The Balkans

After leaving Podgorica we decided to head towards Kosovo and skip Albania as the northern road there is poor and there have been reports of criminal activity (according to the travel reports I read).  The hills of course had to continue and there were plenty of them in the Balkans.  Seemed like every day we were climbing at least 1,000m. 

We exited Montenegro by crossing the border at Kula Pass and met a retired man from San Diego riding his motorcycle around the Balkans.  Into Kosovo we had a long downhill which was nice, but bad on the brakes.  Due to me being paranoid about the landmine situation in the former Yugoslavian region I have been insisting we camp in places where people have set foot on.  As such, we finally found a spot in Decan, Kosovo at a school.  There we waited until it got dark to set up shop.  Unfortunately there were some young punks around that never stopped bugging us.  A few of them were civil and nice but there was this one dumbass that was narcissistic and clearly enjoyed pleasuring himself.  He kept calling me ‘boss’, wanted to compare muscles, abs and chest sizes, and admired Trevor’s legs.  What really annoyed me was that he had to touch everything on my bike.  And try things on.  He didn’t know any English and I didn’t know his language so you would think there shouldn’t be much to talk about.  But he kept saying stuff to us and laughing.  He was making fun of us and all his buddies were laughing.  I really wanted to drop this guy flat on his face.  In the end we spent all that time waiting to set up shop but thought there were too many of them and there was the risk they could try something later in the night so we went and found a hotel to stay at.  I was pissed.   

Overall, Kosovo was pretty crappy.  The place really looks like it is still war torn with beat up buildings and filth everywhere.  What we did find peculiar is that there are many foreign plates everywhere… not sure if they are there to help the recovery process or they are nationals that immigrated to other European nations.  Because we saw many German and Swiss plates.  Pretty sure they weren’t there on vacation because Kosovo is definitely not on any hot travel destination list that is for sure. 

I had a few conversations with people I like to call ‘WTF just went down?!?’.  The first was in Skopje, Macedonia.  We spent the night at a park in the city centre and this guy approaches us on his bike and asks if we are foreigners.  I reply we are and are from Canada.  Since his English isn’t all that great I really don’t know what else to say so I continue cooking my pasta.  He then just starts to stare at me for the next minute and then all of a sudden says ‘sorry’ and cycles off.  I guess he thought I was a little annoyed at him staring at me which has some truth but I don’t think I showed it.  In any event, I was confused. 

The second conversation was with this pretty attractive girl in Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria.  She and her pregnant friend pull up to the McDonalds we were chilling at for the free wifi (nice to have that back albeit momentarily) and she tells me her car ran out of fuel and if we had any petrol in a bottle.  I say no, sorry, but there is a Shell gas station right behind you?  She then goes into McDonalds with her friend to use the washroom and sit down for a small chit chat.  Then they come back out and she asks me if I have any food because they are hungry.  I reply no, don’t have but you are standing outside a McDonalds and there is a Billa Supermarket just across the street.  Again, I was left dazed and confused.  Believe me this girl has to have some money because she has the breast implants to show for and they were on display for the world to see.  I’d like to think maybe it was a pickup line and I just didn’t clue in but I doubt that.  Pretty sure she was just trying to bum something off of us.

In other news Trevor bought a whole new wheel in Sofia after the rim broke while the mechanic was replacing the hub.  We did meet a couple of nice gentlemen while waiting for the new wheel.  One Bulgarian man told us how bad things are in Bulgaria and offered to let us stay at his place in the south. 

We are now in Istanbul after a few days of intense headwinds which was not fun.  Lots of nice Turkish people though.  One guy at Bim’s Supermarket gave us 2 free chocolate bars and then snuck me a loaf of bread from the delivery truck.  This other guy in his car stopped us on this intense hill we were climbing and gave us some refreshing towels.  Thought at first maybe they were teabags but nope, refreshing towels… we’ll take it! 

Tomorrow we cross the Bosphorus and enter Asia… 

The Balkans… and its many mountains. 

Another find!  This time 3 bags of Clipsy snacks.  Who tosses 3 unopened bags on the side of the road?  Really?  I don’t understand.  Still though my best find was the Apple headphones I found in Germany.  I am currently using them now after my old headphones died.       

This is the school we were going to stealth camp at in Decan, Kosovo.

Trevor navigating us out of Prizren.

As we were nearing the Macedonian border in Kosovo we turn a corner and there is this cow eating grass on the side of the road.  Unfortunately it gets startled by us, and then books it across the road and bam!  It collides right into this van.  The cow falls to the ground and I thought it was done for but it manages to get up slowly and staggers off.  As you can see the van took some damage too.  The driver was left distraught. 

Me at the centre of Skopje, Macedonia in front of a statue that bears an uncanny resemblance to Alexander the Great.  The Macedonian capital isn’t a bad place to cycle as they have a nice path that runs along the river.  Skopje exceeded my expectations. 

From Macedonia we went through Serbia to avoid what looked like a busy road to Bulgaria.  Here is some nice lake we passed in Serbia.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia.

Here is the spot where I had that conversation with that girl.  As you can see Trevor is sitting outside a McDonalds and behind him is a Shell gas station.  You would think all her troubles could easily be taken care of here right? 

Had another quick cycle through a country, this time Greece.  It was easygoing there as the road we were on had a generous shoulder, something we hadn’t seen in quite some time. 

Doing some washing up in Turkey.  After another few crappy nights where my stomach acted up again I have decided to buy water in Turkey and onward.  I still am not sure what was causing my bloating and gas problems but I think the water may have had something to do with it. 

Trevor most impressed with the Aya Sofya.

Didn’t think we would get them the same day but here I am with our ticket into Iran.  Also if you look behind me there is a clothing store called ‘Paul Martin clothing’ and it says P.M.C. which I assume stands for Prime Minister Canada.  I found this kind of strange because I didn’t know our former prime minister is in the clothing industry, let alone having a shop in Istanbul?!  Maybe there is more to the story I don’t know…

After a stressful afternoon cycling around Istanbul trying to find a place to stay we ended it with a dip in the Sea of Marmara.  I wasn’t going to jump in but after seeing Trevor soaking it up in the water I couldn’t resist.  It was certainly refreshing because we were roasting.  Have to say Istanbul is not a place you want to cycle.  Steep, steep hills, loads of traffic, horn honking, crazy drivers and pollution of all kinds.  Trevor was almost hit by a taxi driver too.  Glad to be leaving tomorrow.