Sheets on the bed are too short and get all runcled. Ah the things I have to put up with !!!
Up for breakfast and made sure today I just had a plain omlette. Had to pay extra for a bottle of water, but it seems like a good investment, though I havn't been drinking tap water at all. My money is on the pastry tubular concoction that I had at Bran. I remember the woman rolling out the pastry onto the wooden moulds using her hands, and if she had just been to the loo, well it's all not worth thinking about really!!
Set off again for Belgrade in Serbia, tomtom takiing me through atown called Arad and then to the border at Mortivar.
As I approached the border noticed a machine with a large swinging arm designed for looking under vehicles !!
Out of Romania ok, across no-mans land and then the problems started. The border guard wanted an international insurance "green card" I got out my Bennets insurance certificate and told him this was the equivalent in the EU. he just shook his head and said need green card. he said you can buy one over there and pointed to an office. He kept my passport. So I went an waited at the "office" and after about 20 mins a person came and said green card will cost 70 euro minimum and will take 30 days. So I said no and will go back to Romania. ( Later I have been wondering whether in fact he meant the green card will cost 70 euro and last 30 days!!) Went back to the kiosk where the man had my passport, kiosk empty, but I could see my passport still where he had left it. Stood around waiting for someone to appear and a woman came, I told her I was having to go back to Romania because green card would take 30 days, and she gestured towards romania and said 20 days. Oh shit I thought, have I been caught in no-mans land and neither Serbia nor Romania will let me through without a "green card"
The woman wouldn't give me my passport back untill I had ridden/bumped my bike over onto the other side of the checkpoint where outgoing traffic was queuing. I then joined the queue and waited to see what would happen going back into Romania. The cars and vehicles in front of me were being rigourously searched and documents checked, and my heart is sinking. It came to me and I gave him just my passport, he only briefly looked at it and waved me through!!! Relief!!
Decided I was no longer confident about getting into Croatia, and so set a course for Hungary
Phoned Savi and asked her to contact Bennetts my insurance company to confirm the situation about Serbia, and Croatia.
Savi gets back to me and says Bennetts are saying I am not covered in Serbia, Croatia, Romania and Hungary and only 3rd party in Slovinia. This is very different to the information Bennetts told me when I enquired before Í set off. Still checking to see what is actually the case!!
Anyway it looks like I will not be taking the bike to Croatia !!
No incidents on the road, set tomtom for Szeged in Hungary.
In a town called Timonasia I tried to find the Suzuki dealer to buy a new front tyre. Found the place (even without tomtom which doesn't have street mapping for Romania) but when I got to the address there was no sign of a Suzuki dealer!! Back tracked and carried on journey. On the way saw a motorcycle accessory place and enquired there. When he came out to see the size of the tyre he found the wear markers and there is still some more life in the front tyre. Bought a new pair of summer gloves.
Route tomtom took me led to a bridge that was blocked totally for repairs, no diversion signs, nothing and Had to go looking for nother bridge and get back on track. All very interesting!!
It was nice eventually to be back in Hungary, it feels much more civilised than Romania. looked up accomodation and found a camping ground that has challets, so staying in a challet as it is raining and didn' fancy putting up a tent in the rain. The cahllets are all on stilts because the campsite is right next to the Tisza river which apparently floods frequently. the place is empty, but they will only let me stay a maximum of tweo nights, because then they are expecting a lot of people !!
Walked into town past a great looking water park, and found a library with internet access, so will come tomorrow and update blog.
Nice architecture in Szeged.
Had a little incident with diarrhoea but Burger King came to the rescue. When you've got to go you've got to go!!!
May choose to stay the extra day and do the water park and then have a good look around Szeged in the daylight. Depends on the weather.
More later
TOR
Hi Geoff,
ReplyDeleteI had the same problem with the Green Card in Moldova. I bought insurance for a couple of quid for 7 days. Croatia was no problem and covered as standard with Carole Nash. (All of The Stans, Azerbaijan and Georgia were riden with no insurance!!)
Keep safe
Paul
When I was at primary school, I had a pair of gloves attached together with string through the arms of my coat....
ReplyDeleteSo Oss, how did you take your coat off or did you wear all day during class?
ReplyDeleteGeoff - not a very good place to park your bike in a high risk flood area ;-)
Graham
Good point. That probably explains why I'm cold all the time now... Mum said I'd miss it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I hope my flippant hasn't offended TOR so much he's stopped blogging. Let us know your OK Geoff - we hang on your every adventure!