Malta 03 – Etna

01.04.2010

we open our eyes and Etna is just as steadfast in front of us and the view from the hotel is just as mind-blowing

breakfast, bags back on the bikes, starter and – nothing… one of the bikes does not want to start! The guys run around trying to fix it

and in half an hour of unsuccessful trying the guy from the reception comes along in his costume with a plastic suitcase with starter cables that are perfectly arranged, labeled, strung through…

we take off

the road to the volcano passes by a local landmark – a narrow gorge from a quickly cooled-down lava; the brochures look promising plus Dobri’s pictures from Ireland make me expect extraordinary shapes…

the road leading there is closed and we manage to get a glimpse of this although we pay quite a lot to enter…

we head to our primary destination a bit angry; the road passes through several Sicilian villages

the road up after the last village looks like this

the U-turns are labeled, the asphalt is flawless, we are the only ones on the road and, luckily, we are riding on two wheels!

……

we arrive at the foot of the volcano and the road ends

Nikolay is showing how he got here

there is a lift from here to the crater but it is not working today… (maybe it has something to do with today’s date because it happens for the second time today…)

we head back on the perfect asphalt between the cooled-down streams of lava

a short direction check

a final look up

and off we go to Pozzallo because we have a ferry to catch; we get there an hour early, have coffee and we get loaded soon; the boat is great, fast, luxurious, managed by a British team (with British prices); there are special ramparts for the bikes

we arrive in Malta when it is already dark… uh, and everybody is driving on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD! you get used to it (well, almost), but it is a great shock in the beginning, especially in the roundabouts which are abundant and go the opposite way just as well.

to be continued…

Malta 02 – Sicily

31/03/2010

we get up at sunrise, just like that; our room looks to the sea on the east and the sun is tickling us pleasantly in our beds

across the street

breakfast, blissful coffee on the terrace and back in the astronaut suits

our faithful horses

focused tying of the bags

our day begins with a stop at Catania’s port in order to buy tickets for the ferry to Malta

and we head for Etna; we stop by this smoky thing on the way

this is edible, in case you were wondering; I did not quite understand what it was, nor what it is called but before I managed to take put my camera, the guys had already eaten the part meant for eating anyway…

we reach the town of Castellmola which is sitting comfortably at the foot of the volcano

we stop for a bit after managing to get lost on its only street (a single street but with great turns…)

we group again

and continue climbing up; soon, we get to this site

and we give into photography immediately

after a short discussion, the suggestion to sleep somewhere around here was unanimously accepted (nobody wanted to leave this view!); we drive some more to the top and we find ourselves the right hotel; this is the view from our room and …well, it’s the same from everywhere:

it is a weird feeling – Etna is dominating the landscape with deceiving calmness and bliss; lava cannot reach here; this is our first thought although the place we are at right now has been evacuated several times due to the highly poisonous smoke and volcanic ash…

the bikes are parked, we have changed and we sit at a local tavern as the sun is trying to set above Etna

to be continued…

Malta 01

29/03/2010 – inappropriately early morning – the OMV on the ring road

the other two – Moni and Vlado – are already waiting for us

coffee, gasoline, a little bit of nicotine and the whole enthusiasm in the world – our blood is about to boil any minute now – we have been waiting all winter for this; the season is not open in Sofia yet, the temperatures are just 15-16 ˚C but the weather forecasts for where we are headed predict lots of sun

today’s route is Sofia – Sandanski – Thessaloniki – Igoumenitsa; 650 km. which are primarily freshly built Greek highways

up until now, both of us (Niki and I) have never ridden for more than 250 km in one day, not to mention the fact that our collective experience on two wheels is no more than 2,000 km.

the beginning is filled with discoveries:

when we were preparing our bags the night before, we had to make adjustments thrice and ended up with a little less luggage each time, while, finally, we heard the bags zip with effort (well, the extra sweater has never been an issue for the Pajero! and there is certainly no room for snacks and water….);

you have to take off your helmet at the border (which did not occur to us);

paying toll fees from a bike on the highway is a skill which is acquired through a loooooooooot of practice
carrying a huge camera, taking it out of the bags and putting it back is super tiresome, so it is great that our colleagues have smaller cameras in their pockets

Greek gas stations are the most miserable ones in Europe and, even if they are part of a chain, there is a good chance their pumps and counters are modified on purpose…

this doesn’t cool our enthusiasm, plus, the last 200 kilometers before Igoumenitsa pass through a magnificent mountain with beautiful scenery; our noses freeze in the tunnels

the way down the highway to the Mediterranean Sea is amazing! (there are no pictures! – yep, my hands were busy controlling the two-wheeler and you cannot just stop for this and that… I promise myself to take pictures on the way back)

we get to Igoumenitsa 2 hours before the first ferry (one of them at 8 PM, the other one at 10:30 PM), we buy tickets and spend the time indulging in Mediterranean cuisine; yum, the octopus is worth it!

the ferry line is called Venturis; we had travelled with Superfast before and we think we have an idea how it is going to work; there is a brief scandal about tying the vehicles,

a quick check, taking of the bags, some fun pictures

and head for the deck; surpriiiiiiiise! the two above-mentioned ferry lines have nothing in common! …the common room (a maximum size of about 100 square meters) is already occupied by Turks, truck drivers and all sorts of gastarbeiters lying around wherever possible; there is the specific scent of smelly shoes and food so the next two days will be spent in a truck’s cabin, it seems; we try to relax at the thought of having paid for cabins with hatches…

the hatch overlooks a deck accessible for all passengers while the carpet is covered with layers of DNA material and your socks stich to it; I peek at the bathroom and I give up immediately since there was no room for slippers in our bags and going there barefoot is a medical suicide… at least the sheets are clean and they smell fresh (!???!!); we get some sleep.

Bari, Italy

oil, chains, baggage check; we are ready for the second round

today’s route (30/03/2010) is Bari – Taranto – the incredible Italian A3 through the Reggio di Calabria area – and a ferry to Messina, Sicily; some 600-650 km.

upon exiting Bari, the highway passes by the incredible Renzo Piano stadium; I had no idea it was there, but I’ve seen pictures of it and you cannot mistake it for anything else even from a distance! I do my best to keep my eyes on the road and, again, we do not stop and I promise myself to take pictures on the way back…
there are wild winds all the time that give us a hard time; the scenery is composed of hills; we pass by a beautiful valley with the sea on one side and a gorgeous mountain with white peaks on the other; we finally get to the A3 motorway by the early afternoon.

A3 is the main motorway of Southern Italy, connecting Palermo with Reggio di Calabria and it passes primarily along the western slopes of the mountain; the lower end of the foot of the boot – all the pay to the toes ☺;
the southernmost part of the mountain goes straight into the Mediterranean Sea and the motorway is a succession of tunnels and vast viaducts which offer mind-blowing views!

the road “flies” over the water, the sun is low over the sea and spills its rays to as far as one can see… there is one spot that has left an imprint in my mind – a long tunnel and a viaduct right after it which is pointed directly at the sea horizon, leaving the mountain far behind us, so high that the shore beneath cannot be seen… in a long, supple turn, hundreds of meters above the water, the road returns into the folds of the mountain slope; this is where I started breathing again.

we reach the port in the evening, we get lost, we get found, we miss the ferry and we wait for the next one as the mafia-wild wind blows from all sides and we finally get to Messina; the sun sets; it starts to drizzle; welcome to Sicily!

we decide not to sleep in Messina and continue to Catania; riding in the dark, especially a bike in the drizzling rain, is not my favorite thing! So the guys escort me with their headlights ☺ and about a hundred kilometers later, we are already looking for a hotel – we check in at the Sheraton, park the bikes at the garage; in just half an hour, we look human again (and not astronaut-like) and we start looking for a place that will satisfy the hunger which has been following us for the last few hours.

we come upon a local tavern which is full with noisy Italians; this is a good sign! We order pasta for like 10 people and quite soon we glow with bliss; we are not going to eat neither pizza, nor spaghetti in Bulgaria ever again…

we take a shower and go to bed because tomorrow we are going to conquer Etna

to be continued…

Valencia – out.

we go back to Valencia

our flight is in the evening, so after the train leaves us at the station, we have a whole day for aimless walking; discussing the laws of zig-zag trajectories:

random (this on the right is the city bullfighting arena)

the main covered market

the antique silk market (?!! I did not get additional information on that one)

wandering along the shopping street

the façade on the left draws my attention

there is this inscription over a glazed stainless column at the entrance

later on, my jaw drops at the sight of this shop’s façade

bronze, copper or another alloy, if you’re wondering… and each panel is different…

to wrap this up, here are some pictures of graffiti around the city that blend in beautifully

a shout out to Vella and Dobri:

and this goes out to Krasi (this is a map of the metro, by the way)

I already have plans for the end of summer… see you soon, Valencia!

Castellon

the morning surprises us with an early alarm saying it is time to get to work as we are still dizzy from last night’s abundance of food and, above all, white wine; our favorite cab heads towards Castellon, the Mecca of the Spanish ceramics industry, filled with five architects and a Phillip (a normal, amiable person, although he tends to communicate with architects…)

the road is the size of a highway but it is not considered one and it winds close to the coastline between hills and never-ending orange gardens which are heavy with orange spots; the oranges are collected from the end of the Fall, all the way until the beginning of Spring (what do you think is the job of most Bulgarian gastarbeiters in Spain?!!!); here and there, among the oranges, we see huge complexes of concrete mastodons that rise without a warning; they are the heritage of the Spanish construction boom and some of them are incomplete with cranes around them…
Castellon is a small town of about 100,000 people; the number of ceramic factories in the vicinities was a three digit number (I did not remember it)…

we get our job done, in shock by the level of automation in the production process and they take us back to the hotel in the evening;

as the only two female members of the group, we sneak out with the ambitious idea to visit a place which impressed us on some leaflet at the hotel.

Contemporary Art Museum

(I just have to remind you that the town is the size of Lovech/Smolyan!)

since we are famous for our bad luck (I am), the museum turns out to be closed

this cannot hinder our childish joy of jumping around what turned out to be the museum building

see for yourselves

the door-man could not explain if the installation was a part of the building or just a temporary exhibit (his English was good enough to explain that it was closed on Mondays); we sigh for a while as the sun sets, we have a coffee, and take a few shots similar to this one

and we head back because by this point the guys must be dying for something to eat… and drink 😉

to be continued…