Russian Straight or "Interesting" Roads | Season 20 | Episode 9

So now I can say like this, I can take a beer and drink it. It is not a very special road and it has a lot of potholes, but I really enjoy it and I don't know for so many hours I've seen just a few cars. That's it. If you don't know this motorcycle and if you don't know this man, you know nothing. Anatoly, thank you very much for the invitation, you're a great man. Now I have the chance to ride Anatoly's motorcycle, this Honda 650. Welcome to Moscow! I saw two Russian guys on the motorcycles and I thought that they were riding too fast. It looks like one of them lost control. Where are you going? From the Lazarsk-Donetsk lakes. No, where are you going? Already in Voronezh, to the south. Yes. Interesting, yes. Interesting. Yes. Either flat or interesting. Yes. And where are you from? From Bulgaria. Wow, are you traveling around the countries? Yes, yes, yes. And have you been in Russia for a long time? Well, for a week, I was in St. Petersburg for three days, now I'm going further. Today I will be in Udumlya. Where, where? Udumlya. Wow, and then where? Magadan. Wow, cool. Yes. Well, guys, if everything is fine, I'll be there. Well, good luck. Be careful, yes. So this is the situation in Russia. In some places you can see roads like this. On some just normal roads. And these guys, local guys, they said that yes, these are the roads in Russia. Flat or interesting. So this road is not something very difficult or technical to ride. But as you saw these Russian guys, it could be dangerous. That's why it's always better and safe to slow down a little bit. Because no one will count the time at the end of this stretch, whatever kilometers it is. But what is important, to finish it safe in one piece. Me and the motorcycle. So if you take this as a tip, no, you're welcome. I came again to asphalt. Or at least it was asphalt. Now it's mostly potholes. Another village. It would be nice if I find something, like a shop or something. I can stop for a while, eat something, have a tea. But maybe not in this village, maybe later. All right, back to the asphalt. Real asphalt. For now. This road is enjoyable now. The last, I don't know, 30-40 kilometers, only like this. Even with views here and there, looks like I'll be able to eat here. All right, all good. I ate, got some tea. Forgot to film it, but anyway, I'll continue now. One guy told me that there is a petrol station here, so I'll fill the tank. It is not a very special road and it has a lot of potholes. But I really enjoy it and I don't know, for so many hours I've seen just a few cars. That's it. Udomle. Udomle is a very small town. But the reason I'm coming here is to meet Anatoly Chernyavsky. If you don't know this motorcycle and if you don't know this man, you know nothing. Anatoly, thank you very much for the invitation. You're a great man. So this is the guy who went with this motorcycle to the Arctic Circle and even further. He went on the North Pole where people, actually no one ever been over there on the motorcycle. Yeah, you're the only person that did it. He's just like, I'll say, a crazy man and owns some crazy records. And yeah, this is his man cave and his motorcycles. This is Honda 250. And what is outside, it's already 650. And what I have to say, of course, as usual, I'm a lucky man. I was invited to come here and meet him in person in his town and spend a time with him because he's one of the most knowledgeable guys for the region that I am going. And it is just, as I said, a privilege for me to have such a guidance from someone who already did it many times and even been to the most difficult terrains on the motorcycle. Anyway, we're going to spend a day here together riding around. We're going to have some boat trips, enjoying the nature, talking about everything that is coming ahead. And as I said, this is just like a unique, unique opportunity for me to get in touch with this wonderful guy. He's got already two books launched. The first book I already have. I bought it two years ago. It is Between Two Oceans. And the second is, I think, was White Desert. It is all about his adventures on the North Pole. Wonderful book, wonderful pictures, great size like this. I haven't seen any adventure motorcycling book that is better, in better quality and better quantity. And everything inside is just wonderful. When you read it, you're going to say, wow, this guy is crazy. So today early morning, I woke up at 5.30 and spent the next two hours reading his second book, White Desert. And man, it was such a, such an adventure. Of course, I wanted to go there, but not by motorcycle. When they describe everything, what is there, the temperatures and all of this difficulties that he has. Oh, I just got speechless. And yeah, I would like to go there, but not with motorcycle. Yeah, it's, uh, as usual. As usual, I'm so lucky and blessed to have such contacts. What you see over there, these big chimneys and evaporation over there. This is a nuclear power station that is located next to the town. And actually the whole town is built because of this nuclear power station. Yesterday, I went to the information museum here and read everything about it. Actually, Anatoly's girlfriend showed me everything on this topic. And it was such an interesting to know that everything that you see here is built because of the nuclear power station. And it is huge, Kalinskaya power plant station. Now I have the chance to ride Anatoly's motorcycle, this Honda 650. But it is very, uh, how I have to say, old school motorcycle. It requires a specific skills to ride it. It's not something that you can get and just ride like a crazy. It does not stop so well. It does not accelerate so fast. It is just different. Old school motorcycle. It has very heavy clutch. It is just different. And everyone should know that in advance. The suspension is, it's actually very good because it has this long travel. I don't know, 250 millimeters or something similar. Definitely not for everyone. Anyway, I'm thankful that I've got this opportunity. Feel the power. Feel the power, old school boy. Go, go, go. Well, we ran out of petrol. The petrol in the Honda finished. Anatoly forgot to fill the tank. And we finish here. Anyway, his second home is nearby. So he went to take a draining pipe and a bottle. So we're gonna use a little bit of my petrol to be able to move around and go ride. All good. We have petrol now. All right. After we went with Anatoly to his second home, over there I met his family. And of course, it was not really appropriate to film. So I completely left the camera and I spent a wonderful, wonderful day out. The house is next to the lake. We took a small like a boat and spent a day sailing around. We swim into the lake and then we got some nice food on barbecue. And after that, we went back to his place, chat a lot, discuss the trip that is coming. And today early morning, I start now direction Moscow. The plan was to go to Rzhov. There is a big monument over there. But because of the rain, I gave up this idea maybe for when I go back. So now this is my road to Moscow. After three kilometers, it's going to be different. It's like a big highway, non-paid free highway to Moscow. But if I decided to go to alternative roads, it will take forever. And as you can see, it rains today. So I decided to go straight on to Moscow. Where I believe the weather is much better. And then we'll see what I'm going to do on the way back. So now I use Yandex Maps. At the beginning, I was using only Google Maps. But then I realized and I was advised from the Russian guys that Yandex Maps works much better in Russian. And I will completely agree it is more accurate. And also the interface is much better. Much easier to read while you ride. Easier to work and got many more different options. And that's why I use it. And yes, absolutely for Russia, Yandex Maps. You can see without the GPS, it's so obvious that Moscow is on the left. Now 47 kilometers straight on. So I can turn off the screen. I don't need it. I don't need it even on this road anyway. Because as I said, the signs are there. But it's nice to check it time to time how much time I have left. Or maybe in the towns or villages to turn it on. To watch for speed cameras and speed limits. But in common, for guidance, not really needed. More or less, this will be the road to Moscow. Nothing really to film. As I said, there are some alternative roads going through the country. But they will take a lot of time. And today in this weather, in the rain, I just don't want to go there. Here now I have like four to five hours to get to Moscow. If I go on other roads will be 10 hours. All right, because I have a lot of time. I'm not in a hurry. I'm gonna stop here, eat something, drink tea. Wait a little bit, relax and continue. So now this is with meat and I have salad and tea. And everything cost me two euros. Welcome to Moscow. Big city, big boulevards, free four lane. I remember that one of my Russian friends told me that around the city center the GPS doesn't work. So I cannot guide myself and looks like I miss one turn. And now I have to go back to the area where I can have GPS location. So I can continue looking for the address that I need. Otherwise here will be impossible. All right, finally I need to use my second telephone or my main telephone with internet. Because offline maps looks like they does not work really well. Especially when we come to this part of the town. So yeah, traffic, cars. This is my friend Andrey with of course Goldwing, Goldwing. Finally I was able to find him. So now we're gonna finish some important things that I need to do. Cheers! So I arrived in Moscow. At the moment I am in a friend of mine's apartment. I have to say this is one of the most luxury apartments that I ever seen. Today I've done something like 350-360 kilometers from Udomlya to Moscow. I arrived here during the afternoon. It was half of the road was raining, half was fine. But when I arrived here was like 29-30 degrees. Very very hot. Anyway, Moscow is a big city. Big boulevards, 3-4 lanes, a lot of traffic as you already know. So the problem is that just before the center where one of the big circle is, the GPS doesn't work. So once you get to this point your GPS stop working. And you cannot really find the address that I needed. And when it happened with me I had no other option than to go back and have a signal again and try to find some alternative road to find my friend's address. Anyway, finally I got it. But it took me like 1 hour and 30 minutes to come to his workplace. And after that everything went very very smooth. And today I completed another one also very important mini task on this trip. And this was to settle the money. Because it's not really to settle the money. I don't know what word to use. Just to solve the problem with payments. So I came all the way from Bulgaria to here with money in cash. They are not that much but they are very important to me. Because if I lose this money. If someone take it from me. If I forget my wallet somewhere or my jacket or something like that. I wouldn't be able to travel at all anywhere. Because my cards doesn't work here. No one can send me money from Europe. And that means I'll be left without any money. I cannot have petrol. I cannot have food. I cannot have hotel. Anything. That's why to deliver this money here was very very important to me. Three days ago when I was in St. Petersburg. I did my MIR card. The card that I need to have payment here in Russia. Or to be able to pay petrol or everything. But I did not put all the money in. Because the rate was not really good. But now when I arrived here in Moscow the rate was very good. Much better than before. So now I finally put all of this money in the card. And it was like another obstacle that keep me nervous all the time. Not once again not because the money are so much. But just because if I lose this money the trip is over. I cannot do anything. So now I can feel like this. And I can take a beer and drink it. And finally I can think about the rest of the journey. So I'm gonna spend the night here. And tomorrow as well with this guy. His name is Andrey. Wonderful guy. I met him six years ago. So I know him very well. I'm not gonna film anything with him. I will just respect his privacy. So my next video is going to be probably on Sunday. So today and tomorrow I'll stay here in Moscow. And on Sunday morning I will continue traveling direction Nizhny Novgorod, then Samara, Novosibirsk and so on and so on. But so far so good. Bike is great. No problems whatsoever. Everything is all right. As I said another one mini task completed. And now I can focus more on the trip. After I spent two days here in Moscow with my friend. Being in this wonderful place. Close complex with all facilities. All comfort and everything. We've got a lot of fun here. As you can hear I lost my voice. We spent two nights out talking with friends. Loud music. I really enjoyed the night life of Moscow. Of course it took its price. Today I barely wake up at eight o'clock. Usually I do it at six. But anyway I'm on the road now. Going to Nizhny Novgorod. I've got like 540 kilometers for today. And I have to be very efficient. Or as I say going on riding mode. Now the first task is to leave Moscow. Should take probably an hour. But it's all right. Of course whatever I say about Moscow is not going to be enough. It's a big wonderful city. A lot of things to see. Not this time. Maybe on the way back I will stop for another day. Maybe I will ride around. But I have been there before. I've seen the central part. Red Square and all beautiful buildings. That's why this time I just spent more time with my friend. But I can do it in the future. The GPS lost the signal again. So now I'm just following the signs to Nizhny Novgorod. See it is just lost. Cannot find the signal. Well the road is not really interesting. Nothing really to film. I've done like 100 kilometers already. More highway type of roads. So far so good. I already got like 200 kilometers. Roads like this. It goes through the towns, villages. But it looks like exactly like highway. Just the speed it's a speed limit is like 90. But anyway after five more kilometers I'm gonna get out of this road. And eventually I'm gonna find another which is a little bit better. More like two lanes road. That will be a little bit more enjoyable than this one. Because this one is a boring ride. Boring ride. But this will be the situation in Russia at the moment. So I cannot complain. I knew this in advance. I don't know. In all of these small Russian towns you can feel some kind of calmness. Everything is so quiet. And people are nice. And everything is going so smooth. You can see there are no people in a hurry. And I don't know. I just the feeling is just not what most of the people think. The life is not bad here at all. I'm sure that here around there will be many factories that people work. To secure their lives. It's just different. You go to the center. Old buildings, cathedrals. The name of this town is Vladimir. All right. Now this road should be much better than the highway. See the river. Nice. And it's at 127 kilometers straight. I mean no turns. But we'll see. It rains. But that's fine. I'm gonna remove the camera and plug it again later. Finally, after around five hours of rain, I arrived in Nizhny Novgorod. Around four o'clock in the afternoon. I was met by a great guy, Dmitry. He showed me around with the car. Because it was raining as a hell. So yesterday actually the last five hours I spent in the rain. Heavy rain. And I was almost completely wet. So as I said many times, nothing lasts forever. So the gear kept me dry for more than four hours. But finally when I arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, the traffic was really bad. And the whole town was flooding everywhere. So all of these cars, when they were passing around you, they were spilling water everywhere. So I actually got the biggest portion of my dampness came in the last hour in the town. Anyway, today the plan was to see this beautiful city. It's actually a very, very beautiful city. But in the forecast it's again all day of rain. So I'll see if I can. I will see something. If not, later in the afternoon, they said the rain may stop for a while. So I will continue riding direction east to a small town named Cheboksary. I plan to spend the night over there. But I don't know will it be possible to film anything. So for now this is the situation.