planning on riding next May eastward to the Caucuses and possibly dipping into Afghanistan and Syria. We could stash the bikes in Georgia or Armenia and continue next fall. You in?
@motion why aren't you joining us on Cannonball? It seems completely up your alley. Last year was Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Germany. We added Italy and France in to make it roughly 3 weeks or riding. 2025 (September) starts outside of Milan and goes all over the Western Italian Alps, Basically every pass on the French Alsp, dips into Spain, and ends in the South West of France. We'll likely add a week on the end riding back to Milan-ish.
Nice. did Italy and Sicily in July then Spain for work followed by a week in Thessaloniki visiting my friend who moved there. Europes different…. but what’s with Greeks and putting fries in their souvlaki wraps? That and no more Greek potatoes, everyone wants to give you French fries instead. Fuck off with that shit.
For what it's worth, it isn't a typical "group ride" scenario. You're given the route map in the early morning and it's up to you when you want to leave, how fast you want to ride, if you want to stop and take pictures or pee, and arrive whenever. Dinner is at 8pm every evening and there's a few events you can (but don't have to) participate in. For 2025 they're looking at a half track day I believe at Paul Ricard, but it might be somewhere else. In 2024 they did a half-day at Brno. 2023 we did stuff like mountain karting in Austria.
I thought Thessaloniki was awesome. The beaches on the Hallidiki peninsula were empty and super cool. Sicily is on my list of places to go as well. We went to the heel of the boot in Italy (Puglia/Galipoli) and it was awesome too.
I forgot the town in Slovania but nearish Trbovlje I stayed in one of Tito’s palaces. Rooms were a bit dated in appearance but would be 4 to 5 star in the US. Restaurant and bar were awesome and people awesome. It was like $90. Even the smoke stack was cool to see. Slovenia was arguably my favorite place to visit. slovakia was cool, I enjoyed it. Never spent a lot of time in Austria but the sights were cool, just not a huge fan. Poland? Shit, Great and I think even ‘toe could get laid there when they found out he was ‘merican.
Sicily is a friggin trip! Its really like a different country from Italy. I love it because you can pretty much do whatever you want and nobody cares. That includes riding your motorbike like an idiot. If you drive a car north from Sicily and up into ze german territories north of Bologna, you have to behave and drive nicely. boo. I love all the garbage and graffiti, too.
I have family from there, and still lives there. I would love to go some day......but working too many jobs and other crap. My mom and sister has been there twice and meet all the fam
Never been a big fan of Italy. It’s just meh to me. Yeah, the food but the rest doesn’t get my excitement up. and before one of you prancing petunias says “what about Tuscany? You have to experience Tuscany!”. . . Fuck Tuscany and fuck you.
I think it's all about the ALPINE region. Doesn't really matter if you're in France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia... They're all amazing.
Italy is a poor country, the North is ok. The food, every where you go it's pizza or spaghetti, France is better, where do the best chefs come from. Another thing most every where in Europe they speak English, not in Italy.
@motion Did you go through Serbia on your way to Greece, Serbia is cool, good food, good Rakija ( brandy made out of any tree grown fruit... My favorite is pear and quince... should have stop by Ohrid lake in FYR Macedonia, visit St. Naum monastery from 13th century... In Greece visit Napflio two hours from Athens, more to the west city Parga... Love the food, vine, did I mentioned CHEAP!!! Did two weeks of Spain this fall... Europe is awesom...
Thanks for bigging up my home country. Sljivovica is the plum brandy most known and made, but like you said there are others. If you liked Slovenia, Croatia there’s no reason not to like Serbia too. Northern part above Belgrade, Vojvodina was part of the austrohungarian emptied for so long you can still experience the Germanic feel to it. Southern part is way more laid back and like Greeks and Macedonians. But you’ll be welcome anywhere you go.
