Skopje – North Macedonia – a motorcycle trip towards Bulgaria

Join me as I explore Skopje on foot, the city of monuments, before setting off towards Blagoergrad in Bulgaria. I am on a mission to put my bike into storage for winter before the snow comes.

well welcome back guys and girls welcome to Scot G in North Macedonia right we’ll go for walk to town and um have a look around and maybe get some something to eat a late lunch or early dinner uh got everything yep the managers uh let me Pat my bike right here I got the old London [Music] buses so this is downtown scop scopi uh North Macedonia what do we got here lots of statues the bridge of Art built in 2012 toor scovi still [Music] [Applause] [Music] no no [Music] Place me higher P me higher P me higher P me higher [Music] [Music] yeah so many statues here statue [Music] bro looks like lots of uh Roman statues here [Music] [Music] got ourselves Another Castle over there [Music] [Music] [Music] North mecedonia has got its own Camp currency the Macedonian dinar so there’s roughly 50 dinars to 1 so wonder if they take Card Payments well when I find a place to eat I’ll ask them that’s in new since I should have researched that because um I was hoping to get out um few hundred euros for my travels from North Macedonia uh so probably stopping at Thailand and Cash’s King in Thailand uh if I can avoid the ATM charges but um I won’t be able to because Bulgaria’s got it same currency as well I’ll figure it out [Music] somehow so this the old bizar of uh sculpture behind MOS [Music] d [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] sh [Music] [Music] too many damn people here most beer tables at the restaurant [Music] good place I [Music] go I got a beef steak burer with uh oven baked potatoes coming for 350 din which is about 6 years 50 or something so bit more expensive than C ofo we’ll see what we [Music] get so here’s the [Music] money so sunset’s at uh half 4 which has coming up now so uh we start heading back to the hostel [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thought [Music] oh more statues this one’s massive [Music] there just statues everywhere [Music] more statues [Music] uh been here a couple of days um but I’m now on the be line I’m um on my way to drop my bike off in uh Bulgaria uh east east of sopia uh to motor Camp Bulgaria which is well known motorcycle Campground uh that’s got cabins and everything but it’s um it’s a place to uh store the bike for a few months over winter and um so I’m heading off today I’m crossing into Bulgaria today um it’s going to be about a 3 and 1/2 hour ride so that’s that’s where I’m going and uh cuz it’s getting cold it’s really dropped temp temperatures on the last week it’s 11° at the moment warming up to about 18 um and it’s about half 10 in the morning but um yeah I’m just about to pack the bike up and go I’ve uh booked tickets um I’m out of here in a week um so I’ve got a one day in a random town in Bulgaria then uh tomorrow I’ll be in plv and um PV and then the next day I’ll be in the motor Camp drop the bike off then I’ll get a bus back into sopia um and I’ve booked my airline tickets uh got to be a bit creative to get the cheap prices um so I’m going back to New Zealand um for the summer uh see the family and and sort some business out and oh the tickets are rly priced day but um I was planning on being back in New Zealand the end of January um but all the January tickets were really expensive and so I looked at December and I found a ticket uh flying from Bangkok to Thailand uh Bangkok to New Zealand 22nd or 23rd of December uh for €315 so half price to compared to the other tickets in January so I will be back in newand for Christmas um that means I’ll be a to see the legendary Cemetery circuit motorcycle races in my hometown of woi um that’s always a good day and um so I bought that ticket first and then I backtracked and um how to get a cheap ticket from uh sopia airport in Bulgaria to Bangkok and um those were expensive as well and then um so I looked at where the flights were going to from Bulgaria and I noticed there’s uh um daily flights out to Istanbul so I looked at Istanbul to Bangkok and I got a direct flight um can’t remember how much that was now uh I think that was about €350 so so not too bad at all uh compared with a lot of the prices and then then I backtracked again and bought a ticket from sopia at Istanbul for oh that was about €40 50 so yeah all all up um I think about I might write it on the uh comments here but I think about 8 or 900 to get to New Zealand from Europe so not too bad but um yeah so that’s my plans um getting out of here cuz it’s cold and um in about 8 or n days time I’ll be in Thailand and Thailand now allows you to have two months uh Visa exempt on arrival so you can just turn up at um Thailand airports and get two months uh so that’ll suit me fine I’ll be there for about 6 weeks I think like I say I was uh intending to be in Bangkok or be in Thailand until uh late January but because that half price ticket popped up for 23rd of December um I’ll be in Thailand for about 5 weeks should be fine absolutely fine and um then I’ll be back over Bulgaria April uh when the weather picks up so that’s the plan that’s what I’m up to so no more sight sing I’m on a mission um I’m just going to do the miles um like I said about 3 and 1/2 hours today I think it’s about the same tomorrow so no sing at all just just hitting the road [Music] [Music] n n [Music] yeah so I’m coming up to um 8,000 Miles I’ve done on this bikee since I’ve um boarded and left England so over 6 months I think so what’s at about 13,000 km and um the bike’s been faultless absolutely no problems at all um just just does everything it’s supposed to handles well breaks good it’s quite a torky engine for its small size 350 but um I’ve had absolutely no problems at all and uh even these tires so um I bought the bike with 1500 M on it so it’s it’s done 92,000 uh miles so was at about over 15,000 km and these would be the original tires I still got Heats of tread on them starting to get down a bit but um even the back [Music] ones so these tires have been really excellent [Music] uh yeah the wear pattern is still good 4 mm tread left on that so so absolutely fantastic tires I probably do 20,000 uh kilm each those tires so uh yeah we’ll carry on we’re getting out into the plains now heading towards the Bulgarian border [Music] a [Music] he [Music] looks like a party going on here they just turned the music off but I was cing out uh$ 69 Bulgarian dollars whatever for the pitol and uh yeah was a factor of 10 out of was 570 different currency but we’ll get a coffee here got ni PR little bit of a rest right carry on beautiful day now it’s warmed up a bit uh we got the Bulgarian border coming up shortly even [Music] cheesed I don’t know probably probably half an hour or something will cross the border oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] so welcome to Bulgaria uh easy border crossing uh as per usual just my passport and uh my V5 documents for the bike the ownership papers uh didn’t ask about insurance so uh I think I’m only about 3 CS of an hour from my destination now so uh we’ll carry on [Music] he [Music] oh well got about 20 M to go so saying 3 qus of an hour for that so 3 an hour for 40 km but uh nice roads through here but uh yeah it’s a bit bit cool you can see the autumn leaves that time year but uh yeah really nice ride though [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] yes I made it to uh my room good days riding no no dramas at all uh so this is my room and it’s 50 Bulgarian whatever they are uh Lo in here [Applause] yet oh yeah that’s going to be a wet room so welcome to Black go of grad in Bulgaria staying at the uh Hotel C up there somewhere but uh I we’ll go into um town it’s only a 5 minute walk into town see if we can get a coffee but it’s um it’s freezing