8/30/05
Uggghhhh, the Ninja got ahold of me today.
After dealing with my severe stomach pains I made it across the border quite easily and then quickly found the first hotel I could and quickly crawled in bed and curled up in the fetal position.
It must have been the burger king yesterday but all I know is that today I am not having fun.
At 4:00 I got out of bed and feeling severely dehydrated I hobbled down to the corner store and bought some 7-UP hoping the bubbles would help my stomach.
At 9:00 I was feeling a little bit better and decided I had try to keep some food in me, I found a nice little restaurant and ordered chicken skeweres. I managed to keep in these in me for a little while.
Todays Specs
Weather: 104F sunny and damn hot
Distance: 40 miles farmers field outside Ipsala to Alexandroupolis
8/31/05
Well I put up a hell of a fight against the ninja and this morning I was feeling much better. So after packing up my stuff I set out to head across Greece. I had some friends who had ridden from England and were staying a few days on the Island of Corfu, so that seemed like a good destination. I found some great dirt roads along the coast right out of Alendroupolis heading west. After about 50 miles the road once again resumed to tarmac and I quickly made it to Thessaloniki. I stopped to check my email and when I got off the bike the Ninja once again snuck up on me and got ahold of me. I dropped to on knee and clynched my gut, quickly looking for the nearest bathroom. As the beads of sweat appeared on my forehead I sprinted to the bathroom in time.
Deciding that if I was going to be miserable I might as well be miserable on the motorcycle, so after a look at the GPS I decided to power through to Igoumenitsa to try to meet up with my friends. By 10:00 and after some creative detours (that is my way of saying I got lost on some dirt roads and ended up losing about an hour or so) I finally decided to call it a night still about an hour from Igoumenitsa. I found a nice little grassy area behind some bushes off the road where I decided to set up my tent for the evening. I was quite happy with the spot and my stomach was feeling a little better so life was good. The plan was to pitch the tent and then fry up some ham I bought, I really didnt have much of an appetite but since all I had eaten all day was a croissant I figured it would be a good idea to try eating. Now I have to tell you it was very dark since there was no moon out tonight so as I pitched the tent I had to use the headlamp of the motorcycle even to see. As I finished the tent some dogs I had heard barking in the background had all of sudden gotten very close. I as I turned around I used my flashlight to scan the area and I saw about a dozen glowing eyes looking at me barking from about 20 feet away. I swear I even saw foam coming from their mouths. Now there is not to many times that I have nearly shit myself (bad joke after the last couple days) but this was really quite scary, a freaking pack of wild dogs had me almost surrounded. Now a normal person might freak out and get eaten but I quickly jumped to action and hopped aboard the german girl and revved her to life, that noisy exhaust truly paid off as I revved the bike the dogs turned and ran back about 20 feet, so with a twist of the throttle I charged them which caused a full retreat. Feeling I had won the day I quickly retreated to the safety of my tent figuring cooking meat might not be the best option with rabid dogs about. Well unfortunately I dont think they were actually rabid or actually too wild, because as I had charged at them with my headlights on bright I noticed they seemed to resemble more sheep herding dogs. I actually think most of them were sheep herding dogs of a nearby flock of sheep and they were probably just doing their job in protecting the flock. Several times through the night I heard them come back and snoop around the camp and check on me. Unfortunatley I didnt get much sleep between the dogs and the frequent trips to the bathroom due to the Ninja.
Todays Specs
Weather: 100F sunny
Distance: 400 miles Alexandroupolis to side of the road somewhere in Greece.
9/1/05
As I crawled out of my tent I quickly discovered one of the dogs during the night had decided to steal one of my flip flops and a pair of underwear from me. Quite upset as my seemingly free campsite had not only nearly cost my life but had now cost me a $35 pair of flip flops and a $15 pair of chonies, so between the Ninja seemingly getting worse and this latest debacle I was in quite a proper pissed mood. Off I set to Igoumenitsa which only took about 90 minutes to reach. Having quite enough of the Ninja I decided to give modern medicine a shot, so I stopped at a pharmacy and got a prescription of something. Well when I made it to Igoumenitsa luck would have it the ferry to Corfu was about to leave so I quickly bought my ticket and road the bike aboard. One hour later I was on the Island of Corfu and in short order I found the campsite of my friends Charne and Michelle. I decided some beach time would definitely help the mood so wasted no time in parking the bike and heading down to the beach for a swim and laying on the beach. So besides the severe stomach cramps life once again seemed to be alright. After a few hours on the beach my stomach seemed to be getting worse. So I ended up spending most of the evening in my tent making groaning sounds trying to get sympathy from my friends (I think I was somewhat successful too).
Todays Specs
Weather: 100F sunny
Distance: 80 miles side of the road somewhere in Greece to Corfu
9/2/05
Well this morning I woke up feeling like a million bucks, knowing that I had finally beat the Ninja. So in celebration we decided to spend the day on the beach drinking cocktails. So we gave our best efforts to finish a bottle of Stolichnaya. It was quite a fun day in the sun. About 6:00 I was quite hungry for the first time in 3 days so we sat down at a cool little beach bar and had a pizza. Our waiter turned out to be one of the coolest waiters ever. It was pretty slow so he humored Michelle with a game of pool which he pretended to barely win. Afterwards we were sitting around and he said(in reference to humoring Michelle with a close game of pool) in a great greek accent My father said Toni, someday you will be a man. So I said father thank you for that Then he said his father told him a second thing My father said Toni someday you will meet women, so Toni be good to women. So after a few more drinks we said goodbye to Toni and that we would meet up about midnight for some more drinks.
We headed back to the campground for a shower and a power nap.
At midnight I met back up with Toni who promptly ordered a huge melon full of Alcohol. As we sat there I saw Anna, a beautiful Polish girl. Oh I fell in love with Anna.
Todays Specs
Weather: 100F sunny
Distance: 0 miles Corfu
