I will try to keep this post a little more brief and the let pictures speak for themselves. So this is the phase of the trip where I am basically hanging out in Bucharest for a few days waiting for the arrival of the biking posse.

Sidenote, while in Bucharest I was able to see the Spain versus USA world cup match, was fantastic!

At first I admit to a little bit of boredom here, in the sense I feel like on some days you can only walk around for hours and look at all the old stuff so much. As I’ve spent so much time on this trip solo, I’m getting a little bit tired of hanging out with myself and me. However after I did a free walking tour here, I was much more able to understand the very interesting history of the city and why the architecture is such a mish mash of different styles.

In old cities like this that have buildings dating all the way back to the first world war and beyond; some bombed in the second world war, then some rebuilt, some remain; then many demolished and rebuilt in the boring communist style during those decades; it’s easy to see why in the older parts of town you see such a mixture.

One interesting fact is the hotel that I am staying in, the Novotel, was 18 years ago built on the site of an old opera house that was bombed and destroyed in World War II. The building right next to it, which is an American designed building pre-World War II monolith with the littlest bits of art deco features, was the actual target of the bombing. It was used as a communications and broadcasting center as it was one of the tallest buildings in this area. That building still stands unscathed. On the site of the Novotel now is a strange re-creation of the very front facade of the original opera house, with a mirrored glass modern building directly behind it. Again, a very strange mix of architectural styles.

Remaining history during World War II was pretty interesting as they sided with the Germans for the first part of the war and therefore were bombed by the allies. Then at some point when it became clear that Germany was losing the war, they switched sides and aligned with the allies, then were bombed by the the Germans.

Sidenote! When Michael Jackson visited many years ago, he spoke very briefly from the balcony of the parliament building. The parliament building, the second largest administrative building in the world, (Pentagon #1) and also the heaviest single building in the world, was ordered to be built by Ceausescu. He was executed before it was finished, and much dispute about whether to finish it or not, but they finally did mostly. Anyway concerts are held on the exterior plaza of that building now. Ed Sheeran will be here in about a week. When Michael Jackson visited, the only thing he said was Hello Budapest! So I guess the joke is that Bucharest and Budapest are somewhat commonly confused.

Kris and Herb got into town, I suggested we do the same walking tour I did the other night and joined them for that, it was the same guide. I was hesitant to do the tour a second time but glad I did as there was lots of different information from the first time and a slightly different route. She was great and so informative about the history of Bucharest. We met a guy from Reno in that group that told us about a lighted water fountain show that happens on the weekends, so after the tour we walked up and found that. It’s almost like a live rock concert, loud good music all around the square with wonderful rhythmic lighted fountain show all around you. Sort of in the ballpark of the Bellaggio fountain show if you’ve seen that.

The guy we met Corey, we saw him up at the fountains again by chance and so went out and had a drink after. He had a pretty interesting story, an IT guy and in his late 30s decided if he was ever going to travel, he better do it now, so he’s been on the road for a couple of years already. (Now in early 40s, it was interesting to hear him say about how important it is to get out and do the things you want to do in your life because you never know how long you’re going to live. Funny hearing that from a 40 something while I’m in my 60s!) He’s traveled extensively throughout the world, generally staying in hostels or low-budget places. Super nice guy.

Part of the conversation over drinks was about his seven years attendance of Burning Man. He’s now connected to a group of people who do giant art installations sometimes for a year in advance of the actual Burning Man event and then reassemble their work on the playa. Re-inspired me to try to go to that sometime. I think I’ve always been hesitant to go because of the perception of expectation that you be a participant or perhaps a contributor of weirdness to the event. But he suggested if you just go with the idea of being a participant, there are many opportunities to participate in a variety of events once there, that you don’t need to have some pre-planned connection with a group or team of any sort.

Shook hands as the night ended even though the old town was just coming to life with people around midnight. Chris and I would have brought the age demographic up quite a bit had we stayed. But it was time to call it a night and got back to the hotel for a good sleep. Chris was a real trooper staying up through his jet lag, but that’s the best way to do it. Herb had returned to his hotel earlier. So now another sunny day here, awaiting the arrival of Orlin at about 1 PM where we will collect ourselves, then go to the airport and pick up Paul and transfer two hours to the Transylvania town of Senaia. That’s also the location of the summer home of the late Nikolai and Elaine Ceausescu which we will see.

Tomorrow we will finally be on the bikes again for the next eight or nine days traveling around the Transylvania region, seeing villages and castles and no doubt the infamous castle of Vlad Dracula. Weather forecast is good and high 80s, so perfect riding weather!

OK so this one is going to be sort of long, it will encompass many days including my last day of cycling into Skopje; meeting up with Boro’s dad and cousin; the couple of days it took me to ride a bus first to Sofia Bulgaria, then the next day to Bucharest, Romania; aaaand the two days after that I spent in Bucharest up to this point.

Cycling into Skopje

From Gostivar, Google maps walking route put me on a beautiful back road, but then shortly after I was in the middle of a field on a fairly visible trail. That quickly disappeared into no visible trail whatsoever and going directly through a bunch of thicket beside a river for a while. But I got so many scratches and rashes on my legs from walking through who knows what kind of grasses, I had welts all over my legs for the rest of the day that I desperately tried not to scratch! Google maps giveth and taketh away.

Somewhere in the field, I ran across a farmer. I had sort of communicated by gesture and words to him that it was my intent to continue across this field, he sort of smiled and shook his head and made it very clear that there was no path for me through there. He pointed down a different dirt path and said that was the way I need to take to go. He was very nice, actually offered me some of his juice which I accepted. I took his advice and continued the other direction which certainly added a couple of miles to my route but at least it was a route!

Finally got out to a significant enough road to continue, through farm country and had one small hills to cycle over before I dropped down into the attractive medium size city of Skopje, Macedonia. My fifth country, btw…

The map route took me straight to Alexander Square, a large beautiful and very nicely restored Central Square along the Vardar River with several bridges and beautiful buildings all around. Skopje was a beautiful European city and definitely the nicest one I had been in in quite some time.

As I knew this would be the end of my solo cycling prior to meeting the gang, I opted for a delicious celebratory cold beer right beside the Square. As if having a cold beer needs a celebratory reason… Ha!

After the beer cooldown got a hotel room for about $45 a few steps off the main square.

It is Sunday. Soon as I got cleaned up, I rode a couple miles to the central bus station and got my ticket to Sofia For Tuesday morning 7 AM.

On the way there, I talked to a taxi driver that I passed by. I had seen that one of the major activities of the city is to go to a canyon called Lake Matka, it has a dam which created a beautiful body of water in the canyon. There was a group bus tour out there but the taxi driver said he would take me out there, wait for me and bring me back for the same amount so I’ll do that with him and scheduled that for Monday morning 9 AM. In this part of Europe and perhaps all of Europe, literally every single museum was closed on Mondays, so going to the lake was really the best option for me.

On the way, chatted with the taxi driver for quite a while, was interesting to hear his take on Macedonia and how everything was better back in the days when Yugoslavia was intact until the United States messed that up.

Joining the European Union is looked on favorably here in general by Macedonians, and they are hoping they will be inducted into the union fully within the next few years. The process takes a while as the country has to adopt and implement EU standards for a variety of things, including infrastructure, monetary systems, roads, power grids, etc.

We took a boat ride out onto the lake, you’ll see one or two photos of that, and Dewan came with me in the boat. He was a nice enough guy for sure. Came back and looked at the Roman aqueducts 2000 years old before he dropped me off in old town, after which I had a cold beer and then took a nap, before I meet up with Boro’s dad at 6 PM.

So at 6pm, I got to to Destan restaurant and waited around 20 minutes, was going to text Boro but he texted me and said they were waiting for me. Apparently there are two of the same restaurant nearby!! So I trotted over to the other one and it was a great delight to meet Boro‘s dad who I had met briefly once in Portland, and his cousin who speaks fluent English.

I had a wonderful time chatting with them. His cousin Dulè had to leave early, so probably another hour of chatting with Boro‘s dad mano a mano. He spoke a very small amount of English, but between the words and the gestures and the emotions, it was very easy to communicate with him about life, what’s important in life, life‘s experiences, and our common experiences as humans.

It’s easy to say that this was certainly the highlight of my trip thus far. There has been so much solo time and so few conversations with people, (other than me, myself, and I) this definitely brought my solo cycling phase to a very positive and enjoyable close!

Btw, a tasty nice dinner with the kebab and baked beans, excellent bread and beer.

Back to the hotel in bed early, packed everything into two bags instead of four, got to get to the bus station by 6:30 AM.

Bus day to Sofia

Got to the bus, basically had to bribe the bus driver €10 to get my bike on the bus, he kept acting like it wasn’t going to fit or something. No English. It was kind of weird, but then at the last minute he took me over to the other side of the bus where nobody could see and he said money money, so I gave him the equivalent of €10 and fantastically an open compartment appears in my bike fits and no problem. The way of the world, I guess!

Uneventful six hour ride to Sofia, the border crossing always takes a while but no problems really. Arrived in Sofia Bulgaria and found a $50 hotel not far from where I will pick up the bus to Bucharest tomorrow morning. Walking around this afternoon, found another big pedestrian walkway closed to vehicles.

Here again; old buildings, shops and restaurants, lots of people walking around, lots of smokers, lots of people talking on cell phones. The world is becoming more and more homogenized most certainly.

Saw some sites and took a few photos here in Sofia; Mostly during my free walking tour at 6 PM which was well worth the tip that you give the guide at the end. There were probably 20 people in the group, and the last 40 minutes or so it was drizzling rain, so it was pretty damp by the time it was done, but I learned a lot about Bulgarian history, especially during the communist years.

Got back to the hotel and after drying off, dozed off and prepared for another day on the bus to Bucharest.

Bus day to Bucharest

So between Sophia and Bucharest, I found an online bus system that worked really well called FlixBus. The price was reasonable, you do everything in an app, much more organized than the old school bus I was on yesterday.

After five hours, we crossed the Danube River border into Romania. The border crossing itself took about 45 minutes, and once across as we got closer to Bucharest, the traffic became horrendous. I think in total the bus ride took about seven hours. Definitely took most of the day! While on the bus I had made a reservation for a hotel away from the central downtown that was much cheaper than the overpriced European hotels in the central zone. I guess I’ve had the luxury of spending only $25-30 a night most of this trip, so it’s a bit shocking to come back to American/EU prices closer to $100 a night in the central area.

Just a note that even though I don’t have a photo, we drove through miles and miles of sunflower Fields, presumably for oil.

Once at the bus station, it was about a 7 mile bike ride through a lot of noisy heavy traffic to get to my hotel. A nice little place called hotel Christina, as I arrived the owner was outside and we chatted for a while, super nice guy and everyone at the hotel seems very friendly.

Inside it is the 60s kind of place with lots of bright yellow and bright white accents, an unusual hotel but a great and mostly quiet refuge from the busy main streets of Bucharest.

I arrived at the hotel around 5:30 PM, got settled and then found a restaurant nearby. The restaurant Galletto is known for its specialty, roasted rooster! No joke! That’s what they say! So I ordered that and a small mixed salad, and the chicken was actually delicious! Somewhere between the size of a game hen and a small chicken, it was half of a chicken with some roasted potatoes and was very tasty. Really hit the spot!

Tourist days in Bucharest

The next day I took a walk into the main part of the town, went to the Bulgarian history Museum, a great museum for understanding the earliest history of Bulgaria up through the second world war. There are many artifacts, lots of English translation of the sequence of events and even some interesting videos. Unfortunately the second and third floors of the museum are under renovation, so no Bulgarian history past 1944! Glad I went there though, fascinating history in Europe about World War I most certainly and the near constant exchange of alliances and dominance especially in the years from 1910 through 1940. As an American, that there has never been a physical invasion in the United States (other than in Alaska briefly during World War II) puts us in very different historical position than anywhere and everywhere in Europe.

Also wandered through a beautiful old city Park, so many more people walk around it seems than in most American cities. But by about 4 PM, with the temperature near 94°, I was pretty damn exhausted and went back to the hotel and rested for a couple hours in my quiet air-conditioned room. Finally went back out to the same restaurant I had eaten the night before which is very close to the hotel, and then a good sleep.

Today I am scheduled to visit the Ceausescu mansion. Remember Nicholas Ceausescu? He was the communist dictator in Romania for about 25 years until the revolution in 1989. He and his wife, after being overthrown were unceremoniously shot by firing squad.

They are another example, like in Tirana, where the communist party administrators lived much better than everyone else did. During the revolution, the people protested by the thousands, finally entered and looted his massive home which most people had no idea was so large, ornate and fancy. Hence, the tour is of the residence where all that remains was what wasn’t looted.

Nonetheless, still pretty fancy house. He was big into birthdays, received many gifts every year from all the other communist leaders in the world, many of those items remained on display in the house. And again as in Tirana, the entire neighborhood around his residence was the fanciest and to this day, still is the fanciest area of Bucharest. The tour guide interestingly stated that there is no longer The middle class here. After the overthrow, you’re either poor and must use credit to live every day, or you’re rich and need no credit to have a house and car and a good job. During the communist years, everyone was middle-class apparently.

During the revolution, he had ordered a helicopter to help them escape. The helicopter arrived, but after picking him and his wife up, the helicopter landed in a field and the military took Nicholas and his wife into custody. It was a short time later when they were tried for genocide, in a trial that took two hours. Death by firing squad at 3pm on Christmas Day, 1989.

In the group at the tour was a couple from Baltimore, I ended up chatting with them after the tour as we discovered we were going to the same city park afterwards. He is American born but she is Romanian born, moved with her family to the United States in 1995 after they won a lottery family visa to emigrate. She was 14 years old when they moved and remembers her father taking her to the protests in the late 80s before the overthrow of the government.

So there are a few photos of the house but nothing overwhelmingly spectacular to see in the photos, however the history was very interesting.

The couple I spoke to told me about Beraré, a large German style beer hall along the lake in King Mihai Park which is where I was going to walk through after the Ceausescu residence. I stopped there, had a mediocre beer but it was a good break to get off my feet for a little while as I had walked a couple miles to get to the residence.

Sidenote: There are the same style of electric scooters here available for rent sitting around in random places throughout the city. Those people move pretty damn fast down all the pathways, you definitely have to keep your eye open for them. I did see one collision yesterday between one of them and a taxi, it was minor and the scooter guy didn’t even go down, but a lot of yelling ensued.

Day after tomorrow finally people begin to arrive for the next phase of this trip, the ten day guided cycling tour of Transylvania!

The women’s World Cup will begin here tonight in about six hours so I hope to find that on the television in the hotel room. Go USA women!

So I apologize for the lengthy post, if you’re brave enough (or awake) to have read it this far then I applaud you! Wishing you all the best in your endeavors and your families!

On the road to Skopje

Alexander Square, Skopje, Macedonia

Lake Matka with taxi driver Dewan

2000 yr old Roman aqueduct

Boro’s dad Mitch!

Sofia, Bulgaria

Natural hot springs; health tonic for the people!

More Sofia

My bus at a break on the way to Bucharest

Unusual vodka!

Crossing the Danube into Romania

Hotel Christina, my 60’s vintage hotel for the next few days

Around Bucharest

The Ceausescu residence

King Mihai Park

Berara

More park

Just a couple more photos…

Leaving beautiful Lake Ohrid

So I climbed about 3600 feet again yesterday, a decent road with two lanes generally in the uphill side, it just seemed like it took forever to grind out those uphill miles. But you can always tell by two signs when you’re near the top; One is that you can usually feel the breeze coming downhill from the other side when nearing the top; second thing is is you can see the sign that says merging traffic when the two lanes uphill merge into one because so the two lanes can be given to the traffic on the other side. It’s funny how those signs are so welcome when you’re a cyclist in the hills!

I met three British cyclists along the way, they were riding super light, with bikepacking gear not traditional bags like I’m using this trip. They are doing closer to 100 miles a day, probably all in their 20s, one is a journalist and in theory he’s doing this for his work as long as he writes about it every day. They are basically doing one big circle of Macedonia, no other countries and doing it in one week. Super nice guys but their pace it’s not my pace.

Got into Gostivar and there are mosques nearly every half mile, so once I got into town it was common to see people in various states of Muslim dress. And in this case it means really just the women, as the men normally are wearing just whatever normal street clothes.

Found the Green Hilton which claims it’s a Hilton but clearly it is not. But for me, that is not an issue. I just want a reasonably clean room with hot water and air-conditioning! And it had all of those!

I was pretty tired after a couple days of climb in the mountains and after I got cleaned up and did laundry, I walked around the town a little bit looking for a restaurant. Not easy to see where they are, sometimes there’s just a little entry on the front and the restaurant is actually open out into a back courtyard. But wandered around for a while and eventually landed on a fast food place that is just all burgers. I hadn’t had a burger this entire trip. So with some language difficulties, figured out that I was going to order a burger that had onions and cheese mixed into the meat. When it arrived, it was monstrous, seemed like a half a pound of meat, maybe not quite that, but a lot! That huge tasty burger with some fresh tomatoes and lettuce and a handful of french fries cost the equivalent of $2.92.

Earlier walking around town, I went past several shops selling clothing, couple of which had Muslim style clothing with head coverings on display on manikins. Me as American, I don’t have a lot of exposure to the Muslim community in America, at least not in Portland and certainly not so in Anchorage. So to be in the midst of a community in which half or more of everybody walking around is clearly Muslim, it’s just different.

My hotel room window looks out to a mosque with a tall minaret with speakers on it. It’s probably 300 feet away from my window. About every two hours, a voice in Arabic sings a kind of spoken song, of course I can’t understand a word of it but after a few times of listening to it, I almost look forward to hearing it. The Voice is usually a male, but so far at least once I’ve heard a female voice.

In Islamic tradition, Muslims are called to the five scheduled daily prayers (salat) by a formal announcement, called the adhan. The adhan is called out from the mosque by the muezzin.

Next morning and the error…

So I spent the night in the hotel, got everything packed up and got on the road in the morning a little bit late around 9:30 AM. I was blissfully on my way to Skopje on a quiet back road when for some reason I decided to look in my front pouch to confirm my passport was there. Well, guess what! Not! It was back at the hotel.

Most places I have stayed at take a quick photo of the passport and and hand it back to you when you pay them for the room, this one kept it in the drawer and I was so tired yesterday on arrival and didn’t catch that bit of detail passing before my eyes. I will call this my technical mishap for the day!

Anyway I was already about 10 miles out of town and had to turn around. That made for a 20 mile day before I would even start my trip to Skopje, so I elected to just stay here another night.

Unfortunately I’m getting close to the end of my cycling time here until I meet the gang in Bucharest. I will probably finish cycling tomorrow in Skopje, and then take a bus from there to Sofia Bulgaria, and then another bus the next day to Bucharest. I really don’t have enough time to make it to Sofia without making it a brutal death march style of a bike ride, and I’m not interested in that at this point. So will take my time over the next few days getting to Bucharest.

On arrival in Skopje tomorrow, I will meet Boro‘s dad and possibly a cousin for dinner. Probably Monday morning I will catch the bus to Sofia and as I think it’s about at least five hours, I will probably stay the night somewhere there before catching the bus the next day to Bucharest.

All in all, by tomorrow, I’ve cycled about 9000 km or about 540 miles. I think my total climbing in that period of time was about 25,000 feet.

My objective was to have a good trip and see the sights, not necessarily get to any particular place at any particular time, and I feel like I’ve totally accomplished that! So the next few days I will be more like a basic tourist, not really cycling any miles until next weekend when I start the supported trip with Paul and Kris and Edgar and Prash and Herb.

It’s been great so far…

Random photo comments:

-So you see in the photo, I went by an under construction large greenhouse complex that clearly looks like it’s going to be growing pot! Guess I was surprised to see that in Macedonia!

Sidenote: medical marijuana is legal in Macedonia, but not recreational. 13 states of with EU affiliation have legalized medical marijuana. So presumably this was a facility to grow for medical purposes. Macedonia is on track to join the EU in the next couple of years.

-The minaret just outside my window, and next to it the clock tower, built in the 1600s during the ottoman empire.

Leaving Resort Ballkan

When I left the resort Balkan thankfully, it was one of those overhyped overpriced places where half of the stuff was broken. Nice spot but ready to MoveOn.

Cycled through the morning until a noonish stop for a quick lunch at one of the towns along the way at the Reasaurant Botanika. Are usually try to eat very little late lunch because cycling on a full stomach is not so pleasant. So I ordered some grilled chicken, assuming it would come with something else but no, it was just a chopped up chicken half that was grilled. It was really good but not so much in the carb world, but still nice and salty. Had my standard Coca-Cola as well.

Back on the bike about 1 PM and not quite realizing ahead of me was a giant mountain pass. So I started cycling up the hill to the border of Macedonia, as it turns out it was about 3969 feet climb in about 12 km, but I felt like 1 million bucks and super healthy by the time I got to the top! About 72 km or 45 miles in total today. One of the biggest days and certainly the biggest climb of the trip. But damn, everything worked, the bike is great, all the body parts are doing OK except for a few unmentionable chafings, and all is good!

I crossed the border into North Macedonia once I got to the top. My FIFTH country on this trip! From there, about 20k mostly downhill into Struga arriving about 4 PM and I was ready to clean up and get a bite to eat. Haven’t had pizza since the first couple days of this trip so I had to Shopska salad and a really good pizza. Filled me up after the long day!

Like many of these Balkan cities, Struga had a beautiful pedestrian only walkway pretty much down the main street of the oldest part of the town, with shops and restaurants and amazingly a couple of casinos. While that part of the glitz was unpleasant to see, the canal/river that ran right through much of it was just very beautiful. I guess some American cities have done the same thing, San Antonio comes to mind; but haven’t been there since I was about 13 years old; as I recall I was there with my mom to visit my aunt Hazel and uncle Tex.

Waking in Struga

Had a decent sleep at the hotel Montenegro in Struga. €18 or about $21 for the room including breakfast. Got up and ate the included omelette breakfast and get packed up. My intent was to proceed towards Skopje. But speaking to the guy there said I should definitely spend the day in Ohrid, considered the gem of Macedonia, as he put it. My original idea of this trip was to spend the day here anyway as the photos and the history informed me to stay there a day.

So I cycled the beautiful road around lake Ohrid about 15 km to the town of Ohrid, got into town and was looking at my phone for lodging options and a woman walked up and said are you looking for accommodations? This has happened to me several times. So I followed her and her daughter back to her place, very funky and kind of musty but that will work just fine for me at €15 or about $18!!!

My intention was to get a place quickly and then see the sights of the area. So I quick changed out of my biking stuff, walked down to the pier and got right on the 11 AM boat to Saint Naum, a scenic very old monastery about a 90 minute boat ride from here.

For you Carol… Even on the boat, there is background music. The second song that came on was Meatloaf “I will do anything for love but I want to do that”. Funny! I’ve always been curious to ask what people think it is that he won’t do for love? Remember this is the same artist who did the song, paradise by the dashboard light. The refrain in that song is “I’m going to love you to the end of time.” But then by the end of the song, he’s singing “Now I’m praying for the end of time so I can end my time with you.” I think both of those songs have different but somewhat hidden messages that most people don’t think about… Anyway an obvious major mental sidetrack to the travel commentary!

Lake Ohrid straddles the mountainous border between southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of Europe’s deepest and oldest lakes, with a unique aquatic ecosystem of worldwide importance, with more than 200 endemic species. It’s about 10 miles x 22 miles.

The town of Ohrid at the northeastern end of the lake, is a city in North Macedonia, the seat of Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the eighth-largest city in the country, with over 42,000 inhabitants as of 2002. Ohrid once had 365 churches, one for each day of the year, and has been referred to as a “Jerusalem of the Balkans”. The city is rich in picturesque houses and monuments, and tourism is predominant. It is located southwest of Skopje, west of Resen and Bitola. In 1979 and in 1980 respectively, Ohrid and Lake Ohrid were accepted as Cultural and Natural World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Ohrid is one of only 28 sites that are part of UNESCO’s World Heritage that are Cultural as well as Natural sites.

I did not cycle around the entire perimeter of the lake, but on the boat right now I can see that pretty much all the way around the lake, with not great density, are resorts and hotels spread out everywhere, what a lovely place this would be to spend a week or two! Swimming in the lake is common, and the water is very clean.

Off the boat now and to the area around St Naum monastery. There are a couple small restaurants around, I had a nice mixed salad of cucumbers, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, and shredded beets. Yes, beets! A rare thing for me to eat since I usually think they taste like dirt. It was delicious and in these warmer days, nothing better than a great salad!

Well I don’t often say this about places I visit but wow, the St Naum Monastery is just a little bit oversold! The monastery is 80% hotel and restaurant, 20% monastery and church. And while the site of the monastery here may be from the 6th century, the church itself is an obvious rebuild of much more recent vintage. So while the boat ride out on the lake was just so comfortable in the breeze and cooler air on the lake so great, the monastery was worth about a 10 minute walk through.

As the afternoon warms up, thunderstorms are brewing over the lake, so won’t be surprised if I get rain on the way back.

Just a few drops on the way back. After getting back on shore, I wandered around the town a little bit and then figured it was about time for dinner. Had a long leisurely shopska good salad and plate of pasta. Surprise! But it does seem to be the breakfast of this champion.

As I was wandering around the pedestrian area after dinner, there was a stage set up with mostly teenager and younger dancers from various balkan countries who were demonstrating their traditional dance and costume. Was kind a nice to watch them dance for a while, reminded me of folk dance classes at Saint Elizabeth when I was a kid. Exact same kind of music!

Got back to the room, working on the blog, will hit the rack before too long.

Random photos:

I came across a pack of about a dozen dogs just wondering around in one of the towns, thankful that I was on the road above them. I’ve had a few dogs chase me but in the heat, it seems like they don’t have much vigor.

The same town with the dogs, there was a beautiful natural turf soccer field right in the middle of the town.

You’ll notice I don’t have many photos of people. I guess it is just not my style to interact in a way that ultimately I must ask to take a photo of a person. I know many people cherish the photos they get of people while traveling, but I somehow consider it to be invasive. However I did try to get a photo today of a guy I saw at the fort dance, I’m pretty certain he was the brother of the guy on the Alaska Airlines tail.

I’ve run across quite a bit of roadkill, probably the most common is snakes. But as I was climbing up the hill yesterday, I saw, what I believe, is a hedgehog. It was not alive, but it was in great shape! I mean how often do you see a roadkill hedgehog in great condition? Anybody? Bueller? Exactly! That’s why I thought I’d snap a photo…

The statue of St. Naum. Saint Naum (Bulgarian and Macedonian: Свети Наум, Sveti Naum), also known as Naum of Ohrid or Naum of Preslav (c. 830 – December 23, 910) was a medieval Bulgarian writer, enlightener, one of the seven Apostles of the First Bulgarian Empire and missionary among the Slavs. He was among the disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius and is associated with the creation of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic script. Naum was among the founders of the Pliska Literary School. Afterwards Naum worked at the Ohrid Literary School. He was among the first saints declared by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church after its foundation in the 9th century.

So yes, I’ve taken to copying text out of Wikipedia and posting it in my blog. Is that so wrong?

Tirana and a day off, Hotel Kruja

Got into Tirana, Albania in the early afternoon, had looked over a few possible hotels, one that popped up was a small family owned one a few streets away from the main drag, hotel Kruja. Looked good to me on arrival and seemed like a pretty quiet street so as it turns out it’s four floors, no elevator, the only room they had available right now was on the top floor, but they said it was an apartment and €30 which is about $35 US. So I just said yes of course, they offered me a free beer on the back patio one of course I was going to stay! (Remember in most of the world, the street level floor is zero, so the fourth floor is actually the fifth in our USA thinking.)

Very nice place, not fancy by any means but nice in that it’s on the top floor, there’s a bit of a view out a couple of windows, there is a little balcony and it’s very clean. Nice owners and I will spend two nights here as I was going to explore Tirana anyway and take a day off. Also will give me a chance to figure the logistics from here out, I do need to ride through the mountains but to do so I need to lighten my load which means I can’t camp because all the camping gear is what I will send back.

So it’s a catch 22, I have to find a route that will have housing along the way if I’m going to ship camping stuff back. And I’m inclined to do that, I’ll figure it all out tonight or tomorrow.

For now, a cool shower and just a bit of a break off the bike is inviting. (I know this about myself, given the option to camp or a hotel/motel, I will always choose the hotel/motel unless it’s stupid expensive, and I have yet to come across stupid expensive in the Balkans yet.)

Not much to say about the rest of the day, mostly hung around the room, eventually walked out to the main city park which was really beautiful right on the lake. Walked back toward the hotel and found a tavern that was big on serving meat, for about eight dollars US I got enough meat to last me and somebody else a week! Was really tasty though, good break from the Greek salads and pasta I’ve been eating every day. This is really the first meat meal I’ve had in a quite a while.

Tirana day off

Had a good sleep at the hotel Kruza. Got up in the morning and the mission was to find tape and figure out a way to get my bag shipped to get rid of 20 pounds of camping gear. Language is not English common. Found an office supply store and they had some tape. Went back to the hotel, wrapped everything up, found the FedEx store nearby but it was very expensive to ship. But then they said I had to pay in euro cash, so I had to go back to the hotel, get some US dollars and find an exchange to get Euros as the standard Albanian currency is Lek. The exchange rate was pretty good. Got my giant package shipped off when I got back to the room I was shocked at how light all the rest of my stuff is going to be from here on out! Now with the afternoon open, looked at things to do in Tirana, and took a taxi up to BunkArt 1. There are bunkers all over Albania that are left over from the Russian years and this is one of the largest. It should be interesting and then from here it’s a short walk to the tram ride up to Tikjak mountain.

Bunkart is an amazing museum of Albanian history starting from about 1939 and the invasion from the rise of the Italian fascists. Followed by assistance from the British to fight the fascists. Remember that Albania is directly across the Adriatic from the heel of the Italian boot.

My gosh that was one of the most interesting museums I’ve ever been to! In this huge bunker, with hundreds of rooms inside, many of the rooms been converted to linear history Albania starting about 1939. Fascinating history, something that we, or at least I, never really heard anything about growing up. But like much of Europe, there is another whole world of history out there that many Americans have no clue about because we tend to be so goecentric.

Glad I took the time to stop in Tirana and stop at this place. For me to begin to describe the history of helping it would be fruitless on this blog. But long story short, eventually communists roll down and from about 1978 to 1991, Albania was held back from any real progress and connection with the rest of the world by a communist government. 1991 is when things started to change.

After, I walked 10 minutes uphill to the Dajti Ekspres which is a cable car up to the top of Dajti mountain. Unfortunately right after I bought my ticket, they delayed any runs because there is a giant thunderstorm brewing up here. Hopefully it won’t take too long.

On the cable ride and into the thunderstorm!!

Met a nice young German couple on the way down, we’re in the same cable car on the way down. Agreed to share a taxi to downtown, they are doing a 6 PM free walking tour at the main square.

So I got a quick dinner of arugula salad and gyros before I go there and maybe see them on the walking tour. It’s free walking tour but then you give a tip at the end whatever you can afford. So glad I ran into them!

Me in about 25 other people joined the free walking tour. The great Square where it began was such a beautiful public place! All massive stonework, and then there was water gurgling up over the surface of the stone to keep the area cool when it gets so hot. Great idea, but potentially hazardous with flip-flops!

Great walking tour of mostly interesting historical sites in bits and pieces of things that are important to the history of Tirana, and Albania. The tour guide was really informative, a lot about the history of Albanian how the communist years from the 70s through the night to about 1991 really set them back in so many ways. They ended up being so isolated from the rest of the world because of it and that put them behind progress in many ways. It’s interesting to know that until 1991 when communism pretty much broke up around the world, they really didn’t even have cars here! Or very few of them. The average person did not have a car! And the communists during those years, destroyed almost all of the churches and mosques, so much of the history of Albania and its tolerance for many religions was erased in those years, so I think they look back collectively and are kind of pissed off about the communists.

One of the interesting double standards to be seen here, and of course we can see it in our own world of rich and poor right now, is there was an area called the blocks which is where all of the communist government officials lived. Maybe a 10 block square area that was walled off from the rest of Tirana. Well inside of there, beautiful homes, nice restaurants, definitely where the fancy privileged people lived. After 1991 when communism fell, the people of Tirana tore down the walls and of course “invaded” and the area was later gentrified, is now still a privileged area but with no walls. Full of fancy restaurants and bars in that sort of thing. The rich. The not rich. The poor. The way of the world…

One interesting sidenote is the street named for George W. Bush. He is the only American president to ever have visited Albania, so they named a street after him appropriately. Good on you, George! The guide joked that he is pretty sure that our current US president doesn’t even know that Albania is a country.

The walking tour was free and you give it to the end, there was probably 25 people, I was so surprised to see that many! But it was an English tour, so definitely some Americans in the group which I made friends with two young guys from Texas who just graduated from college and we’re on a two month tour of Europe. They of course have never known much about the Balkans as many people don’t and were glad to be here. I offered to buy them a beer after so we had a chance to talk and it was nice to have a conversation with someone in American English. Super nice guys, both already have jobs lined up in their career fields. Both from Houston, one will go to work for an oil company in Dubai, the other staying in her Houston as an investment banker with a focus on renewable energy, even though in an obvious oil state.

As I reflected on my own life while talking to them, it sure wasn’t like that in my life plan, I got out of high school, sort of went to college for a while, then moved to Alaska on a whim; sort of tried to finish college but it was many years until I finished my bachelor degree. I guess y path was a little more self-navigated and less predictable I guess, metaphorically sort of like this trip. I have a general idea of where I’m going but pretty much making it up as I go along. But I can’t help but be so deeply appreciative and humbly thankful for my wonderful life and my amazing family that I love and miss a lot!

It was a very long but super interesting day off the bike!

Leaving Tirana toward Ohrid

Leaving Tirana, like many cities, a little bit of a hassle but in the short time I was out of the busy traffic. I had considered staying another day as there were thunderstorms forecast for where is going, but it got worse the day after so I figured I’d better go, and so glad I did as it was a great day!

I’m heading toward Elbasan; then onward to Skopje, North Macedonia via Lake Ohrid. There is a brand new highway between Tirana and Elbasan, so I was able to take the old highway which was nearly car free. More hilly and windy but such a beautiful view most of the day.

Extraordinary views up here! I climbed 2600 feet by noon, took a salad break at a restaurant at the top, the only place around. I’m in the midst of a perfect day. Some clouds off in the distance but calm and sunny here. This is the kind of day that I like to remark to myself and to anybody else I guess; this is the kind of day that makes me want to do this forever; on a bike, beautiful scenery, beautiful day, feeling healthy and peaceful and thankful as I pass through this world…

And now begins a glorious 19 km down hill to Elbasan. Life is good!

Felt strong after a day off yesterday and passed right through L Besson, I knew there would be a hotel or to pass there are still continued on for a total of 70 km today and ended at a place called resort Balkan. And nice hotel with a pool and restaurant, right beside a dirty brown river. Stopped here about 330 in the afternoon and that was the time to stop before the thunderstorm rolled in. A top notch day in every way!!! Thankful…

Podgorica

Not a town you’d necessarily choose to go to. However at the hotel I met at French guy who was here working on a major water treatment plant project, so maybe it is on the up and up. I think as I mentioned before the newer parts of town are obviously all flashy, but the old part is going to take a long time to make it look like anything attractive, however unkind that seems to say.

This city definitely feels like you can see very clearly the former Russian influence, the buildings are extremely drab and industrial, very little character in design of any sort. Many of the people look like (I guess) what I observe Russians do.

Out walking to dinner now about 1 mile away to one of the series of restaurants around what is called the clock tower that I haven’t seen yet. I’m sure I’ll get a photo! Thankfully it may be slightly under 90° now, so as long as you walk in find some shade, not too bad.

Walking through this residential area though, I definitely see a lot of older people that look like they have been through a lot in their lives. Older people are very unhealthy here, and my goodness almost everybody seems to smoke! Even in the restaurants unfortunately…

Note to self, don’t ever get a draft beer here again. I forgot, but I noticed the other day and this is the third draft on the trip now, clearly nobody has cleaned their tap lines in years, the matter how fresh the keg might be, it always tastes skunky. First world problem…

Had an interesting dinner starting with a Greek salad, those are my favorite every day! Then an interesting plate of some kind of bean soup that seemed like it was out of a can with two very delicious grilled obviously homemade sausages inside the soup. Also some roasted potatoes to keep the carbs up. Walked back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep. That was my day and evening in Podgorica.

In the morning the hotel included a little cooked breakfast it was delicious so ate that and then headed out on the road.

So leaving Podgorica was kind of a slog on busy street shoulderless road with a lot of traffic, but thankfully google walking maps routed me onto a GREAT old road through the country, it was delightful being away from the traffic.

Well my beautiful country road lasted about 4 miles, suddenly a Montenegro Policia appears going the opposite direction and tells me very clearly that I cannot continue on the road.

He used the finger symbol for cutting with scissors and said GPS something something, so either the path was not crossable or it was not a legal crossing and I suspect the latter because I’ll be crossing into Albania shortly. They check your passport stamps both on the way out and the way in, so I’m guessing it would not be a good thing to show up at border crossing without the proper stamps.

He waved me to follow him back to the main road, so that’s basically what I did. That little endeavor probably added about 7-8 miles to my day. But it was a nice ride while lasted! The adventure continues.

Oh yeah, did I mention it’s 85° at 10 AM? Holy shit!

As usual, an uneventful crossing the border into Albania.

Shkodër, Albania

So made about 40 or 45 miles to Shkoder, actually a pretty nice town with some interesting history. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before but Albania has a mixture of Christian churches and Muslim mosques, there’s clearly and intermixing that seems to work OK. But we know historically that is not so true…

The town itself is one of those that has designated one of the old historic streets with shops on both sides as a pedestrian walkway. Arrived at the very nice Hotel Petit Elita. Shower and laundry and getting organized with all my gear in the room and my bike in the parking garage. Really a nice little place, one of the nicer that I stayed at.

From there I got out of the hotel as soon as I could as I had some energy left it seemed, I wanted to see the town a little bit. On that pedestrian walkway area, finally decided it was time for cold beer about 5 PM and sat down at one of many streetside places. Got a half liter bottle beer in a frozen glass, was so delicious! $2us.

After a while four British guy showed up, about my age. They were all on a group hike, the kind where they would hire a guide to take them up into the hills and through little villages, all they would carry during the day is basically water, somebody else would haul their gear to the next town. Kind of like but the Swiss guy did the other day that I talked to.

They of course said maybe the next time they will do a cycling trip, asked me a few questions about how I organized mine and of course I told them that it was very loosely organized, in terms of where I go each day. Let me rephrase that, I have a general direction I’m going, but each day is a made-up thing each day. And you know what, that is exactly the gift of cycle touring, you kind of just make it up as you go. I guess that’s why I really like it! Reflective of my view on life perhaps… In a good way I mean!

Sidenote: have I mentioned seeing a lot of snakes? Mostly dead on the road, but a few live ones as well.

Ended up having a dinner of Greek salad without olives as usual, a plate of cured meats with a couple of cheeses, and a bowl of penne pasta with fresh tomatoes and chili peppers. It was all very very good!

I probably haven’t mentioned much about prices of things here, this hotel at $41 was the most expensive hotel I’ve stayed out I think. The meal I just described came to about $11. That included a glass of wine. So things are definitely inexpensive in Albania, and considering that I was eating at a hotel restaurant, most other places are even cheaper.

As usual, I was back in the hotel room in bed by 9 PM. Rest is pretty important on this trip, plus I don’t like to sleep in as the later I get started the hotter I end.

Leaving Shkodër

Breakfast was included in the hotels but not until 8 AM so I was completely packed and ready to roll in at the restaurant at 8 AM. Had previously gone to a nearby grocery store to get another 1.5 L of sour cherry juice which has become my nearly exclusive cycling drink! It is so delicious!

My gosh, what a lovely breakfast, I bet I didn’t even get a picture of it but it is so common to get beautiful tasty ripe tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, of course always balsamic vinegar, it was an omelette, a couple chunks of cured meat and a couple chunks of cheese. Some bread as well. Fresh squeezed orange juice, double espresso. Yeah baby, that’s living! I got to say the food has been just so delightful here!

Hit the road and pretty much decided I was not going to make it all the way to Tirana, I probably could have it at about 65 miles, but really didn’t want to navigate the busy city roads late in the day and then try to figure out where I was going to stay, so I knew I would stop short somewhere but there were a limited number of choices.

I found a nice route with Google walking maps through some villages away from the main road, definitely Muslim area and not that that matters, it was just a nice quiet ride. But I’m stopped into a tree for a little break and to drink some of my awesome sour cherry juice that I’ve been drinking pretty much every day, and a young man on a bicycle shows up, obviously a local guy. First thing he says is are you lost? His English was great! So we chatted for probably 30 minutes about Albania and politics and his education and his plan to go to Istanbul to study computer engineering, and where he wants to go with his life and he asked me why do so many people hate Muslims and it was just an overall really interesting conversation. He is Muslim, of course. One of the highlights of the trip for sure.

But for probably half the day’s miles, I was able to find alternate routes. One of the routes was not a good idea at all! Following Google walking maps, I got off the main road and ended up on some gravel goat paths through a bunch of fields. It was OK for a while as I’m equipped for that kind of cycling, but eventually it got muddy here and muddy there and I ended up slogging through ankle deep mud at one point. Found a way back to the main road and gave up on Google walking maps for today. Ps: The photo below is only up the very first very clean water crossing I had to make, it got muddier and shittier after that…

At another roadside lunch stop for a Greek salad without olives, which of course I get looked at like an idiot when I order that, there was another cyclist from France who I chatted with for a while. He was on the road for about two months, starting in France and ending in Istanbul. Very young guy compared to me, he seemed more about just slogging through the miles every day and wasn’t really taking any time to find interesting side road alternate routes to the busy main roads. But definitely a nice guy And always good to chat with another cyclist. I probably saw a total of four other cyclists today doing long-distance touring. Didn’t talk to them all of course…

Beside the road in most of the little gas stations or mechanic shops, they also have lavage, a car wash. So I stopped at one of those, the guys fired up the pump and washed off my bike and it was great! I offer them 100 Lek and they refused, so super nice guys. I have found everyone here to be very kind!

Again I wanted to stop short of Tirana as it was about 3 PM by now, very hot and well I still felt good I knew I didn’t want to go another 25 km. My first potential stop was a hotel right next to the main road which is now a four lane highway, and it looked like kind of a dumpy place so I continued on.

Came across Nord Park, I will include the link below. It is a combination hotel, restaurant, campground, huge outdoor swimming pool. Seems like a really nice place, I got a very nice room in here for just €29, About $35 US. As I said, things are generally very inexpensive here!

Sidenote gripe, and something I know you are attuned to, Carol! Excessive noise pollution in the public space. Music everywhere which I tend to be able to ignore, but left a restaurant yesterday in Shkoder because they turned on that boom boom shitty music just after I sat down for dinner, before I ordered. What I have a more difficult time with is everybody’s cell phone goddamn notifications on all the time. Every form of little ding or tweet or little ditty announcing the arrival of some stupid message, people need to turn their damn phones off in the public space! Back to regular viewing now…

So that gets me caught up to now! My laundry is out on the fence drying right now, I’m washed up, my bike is clean, it’s just about time to go head out to find another delicious Greek salad or something like it, and a big huge damn plate of tasty salty pasta!

Except for this chronic damn cough, life is great! Thank you all for reading these words, I hope you find joy in every moment of your day!

As usual, photos mostly in order but you’ll have to guess which ones match up with the commentary I guess…

Link to Nord Park Kompleks:

https://goo.gl/maps/MhCJkhFGHY2baGP98

 

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Nord Park:

https://goo.gl/maps/MhCJkhFGHY2baGP98

GRUDA TO Njeguši

80k/50m Elevation 3000’

The stay in Gruda was nice, however because there was no air conditioning and I had to leave the windows open, I got many many mosquito bites. In fact at about 4 AM, I had finally slapped the side of my head enough times that my ear was hurting, I picked up the comforter and a pillow and went into the bathroom and closed the door, laid on the floor and caught another 90 minutes of sleep in there, mosquito free!

Started this cycling day out great, I’m writing about it two days later so I may miss some details, but crossed into Montenegro and continued with the target of Kotor a medium spread out city mostly around the shores of the bay of Kotor, it was actually a great wonderful ride, mostly flat for quite a while as I rode around the bay, you have to take a ferry across a narrow part in order to save about a 25 mile go around the back end of the bay. Continued along the very quiet road right next to the bay, full of small villages and a few little shops and restaurants here and there, but mostly people just look like they’re really relaxing.

Sidenote, I look at people who are just enjoying relaxing and it always seems like such a good idea to me! Why don’t I do more of that? Ponder that one over the miles…

Came to near the end of the bay where the main town of Kotor and the Kotor fortress which is a fantastically beautiful old stone walled city. Stopped for a plate of pasta beside the water first. I knew I wasn’t going to end the day in Kotor as I arrived there way early in the day and had plenty of energy left. Well I did not know what was in store for me exactly…

So I think I’d mentioned that I was using Google Maps walking directions frequently to try and find the roads that are secondary and not the main roads whenever possible. I found some fantastic routes so far in using that strategy. But today, Google maps tooketh away, it didn’t giveth.

So I’m walking with my hundred pound bike with five bags through the narrow walkways of the Kotor fortress following the walking map, it says I should turn right, oh shoot I missed it already. So I go back and realize Google maps is sending me on a series of stairways, which with my bike and gear is essentially an impossibility. A few stairs yeah, but not a series of stairways. Just not gonna happen. So felt kind of deflated as at that point I knew I was going to have to climb over the mountain in the afternoon, part of my oh so sneaky intelligent strategy to try to get up into the mountains and stay in the mountains enroute to Macedonia, rather than continue with the up and down from sea level. Oh yeah, I am so smart! NOT!

Well I was trying to stay off the busy road as much as possible and I knew my target for the night was Njeguši and the road up to it was a very quiet series of switchbacks.

You know when you look at something on the map, you just sort of think, especially when you’re still feeling good, hey it can’t be that bad? Well, I started climbing up that mountain about 2 PM, and I finished about 6:30 PM, after climbing 3000 feet in about 7 miles. It was a constant grind up the hill, and am actually pretty proud of it. I will include a map screenshot of some of the switchbacks, they were pretty damn impressive! And as I was rising in elevation, the temperature was not as severe so that was a good thing! I drank 5 L of liquid this day, mostly sour cherry juice which is so refreshing even when it’s warm! But I coulda used two more liters, I ran out about an hour from the top which is never a good thing but survived obviously.

As I was going up the hill, two different guys handed me an advertisement for their restaurant that had rooms, so I figured well heck I’ll probably check in with those guys when I get there. But it was late and I was so exhausted at 6:30 PM, when I went to their little pub restaurant rooms place, the rooms were already full and they wanted to put me in a room five minutes down the road somewhere where there was no restaurant. And that wasn’t gonna work for me, I needed a room and a restaurant and like right now! So about a half mile back up the hill where I had passed another little B&B type place that had a restaurant attached and they had originally quoted me €40 for the room which was double what the guys with the hand out we’re going to charge me. So when I went back to them I said hey will you take €30 and they said yeah no problem, so was happy to be there. They said the restaurant closed at seven, it was already 6:30 PM and so I had to really hustle to get a quick shower and they stay long enough to cook me a meal at the BNB Njeguska sijela.

Now I must say it was not the best meal ever, but a mixed salad of chilled cucumbers, tomatoes, feta; that is always so refreshing! I’ve been eating those every day, more or less a Greek salad without the olives. But as I had eaten pasta for lunch I was looking for something a little meaty for dinner, and I don’t think I got a picture of it darn it! But it was called a stuffed pork steak, and it must’ve been 3 pounds (exaggeration) of pork cut into two large fillets, with some prosciutto and cheese in between. I was able to eat about 1/4 of it and that was all I could do.

With all of the physical effort every day, it’s really surprising that I can’t always just eat a big meal, sometimes I can only eat a small one, seems like when I’m not out cycling I can pretty much eat a big meal anytime. Probably because I can go take a nap anytime too!

As I was eating dinner, the only other guy at this hotel I had seen approached me and we started talking. He’s from Switzerland, his English was great, I told him the joke about who can speak languages. I can’t recall have I put it in this blog already? At risk of repeat here it is.

What do you call a person who can speak many languages? Multi lingual. What do you call a person who can speak two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person open only speak one language? American!

Anyway usually whenever I tell other people who are not speaking to me in their native tongue and they’re speaking in English, they always get a kick out of that joke.

So what he was doing is a organized unsupported hike basically. A taxi or somebody would come and get his gear each day and take it to the next place. So each day was known, destination was already set and a reservation at a hotel. So all he had to do is basically walk and carry enough water for himself. So as I was talking to him, the following morning he was going straight down to Kotor which I had come over. I told him once he gets to the top of the mountain here, it’ll be all downhill and it most certainly was!

Super nice guy though, we talked a little bit about European politics and American politics and Brexit and Trump and how there are several trump-types in various parts of the world right now.

He told me about some of the other trips he’s taking, occasionally does the cycling trip supported, sometimes these hikes, at some point he spent a couple weeks learning Spanish down in Argentina. His next trip is up to Nova Scotia. He gets around quite a bit!

After a great chat with him last night, then I got my laundry done and settled in for the night. It was probably 9 PM by the time I did laundry so fortunate that it dried enough to put on in the morning. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out where I was going to head toward in the morning, I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments and many more to come. Finally asleep probably around 11 PM.

Btw, his name is Thomas, we met again for breakfast at 7 AM and chatted some more and then he took off and I took off. It wasn’t until now that I realized I don’t have a photo of the guy, and wished I had. I mean I guess I wish I had. It’s interesting when you travel and you meet people and you kind of want to think that you’re going to want to talk to them again sometime and so you’re sometimes forward about maintaining or getting a email or social media contact or something, but then other times it’s I think with experienced travelers just realize well probably never going to see the guy again so what’s the point. But a photo is a nice touch for the blog! Have to remember that next time…

Njeguši to Podgorica

55k/33m

After breakfast with Thomas, got everything packed up that seems so heavy and hit the road. As chance would have it, there was about a 1000 foot climb out of that little valley, but the road had recently been completely redone and the elevations in the couple of switchbacks were very smooth and despite going uphill didn’t seem that difficult. Of course it was the first part of the day too ha ha!

I was actually in a pretty remote area, so eventually got to the next town Citijne. It was a beautiful old town, historic as the former royal capitol of Montenegro. Actually I wished that I had been able to spend some time exploring that little town, I pretty much passed straight through it, the littlest hobo can’t stop at just any town.

Continued on towards Podgorica, joining more traffic as I got closer.

Sidenote: I thought that I had outsmarted the mountains and that I wouldn’t be going back down again today, but such are the risks of navigation using only one or two sources. To my knowledge there’s no app that gives you the perfect combination on your phone of distance and routing and elevation profile. There are several that give you parts of all of those pretty well, but no single one that does it perfectly with all components.

Anyway as my minimum target today was Podgorica, it got hotter and hotter and hotter as I descended. I had considered getting all the way to Shkoder today, which would be another 60k/36m past Podgorica. And by the time I got to Podgorica after about 35 miles, it was already 91°, so this was gonna be my end for today. That’s OK, give me a chance to catch up on the blog. It’s not supposed supposed to be a death march on this bike trip, right? Am I right?

Plus I also have to make some serious decisions about routing from here on out. There’s no way to avoid a lot of mountains as I continue working my way east towards North Macedonia. Gone are the Rolling hills next to the turquoise Adriatic Sea, for those sure were some nice days! Seems like so long ago!

Podgorica is a larger city, and as I came in on the outskirts, just amazing to see how much building there is going on, a combination of industrial and residential, many new roads and quite obvious this place is expanding quite rapidly.

But I had given up my quiet mountain roads for traffic again, unfortunately. I arrive near the center of town, found the first restaurant and got in some shade and had a Greek salad and a orange, papaya, cucumber juice.

Started looking for a hotel nearby and found one pretty close called hotel M, a small six room hotel on a side street not really near any attractions of the old town. Later in the day when it cools down a little bit I’ll go out and explore, get some dinner.

I do note that I have taken fewer pictures it seems. Photos really are an interesting thing. I realize that the photos I’ve taken to put on the blog, at least a few people are actually looking at. But for the most part, that’s all that ever happens with the photo. Somebody looks at it once in the blog, it’s on my phone for years, I rarely look at it again. So sometimes I do just appreciate while I’m on the trip just enjoying a moment, seeing something that is very photo worthy and just knowing that I saw it is enough.

On the other hand, photos rarely portray adequately the beauty or difficulty of what it is in the image. For example the photos I took of the hills I was on yesterday, yeah there’s no way a photo can show the hill in a way that makes it equivalent to the expenditure of energy it took for me to get up it. So maybe that’s my generalized reason for fewer photos as the trip goes on.

So I’m just hanging out In the air condition room knowing that it’s 91’ out there. I will get organized and get out for a walkabout later, but mostly just planning to finish this blog entry.

There are some photos from the other day that I could not upload, plus as usual photos of my food which always seems like part of the joy of these trips! I’m so happy to share my food with you!

There will be some photos of the Gruda wine country day Mixed in with the mountain climb day and today. They’re generally in order but not exactly…

So here are some screenshots of the maps, the first one is where I am now in Podgorica. Second one for emphasis is the serpentine going up the mountain yesterday. Third one is approximately my route, the blue dots, so far.

Well, the littlest hobo can’t stay in town forever. I had to leave the little paradise of Slano and head south toward Montenegro. I had considered stopping in Dubrovnik, but the closer I got, the traffic sucked, I got honked at more by impatient drivers, and when I turned the corner and saw Dubrovnik city and several ridiculously humongous unnaturally large cruise ships, I figured I didn’t need to go there at all. So just kept going on the main road. Yes it’s a beautiful old European walled city, one that I missed. But I’ve seen similar ones before…

As I had started out about 7 AM, I didn’t have any breakfast this morning because I figured I would just stop somewhere along the way after a couple of hours. Well that turned out to be after Dubrovnik, close to noon and I had a lovely plate of tagliatelle with bits of chicken and prosciutto and wonderful super tasty stewed tomatoes. Very enjoyable lunch!

Yeah you can probably tell I do include a lot of photos of the food because I guess when you’re biking, food is a pretty significant thing, I’ve had some great food so far and some not great food, but nothing really horrible yet. Well except that hamburger in Slano with Jonny that I put all the salt on when I was cramping that turned out I couldn’t even eat it!

The couple I had met yesterday at the restaurant who were on a sailboat, they had mentioned I should check out this area called Gruda. So that was sort of my target for the day, about 40 miles.

Sidenote, Google maps are/is pretty cool. In the US, there is usually the option of biking routes, not so here or most other places I’ve been outside the USA. But what I have been doing is following the walking routes, and so far they’ve been fantastic! It may not always be perfect in the sense that sometimes you end up on ridiculously steep hills you have to walk up, remember I have 100 pound bike??? But it does get you off the main highways whenever possible and that’s really a delight.

So the last 15 km of my route today was off the highway and suddenly I’m in the middle of a wine region, just so beautiful and lovely. And virtually no traffic.

What is it about being in wine country that evokes the sense of peacefulness and makes you feel like you’re part of a historical tale when you cycle through the Vineyards and glance at the small wineries as you ride by. You know exactly what I’m talking about, whether in California or the Willamette Valley in Oregon, or up in Washington. Of course some of the Alaskans may remember the Milk Winery? Remember that place was out there past Willow somewhere? I remember it… But I digress!

So I made it to Gruda on this peaceful road through vineyards with the mountains in the background. Once I got into this very small town that has maybe three or four restaurants, I started looking for lodging.

I guess I didn’t mention I got here about 130PM and by then it was about 86’ and I felt like I had plenty of riding for the day. So I found this place, that is both a restaurant and a place that has a few rooms. It’s this beautiful old restored stone building from long ago, what a treat to have found and checked into the room with no air-conditioning, but plenty of windows open to get some airflow. Link:

koraceva-kuca.business.site

The guy I rented from, when I asked him about a restaurant nearby, he recited pretty much his whole menu at this place and it sounds so fantastically delicious! So I’m excited about just staying right here and eating right here and sleeping right here. It’s a peaceful place, and being away from the ocean is just fine for now.

I’m just sidenote, while I was out hanging my laundry, some swallows who were building nests nearby must’ve flew into my room as there are bits of mud on top of the perfectly white sheets now, I’ll have to let them know in the morning I didn’t do that! Ha ha!

Today might’ve been the first day that I sort of felt ok in my own cycling skin, no cramps, I was hot but I was never toast, legs did fine, basically had a really enjoyable day cycling and especially landing at this fantastic little place is pretty cool.

And while the restaurant doesn’t open til 4, they were kind enough to get me a cold dark Tomislav 7.2% beer! It’s rare to see one over 5% here, unlike most US breweries these days.

Will head downstairs to din around 6pm and update after…

Funny after I noticed the mud on the bed, now I’ve been in the room a while and the swallows have come in at least a dozen times and I have to shoo them out. Cool!

Route update: so because I’m moving (pleasantly) slower than I had originally planned, I don’t think there’s any point in heading further south all the way to Tirana, Albania; which was going to be my southernmost point. I’ve enjoyed all these beautiful days along the ocean, but all along I knew had had to turn east at some point. Looks like I’ll just do it a little sooner than planned. I do definitely want to get to Skopje, North Macedonia. Boro‘s dad lives there and it’s always nice to connect with someone you know even if you really can’t speak with them much. So that means I need to turn left tomorrow or the next day for sure, heading southeast toward Macedonia through Montenegro. That means I will pretty much skip Albania, but you can’t go everywhere on the same trip!

So this is my route so far and my likely direction.

The dinner report: I ordered beef soup, mixed salad, and gnocchi with pancetta. All very good although the soup was so damn hot I burned my tongue on the first taste, I hate that when that happens! More remarkable was the green mixed salad which was mostly leaf salad, but there is no doubt those leaves were picked out of somebody’s garden today. One of the freshest salads I’ve ever had. (Except for yours on Ak years ago, Bridg!) And the gnocchi, well that is just basically a big dumpling bits, is it not? But it was bits and pieces with tasty pancetta and some kind of a sauce so that was really good. Of course because I’m in the wine region, all the food is nearly double the price of what I had previously been paying so I guess that’s what you gotta put up with when you’re here/there.

Overall a good (Hot!) day and a nice place to stay, with very few customers for dinner. No air-con in the room is a little bit of a downside as I really appreciate being able to kill all the mosquitoes in the room and then turn on the air con. Yeah, mosquitoes here for sure!

I realize I haven’t taken many photos today as I look through them, bypassing Dubrovnik was brilliant I think, but I regret not having some photos of it; but in reality, anybody can just go look on the Internet and find Dubrovnik photos. So I guess I don’t regret it! One less regret is a good thing!

So as of this moment, I plan to skip Budva which is a place I wanted to see, but I imagine it’s a smaller version of split or Dubrovnik. I will continue inland southeast to Kotor tomorrow enroute to Skopje.

Thanks everyone for the comments, it’s very much appreciated and enjoyable to read! I hope all of you take good care…

PS: wifi here problematic for photos so will add more tomorrow…

It’s interesting when I start to write notes, I mean in what part of the day I do that. Or how tired I am. It so colors the tone of the entry.

I went to bed last night and woke up this morning with every intention of cycling to Dubrovnik today. But then something kept me from getting on the bike despite it being fully packed to go. Another 15 minutes delay, then 30. Next I started thinking of how hot it was going to be because I didn’t get an early start. And with that I suddenly thought it would be a great idea to just stay here again today. Take a day off. No reason to rush into big old touristy Dubrovnik. If you’ve read the blog so far, there’s been no shortage of physical ailment complaints by me. So I thought taking a day off ultimately seemed like a good idea. And as it turns out it was! (Okay, yes it’s a little early in the trip for a day off…)

Had a really nice relaxing day in this beautiful place called Slano, about 25 miles north of Dubrovnik, in a cove off the Adriatic that is not very touristy and is very quiet for sure. Did a little computer work this morning, then got on the bike and rode around this bay that has a road mostly surrounding it, all single lane.

Stopped for lunch at one of four little restaurants here; had a delicious Greek salad. (Adjoining the restaurant photo is the view from the restaurant.) It was so nice to have an easy day off, like duh! I started listening to an audiobook for a little while, then around 7 PM rode back to the same restaurant I had the salad at for a Peronospora pizza. A couple meats, couple veggies, a couple of hot peppers. Was perfect!

As the sun started going down, the high cloud front that appeared was pretty beautiful. There’s a photo of that as well.

So back to my opening, it sure depends on what time of the day I do a blog entry, an afternoon all clean and no cramps and always being able to stay out of the heat, yeah it was a pretty good day!

Did chat with an Australian couple at lunch, talked with them for quite a while. They were on a group sail boat from Italy, then rented a motorbike and have been cruising the Dalmatian coast. They happened on to this place just as I did.

I also spent some time today looking at my routing, and unless I point that way starting tomorrow, there’s no chance in hell I’m gonna be able to cycle all the way to Bucharest by July 1 from here at the pace that I’m keeping so far. And I’m totally fine with that. Will probably or possibly end in Skopje Macedonia, then take a bus to Sofia Bulgaria and then on to Bucharest from there. I’ll work it out when it gets closer.

Trivia question: does anybody remember the Canadian TV series called the littlest hobo? With the dog that went from town to town? I sorta feel like him sometimes…

Take care, y’all…