I can’t believe it been 4 weeks since my last post! There is way to much to fit into one but I have to start somewhere so here goes.

It never ceases to amaze me how one stop can change your plans in a instant. This is what I love about this trip. I was just north of Munich about 30 minutes and finally out of the city so I decided to pull over and get some more coffee. Walking out of the station, all coffeed up and ready to continue on, there were some fellow motorcyclist eyeing the Alaska plates and naturally we start to bs about the trips we were both on. This friendly couple were heading to motorcycle rally north a few hours from where we were. The bs’ing turned into getting more coffee and telling stories about motorcycle trips, traveling and everything in between. I think I was at that gas station for over 2 hours! The great people I just met were Maus and Frosch (aka Frog). They insisted I join them in a couple days when the rally started, we exchanged contact info and got back on the road.

After visiting Prague I decided I couldn’t pass up their invite so there I was heading into the unknown around Leipzig, Germany to motorcycle meet up with the club Kuhle Wampe. I rolled into the site, parked my motorcycle, got a welcome shot of some liquor and then had a beer in my hand within about 5 minutes. I knew then I made the right decision. I spent the next 4 days hearing the stories of the club, getting some serious history lessons on East Germany and admiring all of the East Germany ingenuity on display. I met some great people that won’t be forgotten. If any of you guys read this, thanks again for a great time!!! I’ll see you down the road!!

One story I’ll tell from the rally happened on the last morning. There was a live band the night before and we drank until the wee hours of the morning so I was mildly hungover. I was packing all of my gear up and decided to move my bike a bit closer to where I had been camping to load it up. Unfortunately, she was parked pretty close to where people were eating breakfast. So, first I was struggling to push it around all the other bikes so I could drive to my spot, almost tipping over a few times, and starting to perspire some of the booze from the night before, causing a little scene. Finally I got it to a spot where I could actually start it up and drive but now I was REALLY close to where people were eating breakfast. And imagine this, there are maybe 30 bad ass bikers in their leather cuts eating breakfast watching this dude from Alaska struggle with his bike and then I start it up to pull away and….. I FREAKING STALLED IT! I looked around hoping nobody saw it but that was not the case. There were definitely a few chuckles from the group. I’m sure people were just like “how the hell is this guy going to make it around the world!” Hahaha not one of my shining moments of the trip.

Onward down the road I enjoyed a few spots I was told to visit during the rally and over the next few days made my way to Budapest. This is one place I immediately fell in love with as soon as I rode into the city. I still don’t know exactly what it was but I will be back. I ended up staying a couple extra days here and one of those days was spent at the Turkish bath. Seriously, 7 hours of hot and cold pools, saunas, steam rooms and soaking up sun. If you’ve never experienced a Turkish bath, you need to put it on your life goal list! While on a walking tour of Budapest I met a fellow traveler, Amanda, and she told me about some music festival she was going to in Croatia, I decided I couldn’t pass this up either. I bought a ticket, changed my plans and headed back down the road!

After Hungary I headed into Serbia stopping in Novi Sad and Uzice. Turns out I arrived in Uzice the same weekend Moto Fest was happening and there were about 1000 other bikers in town. Another amazing time!

Once Moto Fest was done I headed into Montenegro and stopped of a beautiful overlook above the city of Kotor(see picture below) words can’t describe this. I also spent a few days in the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. All of you Game of Thrones fans might recognize the pictures. I guess they do a lot of filming there.

I decided to spend a few days in Bosnia before the music festival start and it turned out to be another great decision. Bosnia is absolutely beautiful! Met some awesome people and had a great time there.

And finally I arrive to the music festival in Pag, Croatia. It was called Spring Break. If you’re wondering what it was like, the following video shows it pretty well. All I’m going to say is I had a good time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkpWf8BnxhM