Skopje (Macedonia)

My bike looked like it was made out of clay so the first task was a carwash. I could not find one at the town I stayed at but at a truckstop along the highway I could get rid of my excess clay weight.

The line that had formed at the border crossing was huge. Luckily I am on a bike so I pass everyone and go straight to the front of the queue. This is done by all bikers wheter you like it or not…I certainly liked it. It was hot outside and waiting in the queue would have taken hours.

Skopje, the capital of Macedonia wasn’t originally on my list of places to visit but my motorbike needs an oil change and bigger cities are my best bet to find proper oil and a motorbike service place. I found a nice hostel with a nice garden and payed for 2 nights. I went into town on foot for some exploring and picture taking.

Without a doubt, Skopje can claim the title ‘city with most statues in the world’.

Even the locals think it is insane. At first I thought these were remnants of an old communist regime, but later I found out that these statues have been built during the last two years.

They appear even in the water !

All new stuff…

Taxi drivers need a break from it all as well…

Some boring office space…

More statues…

There is however a nice Turkish bazaar (covered market). But most of the ‘old buildings’ have been built in recent years. Gives it that disneyland feel to it, with statues and all that jazz. The most interesting building that was clearly a communist relic was the post office building. I think this was the only ‘original’ building in town.

There is also an old fortress that sits atop a hill overlooking the city but it was closed, so no visitors allowed.

An old archaeological museum was closed, much to the disappointment of me and my newly made friends.

Who of course can appreciate a good statue as well.

So it was a pretty short stroll. The rest of my first day in Skopje was relaxing at the hostel. Next day I went looking for a motorcycle shop and I found one. I had my oil change done at the spot. I had brought an oil filter along with me from Belgium and that was replaced as well.

I basically had to pay for my oil and hardly any labor was being charged. Sweet.

After this I went to visit Matka canyon, about 20 minutes out of town.

There is also a cave there that you can access by boat. I didn’t take the boat ride, just went for a short stroll really and went back to the hostel.

Two other hostel guests and myself went for a hike up to a lookout point in the evening to watch the sunset. The view on top was nice.

There is also a cable car that runs to the top but that was just shutting down when we wanted to descend.

We walked along the normal road down (closed for regular traffic) but this took us ages to reach halfway point. But we saw some cool firebugs and an abandoned hotel (or not yet finished).

We took a cab for the next halve of the road. The evening was ended in style by having some Macedonian dishes at a restaurant downtown. The dishes were mainly themed around cheese. They also sell a lot of ice cream in town. So Jean Claude Van Dam might not have been a dirty old man after all.

Montenegro to Serbia

I survived the cold night. I have trust in my sleeping bag. It has kept me warm during the Alaskan summer so this was no problem either. It are only the uncovered parts of my body that get cold. My nose, a lingering arm…
I didn’t stay at the hubb meeting. Instead of listening to more presentations I prefer to continue riding so that one day I can give a presentation of my own. The weather was cloudy and they were expecting rain during the day. I decided to take my chances and go for it. After paying my dues and saying goodbye it was time to hit the road again. My gps gave me the direction of travel and it was interesting to see that if that fallen tree that had blocked my way yesterday hadn’t fallen in the first place, then I would have passed the hubb meeting anyway. So much for signs from above.
The road took me higher and higher and there was snow to be seen.

Well not only seen, I could feel it as on one of the snow patches I came to a standstill and lost balance since my front wheel just slid away,on the snow. I had to drop the bike. It landed softly on the snow. First time on the trip I drop the bike. No damage, not even a bruised ego. It was bound to happen at some point.
I lifted it up again, partly using the force… I should say only using force.
I was now extra careful on the next snow covered patches. It is crazy how much difference a snowy undergrond makes on your tires. Hardly any grip and sketchy as hell (I have no experience with the sketchiness of hell, just using it as an expression)
A bit further up I saw a big digging machine working on the dirt road. Another man was giving him instructions. He saw me coming and instructed me to go off the road, since it was impassable (hence why the digger was there to clear things up)
So I went off the road into the grassy land, swerving around the digger and the road obstruction.
In Montenegro it is actually allowed to drive anywhere on the mountain. You don’t have to stick to roads at all. If you think you can ride somewhere, you are allowed to do so. I rather stick to the ‘roads’. I prefer not to mess up the fauna and flora.
Alright, I noticed another big snow patch worthy of a picture.

Although I didn’t realize it was completely covering the track I was following. Man, what is wrong Montenegro, you keep blocking my tracks!
There was no way I was going to risk crossing it. After swerving and dropping the bike on a nice horizontal patch of snow there was not a hair on my body urging me to cross this slanted icy slope. I would probably fall and see my bike slide its way to destruction. Another detour then. Luckily the road had a crossing a bit further back. And this alternate road was also on my gps, so on I went. It would be a nice big detour but nothing I could do about it really. Shit just happens.
After about 15 minutes down my new track there was a fence. I wasn’t sure what to do, was this to block tourists? I looked at my gps and it did indicate a provincial border. But to close it of with a fence? I say fence, but it was really a thin wire with a plastic bag attached in the middle to indicate that there is a wire and not a magic plastic bag floating in the air and staying at a single place (which would have been way cooler).
Anyhow, I untangled the wire, pushed my bike through and and reattached the wire. Just around the corner was a little house where they sold some drinks. I decided to stop and get something. At that moment the cavalry came in. The ecoretreat where the hubb meeting was held was also the accomodation of choice of some quad and buggy driving people that had come for the weekend for some offroad mayhem. I can honestly say mayhem as their machines are so loud and they just drive everywhere without any respect for nature whatsoever (which again, you are allowed to do in Montenegro)
They were very friendly though offering me a sip of their whiskey that they carried in a recycled water bottle. I took a sip out of politeness pretending to enjoy it.
The owner of the little cafe and his wife were clearly not extremely pleased with this quad clan. They had literally driven through his back yard (these guys don’t follow the tracks, they make new ones).
I felt obliged to buy a drink now, kind of out of respect and for some reason to compensate for the destruction my new offroad friends had done to their hill. In their eyes I was clearly one of ‘them’ as they were not very friendly. So I quickly drank my drink and took of again.
The track now entered a national park.

I could tell it was the weekend as I passed some hikers. It still feels a bit awkward to ride a motorbike on national park trails, but when in Montenegro, do as the Montenegrians do.
There was a nice little lake where the track ended. This was also the central point of the park where the visitor information centre was housed and a restaurant. The quad clan had already arrived there before me and as they saw me they invited me to join them for a drink at the restaurant. I said I first wanted to take some pictures and then I would join. There was a little lake that looked pretty nice.

I made a sweet little lie as I only took some pictures and took off again.
The rain that they had predicted was now falling from the sky.
Again there were some steep cliffs and a river at the foot of the cliffs. What took me by surprise was that one cliff was actually a garbage dump. Yup, one huge pile of rubbish that blended into the cliff wall. And there was a house on the dump and some kids scavenging the dump. Montenegro, I didn’t expect this from you! Get your act together.
Before I knew it I arrived at the border to get into Serbia. No problem, the Serbian officer did ask where I came from today. The most brilliant thing I could come up with was…Montenegro. I can be a moron sometimes. Then he asked where I was headed for. Thank god I didn’t say Serbia. But my answer wasn’t brilliant this time either. I forgot the name of the place and said about 100km from here. He told me the name of a city. I just knodded yes having no clue what he had actually said. It didn’t really matter, I was in Serbia.
The gps kept me on the main road and through some towns of which most didn’t really invite me to play tourist.
I kept on riding. At one point I passed a town and I think a biker rally was just finished. There were many bikes on the road and people waving. Like they say, when in Serbia…do as the Serbs do, so I waved to everyone that waved.
Next came some nice twisties as the road climbed higher and higher.

Eventually I reached a skistation. There were many hotels and appartments here and all in good condition, to western european standards. But most of them where closed. The only one that seemed to be open was a 4 star spa resort. I didn’t bother going in and asking for prices.

It was however getting time for me to find something. After descending a bit and passing many more closed hotels I finally spotted an open one. It was a 3 star hotel called Junior. I decided to give Junior a go. 40 euros for a room including dinner and breakfast. Junior, you’ve got yourself a deal.

Montenegro continued

I left the hotel and took my bike out for some love and care, being a carwash.
The road took me through a gorge and the river that carved it out was turqoise blue. very tempting to go for a swim.

It was the main road out of Podrigica. But eventually my gps indicated a turnoff and tha immediately took me in the mountains.

I passed a few houses and what seemed to be a newly built monastery. I am sure that in 50 years time this will be a new tourist hotspot, after the virgin mary brings it a visit. Of course they would have to widen the road for tour busses but where there is a tourist euro, there is a way.
After a while my mountain road took me back to the highway and then it was a short ride to Kolasin.

This town was put on my list of places to visit because of its peculiar library building. It doesn’t fit the rest of the town which is more traditionally built like any mountain town. But this library building is very …interesting looking. I kind of like it but yeah, opinions differ.

After strolling a bit through town a man was looking at my bike and told me to visit the ski area near town as there was a bike meeting. He actually asked me if I was heading for the meeting. I asked…what meeting and then he explained. I wasn’t too sure what to do. There were a few other bikes parked further along the road and I asked their drivers if they were going to the meeting and what themeeting was about. Luckily they knew and they explained that it was a hubb meeting. Hubb is one of the leading website about adventure motorcycle traveling.
(Horizons unlimited bulletin board?)

It contains info about visas, trip planning, anything you could wish for really. At the meetings fellow bikers give presentations about their travels or workshops are given about a certain topic. But these two bikers didn’t really sell it to me well. They found it too expensive and said that theroad leading to the event was rough. You’d also had to sleep on the top of a mountain and it got really cold at night.
Hmmm, the road rough? I looked at their bikes. I think one was a bmw gs, fully kitted out and with a huge extra big gas tank that would get you from europe to africa on one tank of petrol.
I guess the road must be rough then, cause clearly you mean business if you splurge on such an extra big gas tank.
I decided to continue my way. Things were going good. Nice mountain road. After one turn I noticed a parked 4wd and then I noticed why. A huge tree had fallen on the road, blocking it completely. The female driver was sitting on the tree, perhaps she tought that this would speed up the compostation process. So that meant I had to backtrack again. This surely was a sign for me to go to the hubb meeting. At least I took it as one.
I drove to the ski area and soon I noticed the hubb logo (I have visited the site regularly).

So where is this rough road I heard so much about. Well, it was just some gravel, like I have had over and over again. It wasn’t even the worst road I experienced on this trip. If these guys were already complaining about this then I am glad to be riding solo, cause they would be crapping their pants if they had taken some of the ‘roads’ I have been riding. But in all fairness I would probably crap my pants as well if I had to take a big 1200gs on some of those roads.
So I made it to the hubb meeting which was on the side of a hill in some kind of eco-retreat.

It was a pretty sweet setup. There were cabins, even mini cabins that only housed a single bed. There were about 20 bikes there, most of them the most popular ‘adventure bike’ out there. The bmw 1200gs. I was the ugly duckling of the pack. Or was it this guy?

Everybody was really nice though, like all bikers actually (maybe except for those young kids that ride on crotch rockets without protective gear, those are most of the time single celled amoebe that haplened to have landed on a sports bike)
There was also a Belgian couple present and it was nice to be able to talk some Flemmish again. The girl actually rode her road bike onto the gravel road. Respect!!! Take that you “adventure but oooh it’s a though road” wannabes.
After dinner the presentations started. There were three lined up. One guy talked about his trip arround the Us and Australia. On both occasions he shipped his bmw 1200gs over. Most of us were wondering how he managed to pay for these trips. He was a Serb and almost every time he met a Serbian abroad they seemed to give him money. One guy even bought him a 1000 dollar watch. Others buyed him 3 day vip suite in Vegas. Others put 500 dollar in his pocket. Crazy.
The next presentation was another Serb who took off for Iran in the spurr of the moment. His pictures were amazing and really made you want to do such a trip yourself (item added to bucket list)
The last presentation was a couple who travelled to the middle east. Syria, Jordan, Egypt…
After the presentations it was time for bed. It was already late and it was time to see how well my sleeping bag coped with the cold because yes, it was darn cold.

Bosnia to Montenegro

Unexpectedly my campingspot got busy in the morning. Some workers arrived, then some gardeners and then some guys in camo gear (probably so they can argue that they have been working while actually taking a nap, and they blame it on their camo suits that made them invisible)

The border crossing I picked from Bosnia to Montenegro was situated in a small canyon. It was a very relaxed atmosphere here. Saw a few motorbikes using this crossing. All went down without any fuss.

You always have a brief section of nomansland in between these border checkpoints. And well, my gps wanted to navigate me to a little side road before I reached the Montenegro border. I didn’t take that risk. So I just passed the checkpoint and was now in a new country again.
Once I was in Montenegro the scenery became that of steep cliffs, countless tunnels carved throughout the mountain side and a dam that was being inspected by some parliament members as their big Suv truck and their cd plates indicated (corps diplomatique)

This was all on the main road. Granted, didn’t really count on anyone making a dirt road here.
My gps led me through some small town and finally onto a little back road that led me to some awesome views.

Next up was a visit to a monastry. But upon nearing it there were too many tour buses and tourists to my liking so I decided to skip that. I’m sure google images has great pictures of that place.
Again, a little road that crawled up the edge of a mountain and on top it turned into a dirt road with big rocks. Not very handy if you want to speed through but I stuck with it.
There were a few turn offs here and there but none of them where on my gps, so I just followed the one and only road it knew. At a certain point it swerved across what appeared to be some kind of settlement. Not sure if families lived here or some loggers that worked in the forrest. Still cool though.

The track got tougher and tougher. Branches everywhere, I even had to push my bike under a few snapped tree branches, clear other branches. It was quite cumbersome and took for ever, getting on and of the bike all the time. I checked my gps and I was about 3km from my destination after covering about 30km on the little track. But then it became impossible to continue. A huge tree had fallen onto the track and there was no way for me to get through. I could only turn back. Again, getting on and of the bike, trying to drive through overhanging branches at chest hight. I glanced at my gps but I noticed something was wrong. My gps was no longer in its cradle. A branch must have dislodged it and gone it went. Crap!!!
I didn’t cover that much ground from my fallen tree point so I just parked the bike and backtracked on foot keeping an eye out for my electronic mapping aid.
I reached the fallen tree again and nada, no gps to be found. It really didn’t help either that my gps had the exact same color as all of the rocks that were on the track. So I started walking to my bike again. Finally I spotted it. I left a sigh of relief.
Well, I continued the way I came, all 30km of it. Since I had no idea where the little side tracks would lead me to it was the only wise choice.

This also meant that I had to make a pretty big detour. But a detour that led me through the capital of Montenegro where I decided to spend a night.
It’s actually a pretty nice city. Many bars, many shops that were open late at night and the main street that is traffic free after working hours. I could have ended up in worse places.
You win this round Rocky (road)

Sarajevo to the next monument

Sarajevo hosted the winter olympics in 1984. The bobsleigh track is on a nearby mountain but it is no longer usable. It makes for a nice graffiti wall. I walked a fair bit of what I think was the main run down. Going up was a bit more difficult.

I said sarajevo goodbye and made my way to Jablanica which has one attraction I read about on a website. The bridge over the river Neretva. The ride towards the town was nice. As soon as i left the outer urban sprawl of Sarajevo my gps directed me towards and actually up a mountain on some forest tracks. I made it to the top but then I reached a dead end. So I had to go down again but managed to join up on my track a bit further down. So no complete backtrack was needed. The rest of the road was pretty standard. It was the main road that I followed and the scenery towards Jablanica is nice. You have a big lake and lots of mountains surrounding it. Upon reaching the town I visited its star attraction. The bridge had been destroyed and featured in a movie.

What can I say, it is a collapsed bridge. The also had a museum since in history there was a battle at this place and the bridge played a major role, hence it being blown up (in the actual battle and in the movie). I didn’t visit the museum as its exhibition size could be seen from the outside (as well as its war memorabilia). It had a very soviet look and feel to it.

I had to take the same road back a bit in order to get to my next waypoint.
Again mountains, gps says go up, you get the drill. At first the road was all paved. But at a certain point it turned into dirt. Well, very coarse gravel.

I was getting a bit worried about fuel. Only 1 car had crossed my way, a 4wd so I would be out of luck if I fell without fuel here. The views were stunning however and the road quite challenging.

But soon I was out of my misery as a petrol station was found.
Final stretch to my next waypoint and oh boy, I didn’t expect what was in store for me next. First of all, a nice dirt road, not a soul in sight and some great views.

It was a bit wet and muddy here and there causing me to practice my bunny hops while driving through huge puddles of water (basically holding your legs up and preferably with your heels above the steering wheel, points get deducted if they are not above).
I came to a junction but the road looked a bit too sketchy. The sketchy road indicated another 30 minutes or 1hr on the ‘normal road’
Playing it safe I continued. I passed a logging forest and the road became very muddy. Not ver nice on a motorbike, especially if the threads of your tires cant get rid of the mud in time, making them perform like slicks. I could tell I was pretty high up in the mountains as it was pretty chilly. Finally it was time to descend and it was then that I realized how high in the mountains I really was. The view opened up and wham. A huge mountain range with steep cliffs was the backdrop for my ride.

In all my trips I had never seen something similar. Jaw dropping beautiful.

There were also some fields with sheep herders and their dogs.

The dogs came after me and these were not nice and friendly border collies. Oh no, some mean big ass mutant transformed sheep “I don’t know what breed” kind of dogs. These herders just picked mean ass dogs. I bet they were lousy at herding sheep, but protecting them, they did well.
Granted,not all of them were big, there was a small one, but he was fast :).
Judging from the look on the herder’s face it appeared I was the first motorbiker to have taken this road. And what an awesome one at that. One of my, if not the best ride ever and that means a lot.

And it wasn’t over yet. After what seemed forever I reached the main road again and then it were all nice and twisty corners to my next monument in Tjenitse. Again, war memorial, you get the drill but really, they are like nothing you’ve ever seen. Those Yugoslav / Soviet builders sure know a thing or two about creating uber cool monuments.

This picture puts things a bit in perspective…

It was now also clear I was in a national park, hence the beauty I had seen coming down from the mountains.
There was a hotel near the monument which had its own campground. I took a spot on the campground which was dead empty. I am sure the hotel as well.
Again, very soviet style, cool and creepy at the same time 🙂
The hotels restaurant didn’t accept credit cards so I had to either get money in the next town or try another restaurant. I did the latter. Again no cards accepted but they took Euros. Sweet. After a good meal it was time to get reacquainted with my tent again. I didn’t mind. I just finished an awesome day.

Sarajevo

Had I found the next war memorial monument in Gmec, then I would have shown it to you. Unfortunately I could not locate it. The gps pointed me into nomansland. After trying to see if I could reach my preset coordinates I had to give up. You win this round war monument! But I am going after your brothers and sisters!
I managed to get more dirt roads under my tires after passing a rather big city called Banja Luka. I didn’t stop at the city.
The road started to follow a river and I noticed many people were swimming. That looked like an excellent idea and after a while I found a nice little area where I soaked my feet in some water.
The tv that was dumped a bit further upstream didn’t seem to work so I continued on.

Again the mountains were there and upon reach the first top of the hill there were many ghost houses, destroyed by the war. Quite sad actually since they were built in such a nice area. It does have a bit of an eerie feeling to it, passing these houses. There wasn’t a soul on the road, nor in the houses for that matter.

After leaving the mountains I could tell I was coming closer to the capital Sarajevo. There were many villages alongside the road.
This road seems to compete for the most petrol stations on a single road. Every 2 minutes one showed up. I think I must have passed 15 at least. One that stood out was named ‘Jerry’ and had the mouse from Tom & Jerry as their logo. Not sure if a mouse is a good endorser for petrol. I’d rather have Esso’s tiger in my petrol tank.
The road to Sarajevo must have been one of the more boring ones I have ridden on this trip.
After entering the city I found some accommodation at a youth hostel with a nice view on the terrace overlooking the city. There was a bbq going on that night and I got to know some of the other guests.
The owner of the hostel was really nice. He let me park my motorbike in his garage so it was safe from the prying eyes on the street.
The next day most of the other hostel guests went on a tour of Sarajevo, organized by the hostel owner who is also an official tour guide and runs a little tour guide office. However I decided to wander around town myself.
It is a nice city. Many cafes and bars but yeah, the occasional reference to the war is present. Also some buildings definitely have a bit of a communist feel to them and might need a bit of an upgrade.

Not easy to rebuild a city after a war. I visited a museum about it that exhibited among other things some pictures of buildings during and post war. They did a good job restoring most.

There was a lot of financial aid given to Bosnia. I heard the figure 11 billion, not sure what currency, but anyhow, only 4 of those were used for restorations, the other 7…nobody knows…they disappeared…in some pockets.
In the evening the hostel crowd went to a cinema that turns into a bar on Mondays and they have 3 musicians play old Bosnian folk songs. Think accordion, guitar and a drum.
You could obviously tell our table were the tourists as we couldn’t sing along and just kept it to smiling and clapping our hands, which always looks stupid, no matter if you are a tourist or not.
Since they predicted rain the next day I decided to stay another night so I had a second day of wandering in town. I went hunting for a media card reader so even pre-2000 computers can be used to backup my pictures. Another thing on my list was a mountain bike pump. This can also be used to pump up motorcycle tires (although painfully slow) and since I can kind of tell I will be in more remote areas soon it just seems like a nice backup tool (I have an extra inner tube in case of a flat and a repair kit, but pretty useless without a pump). And lo and behold, I managed to find the exact pump I wanted. This particular model can also be used to inflate blow up sex dolls in case anybody I cross on my journey might need this. (it’s a joke people).
And there are still some battles being fought.

But luckily without bloodshed.

Croatia – Bosnia / Herzogovina

At the little market across from the hotel I scored me some breakfast and then it was time to hit the road again. The ride wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped but eventually I reached a more mountainous region which is always a nice welcome from straight boring roads. I followed some signs to a castle and upon arriving I was the only one there. It was being renovated but since it was the weekend none of the construction workers were present.

The site was blocked off a little bit but i decided to have a look anyhow. I am sure it must have been great in its original form but now it was just completely destroyed, hence the renovation effort. I am sure that many epic game of throne battles have been fought here.
Next stop was the Podgaric spomenik monument.

This is a monument dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the second world war and it is pretty impressive due to its peculiar architecture.
The next stop was also a world war monument in Jasenovac. There used to be a concentration camp on the field that now houses the monument (the only one not operated by the Nazis). There was also a little museum set up for this. Its architecture was equally impressive as the previous monument I visited. (These monuments did lay at the basis of some of my ‘itinerary’)

These monuments are not real tourist magnets as I was the only one there.
The museum however was closed. It is an unfortunate fact that a lot of these monuments have become less important over the years as the generation that built them is fading away, says the historian in me.
Onwards shall we. I passed several small towns and on many of the telephone poles there were nests of those type of birds that deliver babies, I can’t remember the name in English (ooievaar).
I always wondered where these birds got their babies from. Finally you and I know it is Croatia…and actually close to the Bosnian border. As I was nearing the Croatian / Bosnian border I soon found myself surrounded by destroyed houses and mine covered fields. Not to worry though, there are warning signs and if you stick to the road surface you are fine. But yeah, not a big tourist destination as picnics in this area could come with a nasty surprise.
The border crossing was pretty straightforward. At first they wanted to see only my passport but then they wanted the documents of my bike as well. Not sure what they did with it though. I get the impression that they do this to create some anxiety for the tourist. To see if they break out into a sweat which could indicate a trunk full of hidden goods or counterfeit dvd’s.
There was indeed a lot of sweat on my face but more so because I had to queue in bloody 30 degree temperatures wearing all black. But eventually I got my papers back from the Croatians, now only the Bosnian border guard to pull my jedi mind tricks on.
“This is not the Belgian biker you are looking for” I kept saying… And it worked, cause my force is strong. He was way more friendly than his Croatian colleague as well by asking me why I traveled alone and what my destination was. He told me that I was brave. No sir, you are brave for letting me into the country because if he had seen my guns under my riding jacket it could have turned into an ugly mess. No, i did ask him why he thought i was brave. He just said “by traveling alone”. Well, I have been trying for years to convince the Swedish female volleyball team to travel with me but to this day have been unsuccessful. I guess the force isn’t as strong yet as I want it to be.
After a short while I reached mountains again and found myself in a national park where offroading is allowed in some places. There were lots of 4wd driving on the road. There was also some kind of 4wd race / event going on. At one point a guy stopped me to ask where I was going. He then contacted the race direction to keep the next contestant waiting for a few seconds so I could pass.
The national park is also the home for the next monument that i was about to visit.
The Kodgaric monument, again a war monument in a peculiar architectural style. This one however seems to get many visitors as there is a big hotel around the corner and a playground is right next to it. Lots of children get to play on it.

It was that time again where I had to find a place to stay. My gps indicated no campgrounds nearby and no hostels. A hotel would have to do. The next town would be my target.
I arrived at Sanski Most and there where 3 hotels to choose from. I just went for the one that looked cheapest, yet decent. There is always a very fine balance between cheap and decent that even tightrope walkers find a challenge. I was greeted by a clerk who had a brother living in Bilzen, a town 20 minutes away from where I lived. The receptionist was also the proud owner of 3 enduro motorbikes. I guess i made the right hotel choice. The price was 19 euros a night and the room was clean, and so was the bathroom, so no complaints, the balance was good and I’m now ready to tackle tightrope walking.
During the evening I strolled through town and met Dino, a local who started to chat with me and he later invited me to join him and 4 of his friends for some drinks and perhaps visiting a club. So I did. I learned a lot about life in Bosnia and Sanski Most and soon it was time for some nightlife.

The club was extremely loud, so I quickly went to get some earplugs from my hotelroom. Much to the amusement/amazement of my Bosnian crew 🙂
There was a 2 man band playing. A guy on keyboard and one with an electric guitar. They were playing all the Bosnian rock/ folk classics.

They also had 2 pauses where a DJ took over and played some house / techno grooves. Needless to say which one I preferred. My newly made friends also preferred the intermezzo parts. The rest of the crowd seemed to me more in favor of the classic ballads. But still a very good night.

Slovenia – Croatia

The morning started with a ride to an old castle that was used in some scenes of game of thrones, but they must have deleted all the scenes because the castle never appeared in the show, although it could have, since the have a joust course and all. The entrance price was a bit on the steep side. So I just left the inside to my imagination. I am sure it looked like the wedding room in the so much talked about episode.

Straight from the castle a dirt road started and my gps instructed me to follow. It went on/offroad for quite some time. At one point I was in forest and could no longer distinguish the track. The gps did say that i was off course. Turns out i missed a turn off covered by branches, well hidden. It took me through a field that hadnt been mowed in a long time. I could barely see tracks of a tractor so i just kept following. Good thing i did cause suddenly there was a huge ditch and the tracks i followed led to a small bridge. Eventually the track led to the mountains were I ended up in some kind of nature park with nice logging roads.

I came across a little bee keeper field in which some of the bee houses had some nice paintings.

My time in slovenia had come to pass as I neared the croatian border. The attendant on croatian side was not very happy to be working. But I could continue to the lady responsible for customs I believe. I didn’t really know for sure as she was on the phone and waved at me to indicate she was busy and I could carry on. As soon as I was in Croatia my gps track took me through some nice wine fields and lots of offroad sections. Not a soul to be seen except for some deer hiding in the shade. When it was time to pjt petrol in the bike my bank/credit card refused to work… Hmmm, can I pay in euros? The clerk gave me an angry look but accepted my 10 euro note. I started to fear the worst for my cards so i wanted to locate an ATM to get some money and see if my cards are to blame or something else. Not easy to find an ATM but I found one in some thermal spa hotel in Topusco. The hotel was really old fashioned, straight from the 70ies.

Card worked fine, money came out, always a good sign. The highlight of the day was yet to come… Petrovagora, an old abandonded monument, very futuristic looking in its haydays. Still uber cool today.

Some people go on holidays for beach / party or whatever. I go exploring and it are buildings like these that are 10 times cooler for me than a suntan session at a resort. Now that I had the highlight out of the way, the next goal was accomodation. Since I am not really at the touristic side of Croatia that is easier said than done. I asked at a restaurant/lodging place but no cigar. I believe they didn’t want a dirty biker…granted, I was very dusty from all the gravel/dirt roads. It was starting to get dark. I do have camping equipment but after a really sweaty day a shower was high on the priority list. Luckily my gps has waypoints for accomodation and I stopped at a town close to my route. There was a bar/restaurant where i could have a room. Lots of croatian bikers. Mostly the crotch rocket kinds in shorts and tshirts revving their engines loudly. At one point an imbecile started revving his. I still don’t know what he was thinking. Imagine having a bike in neutral gear and just whamming the throttle wide open…wait for it…wait…for more than a few MINUTES. The flames where coming out of his exhaust. Poor engine, I do not recommend buying a second hand bike from this mister. Another funny moment was when two guys crawled on a bike and wanted to ride away but every time the engine stalled when they wanted to leave. After about 5 tries a girl came running to them to tell them to kick the kickstand in before trying to depart. I am sure we can see those two on the pavement in the near future.

Bergen

It is only a short drive to Bergen. At about 90km from Munich it is almost a stonethrow away. But since I opted for no highways I could add another 40 km to the mix. It was a very hot day, actually every day since I left it has been extremely hot. I almost start to feel that Belgian weather can be controlled like in the movie ‘the truman show’. As soon as you leave the bubble, weather starts to get nice.
The road was nice with rolling hills through farmlands. There is also a huge lake on the way, Chiemsee and I must say it looked very tempting to take a dip. But I only took a picture.
I forgot to write down Su’s number as I thought I could access her message from the facebook app on my phone. Nope, you need an internet connection for that. Of course i don’t have that all the time. I’m on a belgian prepaid sim card, so no gprs connections for me. But every tourist information centre or library has one, and most cafes have free wifi. Luckily Bergen is big enough to have a tourist office. I was staring at a coin operated computer that appeared to come straight out of 1995. This model came also with the download speeds of that year. It took 5 minutes to retrieve Su’s message at a whopping 10 eurocents per minute! Again a pricing scheme stuck in 1995.
Su asked me if I was intefested in a hike. Since I have only a pair of hipster shoes with me i felt obliged to ask if the climb needed appropriate footwear. It should be fine was the conclusion. We couldn’t go swimming at Chiemsee lake since there were talks of it being polluted as 40 cows were mysteriously missing, in a by flooding struck village. It was believed they were taken to the lake by the floods. Perhaps it was good that I didn’t take a dip earlier on.
The hike was nice and the views on top were excellent. Very well worth it. My hipster shoes only caused a few easy recoverable slides on the way down. Nothing this hipster can’t handle.

Here is a cow that was oblivious to the floods…

Munich

I’m on the road again. First destination… Munich. With the use of google earth i plotted a route to Munich using as mode of transportation…well my feet I guess since I picked walking directions. Reason for this is so I would hopefully not be guided along highways but nice smaller roads. Of course this would take longer but I planned to spread the suggested 630km over two days.
I packed up my stuff, loaded it onto my bike. Dropped off my keys in the mail box (useless weight) and set off.
Departure time was around 11.15am and I had a lunch break around 2pm only to find out that progress was slow…very slow indeed. I hadn’t made it far inside German territory. At my current pace, it would even be a challenge to make Munich in two days. It was partly due to the fact that my route also had pedestrian only sections causing me to have to find detours. Also I hate gps devices but for this trip a ‘necessary’ evil. I always seem to overshoot turns and then when I account for this I tend to turn too early. Pretty annoying and I am going to have to live with it for several weeks.
To make up on some lost time I decided to go on the highway and make up on some lost time. I only do about 100km/h, much to the aggravation of Bmw, audi and mercedes drivers. I am however accompanied by the caravan crowd.
Next challange finding a campspot. Easy enough, i consult my gps which is preloaded with waypoints for 30.000 of them across Europe. Statistics are on my side, first one is 15km off the highway…too easy, except for the fact that it is next to river. Nothing shocking you might say, and I agree, nothing harmful to a campground located alongside a nice river, creating some soothing water sounds. But when it gets paired up with rising water levels due to flooded regions upstream it can become rather interesting. And since eastern Europe has experienced major floods this made the river next to the campground close to overflowing. So i was greeted with a nice ‘closed’ sign. And so were the next two campgrounds I visited. And when i made a final search on my gps, i thought i found one in the countryside and when getting there…yep, river. But luckily this one wasn’t closed and so my search was finally over.

Only one thing left to do, have something to eat. Campground restaurant to the rescue, curryworst with fries. Welcome to Germany.
The next day I only had another 300km to reach Munich and the road took me through some nice countryside. In Munich I could meet Uki and Steffen who where part of the Canada / Vancouver crew. They took me to the main park where we went for a swim and caught up on life stories. The evening was finished in style at a beergarten.
The next day I could use one of Uki’s bikes to explore Munich further. I cycled to the Olympic park
and strolled around in the city centre and watched the surfers at the park.

In the afternoon I met up with Steffen again and did some more wandering around. So yeah, I have had a glimpse of Munich. Next stop will be the town Bergen to meet the next Canadian connection.