Sitting ankered on the Black Sea
So update at 3pm Turkish time still on the ferry. Sighted land at 10am and ankered at 11:30 or so. Since then just waiting on what. I do not know. Read my guidebooks and updated the journal….
Pretty nervous about going into Russia. Do I have all the right paperwork for myself and the bike. There were always questions regarding the vehicle reg. as for a lot stuff it has just “5555” printed in it, i.e. the weight, horsepower etc. So fingers crossed. In my head I already started to think what to do if they don’t let me into Russia. Now I think having another person with you would make it easier and also I noticed you can delegate stuff like one can cook while the other writes the journal. Read in the guidebook that to cross into Mongolia the way I wanted to get in at the western border you have to pass thru the Altai Region, where you need to get your visa registered again and they might need a letter from your visa sponsor. So will need to get in contact with Tatiana from Sun-Travel in Dublin to see if she can get that letter and send it via email. Enough for now. Crisis again - no cigarettes left. Smoked to much waiting for the boat to be loaded, then I couldn’t get more because I officially already had left Turkey. Of course they don’t sell smokes on the ferry. Well, don’t have Russian money or Turkish money left anyway.
Update 15:40: Yippy, they actually sell cigarettes. Horrendous price at $6 and apparently we have to wait until 6pm before going into port. So 2 more hours. Nothing quick here.
So got into port around 6pm. Then more waiting for customs and police to board the ship. Search for drugs etc. Guy from customs wanted to see my papers and asked for insurance, which I didn’t have of course. Was told that they would call somebody to setup the insurance. Then I was wisked away by the same guy - lets call him Ivan. So bike stayed on the boat while I went thru passport control then into Ivan’s office were already a guy was waiting for the insurance. Had to pay $73 for the insurance covering my until 10. September. More then enough. Also had to fill out the customs declaration. Then to the customs people. Got the bike off the boat and customs wanted to check the VIN of the bike. No other searches were done. Finally got the customs documents for the bike and that was it. Have to say was very worried about all this. Had heard that getting into Russia can take 4 - 5 hours easily. For me it was a little over an hour and I think mainly due to Ivan.
It had started raining. Just a light drizzle. It was of course not ideal to hit Sochi at 19:30 Turkish time, local time 20:30 and in the dark. It was challenging to say the least. Couldn’t read the signs, no real map except from the guidebook. Very confusing road layout with one-way system etc. Made it to the “main” road but couldn’t find the cheap hotel from the guide book. Also police on every street corner. I learned later that the Russian President Medvedev (?) was in town that night. Anyway drove around for a while and it was very difficult just to identify what was a hotel and what was not - everything had neon signs. Again only realized later that it was “Victory Day” - public holiday to celebrate the end of WWII.Got so desperate that I was thinking of driving for a bit out of town to find a hotel in a less busy place. Then scraped that idea because a) couldn’t really get to my Russian road atlas (in one of my luggage boxes) and b) I hadn’t loaded my GPS with the right maps. All things I wanted to get down if I had spend an extra day in Trabzon. So drove around more and then it suddenly started pooring down - so just escaped to a bus-stop shelter. Met Akjem there and we talked a bit. He had fairly good English so I asked him if he knew a cheap hotel. Well he brought me to the hotel he worked at as a cook. Not really cheap but at this stage just happy to be out of the rain. By now its was 12:30am.
Day 25
10. May 2009
Start: Ferry Trabzon - Sochi
End: Sochi, Russia
Miles today: 34
Miles total: 3322
Odometer: 9445
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