14th to 16th of April 2011
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Slowly I can feel and move my fingers again. I couldn’t even close the zipper of my jacket with my left hand because the nerves&muscels were so much irritated.
Hat in hand I am thankful to be still alive.
I made it to Sochi from Anapa, 340 hard km in one go. In Sochi everything is under construction for the Olympic Games in 2014. But internet access is a headache here…café’s generally don’t offer Wifi and the only choice is Mc Doof, which really causes a headache, because it is so awfully crowded. You cannot “work” there. Actually the only MCD’s I have seen on my entire trip were in Yalta and now here in Sochi. Also no Starbucks or something similar…so, there is still potential:-)
On the 340km I had sunshine all the way. And my nasty acquaintance was back, the strong wind. When I went downhill on a 3 lane highway towards Novorossiysk a 30 ton truck tried to overtake me with 110km/h. I had the horror because of the wind turbulences to fight with if he would have overtaken me. The only choice was “Vollgas” even though the wind was awfully strong…I got away from that monster. After 3 restarts the GPS broke down right after Novorossiysk; one time I had to go 2km back to get the right turn another time I had to check the way on my Russian map; fine.
Tuapse was horrible, construction work everywhere, traffic jams in and out of the city, the center blocked with car’s and trucks, it cost me more than an hour.
Then in one of the endless bends which followed a small truck drifted on my side of the road…It was a wide left curve going uphill. I saw him coming down, he had 80-90km/h and I had 80km/h as well…then I saw him passing the middle line like in slow motion.
I released the throttle and braked gently, steared a bit straight and saw already the gravel in front of me…but he still continued drifting over the middle line. My body prepared for the impact to come on my left shoulder…Half of his truck on my side we passed each other with a 20-30cm distance. Nothing happened but the sensation and tense of my body was so strong that my left shoulder went stiff and I had muscle pain for the next 20 minutes. When I looked back screaming (of course he couldn’t hear me) I saw him still fighting to get his truck back on his side of the road. I heard once about Russian trucks which were stopped in Germany and the Police discovered that the brakes were not working at all. Maybe I met one of them…I am just glad and thankful to be alive.
Now I know why there was no money X-change at the Russian border. I did not find any bank in Sochi changing my Ukrainian money. They just don’t want it. The currencies they like to change are 1st Euro and 2nd USD, in this order. I don’t know what the people in Europe have against their currency. :-)
The tires did not arrive yet in Krasnodar, maybe coincidence that I should take a rest here; I prolonged my stay for another 2 days. Yesterday I spent 3 hours with the hotel IT specialist to fix my GPS. I think he enjoyed this break of his routine very much, a very friendly person…let’s see if it will work again on the motorbike.
I had a very good dinner in a restaurant/brasserie, called Brigantina in the harbor of Sochi. The owner, a French guy from Nizza, explained to me the way to an internet café in the afternoon…it was worth to try his restaurant in the evening. :-)
The “mama’s” on my floor in the hotel (in Russian hotels you can find them on each floor at the end of the corridor) washed my clothes and sewed my jacket. Approaching the Russian’s is in some cases like you have to motivate them to do something for you (I mean you anyway want to pay for the job to be done), but once the ice is broken, they would do an excellent job. They can be also very resolute: “I would like to sit here”, the answer “no, not possible, you have to sit here”. Another example is that I am still running after my official registration in Russia. In Germany they told me that I have to do it within 3 days. Here the receptionist told me that the law has changed recently and I have 7 day’s time to do it. I was worried after 2 days (actually day 3 in Russia; and I don’t want to f___ up my 180 days multiple entry visa) and left my passport with the other receptionist asking her to do the registration now. 15 minutes later in my room I got a call. I picked up the phone and there was no “hello”, just “what do you want”. Wow, I was so perplex…:-)
Or you try to put some Russian words into your English sentence, just to make it for them easier to pick up what you tried to explain: “yes, I know what you said, but...” So, you better don’t make them look stupid even though it was not your intention.
If you ask somebody about the way to…one should be already (I thought this would start more eastwards) careful with the answer, because if they judge that you would anyway not understand what they would like to explain to you they just say…”yes, straight ahead, straight ahead”…but this is only a direction and you would certainly have to ask once more on the way for the way.
By the way, since yesterday we have rain again, great! :-)
on the way to Sochi
Seen in Sochi harbor. Und HOLSTEN hat hier einen guten Job gemacht: Überall HOLSTEN Werbung.
Wie war das noch: HOLSTEN knallt am dollsten?! :-))
one of the few areas not under construction
Hat in hand I am thankful to be still alive.
I made it to Sochi from Anapa, 340 hard km in one go. In Sochi everything is under construction for the Olympic Games in 2014. But internet access is a headache here…café’s generally don’t offer Wifi and the only choice is Mc Doof, which really causes a headache, because it is so awfully crowded. You cannot “work” there. Actually the only MCD’s I have seen on my entire trip were in Yalta and now here in Sochi. Also no Starbucks or something similar…so, there is still potential:-)
On the 340km I had sunshine all the way. And my nasty acquaintance was back, the strong wind. When I went downhill on a 3 lane highway towards Novorossiysk a 30 ton truck tried to overtake me with 110km/h. I had the horror because of the wind turbulences to fight with if he would have overtaken me. The only choice was “Vollgas” even though the wind was awfully strong…I got away from that monster. After 3 restarts the GPS broke down right after Novorossiysk; one time I had to go 2km back to get the right turn another time I had to check the way on my Russian map; fine.
Tuapse was horrible, construction work everywhere, traffic jams in and out of the city, the center blocked with car’s and trucks, it cost me more than an hour.
Then in one of the endless bends which followed a small truck drifted on my side of the road…It was a wide left curve going uphill. I saw him coming down, he had 80-90km/h and I had 80km/h as well…then I saw him passing the middle line like in slow motion.
I released the throttle and braked gently, steared a bit straight and saw already the gravel in front of me…but he still continued drifting over the middle line. My body prepared for the impact to come on my left shoulder…Half of his truck on my side we passed each other with a 20-30cm distance. Nothing happened but the sensation and tense of my body was so strong that my left shoulder went stiff and I had muscle pain for the next 20 minutes. When I looked back screaming (of course he couldn’t hear me) I saw him still fighting to get his truck back on his side of the road. I heard once about Russian trucks which were stopped in Germany and the Police discovered that the brakes were not working at all. Maybe I met one of them…I am just glad and thankful to be alive.
Now I know why there was no money X-change at the Russian border. I did not find any bank in Sochi changing my Ukrainian money. They just don’t want it. The currencies they like to change are 1st Euro and 2nd USD, in this order. I don’t know what the people in Europe have against their currency. :-)
The tires did not arrive yet in Krasnodar, maybe coincidence that I should take a rest here; I prolonged my stay for another 2 days. Yesterday I spent 3 hours with the hotel IT specialist to fix my GPS. I think he enjoyed this break of his routine very much, a very friendly person…let’s see if it will work again on the motorbike.
I had a very good dinner in a restaurant/brasserie, called Brigantina in the harbor of Sochi. The owner, a French guy from Nizza, explained to me the way to an internet café in the afternoon…it was worth to try his restaurant in the evening. :-)
The “mama’s” on my floor in the hotel (in Russian hotels you can find them on each floor at the end of the corridor) washed my clothes and sewed my jacket. Approaching the Russian’s is in some cases like you have to motivate them to do something for you (I mean you anyway want to pay for the job to be done), but once the ice is broken, they would do an excellent job. They can be also very resolute: “I would like to sit here”, the answer “no, not possible, you have to sit here”. Another example is that I am still running after my official registration in Russia. In Germany they told me that I have to do it within 3 days. Here the receptionist told me that the law has changed recently and I have 7 day’s time to do it. I was worried after 2 days (actually day 3 in Russia; and I don’t want to f___ up my 180 days multiple entry visa) and left my passport with the other receptionist asking her to do the registration now. 15 minutes later in my room I got a call. I picked up the phone and there was no “hello”, just “what do you want”. Wow, I was so perplex…:-)
Or you try to put some Russian words into your English sentence, just to make it for them easier to pick up what you tried to explain: “yes, I know what you said, but...” So, you better don’t make them look stupid even though it was not your intention.
If you ask somebody about the way to…one should be already (I thought this would start more eastwards) careful with the answer, because if they judge that you would anyway not understand what they would like to explain to you they just say…”yes, straight ahead, straight ahead”…but this is only a direction and you would certainly have to ask once more on the way for the way.
By the way, since yesterday we have rain again, great! :-)
on the way to Sochi
Seen in Sochi harbor. Und HOLSTEN hat hier einen guten Job gemacht: Überall HOLSTEN Werbung.
Wie war das noch: HOLSTEN knallt am dollsten?! :-))
one of the few areas not under construction
