welcome to turkey

Leaving Georgia is as easy as coming in. On the Turkish side the situation is rather different. Darius, as the driver, has to ride through the check post; Jane has to join the queue for passengers. With Hundreds of Georgians crossing the border, Jane has to be patient… Big Georgian Mamas are pushing severely and even more patience has to be applied as the Immigration officer hasn’t got a clue about Jane’s Passport and the Turkish visa. Same confusion awaits me when I’m finally arriving at the Immigration desk for drivers. Luckily, I’m shown where the back door is… That’s the place you want to slide the passport in one of the officers hands (I pretended that I didn’t know the drill and didn’t fold in some Euros…) and get it back within minutes.
Few more checking of our passports and some questions about our green card insurance followed by some more checking of our passports before we’re finally free to go.

Greece welcomes us with 2 degrees Celsius at night and only 6 degrees during the day. Within few kilometres my fingers are frozen and turning blue. Luckily we’re able to buy some ugly but warm camo gloves. This gloves and my camo raincoat let me rather look more like a warrior than a traveller…
As soon as the Greek customs find out that the bike isn’t registered in Germany, they start to be suspicious about our bike papers, especially our green card. Additionally Jane’s Schengen Visa is being inspected under UV light with a magnifying glass.
Finally I can convince an Austrian border guard to let us pass through our last border so far.
WE’RE ENTERING EUROPE!!!!!!!!
Our plan was to explore Greece for about 2 weeks but the cold and rainy weather quickly changes our decision. In only 3 days we’re crossing Greece and arranging the ferry tickets to Venice. Not willing to spend 40-50 Euros for a room, we’re looking for Igoumenitsa’s camp ground, which is closed already. Well, eventually we end up camping close to the campsite, just below a “NO CAMPING” sign.
It is raining; it is cold, we’re very happy to board the ferry and rest in our Pullman chairs.
24 hrs later we’re entering the magnificent Venice harbour. It is very cold but no sign of clouds. Amazing clear sky allows a view of hundred kilometres or more.

just a glimpse of venice

20 months passed, 40000km later we're finally reaching germany!!!! now we'll have time for the necessary repairs and many liters of GLUEHWEIN, hehehe.

the remains of our AT

No time wasting, I start to strip the bike. Very soon there are parts all over the place and the frame remains standing solitary in the garage. For the next weeks, if not months, I’ll be busy working on the bike and make it fit for the next part of our RTW adventure.

dear all,
we wish you merry X-mas and happy new year 2010. for the first time in many years (for darius) and for the first time ever (for jane) we'll celebrate WHITE X-MAS in bloody cold europe.
we had - 15 degrees just yesterday, its snowing permanently and jane is thinking of using cramp-ons for walking in the streets...
well, for now we're busy decorating our christmas tree and shopping for presents, which fit underneath the tree, hehehe.
right after X-mas we'll finish working on our bike and hopefully make a test ride... it depends on the weather though...

many thanks to all of you for supporting us or following up with our progress!!!

cheers

darius and jane

05 February 2010 BURGHAUSEN, GERMANY

719 days, 39500km