Sticky Apple Kisses

Sorry to all you working suckers out there. (You can call me on this when I am home again slaving again for the next trip. As South America to home is not out. Pollo is having a 2010 reunion at La Posta, and we have decided that is a good time to go and give me enough time to save for the trip. Sitting on the bike driving the other day I realised that buying the bike plus paying for the license was the same amount of money as a plane ticket to Argentina, WITH my bike, and with enough left over for 3 months of travel, the license alone was 3 months of travel or more in South America. Sigh.)

Anyway, as always I digress! But at this moment while Patrick is running errands I am sitting in the garden of this lovely little hotel we found to get clean at (I should state for the record we do not travel first class. 3 months off means a budget of 30 Euros each a day, and gas can eat 15 of that every day if we travel far, or every second day when we are riding relaxed like we are in Bulgaria. Which means as much wild camping as possible. Which is better than paid camping because you are alone, the views are always better and its free!) like so:

Ed setting up camp our first night in Bulgaria:

But it also means no showers sometimes. So we REALLY needed to come here yesterday. We are just sad we cant stay a second night, because the price is right and the food at the restuant here is AWESOME!!!

My only complaint is the coffee. Since leaving Austria we are almost always given INSTANT coffee. Yesterday I thought I hit gold, they had proper espresso machines! When I ordered my coffee it came from an instant pouch where she then used that pretty machine to shoot out hot water.

heart breaking I tell you! I dont care what anyone saysy, I am a Starbucks coffee girl, it is one of my vices, I love it, and its the only thing killing me on this trip, the lack of anything that is not instant!

So here we are in what is again suppose to be our last day in Bulgaria and we just cant seem to leave. We dont particulary want to in fact. it has been amazing here, all the more so because we did not even plan to stay here, it was always just a transit country. The only problem with staying any longer is that we will have to rush back on the way home, which niether of us really wants to do. We want to have time for Slovenia, Croatia and Albania, all places we have been told are fantstic for bikers, especially since Turkey is huge, and we could easily have spent the three months there alone. (Of course, we should also wait to see how the heat affects us in full gear).

my camera however is suffering, and getting worse. I knew it was a little on the skitz before we left, but I ignored it in favour of cash. Now it still takes good pictures, but only when the lighting is perfect. Plus my focus is completely out fo whack. But Patrick has a camera and Ive just been stealing his.

My camera:

Still very lovely,

but Patricks camera is so much nicer!:

So now I really must give in to my guilt and run away from this and let other people use the computer for a little bit just to be fair!, but first, some pictures, as I have shared links with you like pocket watch, so though this has been a written blog so far, I have not been fair or kind to my readers the past week and a half, nor with these updartes, so just until I have decent internet and I can write soemthing worth reading, ehre are some fo my fav pics so ar:

My first day off roading in Romania:

Me in Hungary:

Of course one thing that could be affecting our internet access is the fact that most of the time we are camping, and though I have a ton of stories to share, I just dont have the time to write them up at the moment properly. Which is sad, because I have so much I WANT to write. But this laptop is bieng shared between 3 people as we all hang out in our first hotel of the trip so far, and I am starting to feel bad for being so greedy with my internet time. (and I have not even shared the monk story yet!). However I am also slowly uploading some of the pics we have taken so far, and I have to say, If I KNEW this pic was being taken:

Patrick would have needed a truck accident lawyer when I ran him over with that tractor!

I said I was sorry over on Gypsy, so I wont repeat it so much here. Just know that we have had no internet so far! Or the two times we did the connection was so dodgey and horrible I gave up before I did anything other than email my mother to let her know that things are still fine!

The trip has been nothing short of awesome so far, and I may go get personalized pens as though women bikers are quite common in Germany, in Eastern Europe it is going to my head as everyone wants to shake my hand for driving my own bike.

I needed to pass on my linky loves for the week that I have been neglecting. This also means I have been neglecting friends (both of the flesh and blood as well as the online variety) blogs. Im still reading them even if I am not commenting as often as I use to! Its just with so much to do the past 2 weeks, and of course still looming tomorrow, the only reason I am even really online at the moment is to pass on a link for anyone who wants to buy memory, because when all is said and done, I have 3 months of living on savings and linky love coming up!

I will be posting from the road, and I hope to have more time as we are bringing a computer  with us as we are both hardcore computer geeks, me of the online type, and Patrick of the “I enjoy Java” type.  So some of the nights will be spent typing in front of the fire, because we are just sad like that.  :-P  But that means cut and paste prewritten blog entries for everytime we find internet!!!

So if there are textbooks out there on planning and going on a major trip, the number one point would probably be never expect to really leave when you say your going to leave. Our bikes are so not ready. The good news is that we are out of the apartment, I have my German motorcycle license, and Oma feeds us and lets us sleep here. Work said goodbye, my boss even hugged me and told me to come back safe, they need me. So since tomorrow is raining, a good nights sleep is in order, and finish packing and bike stuff tomorrow, and Sunday gerade aus!

So it is official! We leave Friday, which means yes, I PASSED On Saturday morning, (which was only yesterday morning, which is sickening in that it seems like 2 weeks ago!!!).

After a night of nightmares, and being so nervous I literally feared I was going to vomit into my helmet, I passed!!!!

I had been told to expect about 45 minutes, and 2 of the compound exercises. Some instructors take you to the highway, others the back roads, usually in combination with some driving through town. But they COULD do whatever they felt like to you. 1 hour and 15 minutes later I had driven through town, through the side streets of town, the highway, and the back roads where they do that whole what the speed limit ISN’T. And of the 6 possible exercises on the compound, I did 5. The only thing not asked was circles in second gear, which is fine by me, as how useful is the ability to do giant circles around trees anyway????
Before you go thinking I can now drive however, I have to sadly state that this is Germany, and nothing is so easy! I was given a piece of paper that I now bring to the drivers license office, and they take my old license and give me a new one with the permission to drive a motorcycle on it. Originally I had thought this was fine, I would at least be driving on Monday. Now I check the office hours, and I had forgotten all about German bureaucracy, with its office hours as limited as the paperwork is extensive. 8 30 - 12 30 every day, where I work 8 30 - 12 15 ALL this week. Thursday is the only day they are open past 1 30, and that is the day I am suppose to have lessons with the landlord.

Hopefully they will let Patrick pick it up with my passport, as we leave Friday for 3 months of motorcycling through Eastern Europe into Greece and Turkey and back!

Even with the frustrations, I am beyond elated, and its more fun than an xbox 360.

We here in Deutschland have two choices when it comes to movies, see it late dubbed in German, or wait a few months and hope the only original language cinema in the area (at least the only one that does not involve me prepositioning solders) picks it up half a year later. And tonight was the big premiere of Kung Fu Panda, which considering it was only a month late is not so bad. And I must confess I loved it. To the point where I was hee hawing my cackle (much to the dismay of all around me, but as I went by myself not to the public embarrassment of my friends. You should have seen me at Juno, the girl I was with threatened to move.) But this evening saw me alone as everyone else had something else to do besides hang with me, and despite the fact that the money I now have must do me for the next 3 months as I travel from here to Turkey and back, I decided to indulge myself. One of the nicer parts about living in a tent instead of opting for luxury vacations, 10 Euros may be a room with a shower, but then biker boots kind’ve make the whole clean thing moot anyway. Bring on my fat kung fu pandas!!!