Into the Balkans

Hi,

Some people have  been asking if I´m still alive so thought  it was time to update the blog.

On the last three weeks I crossed Austria,  been through a tiny stretch of Italy, across Slovenia all the way to the Croatian coast.

After leaving Munich behind, I had few quiet days on the road before getting to Salzburg, I decided to take a day off to visit the beautiful city which also happens to be Mozart's birthplace. From here I headed south following the Euro velo 7 cycle route which takes you across the alps avoiding the hardest climbs. On the last day in Austria I met an interesting German cyclist who would ring on virtually every house asking for a free room until someone felt sorry for him and let him in! Unfortunately this didn't work when I was with him so we ended up booking in into a hostel.

After crossing Austria I was ready to move on to Slovenia, but as a local cyclist warned me there was a high pass between the two countries so I took a detour through Italian territory along an old railway line. When i got to Italy I really felt like continuing down south but I'm am concerned that winter will find me in the Pamir mountains so  I decided it would be more sensible to continue east.

In Slovenia I crossed Triglav national park and stopped in the touristy town of Bled, It's a famous rowing lake and it's really pretty, however my best memories from this place will be for the traditional kremma rezina cake which was delicious!

From Bled I headed to the capital city of Slovenia, Ljubljana, where Robin (from WS) agreed to host me. After going through lots of quiet towns in Europe it was  nice to find a lively place like this, plenty of people in the streets anytime of the day.

From Ljubljana I arrived to the Croatian border in couple of days, used as I was to open European borders I ignored the police on the border thinking that they were doing random checks and cycled on, they immediately started yelling at me! apparently Croatia is not part in the schengen agreement so everyone must show passport in their way in and out.

Once the misunderstanding was clarified I continued towards Zagreb where another member of WS, Drago was waiting for me. Drago is a very generous person and has done lots of crazy cycle trips, also like many Croatian people he is very religious and is an active member of the International Church of Christ. On Sunday I attended mass with him, it was an entertaining ceremony, he translated all the priest said and had a chance to meet many of hiss friends who where interesting and knew quite a bit about the basque country.

Following Dragos advice I change route and headed towards the coast visiting plitvice national park on the way. I've seen lots of signs of the relatively recent war they had in ex-Yugoslav area, they've kept the damaged facades untouched and in mountainous areas I came across lots of sings warning about landmines.

Now the plan is to get to Split and from there to go to Bosnia and later on to Serbia, I heard the Croatian version of the war so it will be interesting to hear the neighbours view on it.

PS.I been having difficulties to find people to host me in this area so haven't taken time to make a video, I'll try to do in when I find a suitable place to work.