:pipo.jede:: Long Way to Persia

Early wake up is not good after drinking Slivovice but there is no choice. It's necessary when you want to make 2000km in just two days. Today's plan sounds simple. We'll try to cut as many kilometers as possible of that big number.

The rest of Czech D1 leads us to Slovakia and first stop is later at the border. There we have to pay for Hungarian roads. Driving the highway can get boring but we have intercoms and Petr is a funny guy with loads of jokes in his pockets. After some time Petr realize that his big BMW 1200GS Adventure takes much more petrol than he's used to. He had non-Adventure version before which took less than 6liters per 100km but now this is about 7liter. He swears a lot to the helmet so I turn-off the intercom and stop at first petrol station. After few calls we discovered that this is probably normal and decide to continue. But Petr is not happy. This will make trip of 12000km a lot more expensive! Nothing interesting in the rest of Hungary as we decide to skip the lunch break in Szeged for some goulash...

The border crossing with Petr is always quick&easy. He works at Czech customs office so he has colleagues at every border. And he's not shy to talk about it everywhere :-) After couple of minutes we're out of EU in Serbia. When trying to find for some information about the toll for highway we meet very friendly guy. His name is Attila and we discover that he has a BMW motorbike as well. He leaves a contact details with us to stop by on the way back in Subotica where he lives or in Szeged where he works. We appreciate his friendliness but doesn't know how it will change our near future. After few km we can see that weather will change. Until now everything was perfect but there is a wall of dark clouds is approaching. Because there is no place to hide we stop on the parking to take cover against rain. The wind is getting stronger and everything is up in the air. Petr tries to dress up and leaves his helmet on the table. This was a big mistake! His new Schubert helmet for 400EUR is falling down and soon we discover it's badly damaged. The joint is broken and there is no way of repair! :(

We ride with broken helmet to the first petrol station and wait until heavy-rain is over. My solution is always about duck-tape but this time it's only temporary. Our will to continue is strong and the best solution is to try to reach Attila and ask him for his help. He must have a helmet if he has a bike. Unfortunately we're unable to reach him on the phone so we continue to the first bigger city on the way to find a place to rest.

On the entrance to the city of Novi Sad it doesn't look good and only adds bit of depression to the mood together with bad weather and all the problems so far. We're happy not to accept first offers for accommodation and continue to town center. There we found a guy who is not afraid to bargain for lower price. After some time our bikes are in garage and we have nice small room in town. Let's try the local pubs leads Petr! Soon we discover that Novi Sad is actually very beautiful old town full of young people. And I must recommend it, it's really worthed to visit. I must also recommend that every man accommodated with lady by his side should take dark sun-glasses while visiting Novi Sad. We were sitting some time in the pub garden and played a game of "looking for ugly girls". Hundreds of people were passing by and we counted about 4x girls together in one hour. Yes, Novi Sad have better ratings than Prague and Bratislava all-together! ;-) The mood got much better with alcohol levels rising up and the night went on for a long time. At least for me who managed to get lost in the city while walking back to hotel after they closed all the clubs... :-)