Out of the Balkans

Ljubljana. (Kind of pronounced: Liubliana). I think it is my favorite place name. Next to Bihac, of course. But Ljubljana, spoken by locals is a very pretty word.

Because of my busted wheel I took a train to Ljubljana, Slovenia, to have it fixed and to hang out with a friend. Slovenia is officially out of the Balkans. The locals are particular about this fact. Yes, it was part of Yugoslavia, but it never felt part of Yugoslavia. Their location, bordering Italy and Austria, allowed it to be much more connected with the rest of Europe, which is why they consider themselves Europe. Not Balkans. And definitely not Slovakia....

Slovenia was the first country to declare independence from Yugoslavia, which resulted in a 10 day war, which was fought mostly by confusion. Nobody knew who or when to fight, so it ended and they became their own country. The place felt very European. Everyone speaks english. Bike lanes are everywhere. One day was national garbage clean up day where citizens volunteered to go into the woods and clean up trash. 10% of the population showed up.



Damien on the left. Ben on the right.

I met Ben in Uzbekistan last September. He lives about 15 km outside Ljubljana, so he invited me to stay with his family while I was there. His small village was beatiful. Set up on a hill with views of the Alps. His mom was off of work for the week and cooked me all the meals I wanted. My clothes haven't smelt this clean in weeks. Fantastic.



We went to a small lake called 'Bled' and walked around. Slovenia is very green. The trees haven't completely budded yet, but there is grass everywhere. It reminded me a bit of Switzerland. But it had a better local feeling to it than Switzerland, because who knows anything about Slovenia? It was like I could feel that the locals appreciated that they had their country to themselves.




Bled.



Ben's dad, Slavko, raises birds. Not for a living. For a living he is a butcher (when I left he hooked me up with about 2 weeks worth of pruscetta and sausage). I don't even remember how many birds he has. Maybe 100 or something. This little bird was just born a few days ago.




Ljubljana from the hill near Ben's house.



Slavko and Urška. Urška is a teacher for blind children. She recently wrote a textbook for blind children and just got notice that the Slovenian government has accepted it as part of the curriculum.




Slavko let me release a pigeon. For good luck.



I'm really fidgety with birds. They kind of freak me out. They fly so eratically sometimes. I think it was the first time I ever held one. I can see the fear in my posture.



I actually had to release two birds because Slavko didn't think the first pictures turned out good enough. (The birds come back when they get hungry....)

There was a European Dog Tracking competition in Slovenia while I was there, and it was held in Slavko's hometown. So we went and saw the awards ceremony. Slovakia won.....(It's not that the Slovenians don't like Slovakia, but the rest of the world always confuses the two countries. European newspapers will report on the Slovenian soccer team, but the picture will be the Slovaks. That kind of stuff. It's almost like the rest of the world thinking that American's like having Texas be part of the union....).



Ben's cousin plays a mean accordian. He is actually really really good. His instructor is representing Slovenia in what is the equivalent of 'Europe's got Talent' or something like that.

Slavko's brother lives on the farm where they grew up. His brother was just like a typical Idaho/Montana/Wyoming rancher. His clothes, his facial hair, his demeanor. It was cool to see.



Ponies.


Slavko and Ben inside the house Slavko grew up in. Which is no longer used, or liveable.



Outside his childhood home. You have to understand, Slavko is a really energetic man. Doesn't speak a word of english, but uses so many gestures while he speaks that nearly everything comes across anyway. And he was even more energetic when we got to his home town. Showing me his house, his farm, introducing me to locals, him talking to locals. It was very contagious. Ben has a really cool family.


Bloke (kind of pronounced: Blowkay) is where Slavko is from. Which is also where skiing was invented. The actual place where skiing was invented.



Ben's cousins, uncle (the rancher), Ben and Slavko.


We took a day trip to Trieste, Italy. It was nice. We weren't there long. I think James Joyce wrote part of Ulysses here....but I'm probably wrong.



Since we were close we went to Venice. On a whim. I went to Venice on a whim. Strange.


I was here in 2003 and it rained the whole time and everything was flooded so we had to walk around on raised platforms. The weather was nice this time, but man are there a lot of tourists.

Beotches and Broken Trees

Still in Croatia, but getting near to Bosnia and Hercegovina....

I didn't like Bosnia. The above picture and the following two pictures are the only ones I took while there. To be fair, I was only in Bosnia for about 80 kilometers, and it rained most of the time, which can make riding only slightly less fun. But there was a ton of traffic and we couldn't get away from it. Rain and traffic makes riding not fun at all. We were just rushed to get out.

We stayed the night in a town called Bihac (pronounced: beotch). It was a nice little place set next to a pretty river. It rained the whole time. And this burned down house was on the main street.

This photo was hanging on the wall of a restaurant we stopped at. For real, this was hanging on the wall. And it was the kind of restaurant where all the tables were set with nice looking napkins folded neatly around the silverware. It wasn't a hole in the wall.

Back in Croatia we went to Plitvička National Park. There was no traffic on the road at all.

This is why there was no traffic.

And this. And about 15 more similar instances that I didn't take pictures of. But the scenery was spectacular. I think I only had to unload my bike a few times to get through the trees.

Pretty soon we rolled into a large system of lakes connected by waterfalls. Because it had rained so much there were waterfalls everywhere.

Peter and I were then headed towards Ljubljana, Slovenia, about 2 days away, where I would hang out for a few days with a friend, and Peter would head into Austria to catch his train home.

Then my rear rim split. Right along the braking surface. I was able to ride about another 50 km, but the split was getting larger and larger and my wheel was getting wobblier and wobblier, so I needed to do something different. We rode past a train station and a train was coming in 20 minutes. So I said goodbye to Peter and hopped on the train.

Remember the last time I cycled with Peter in Tajikistan? We were planning to ride together for another 2 or 3 days over the Mat's Pass into the Shokdora Valley. I was super excited about riding the pass, because neither of us new of any cyclists ever having done it before. And Tajikistan was remote and beautiful. But then my rear tire blew out and I had to bail. When my tire blew out that day, we sat down on the side of the road and cooked a pot of pasta and then said goodbye. This time, when my rim split, I quickly jumped on a train and said goodbye, while Peter rode off into the rain.

I've been on a bicycle trip for thirteenpointfive months now and only two times have I had to bail out of what I was doing because of mechanical problems. Two times. And both times Peter was there, and it was at the tail end of our riding together.

This time wasn't as disappointing. All I missed was riding through rolling countryside in the rain.

Thanks for the ride Peter. Good times man. Good times.

Bay of Kotor

Somehow this got put out of order....I hit the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro before I went to Croatia....

The 800 m or whatever it was descent into Kotor was probably the most scenic descent I've ever done. I have no idea how many switchbacks there were (you can see them on the map), but the bay was spectacular. There was no wind and the water was perfectly still all day. It was before noon and the sun was still a bit low, which made all the pictures crap, but it was spring on the coast and there was the Adriatic, and rocky mountains, and red rooved villages, and beautiful water. Good times.

Kotor is right up on the closest bit of water in this picture. You can't see the town, it's hidden behind the hills. There is the bay, and then a ridge, and then another bay and then another ridge and then the Adriatic. Fantastic.

You still can't Kotor in this picture. After lunch we rode right up against the water by that small village shown, around the horn, and then took a ferry to get back on the north side of the water.

Kotor, across the water. It's an old walled city made of cobblestones and windy narrow streets. No cars. It was nice, albeit very touristy.

We ate lunch in this square. I had a huge greek salad and a 3 cheese pasta dish. It was mediocre, but the atmosphere made up for it.

It didn't take long to ride around the bay. Most of the traffic is on the eastern side, since we rode on the west side it was really quiet. The water was glassy smooth and the sun was shining.

It was crazy how the houses that were directly across the street from the water were lived in by regular people. There were crappy cars out front with women bent over in the doorway washing clothes in a bucket and drying them from the window of the second floor. You'd think that the people living across the street from such a beautiful bay would all be super fancy rich civil engineers living it up, but instead it was like they were just normal people.

I'm such a big fat fan of the Surly Big Dummy. I get a gleam in my eye just looking at it....

Two small islands in the background. I couldn't be sure because it was too far away, but it looked like a mosque on the island on the left, and a church on the island on the right.

Girl talking to man across the street from boat with small fire burning in the background. Cool how it's just a normal life in such an amazing setting. If only Moses Lake were still charming and beautiful instead of all touristy and commercial....

Ferry ride to the other side. We had spent about 45 minutes from Kotor getting to this ferry dock. It was a pleasant and easy bike ride, but I wouldn't have been happy if the ferry wouldn't let us on for whatever reason, because we would have had a long ride back around. When I rocked up to the ticket booth I asked for one ticket and the man looked at me and asked if I was taking the bicycle. I said "you betcha". He waggled his finger at me as if to say "tsk tsk" and then finished it by saying "cyclists don't need a ticket". So very different from the other experiences I've had trying to get my bike onto some type of public transportation. I'm getting closer and closer to Europe, where cycling is an accepted form of transportation/recreation. I love it.

Herceg Novi, Montenegro, right near the Croatian border. I got a lot of sun that day.

Herceg Novi and night.

Charlie and Peter and Herceg Novi and night.

Herceg Novi, while heading towards Croatia the next morning.