Chapter 3
Trieste to Thessalonika
It’s hard to believe that we have cycled through the Balkans and have arrived in Greece having ridden over 2,440 miles. We will soon be out of Europe and riding across Turkey. The ride through the Balkans has been amazing – at times hard, sometimes grim but mainly beautiful and spectacular especially climbing high into the mountains.
We left Trieste and headed over the Slovenian border. We climbed into the Slovenian mountains which were quite and unspoilt- like stepping back in time. We saw partisan strongholds and plaques remembering Villages which had been destroyed in World War II. It’s safe to say that this part of the world has certainly seen conflict. We were soon over the Croatian border and heading for the coast with its rugged mountains, incredible sun sets and the beautiful Adriatic Sea.
The riding was hard, often windy, with very little flat and roads busy with traffic. We have found Croatian drivers the least tolerant of cyclists with lorries and buses not pulling out to pass us. That said, the scenery was simply stunning and in part made up for the hairy moments on the roads.
Camping along the Croatian coast is a “family experience”. People are on the sites to party and sun bath – not to sleep! Packed in like sardines. There is on site entertainment- usually someone singing hits from the 1950s (hard to know why). Eating is the “all you can eat buffet” and there is a queue for the showers. Fingers crossed that they are warm when you finally get in or that you don’t need a bracelet or key or something to actually get some water.
Zadar was a bit of a staging point for us. When planning the route we had calculated the first stage to Zadar – not sure why! Anyway, we arrived ahead of schedule having completed the exact mileage, 1775 miles (even though we had changed the route from time to time). The old town was simply lovely and it was temping to stop for the day and wander around the old streets taking in the atmosphere but we had miles to do.
We cycled late that evening and it was dark by the time we finally reached a campsite. We had stopped for a snack on a traffic island (the only bit of grass we could find), but we were hungry and I set about cooking dinner. My camping stove nearly caused a diplomatic incident which Raz, has described in the story of the German and the frame thrower. All I can say is that it’s just a camping stove and when you are hungry having ridden over 90 miles over lots of hills, you really don’t want a German (or indeed any nationality), accusing you of arson. I’ll leave it there!
Split was our next destination and it was a day of traffic. We had two near misses a bus and a lorry which we could almost feel on the hairs on our arms as they passed so close. Then a women in a Renault 5 (not that this is relevant), hit my arm with her wing mirror as she passed us. She stopped to see if we were still on (which we were) she then drove off. We caught her at the lights – she explained that she hadn’t seen us. We are actually quite big- tandem with panniers! I suspect the 2 seconds she saved passing us when there was no room was worth risking two peoples lives but she was sorry so that was the main thing!
From Split we continued up the coast excited about seeing Dubrovnik. We camped that evening, the showers were cold, Raz’s air bed deflated in the night (it had punctured), and I had a cold bucket of water full of disinfectant thrown over my feet because I was in the toilets when the cleaners wanted to clean them. I did say (to the cleaner) “are you mad?” Then realised that perhaps there were some issues- I felt bad for the rest of the day! The tent pole had also broken so that evening we stopped in Bosnia at a guest house (which cost the same as a campsite), and tried to fix stuff and get some sleep.
The next day took us into Dubrovnik. The city is stunning and we wandered around the narrow streets with Alice, (the tandem who doesn’t enhance sight seeing), eating ice cream. Dubrovnik was also the film setting for the Game of Thrones (King’s Landing for the connoisseurs), and it was fun to talk about some of the scenes. It was a massive climb out of the City on a narrow and precipitous road but we made it out and headed over the border to Montenegro.
It’s strange but you really can feel the cultural differences as you cross borders. Montenegro was busy- with massive traffic jams which we weaved in and out of but the traffic was kinder and gave us more room on the bumpier pot holed roads.
We rode across Montenegro in one day. We both liked it. Perhaps a bit more laid back than Croatia and certainly less developed with green mountain ranges and crystal blue sea – castles, monasteries and the odd relic! We rescued a puppy from a busy road heartbroken that we couldn’t take him with us and rode into the late evening crossing the border into Albania.
Albania certainly has a different feel to it. It’s communist past is still in clear view with bunkers, crumbling memorials and Stalinist buildings. The people of quite dour until you engage them – perhaps a legacy of the past. They also insist in speaking in Italian – even though neither of us speak it – although I did find a German speaking Albanian which resulted in an interesting breakfast order of hot dogs and fried eggs!
We felt as if we were travelling in Asia rather than Europe with the colourful markets at the side of the roads. There is also certainly more poverty with women begging with their children on street corners. We didn’t see any women in any of the smoky bars apart from in the capital. There are also an incredible number of service (fuel) stations. Many either half finished or closed at the side of the roads. Some looking to diversify and offering themselves as wedding venues. Weddings are a big business. We saw a number of wedding processions in decorated cars all being filmed by someone hanging out of the car window.
The countryside was still lovely and climbing into the mountains was wonderful with magnificent views. The biggest problem for us was the road condition. Dug at the side of the road is a trench which goes on for miles like a pipe/ cable (probably broadband) was laid but the road never probably filled in. If you rode in it you would come off the bike. If you road along side it – you were too far out into the traffic. With a heavy tandem it was hard work and I spent hours staring at the trench and steering the tandem in and around it as the traffic thundered past.
After a few days of of climbing we arrived at Lake Ohrid and decided to head into Northern Macedonia the next day. We headed over the border and spent the next few hours climbing though a national park and amazing forest – switch back after switch back so we could drop down into Macedonia and the next lake. We rode into the clouds with stunning views of the lake. The road coming down was full of pot holes which slowed us down, (I had to use the brakes – I try to avoid this as much as possible), but we did see a big cat run in front of us which was a real privilege. We arrived in the first Macedonian village at around 3:30 having not had any lunch. We needed food. We found a shop and every time I tried to pay the price went up. It started at 6 euros 15 cents. Then it was 10 euros – then 11 something. At this point I left! Unfortunately it was the only shop. A few miles later we finally found food.
We rode hard to get over the Greek border finally finding a hotel which was last refurbished in the 1940s in Florina. A morning of climbing and a hard ride across the country got us to Thessalonika for a day off. In the suburbs we were chased by 2 snarling dogs. Normally we squirt the dogs with water and this stops them. However, we had run out and short of hitting them with the last ice cube in a flask of iced tea we had to out sprint them on the bike after 95 miles of hard riding. We set off with the dogs snapping at Raz. I then realised we were just about to go over the most uneven railway crossing with a massive slope and pot hole. We hit it at over 20 miles per hour. We landed the bike mountain bike style with a big thud. We laughed as this frightened the dogs off who couldn’t match the speed. Relaxing in Thessalonika for a day off – at last!
