Kragujevac, Serbia to Budapest, Hungary another transit stop in a motel close to the highway on the outskirts of the city. While you pay your tolls on the road in Serbia, you have to buy a vignette for Hungary. This can be done online, there are a number of websites, this is the official one and you have to register and go through the rigmarole but you can pay with your credit card and it works. https://e-autopalyamatrica.hu/en

At the first fuel stop I smelled something burning and looked around my bike and noticed the chain guard had come adrift and was rubbing against the wheel. So I parked and saw that the bolt holding it in place had fallen out. I checked my spare parts and saw I had a bolt of  the right diameter but it was too long, after trying to saw a bit off it with a hacksaw blade I decide it would be quicker to use a temporary solution and buy a new bolt of the right size at the next opportunity, 50 min later I was on my way again. This is the first problem I have had with this bike in 4 years and 57,000 km.

If I thought the queues at the borders were horrendous upto now I was soon to be disillusioned when I arrived at the Serbia/Hungary border. The queue was even longer and the checks more stringent because we are now entering the Schengen area and once you get past this point there are no more border checks, you can go anywhere in the EU. My tried and proven method of getting through borders was really put to the test here hahaha. There were cars everywhere and I had to park my bike and scout around on foot until I saw there was place in the truck lane for me to sneak through. I turned around and started to ride past the stationary trucks in the small space available until I got to a stranded truck that had pulled over onto the divider leaving very little space. I beeped and the truck in the other lane turned his steering and moved just enough to let me through, no place to manoeuvre and then he got out of his cab and guided me through the gap watching that my panniers did not scrape against any of the other vehicles hahaha. When I got to the front all the vehicles were stopped a few hundred metres short of the Hungary border and were only being let through 2 or 3 at a time to the Hungary Immigration booths up ahead, they waved me through hahaha, another half a day border crossing reduced to 20 minutes.

When I arrived at the motel in Budapest I took my jacket off and a bee hiding in the sleeve jumped out and stung the back of my hand.