The Greecey road!

IT wasn't long before my itchy throttle hand once again made itself felt. I first noticed it as I was attempting to eat a bowl of corn flakes.  Just a wee little  twitch at first, nothing to be alarmed about.

A few days later, I nearly cut myself shaving with my Swiss army knife.  Then drinking my afternoon cafe, I actually spilt some onto my lap, involuntarily twisting my wrist.

THAT'S when I began to wonder.  A slight mishap or maybe even a couple were perfectly normal, when it was one or two a day, I seriously considered a trip to the local Doctor in Jaszkiser.

What could it be?

I was eating normally, my bowel movements were regular, the color of my eyes had not changed...

IT was a puzzling situation.

Sitting around one morning up in Jaszbereny while sipping an espresso, it finally dawned on me.  Not one of those brick on head  AHA moments, but certainly I had felt as if the puzzle was solved.

Since my long overnight that turned into a couple of weeks, I had done a fair amount of motorcycling with Little Red around Hungary.

I'd seen much of the country via Divvie, even entertaining Barb for a short visit that took us thru the Czech republic back to Auschwitz again, on to Slovakia and yet somehow it was not enough.

Once realizing what the nature of my problem was, it wasn't long before the bags were packed and I had the maps laid out on the table.

There were still several weeks remaining before my departure date and I was ready to ride.

Erzsi came home one afternoon only to hear I was heading south... to Greece.

Yes, I knew it was getting late in the season, yes I knew I was looking at a ride that would certainly be several thousand kilometers and yes I had mentioned that the condition of my tires was not the greatest.

Maybe the ghost of Alexander (the Great) who by the way was Macedonian... was calling me, urging me to conquer the concerns and twist the throttle.

OF course it was raining.  What could I expect at the end of October.  Boy, were those roads leading me from Hungary into Croatia, slick on those worn tires.

Soon enough I was passing from one lengthy tunnel to the next, glad to be out of the cool, damp weather if only for a few minutes at a time.

AFTER a particularly long underground transit, we emerged from 7-8C temps and cloudy skies, to a glorious blue Adriatic Sea!  Sure the sky was still mostly gray but...

A rest stop showed the air temperature at a balmy 16C, and it reflected in my mood, which had greatly improved since leaving HU behind.  In fact one could say that I was somewhat ecstatic.

Even the twitching had ceased!

FOR those of you that have never seen the Croatian coast, picture this.  A tiny sliver of fine pavement sandwiched between mountains that rocket towards the distant sky like a Saturn V, and a sea the color of aquamarine more clear and clean and beautiful than anything you've seen on a Hawaiian brochure!

Gorgeous is the word to describe what was passing by.

SWITCHBACKS brought us down to sea level and carried us high overlooking the waves.  Italy was somewhere to my west and behind the mountains was the history (sometimes violent) of the Balkans.

Greece was a long ways off and I had several contingency plans if the weather or tires were un co-operative, but I was quite determined to have a go as the Brits say...

AFTER all unless your name is Bond, James Bond... you only live once.

The weather although never hot or sunny for long was certainly acceptable as long as the rains held off.

It's very hard to ride at a fast pace on these mountain roads and to be perfectly honest, I had no desire too.

THERE were plenty of photo ops, and not only did I want to commit the sights to 'film' but I enjoyed the brief periods of warmer feelings wearing a black jacket and soaking in the heat.

By the end of a long day that had begun under rainy skies and sub 10 degree temperature, I had pulled off at the very picturesque community of Gradac.  Aided by a young English speaking beauty named Isabella, I secured a room on the top floor of a small home pension, with a wonderful view of the town and sea and distant islands to my west...

and a towering mountain to the east.

HERE I would spend the next two nights, wandering, shopping and cooking a delicious steak, potatoes and veggy meal for myself, while catching up on my reading.

Maybe I'll just forget Greece altogether and enjoy a couple of weeks here in this little paradise, Croatia.