Riding my Motorcycle through the Balkans
Update 83 (March 2025)
Igoumenitsa, Greece to Slovenia
My overnight ferry from Italy was on time and we were unloading in Igoumenitsa, Greece at 9am. I had slept quite well and was refreshed and ready for a days ride. The weather was not quite so supporting. It was cold and drizzling at times.
My first job was to get some petrol. I found a petrol station in town. It was a new station with with beautifully shiny, wet polished concrete and I am thinking WTF, just add some oil and this could be slippery as. I fill up and pay. The attendant was friendly and we chatted a little. As I am leaving he says watch out for the slippery surface, we have lots of motorcyclists slide their bikes over. One guy even broke his leg. No kidding, I am thinking.
There was a popular looking restaurant open next door, so I found some breakfast.
Coffee and a meat gyros pita for breakfast. Maybe more a brunch dish than a classic Greek breakfast but I certainly enjoyed it. I wasn’t convinced about including the potato chips, should have got them on the side.
I decided to just move straight across Greece. The weather forecast for the next week was far from appealing coastal weather. So I rode almost straight across the country towards Bulgaria. At times I was at a relatively high altitude and it was down to about 7 degrees Celsius.
Near the city of ThessalonikiI, I started having more trouble with slippery Greek road surfaces. There was a section of highway that had been dished by trucks and was also worn very smooth. It was drizzling a light rain and at about 80kmh I found the wheels sliding on the damp greasy surface. It was very freaky. I managed to save it twice before I could get off the bad patch and onto a more grippy section of road. I went down on some polished concrete road at a very low speed in China, but this was extra scary at this speed. I had another close call about 30 minutes later in the city but again I was able to stay upright. Maybe it had been a long time since it rained and the light drizzle was just right to cause a greasy surface but not wash the oil residue away.
There was no appealing accommodation in ThessalonikiI, so I kept moving. I stayed in the little town of New Vrasna. It was obviously a popular summer destination but virtually deserted now, especially on a Sunday evening. The view from the beach above. Being a Sunday, finding some food was a challenge. It has surprised me how much of Europe is closed on a Sunday, including the supermarkets.
I actually rode to the Bulgaria Türkiye border where I had been six months earlier – Riding from Iran to Türkiye. Since arriving in the EU at Spain (from Morocco) I had not found any third party liability insurance for my motorcycle. Coming off the ferry at Algeciras, Spain would have been my only chance really, but I did not see anywhere to buy it. Normal insurance agents are not set up to sell short term insurance to a foreigner with a foreign vehicle. Nobody had asked to see it but I knew a place at the Bulgaria border so took a small detour and bought another policy from them – 90 days cover for the EU for 60 Euro.
I think this was in the town of Haskovo, Bulgaria.
Some attractions in Haskovo, Bulgaria.
After a couple of nights in Bulgaria, I rode towards North Macedonia. I was leaving the EU again so there were some formalities. But the border crossing was very organised and over in a few minutes. The only lengthy part was buying North Macedonia motorcycle liability insurance. They would not let me in without showing it. I just told him I needed to buy some and he guided me on parking the bike and walking 100 metres into North Macedonia to a small office to buy the insurance. 50 Euro for 15 days was quite steep but I think it was the official price. I walked back and showed the border official the insurance document and he processed me into the country.
It was about 2pm and I was hungry. I called into a small town and found a bakery and some simple lunch. It was a little like being back in Iran. My presence piqued the interest of the locals, and the baker would not accept money from a traveller and just kindly wished me a safe journey.
A nice view as I rode to the border with Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
My first couple of nights in North Macedonia were in Strumica. The above photo is a later night in a ski village in Mavrovo National Park. The village was pretty much closed and empty but the nearby town of Gostivar was not working out. It was a different place to stay and seeing some snow falling the next morning was fun. I think the last time I rode in snow like this was in Japan Wakayama Ferry to Shikoku Island. The snow soon turned to rain as I moved a little lower.
It was a nice ride into Kosovo. The border crossing was easy again. There was a small office to buy insurance, this time for a more reasonable 10 Euro from memory. The weather continued to be quite cold and occasionally rainy. There was still snow on the ground at the border crossing.
I rode to Prishtina, the Kosovo capital to buy a SIM card. I found an Ipko store. From memory it also gave me 5Gb for other Balkan countries. I rode a little further and found a nice hotel and ended up staying four nights. I was due for a rest and I liked Kosovo. It was different and interesting but at the same time organised and good stuff was readily available.
For a country that was at war about 25 years ago, it seemed to be doing quite well. I met a young local in a laundromat. His family left Kosovo for Canada as refugees when he was a child. He had recently moved back to Kosovo on his own and was enthusiastic about the opportunities.
Looking towards the mountains of Montenegro from Kosovo. There is a road through there but it was closed, presumably from winter. I would be going over the mountains to the right of the photo.
Working my way up to the Kosovo Montenegro border.
In between countries now. There are still dangerous remnants of the war.
The “no man’s land” between the Kosovo and Montenegro borders became very scenic.
Žljeb Mountain at 2,382 metres elevation.
Montenegro was a beautiful country with stunning scenery. But I really need to call out the people for the way they are trashing it, especially in the mountains. As I travel, there is a general inverse relationship between the amount of wealth in a country and the amount of trash dumped in the country i.e. the poorer the country the greater amount of rubbish. Montenegro is not a particularly poor country, there are a lot of shiny new cars getting around, yet they dump their garbage along the roads in vast volumes. Maybe there is some recognition of the problem. I did see one small group of young people completing a roadside clean-up at the outskirts of their town. I gave them a toot and the thumbs up and got a smile and wave back. Unfortunately, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s rubbish problem was not too far behind either.
Slansko Lake, Montenegro
I think this was still in Montenegro but was getting close to the Bosnia and Herzegovina border.
Maybe this was in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Whilst stopping for a rest I realised my rear brake pads were all but gone. I don’t know what happened, it seemed only a couple of weeks previous there was plenty of pad left, but time flies sometimes. I started looking for a motorcycle mechanic. It seemed I would need to go into Sarejevo. It is too hard trying to call ahead, so I just chose a good sounding one from Google Maps and rode to Moto Servis Mima. I arrived in the afternnon just as they were finshing a job. I waited twenty minutes and then they changed my rear pads, and did an oil and filter change while I waited. They were very friendly, knowledgeable and the price was good. I didn’t want to stay and tackle the Sarejevo traffic, so kept riding and found a nice place to sleep just north of the city.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Still in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but entering the Republika Srpska.
A nice afternoon ride through Republika Srpska.
Late one afternoon I crossed into Croatia and found a nice little studio apartment on the hill in Hrvatska Kostajnica.
Sunset over Hrvatska Kostajnica, Croatia.
Frankopan Dvorac (castle), Croatia. The Frankopans were a very famous noble family for many centuries in Croatia.
Frankopan Dvorac, Croatia
The view from Frankopan Dvorac, Croatia
I rode into Slovenia twice. The first time I was just over the border and was stopped by a police patrol. It was all very routine and friendly. They asked for my passport, motorcycle documents and licence. They also gave me an alcohol breath test. They did ask me whether I had liability insurance for the motorcycle (which was what I bought in Bulgaria), but did not want to see it. I say it is routine, but it is probably the most comprehensive police roadside check I have had in 2.5 years of travel. Although I have had more targetted drug and smuggling check in countries like Côte d’Ivoire and Türkiye. The police officer was friendly and gave me some tourist tips on where to visit. Later on, I did take up the one about Lake Bled, which was nice but a little too touristy for me.
Afterwards, I used the Booking app and made an accommodation reservation for a couple of days. But I didn’t realise it was actually back in Croatia… But this is the beauty of being in the EU. I just rode back a different way, which turned out to be a really nice ride to finish the day.