5th of June, 2018. My mate Konrad and I go on our own separate ways. I remain in the Czech capital for the day.

My German mate returns home to Germany after breakfast as I stay in the absolutely beautiful Czech city of Prague for the day, so I am now on my own. This is when things get real serious. Multiple currencies, varied road conditions and even more languages that I don’t understand as I progress with my journey down south.

My brief time with Konrad was irreplaceable. The last time that I was able to meet up with him was around 4 years ago when we first met in Sydney, so we had a lot to catch up on. The journey to Czechia together was not only worthwhile, it was inevitable if I were to safely accustom myself into the right-side lane layout that the majority of Europe uses in contrast to the Commonwealth way of riding on the left side.

With temperatures in the 30s, we were both sweltering in our fully covered motorcycle apparel but we had to take some photos of our bikes in the city, because pics or it didn’t happen, right? I just wish that we had woken up much earlier at dawn before the hordes of newly weds, photographers and other tourists crowded the Charles Bridge precinct.

I wasn’t going to miss out on my own photos on that iconic Czech bridge, and this was the only reason why I stayed in Prague for another day, even though I wanted to join Konrad for one more day on the road together. I become less inclined to act when I see massive crowds, so there was no way that I could have done it in the peak hour of tourism.

I was concerned about the potential wear rate of my stock Metzelers as they weren’t intended for long-distance touring. The rear tyre was squaring off real fast after many hundreds of high-speed runs across the German autobahn. There were a couple of aspects that I needed to consider for my upcoming tyre service.

First was the availability of a tyre that I wanted, which was the newly released Michelin Pilot Road 5. The 4th iteration of the Pilot Road range would have been sufficient as I know from experience that it is a great tyre especially for what I needed, but I like trying new products.

Secondly, I needed a shop that was able to work on the bike immediately upon my arrival. As a traveller who is constantly on the move, every hour of the day counted so I had minimal time to waste. After researching online during lunch, I discovered a workshop in the heart of Athens, called Tyre Shop, who were very accommodating to my needs and offered a good price for the service.

I was so glad that I spent another day in Prague. I was able to rest up during the day, which was what I needed as it was very tiresome to be constantly in focus on the wrong (right) side of the road, and having to figure out my ways around a foreign city. Eventually, I also captured my own set of “Yes, I’ve been to Prague, look at me!” photographs that are oh so Instagrammable. Quite amazing what some humans would do for some attention from strangers on the web.

 

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