The Second Grand Tour Part 1: To The Water.

Didn't take many pictures in Hungary, so here is a poppy field, ooh, ahh

The Summer has officially begun.

The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing and Londoners are explaining to bartenders that it is hot outside, remarking that it's lucky that they are working in a dark bar, possibly for under the living wage and for longer hours than is technically legal, because at least they don't have to sit outside and have BBQ's with their friends, god forbid.

Ask not for whom the cloud rains, it rains for thee

Here in central Europe, the weather will now be a consistent mix of sun, apocalyptic rain, then sun again, then 'seriously guys I see the horseman, the end is nigh' thunderstorms and finally back to sun. The summer hit us quite quickly after the excitement of getting married and all, and we realised it would go just as fast if we didn't hurry up and get exploring. We have an amazing opportunity this year to take time into our own hands and have real adventures before we head back to London to begin the next stage of our lives together. So Two days before we actually set out, we worked out where we could go for a two week period before we returned to the UK to finalise our affairs and celebrate our wedding with the Brits. We considered Italy, a bit of Eastern Europe and finally a trip to the Baltic sea and Scandinavia (which on second thoughts would take a really bloody long time, plus it was the summer and hot. So there was only one thing for it; we would ride to the Former Jugoslavia and travel down the Adriatic coast. It turns out that Croatia has a pretty nifty sea road that would keep the sea at our right hand side as we rode down to Herzegovina. So on Friday 2nd June, we decided to wake up early and pack our bags for the long ride across Hungary.

We super weren't ready so instead we left on Saturday 3rd. Now Hungary has a network of convenient Highways across the whole country, linking important cities and international routes. That being said Eastern Hungary's flat steppe landscape is really bloody boring after the first two hours. Budapest was exciting as always, our GPS suggested that it would be advisable to go through the city centre. Now you may not know this, but there are a lot of impatient Hungarian drivers, and driving through a city is the worst. We were nearly knocked off and flattened on multiple occasions, the most exciting of which was when a lady decided that there were two many people in her lane and instead she'd try her chances at not slowing down and flying into oncoming traffic, during this performance the part of oncoming traffic was played by us.

Nevertheless we made it past the city and across the Western half of the country to the Balaton (a giant lake, locally referred to as the 'Hungarian Sea'). We found a small town by the name of Zalakaros on the south end of the Balaton and stayed there for our night in Hungary. It may not be news to anyone but me, but Europe is ram-packed with apartment rooms available to people touring on the roads. These are basically cheap hotel rooms in people's houses with parking spaces or garages, perfect for riding a motorcycle. At this point I'd like to thank the ageing German camping community for this, it definitely made our trip easier.

The Istrian Coast in Slovenia

The next day we crossed into Slovenia and the landscape changed dramatically. Where there were fields, there were now mountains, where the green was deep, it was now light, and there are amazing vistas as you roll across the gorges and through hills. The road bent and twisted in pleasing curves as well. Slovenia is a Motorcycling dream. We stopped for lunch in Ljubljana (a pronunciation that I'm not sure is possible to get right). And explored the city a little. It is an amazing green city, with no cars in its centre, beautiful streets lined with trees and huge Habsburg buildings dominating the skyline. Sadly we didn't have a choice but to carry all our stuff with us, which was really heavy and hot in the midday sun. We left for the Slovenian coast after Lunch and enjoyed more of the highways that this tiny republic had to offer. The coast was a bit disappointing. The small old towns were nice but access to the sea was not really a thing, there was a small crowded beach, but it was packed and right next to a massive industrial shipping yard.

Ljubljana, heavy bags, cobbled hills and delicious overpriced refreshments

Not really summer holiday vibes.

We spent the night in a coastal town called Portorož and decided to leave the country for Croatia the next morning. And this is where I will leave you in this part, stay tuned for the Dalmatian coast in part 2, which I'll post tomorrow!

Puffer