Friendly locals i've met on my bike

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AlanHolt
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Friendly locals i've met on my bike

Post by AlanHolt »

I did a bit of the TET near me today (Flix, Catalunya), and ended up in Bellguarda looking for fuel. Three local ladies informed me the local garage had closed, and the next nearest was 25km away. They went on to say that if I went to a particular bar on the edge of town, the owner may sell me a bit of petrol. So off I go and I find the bar, park the bike, throw my jacket, camelbak and helmet on a table outside, and walk in to get a shandy.

Upon opening the door, i'm confronted with a wedding party. Unsure whether the bar is closed for the party, i look at the guy behind the bar who beckons me in. I order my drink, feeling somewhat out of place in my enduro gear, and take the drink outside deciding to search for petrol stations on my phone whilst enjoying a cold drink.

Amongst the wedding party, there were clearly some bikers as a few of them came outside and started talking to me. When I told them I was British, they all wanted to know how far i'd travelled and where I was going. Once i'd explained I had only travelled for an hour from home, and not all the way from the UK, I explained about the TET and what I was doing living out here. As we chatted, more and more people came outside to see who this foreign biker was, men, women and kids. Even the bride and groom came out to talk to me at one point. After a while, they slowly started to drift back inside, shaking my hand, saying it was nice to meet me and talk to me. This was their family wedding!

This is as unpredictably bizarre, and equally wonderful, as life here can be. Stumble into a mere dot on the map and the locals, even during a wedding, are super-friendly and want to talk to you.
Last edited by AlanHolt on Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Tonibe63
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Re: Gatecrashed a wedding on my KTM

Post by Tonibe63 »

Fantastic, the only thing missing was the tune from a Spaghetti Western playing on the juke box 8-).
These are the moments we treasure from our adventures and for me one of the things that really jump out from the pages of a good travel book.
It's so often not about what bike you're riding ;) .
Open your eyes and you see what is in front of you, open your mind and you see a bigger picture but open your heart and you see a whole new World.
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Re: Gatecrashed a wedding on my KTM

Post by frenchy3 »

We were in Spain just outside the Bardenas reales in our bike gear sat in a bar and there were a load of people in traditional Spanish outfits and were mostly Spanish Gypsies. A couple of cars arrived and the first one a Mercedes with tinted windows stopped and there was flamenco music playing full blast. out of the car got a couple of the hardest and scary looking guys i had ever seen and a young girl in what turns out was her confirmation dress. We were about to drink up and leave but the father of the girl offered us a drink and some food and started talking to us about bikes. His henchman looked like he had come off worse in a knife fight! Although we felt out of place they made us feel very welcome. A most memorable afternoon.
SteveW
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Re: Gatecrashed a wedding on my KTM

Post by SteveW »

Great topic.
Perhaps it should be titled something like "Friendly locals I've met on my bike"
My version.......
In Serbia, three of us picking our way through a remote mountainous area on trails.
It was getting a bit late so we began routing down towards a small town, we were on a small gnarly trail that was gradually becoming easier and wider.
Rounding a bend we came across an isolated house with a Lada Niva parked outside blocking our route.....it always amazes me how the locals can get these things up goat trails!....I dismounted and went into the garden to ask the owner to please move his car. There were three people in the garden, husband, wife and husband's brother.
I'll skip to the end of the story......
Two hours later three of us left fully fed and with just enough local vodka inside us to make the steep descent down the trail to the town hotel a little bit giddy.
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Re: Gatecrashed a wedding on my KTM

Post by SteveW »

And a couple of others both in Northern Romania........
A couple of us on GS1200's, getting late in the evening, we find one of the typical "Non-Stop" 24 hour Restaurant/Bar/Hotel set-ups in the mountains.
Outside are a group of shepherds all wearing porkpie hats, they're all pretty pissed, laughing and joking.
We book into some really nice timber lodges located at the back of the hotel, I think it was about £10 per night.
We get a wash then head into the bar, past the jolly shepherds.
The beer was about 50p a pint....and tasted pretty good after a day in the saddle, we ordered a meal and settled down for a bit of a swill and some hot grub. There were about six locals in the bar and after about an hour the four shepherds came inside.
We exchanged nods and smiles with the locals and carried on supping the beer.
After about three hours we were rocking so it was time for bed, I got up to settle up at the bar (about a fifteen quid for the food and beer) I thought it would be a good idea to buy everyone in the bar a drink.....I think that cost me about a fiver!
I sat back down at our table and we finished our beers, watching the barman distributing the free drinks to the various tables.
Just as we stood up to leave on our pretty wobbly legs......10 beers arrived....the locals had returned the gesture!
The next thing I truly remember is waking up the next morning tucked up in bed in the lodge.....my mate hadn't made it up the steep stairs to his bed, he was crashed-out on the couch.
Again another time in Northern Romania......
Knackered and looking for somewhere to stop for the evening. Two of us landed upon a smart hotel in a remote and mountainous area. It looked busy and there was obviously a wedding party going on.
We went into reception, which doubled as a bar and asked if there were any rooms?
"No, sorry all the rooms are taken by the wedding guests"
The guy next to us was listening-in to the conversation. He announced that he was the owner of the hotel....and the owner of the sausage factory at the rear of the hotel.
He said..."No problem, I'll find you a room" which he did, a very nice suite for VIP guests, normally reserved for visitors to his factory.
He let us settle in, then gave us a tour of his impressive factory which employed 200 people.
He had just returned from England and had secured some nice supply contracts. He also pointed out his beautiful new Red Bentley which was parked in the car park.
He left us to enjoy the rest of the night and arranged for food to be sent to our table.
We had several drinks and then made our way to our impressive suite.
In the morning we checked out and asked for the bill......."No charge Sir, you are the guests of the owner"
DavidS
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Re: Friendly locals i've met on my bike

Post by DavidS »

How far did you have to push the empty bike?

My wife and I arrived at a restaurant (by car) in Italy some years ago a little early for our table booking.
There was a wedding in the big room to the rear but a shared entrance. As we stood there chatting a guy came up and asked, in English, if we were there for the wedding.
Having said we weren’t, he came out with two glasses of champagne and asked us to drink the health of the bride and groom.
Lovely experience....but the Italians are like that.
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AlanHolt
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Re: Friendly locals i've met on my bike

Post by AlanHolt »

DavidS wrote: Sun Sep 16, 2018 12:15 pm How far did you have to push the empty bike?
I didn't, i headed home on tarmac instead of continuing on the trails and filled up locally. Had I run out of fuel, help wouldn't have had to travel as far or had difficulty finding me. I forget how much reserve the 640 Adv has, and I also forget to fill up before every rideout. Every day is a school day.
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Re: Friendly locals i've met on my bike

Post by PHILinFRANCE »

Rural S W France is the same , years ago i ran out of fuel on the auto route going home , managed to drift off at a ramp and started walking in 30c plus heat in full leathers towards a distant farm with a small plackie coke bottle in my hand !!!!

Only one car pasted , stopped and asked if all was ok , after explaining they emptied one of their 1.5ltr water bottles and had to leave as they were on there way to the dentists with the small child ..............gutted but at least i had a bigger bottle :D

On reaching the farm the farmer and his wife , both very old sat me down in the shade , got me a drink and asked if i could help drain some petrol from his ride on mower , now cooler and and with a full bottle that they wouldn't take any money for he ran me back to my bike.
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Re: Friendly locals i've met on my bike

Post by chunky butt »

Great thread this guys, keep them coming :D
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Re: Friendly locals i've met on my bike

Post by gbags »

What a great thread.
Years ago a girlfriend and I were riding through Pennsylvania at the start of a long trip. We were on the interstate and came across a sign offering free coffee and cakes in the rest area, to get people to take a break.
We stopped for both and got on very well with the guy giving out the freebies. He ended up offering us a place to sleep at his place, where we had a great night. At one point he took me out to his drying shed where he showed me a dead deer and a massive bushel of dope that was drying. This soon got fired up and the last I remember was crawling up the stairs on my hands and knees.
A wonderful start to a wonderful road trip.
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