Balkans - August 18, 2018 - Gainesville, FL

Susie and I are leaving Gainesville, FL for the Balkans on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 and returning Tuesday, September 25, 2018.  Max will be taking care of Bandit and staying in our house while we are away.  We fly in and out of Bucharest, Romania and will also be renting a motorcycle in Bucharest.  We are renting a 2018 BMW R1200GS which should be a lot of fun.  My GS is a 2008 so this is an upgrade!  Below is a map I captured from the GPS route I developed.  We are considering this as a suggested route, we will alter the route along the way I'm sure.  We plan on following the northern route first and then the southern route along the Adriatic during the last part of the trip.  We're thinking that will give us a little warmer weather in the Julian Alps earlier in the trip and the tourists should be mostly gone along the coast later in September.  The only hotel reservations we have are in Bucharest for our arrival and departures.  Other than that we will wing it along the way.

You can track us through this link:
https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=1a95a5b6d96f3a62b4&hoursPast=0&showAll=yes

Whenever we mention to people where we are going the first thing they say is "be safe", which we appreciate.  We will be riding (safely) on the motorcycle and have been following the news very closely; the area is calm with no safety issues to speak of.  I contacted the European Studies department at UF here in Gainesville who linked me to a PhD student in their program who is from Croatia.  We exchanged emails and she gave some great advice on where to go and what to eat and indicated we should be very safe in our travels.  I have also registered with the State Department to receive any safety alerts that may pop up during our trip.  The entire Balkans region is categorized at a safety level I which is the safest, so we're not concerned and you shouldn't be either.

I'm going to do my best to update this blog daily during our trip.  If I miss a day or two it will probably be due to lack of internet service, although I'm expecting the internet access to be pretty good.  We also have Sprint service on our cell phones which allows us to use the local cell service network (at slow speeds) for no additional charge so that will also be nice.  We are bringing our cell phones and wifi-enabled Kindles, no laptops.

T-minus 3 days until take off.

Cuba Tuesday Evening, Home

Hard to believe that 9 hours ago we were in Havana, Cuba and now we are home in Gainesville! It was a great trip.  It was very educational and we met a lot of friendly and resourceful people. 

Dami and Jamil arr married and were part of our group.  They were both born in Cuba.  Dami came to the US by air with her parents when she was 8 years old.  Jamil spent 5 days on a raft with 6 other family members before getting airlifted to Florida when he was 8 years old.  they were both able to visit family during the trip. Seeing Cuba through their eyes added a lot to our trip.

Cuba Monday Evening

Had another busy day today.  After breakfast and good Cuban coffee we headed to meet with the head of the Havana Episcopal church to explain the systems we intalled and drop off some equipment.

We then picked up a married Cuban couple, friends of Rick, who became our local tour guides.  We toured Hemingway's house outside of town in the hills, saw the local government buildings and then walked around the local Spanish garrison built in the 1590's. 

We had lunch on the top floor of a very nice hotel and walked through Havana Vieja, Old Havana.  Very nice part of town with fancy hotels, restaurants and shops. 

We saw lots and.lots of old classic cars and motorcycles from Russia, the USA and Czech Republic.

I have surprised by the number of small private businesses in a "communist" country.  The locals call it "the change" and it has been going on for 10-15 years.  It provides local food and services cheaper than those provided by the government. It's a kind of tolerated black market. 

We also had our picture taken with John Lennon, his statue on a bench in a park.  He was very popular here due to his song Revolution. When a guy in our group put a hat on his head a local woman came over and told him to take it off.  You don't joke around with the former member of the Beatles. 

Hard to believe we fly back to Miami tomorrow morning.

Cuba Sunday Evening

Another full day.  We completed our 3rd and final water filtration system today at a church in a poor area of Havana. We thought we would have to wait until tomorrow because they had a bad infestation of fleas but we were able to work in an area without fleas, which was nice.

We then took a short tour in the bus and along the Malecon at the waterfront.  We saw a informal car show with cars from the 1950s. Gwynn, Ted, Susie and I broke from the group and had dinner by ourselves.

Cuba is very poor and the buildings are in disrepair.  The Cubans keep everything clean but everything is old, worn and poorly maintained.  A doctor earns about $100 per month.

Pictures tell it better than words.

Cuba - Sunday

Where to start. We are in Havana getting ready to have breakfast and then head out to our 3rd water project. Internet is very sporadic and limited. We are staying in a convent and the breakfast bell just rang.

I'm  going to post pictures.

People have been very friendly, appreciative and generous. We have been able see areas that tourists usually don't see.

Cuba!

Sooz and I will soon head to Miami to fly to Cuba beginning a new adventure of service and fun.  We fly out of Miami on Friday, May 25, 2018 and return Tuesday, May 29, 2018.  My brother Ted and his girlfriend Gwynn will be traveling with us.

Rick and Cordella Miessau from West Palm Beach, FL are organizing this trip.  I used to work with both of them at the South Florida Water Management District.  Rick, and some associates, started a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide clean drinking water to people in need.  His organization is Clean Drinking Water Team, Inc.  Details about their organization and our trip can be found at their website: www.cleandrinkingwaterteam.org.

It's a quick trip, without motorcycles and should be a blast.  I will update this blog daily during our trip so come back.

Terry

Wolfman Luggage Recognition and Appreciation

I wanted to take a minute and thank Wolfman Luggage for sponsoring our latest ride to Newfoundland by providing us with a new Large Rolie Bag in bright yellow.  We are big Wolfman Luggage fans already having purchased large dry bags and tank bag that you can see in our previous posts.  One of the ways we used the Large Rolie Bag was as an overnight bag when we took the ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Argentia, Newfoundland.  It worked great because we were able to bring the Rolie Bag to our cabin instead of the larger and heavier dry bags.  We also used it for carrying food and trinkets we picked up during our day rides.  Another nice aspect of the Rolie Bag is that it easily strapped onto our dry bags as you can see in the pictures below.  And, all of their luggage is made in the USA.  Please pay particular attention to our talented, stylish and beautiful model below pointing out how the Large Rolie Bag is attached to the large dry bag on The Mighty GS.  #WolfmanLuggage   Facebook    Twitter