Busted in Budapest...

It had to happen. It would be too good to be true otherwise. Yes. We got busted by the fuzz... the pigs... the rozzers... the long arm of the Hungarian law... Only a couple of kms to go before the Slovakian border and we get pulled over by two coppers in an unmarked Polizia car in a small village in the north of Hungary. 'Penalty'... '10000 florints'.. i heard him mutter. 'Fuck'. We were apparently doing 75k in a 50k area. He showed me a ticket which we were supposed to fill in and take to the post office on monday. Today being saturday and everything was already closed for the weekend. We're not staying an extra 2 days in Hungary just because of a frickin speeding ticket! We each had our own copper interrogating us... my one was a dead serious and utterly expressionless... and not succumbing to my biker talk charms... Dan on ther other hand was doing much better with his, so I said... ' he's got all my money...' ask him...'.
I thought to myself... Dan .... be cool man... He's known to occasionally create a fuss if he feels a need to stand up for his principles... But to my surprise the fella held his own and managed to wiggle us out of the situation as long as we paid a personal 'toll' charge... So, after sneakily slipping a couple of tens of thousand of Florints (about 30 quid in all) we were on our way again! We were actually quite relieved after and agreed that it had to happen one day.. like some kind of rite of passage for a biker touring in Eastern Europe.

Since Ljublijana and my last post we've been stormed in in Bled, then to Graz in Austria, nezt day to Budapest in Hungary for 2 nights, then today rode straight through Slovakia from the south border to the north and now are in Krakow, Poland.

Theres so much I could write, but obviously, i don't quite have the time right now not matter how much i would like to. I've been keeping a shorthand diary to remind myself and will write up everything when i get back.

Here are some interesting but generally useless and pointless facts about the trip so far. I can't listen to my mp3 player so I have been singing to myself when riding for long periods. These include... Save myself (willy mason), the soup song (mighty boosh), i want to ride my bicycle/ I want to break free (queen), Fake plastic trees (radiohead), Siboney (latin jazz standard) and the superman theme.

Been reading a book called 'Watching the English'. Its a anthropological book describing the quintissential rules to being british. I've found that in general I am... but some aspects I subconsciously, actively, refrian against. After reading this book, I've found myself analysing Dan like some kind of anthropological specimin. I've been creating a list of 'Danisms'. A list of things he does and says. He's a weird fellow really. Will post them when i get back.

My hair is very long now. I've been growing a little travel goatie. I got myself a pair of bruce lee 70s sunglasses. So at the moment, I kinda look like some kinda of hippy, jazz musician reject chinaman from the 70s...

Jeez... theres always a million interesting things i think about writing when I'm riding, then i forget everything when i get to a computer. It might partially be because I'm a little drunk on cheap 3 euro wine at the moment.

In generall the trip has been a blast. Unlike anything i've ever done. The solitary nature of riding allow a lot of room for thought and its almost like a form of meditation. It's become a little trip of self spiritual self discovery. 7 straight hours on the road can really free your mind...

Ok, dunno what else to say now apart from get off the computer and go do exercise cos you know you should. :)

until next time my friends.... as always... look after yourselves and each other people...


Suki Man
A Moski.