Ride from Lugano to Eastern Europe

When: 16-24 June 2023

How long: 8 days

From: Lugano (Switzerland)

Main destination: Budapest – Hungary for the 120th Harley-Davidson Birthday Party

Km: 6’500km for the round trip

Countries: 14 – Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Austria

European capitals: 10

2 days at the European Harley-Davidson 120th Anniversary Celebration in Budapest

The best riding road in the world: Transfăgărășan, Romania

Breathtaking Points Of Interest: Uncountable

When you decide to leave alone for a journey of over 6’500km with destination the easternmost point of Europe (excluding Ukraine), it means taking into account unexpected events, unfavorable weather, even very long stages, wake up at 3 am, tiredness and pain. But do we really care? No! For me it was just the unforgettable and memorable part that I expected to experience that prompted me to plan, leave and keep the schedule that I had prepared from the very first moment when, in February, I looked at the map of Europe and I said to myself “I want to go there”.

I’m Alby from Bagger’s Life (on Instagram @baggerslife) and this year to go to Budapest, to celebrate Harley-Davidson’s 120th anniversary, I decided to take it “a little wide”. I called my solo ride “Road to East” since I left Lugano with the aim of visiting Eastern Europe by motorbike via the Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo and North) until arriving in Moldavia, through Bulgaria and Romania. All before arriving in Budapest for the big party.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel a lot in my life (motorcycle and otherwise) visiting 98 states, but I’ve hardly been so pleasantly amazed by the beauty and charm of some of some visited on this tour. It must have been preconceptions or misleading information heard around, but I don’t deny that planning about 7’000km solo in 8 days up to the “deep” Eastern Europe was not “easy”, as it was last year for the trip to North Cape. Don’t get me wrong, my fears were mainly the weather and the roads, then of course you also think about your bike parked who knows where all night.

Let’s start in order, the Balkans are a splendid place. In Slovenia and Croatia you start climbing hills and the first (basic) mountains. The gem I visited thanks to a friend (thanks Mirko!) when I visited a surreal place on the border between Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina: the secret air base of Zeljava – as well as the largest military air base in Europe and the largest underground airport in the world – where you can go full throttle on the runway and imagine a war pilot landing, until you enter the underground bunker inside the mountain (they can be visited freely, it only takes a little healthy courage). Sarajevo amazed me a lot. It is beautiful, cheerful, full of bars and restaurants. After driving along the roads that line the coast of Montenegro which, don’t mind me, looks like a “small” Amalfi Coast, I found myself in Tirana, Albania. Another city from “wow”.

The roads between the mountains and the Balkan passes are really beautiful, not only for the landscapes and the tiny villages, but also for the road surface – my main fear – because most of the roads seem to be paved yesterday.
Kosovo and North Macedonia were transit countries and I only stopped in Pristina, the capital of the former, for a short stop on that 17 hour motorbike day to get to Sofia in Bulgaria – the “City of Lions” founded by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago.
The journey to the East continued unabated and the next day I was already in Bucharest in Romania, another wonderful surprise of this trip. The next day, the arrival in Chișinău, the Moldavian capital, was planned, but due to “problems” with the customs officers, I avoided going on and turned back after a few hours of anxiety. Luckily I did!
I was able to sleep right in front of Dracula’s castle in Bran, Romania, and the next day I walked the famous and “most beautiful road in the world” Transfăgărășan in both directions. Beautiful, beautiful, but even more were the chance encounters of mother bears with the cubs who, with that pinch of fear, made that day magical. We go from 35 degrees in Curtea de Anges – the beginning of the road where I also slept – to the snow and the frozen lakes on the summit in the center of this road of about 150km of curves.
It was time to get to Budapest for 120 years of H-D and I decided not to take the “simple” roads, but thanks to another follower of mine I traveled the Transalpina – the highest paved road in Romania. A road of about 150km which, running parallel to the Transfăgărășan, crosses all the Carpathians. Believe me, if the other is considered the most beautiful road in the world, then this is the one of the universe. An ups and downs of hairpin bends, curves, peaks, valley floors, woods, lakes and rivers that leave you breathless for 4 hours. If you go to Romania do it, do both. You will remember when you read about it on Lowride!
What to say about Budapest, a festive city to which many of us have given their contribution for the success of the event, so I won’t dwell too much on the stands, concerts, exhibitions, custom bikes, the new Touring CVOs and all the corollary that hundreds of thousands of riders have brought to this, yes, splendid city.
The return from Budapest, albeit planned between the Dolomites and Stelvio, was instead a 1’100km stretch through Hungary, Slovenia and Italy, with only 3 stops for petrol in 7 hours and 12 minutes – can you see that I wanted to go home?

In conclusion, Eastern Europe by motorbike is a splendid journey to do alone or in company without having particular fears. I always carry all kinds of wrenches, Allen keys, tire kits, starters, filling one of the two bags only with equipment, but I’ve never used anything (fortunately!).

You will drive along magnificent roads between the Balkan and Romanian mountains, the Bulgarian and Hungarian lowlands and the Montenegrin coast. You will see magnificent and unexpected landscapes, magnificent and ancient cities like Sofia and – unfortunately – others rebuilt like Sarajevo. You will meet wonderful people who will not fail to advise you on what to visit, where to go for a drink or even give you their number because “when you are in my country, you are my guest”.

Europe is all beautiful, but this trip to the East will remain particularly in my heart. I have thousands of photos on my phone and I tell this unforgettable ride like a record, but what will remain for me will be much more, it will be the memory that I did it all by myself and I would already like to do it again!

Alby
Follow me on @baggerslife