Some of Old Yugoslavia - Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro
A mini history lesson of what Yugoslavia was. It came into existence after world war 1, and it was a communist regime built up of what we know as Croatia, Bosnia i Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. Many of the people living in the communist time believed that it was a great way to live, and that communism functioned very well under their leader Tito. However, leading up to and after his death, ethnic tensions grew, further leading to many complications and eventually a breakup of the Yugoslav regime. Many wars broke out in this time, starting in Croatia, and then spreading throughout the Balkans. They started around 1990, and lasted for a few years, with consequences of those wars still prevalent today, specifically through entire abandoned villages, mine fields and still-apparent ethnic tensions. We experienced all of these, and learnt quite a bit throughout the Balkans that we traveled through. On to today’s time and what we experienced.
Croatia was absolutely beautiful. Our time spent there was full of new experiences, clear seas and incredibly kind local people. Altogether, we spent around a week and a half in Croatia, and enjoyed every second of it!
We started just over the hill from Slovenia, after crossing border control at about 7pm, we carried on for about 1km before finding a nice place to stay for the night. Nice was a word used to describe it afterwards, as during Inka was not at all sure of the wild boars and potential bears and wolves we were told about. The next morning we started bright and early with the sun, and we rolled down the rest of the way to our first big Croatian city. Well, we were supposed to roll down to it, but Fabian decided to make a faster scenic route that instead of going around the hill went more directly. To be specific, straight over. Thanks Fabian!
We did not spend too much time in Rijeka, only refilling our water bottles and walking our bikes around the center. It was very impressive with entire streets of marble, and a beautiful sea view. Following Rijeka we cycled towards our first island - Krk. We had heard from many other cyclists going along the Croatian coast that the D8 coastal road was very busy with all types of motor vehicles, and a very narrow shoulder. We arrived on the D8, wary and checking over our shoulders every few seconds and… it was empty?
The entire way from Rijeka to Krk we saw maybe 15 cars, all of them giving us a wide berth and tooting their support. Just before crossing the bridge to Krk in a small harbour we had our first (literal) taste of the Croatian sea. We thoroughly enjoyed our first Croatian swim, mostly due to the crazy heat that had been following us since the Alps and Dolomites.
Following that we carried on up around the corner to the bridge that would take us over to Krk. The bridge over to Krk offered beautiful views, and it was also not too busy with a nice shoulder for us to cycle on.
However, the closer and closer we got to Krk, the smaller the shoulder became and more cars appeared… About half a kilometer onto the island the road was fit to burst with all the cars, trucks and camper vans you could possibly fit on it, and none of them gave even half a thought for cyclists, so we were shunted off the road on several occasions. At one point a camper van even thought they’d go so close that they’d try to merge with us and become one. Well, that’s how it felt anyway, although I don’t think they were trying to be friendly...
The busy, full roads on Krk definitely challenged our view of it, and we did not enjoy our time on that island that much. However, it was still beautiful and an important thing to experience.
Taking the ferry after one night on the island was definitely the right time to leave, as we were starting to go crazy with the heat and car fumes. We arrived on Rab island late at night, to a very quiet and cool place.
We really enjoyed our time there, so much so that we wished we had spent longer there. The roads were mostly empty, the tourists there were quite chilled out and there were empty beaches! We spent a whole day just relaxing on the beaches, and walking around in the bush; we were in absolute heaven.
(These three photos are clickable! Click them to enlarge, and maybe learn more) The decision to leave the next morning was hard, but we were set on it as the next day was forecasted to be cold and rainy - perfect! Perfect because we were planning to climb from sea level to 1414 m in 20 km over Alan pass. It was a seriously cool experience as even though it was physically challenging, the temperature didn’t go over 20 C and we only got about 20 minutes of sun. The views were also incredible and upon arriving at the top we discovered we were in a national park! Absolutely breathtaking views, and completely empty, perfect again.
(These five photos above are clickable! Click them to enlarge, and maybe learn more)
We descended the mountain on the other side, down to about 600 m, and asked a local if we could sleep in their garden. It started out with us just sleeping across the road on their land, but ended with us sharing food, experiences and sleeping on the terrace - we even got invited to sleep inside. We had a lovely evening with them, and the dinner and breakfast we had together was such a treat.
After the Velebit we cycled through an area that was full of abandoned and low-populated villages, consequences of the wars ~20 years ago. The only problem with that is that we weren’t expecting to go through 30+km stretches with no people. Unfortunately we hit that 30 km stretch at about 6 pm, and this was when it was starting to get dark around 8 pm…
(These two photos are clickable! Click them to enlarge, and maybe learn more)
We had a bit of a problem, as the area was known for it’s population of wolves and bears. Great! We climbed an 8% 4 km road to find a great view of the valley, but that great view held no houses, no villages, no nothing for a very long time. We raced down the valley, and rejoiced when we saw our first house. The only problem was that the person who lived there was a very old woman, who spoke no English and did not understand or maybe care that we wanted to pitch our tent in her garden. So off we went again, racing to find another house, and by this time the sun was waving goodbye. Just as the sun kissed the horizon we stopped at another house, teeming with cats, tiny little kittens and barking dogs. Again a no. Damn. At this point we were starting to get a bit worried, as we couldn’t see anything for a long time, but we decided it would be better to just carry on cycling, as we had lights and the road wasn’t very busy. The sun was long gone by the time we arrived at a village, only to discover all the houses empty and falling apart. Luckily for us, we were next to a railway, and the railway technician living there had an empty control room perfect for 2 exhausted cyclists.
The following day went a lot better, starting with a 20km downhill to Knin. We lazed around in Knin for close to 3 hours before setting off again towards Mostar in Bosnia i Herzegovina. We ended the day in a small lakeside town called Vrlika, where a kind man let us sleep in his old home, he had coincidentally just built a new one.
We slept well and left early the next morning towards Sinj, where we were caught in the festivities of a public holiday all over Croatia celebrating Mary, mother of God. The day ended again in a local’s house, only a few km from the border with BiH. Luckily for us, as it was just a big holiday, they had had the entire family over - close to around 30 people. So there was a lot of left over food, drinks and desserts - YUM! Again a good night’s sleep, and an early departure.
We crossed into BiH not long after leaving the house, a bit wary. We had had a lot of people warning us against going there, but no one really said why it was dangerous besides the landmines (which are incredibly well signposted by the way, so if you use common sense you will be fine). However, people say first impressions count the most and our first few minutes in BiH were a huge success, first gliding past the 10s of cars holding grumpy people waiting (sometimes hours) in line to cross the border, followed by a visit to a bike shop to buy backup bike tubes and yummy, cheap figs bought from a local street side market! Woohoo, BiH rocks!
However, as time went on, we deflated a bit because of the sheer amount of roadside rubbish and roadkill. Every hour you would pass a sizeable dump where the surrounding people dump their household rubbish, as well as constantly cycling past plastic bottles and wrappers that have been thrown out the window as they drive past. Adding to that are all the cats, dogs and other wild animals found flat on the roadside. We cycled the rest of the day along a rather busy road, but the drivers were courteous and the views were nice, our only complaints were the pungent fumes emitted from the many old cars that obviously hadn’t had a checkup since being bought. Repeating that though, those were our only complaints for the entire four days we spent in BiH.
Arriving in Mostar was quite easy as we circled the mountain range surrounding the valley Mostar is in. We then had an epic downhill to the town, and a further 5mkm journey to our Warmshowers host, Bambi. We stayed with him for 2 nights, and while we were there we just relaxed, explored Mostar and rested. In the afternoon we met a German couple who were living in Sweden travelling across Europe and then further. They also have a blog, which we will link here. We really enjoyed our time with them, and wish we could have spent longer with them.
(These three photos are clickable! Click them to enlarge, and maybe learn more)
The next morning we left with heavy hearts, and cycled through Mostar to the beginning of the Ćiro cycle trail. The Ćiro cycle trail is a new 100-mile paved track, between Dubrovnik on the Croatian coast and the old town of Mostar in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, which follows the route of the old Austro-Hungarian railway line. An article written about it (https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/apr/25/cyro-trail-new-cycle-track-dubrovnik-mostar-bosnia) linked here gives a lot of good information about the trail, where it goes and it’s surfaces and quality. We really enjoyed the Ćiro trail, but there was on section that we found incredibly challenging. We would however, suggest it for other cyclists because of how beautiful it was, and that it is very quiet and under populated.
(These six photos are clickable! Click them to enlarge, and maybe learn more)
We spent our last day in BiH camping on a mountain with a view over the border to the Croatian coast.
The next morning we traveled into Dubrovnik, and spent the morning exploring the old fortified town, and the rest of the afternoon at an amazing ‘secret’ local beach called Dancé beach.
(These three photos are clickable! Click them to enlarge, and maybe learn more)
It was incredibly relaxing, tourist free and beautiful. Around 3pm we carried on South to about 5km from the Montenegrin border to stay with another Warmshowers host called Marco for 2 nights. On our 2nd night there we met a road cyclist who was powering his way from Northern Europe in Denmark to Southern Europe, Athens where he lived. His name was Giannis, and we shared dinner and he invited us to stay with him in Athens. We weren’t actually planning to go to Athens, but we ended up cycling down to Athens just to see him! We left Marco’s house feeling very rested and ready for the rest of our journey.
Crossing the border in Montenegro was very easy, and our first few minutes there euphoric as it started with a massive downhill to Herceg Novi. We really enjoyed the little time we had in Montenegro, as it was amazingly beautiful and the mountain breathtakingly impressive. We followed the coast inland to Risan and then Kotor, going through the underground tunnel through the mountain to the coast again at Budva. We followed through to Bar and then Ulcinj before crossing into Albania close to Shkodër. We spent the first night in Montenegro close to Kotor, and the second by the border in Ulcinj.
(These three photos are clickable! Click them to enlarge, and maybe learn more)
Throughout Croatia, BiH, and Montenegro (and Albania to follow) we saw very few signs on sustainable energy being utilised and/or introduced. From speaking to locals throughout our journey, their general opinion was that sustainable energy was obviously good for the environment, but the popular opinion was that it wasn’t that necessary. We think this might also be related to the attitude of the population in terms of rubbish, recycling and plastic consumption.
Until next time! Keep an eye out for more of our stories through Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria and further!
