So here we are again! :D doing something damn fantastic, charging batteries for a year and getting back to doing the thing you love most: Adventurous Travel!
Since 3 months in the States didn't cut it for me, it was time to get the juices going again. After a long conversation with my mum about the current "grown-up" life I was living and how badly I needed to flip things around, my good friend Zizi (from the States) gave me a call. After 6 years of living in the States she had to come home and wanted to flip things around too.. how coinsidental 🤔🤓. And that's how it all started..
1 year, tripping around Europe, on a budget and on the fastest yet cheapest way of transportation possible... a bike 😁. I know.. Anything that's cheap and fast will do the trick along the road but let's start off like this.
After passing our first stop Dimitrovgrad at the border between Bulgaria and Serbia, we were headed to Bela Palenka. Nothing planned in terms of accommodation, just trusting the path. And man didn't that turn out to be a great call! We arrived at the small village where yet again time had been standing still for the last 20 years, and started talking to some of the locals. The receptionist of the only hotel in town guided us to the nearest camping ground of the scouts. Three of them were present and were genuinly the nicest guys you could possibly imagine. They gave us the couch inside of their clubhouse, they cleaned out the showers so we could wash ourselves properly and to top it all of the receptionist brought us 2 portions of chicken with bread, fries and salad! They went out of their ways to make us feel welcome and happy, treating us like friends who have known each other for many years. How awesome is that! :)
In our next city, Krusevac, we were camping at a couple's art squad! Honestly.. Brilliant! And for once we weren't the odd ones out 😂. Lots of interesting people, fantastic life stories and A LOT of homemade rakia (plume based alcohol). To be honest, waking up drunk is probably what got over the first set of hills that day :D haha! Cuz 75 km with at least 40 km of hills, while everyone told us the road would be flat, is hell on earth! And when I say hills, I mean HILLS!! At least 10-15%.... it was the kind of day that you have muscle pain in places in your body you didn't even think had muscles! Haha! So it wasn't mad at the idea of us staying an extra night with our hosts!
Having had a great rest and a bike trip of 61 km we arrived in Mladenovac, last stop before Belgrade. After some issues with our potential host blowing us off the last minute, our only hopes were set on a local girl who was initially only willing to meet for drinks. We explained what had happened and sweet as she was welcomed us with open arms into her humble abode. And as we all know that things happen for a reason, this was no difference..We ended up laughing our asses off all night long! Best time ever...
As good as the idea of only having 4 hours of sleep was the previous night, reality struck in the next morning... lookong at each other's sandbags underneath our eyes, we understood that there was no way we had the energy to get onto a bike and ride it for another 60 km that day! "why don't you take a bus, it's free anyways?" Was the voice of the host that made the sandbags fall off our chests and made the ones underneath our eyeballs shine a little brighter Haha! We had gotten ourselves out of one what would've been a hell of a day!! Or at least that's what we tought until we were on the bus! Hahahah! They had informed us no one on the bus would check for tickets and everything would be fine.. upon arrival in Belgrade a very sweet lady came standing in front of my seat asking me "nicely" to show my ticket. Me looking at here as if I had just seen a ghost, I guess she kinda figured our tickets were well non excisting and saw a chance of ripping us off.. A long conversation (in something that sounds like English) trying to negotiate our way out of paying €20 each!!! for a ticket, got us deciding on getting out of the bus and taking the money out of an ATM.
Or at least that's what we made her believe.. She stopped the bus, threatened us again with calling the police and allowed us a minute to get our bikes out of the trunk.. From the moment we got our bikes, we buckled up, put our helmets on and took a run for it! While throwing my leg over the saddle my brains simultaneously gathered a mixture of scenes from movies like "Taxi" and "Mr.&Mrs. Smith" picturing us running away from chasing cars!! We were paddling our lungs out in the streets of Belgrade until we got rid of them! hahahaha! "Well that was fun"!
After 30 minutes of walking/dying of laughter with a touch of nervousness for being caught (cause you know... we don't really look like the average person on a bike) we safely arrive at the next host's house ready to relax and enjoy the capital! There wouldn't have been a better way to fill up the first week of this insane year.
That's it for the first part! Buckle up cause there is plenty more to come this year ;)
Wish us luck with a smile! Speak soon :)
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