Beautiful Bosnia

Well, we have finally left Bosnia behind, at least i think. And our final days there left us with memories i am sure none of us will ever forget.

We left Sarajevo, to make it to a place called Visoko, where apparently the largest pyramids in the world are. However, there is debate as to whether or not they are really pyramids or if they're just mountains in the shape of pyramids. Only time and digging will tell, i suppose.

We left Visoko, and continued north. Our eventual destination was to be Banja Luka, but it would take us two more days to get there. So we rode, and rode, and rode. Out of Visoko, we did a 120km day, that certainly didn't go as planned.

We got lost. Partly due to a road we couldn't find, partly due to our poor excuse for a map. We had a town point we wanted to stay at (as camping amongst land mines isn't my first choice), but we didn't get there. On the road, towards the end of the day, we found the first person in the area who didn't really like Americans, and we rode on. We eventually came to a place that pointed towards a campground. We figured it safe, and headed towards it.

The old lady there was not friendly at all, didn't speak any English, and wanted to charge us a lot of money for a room with no running water or toilet, despite the fact that there was no one else at the campground. Across the road, some people were just sitting by a small fire and eating, and came over to help us.

It was two families, one from Germany, the other from Bosnia. The wives of each were both Bosnian, and cousins. The Bosnian man was a police officer in the area, who also served in the last war, and the man from Germany was of Albanian decent. He was the one who spoke some English.

After some talking, the police officer told us that the area where they had a small fire and were eating was public land, and that we could sleep there for free if we wanted to. We jumped on it, and spent the evening with the two families. Of course, they had lots of left over food, which they cooked for us and made us eat, and while we did so, the policeman made a campfire for us, found us extra wood, and chopped some stuff for us as well. It was a graced ending to a stressful and frustrating day.

The next morning, as we were preparing to leave, some guys show up at the place where we are at. They start to get a lamb out of their car, put it on a stick, and relight our fire, which was still warm, but far from burning. As we're almost leaving, one of them offers us a beer, and though no one there at that time spoke English, we communicated a small bit.

A beer turned into a beer and a coffee, then two beers, and more people showed up. Turns out, one of the crews from a shoe factory in one of the towns we passed through the day before was having their yearly picnic, where they roast a lamb (and bring one that was recently roasted), eat a ton of food, drink beer, play football, and have a good time. We happened to be at the site, and we were invited to share in the festivities. One of the guys spoke some English, Budo, and we were set. We spent the next four to five hours drinking beer, eating some amazing food, sharing stories, and getting our butts kicked in a Team Bosnia vs. the Dream Team football match. Team Bosnia went up early, but the Dream Team came back with a couple quick goals. After that, Team Bosnia turned up the heat (they had one guy we nicknamed "Ronaldinho" because of his fancy footwork) and was pretty much toying with us as they left victorious, 6-3. The game was called after so many minutes, and all six of us went straight back to the beer (and them their cigarettes as well) and fatty meat. It was a great afternoon.

The picnic got relocated just after the lamb finished roasting, as the weather began to look ominously like rain. We all said our good-byes, and they even invited us to the public shelter area where they were going to continue the festivities, but we took the opportunity to finally get onto the road. 3pm i think was when we finally left camp.

Heavy from the beer and the lamb, i actually had my best day in the mountains. It was a bit more uphill than we anticipated, but much of the nearly 80km we road that day was down, so it wasn't too bad. Of course, the rain came back, but it was slow, without wind, and actually fairly warm outside, so it wasn't nearly as bad as before. The change in signs from the latin alphabet to the cyrillic alphabet, however, once we arrived into the Serbian Republic area of Bosnia, did throw us for a short loop. But we eventually found Banja Luka, and accomodation.

Just kind of relaxed and slept during our night in Banja Luka. The next day, we had tentative plans to explore some of the city before taking a night train to Belgrade. That was, of course, until we met our soon to be friend and personal tour guide, Nikola.

When i came down the stairs with my stuff, the guys had already met him, and were talking with him about his car, which he described as having two motors. He told us some stories about it, how he rally raced with it and street raced with it, and offered to bring it by the hotel to show us, if we were interested. We of course, were. He then offered to drive us to his house to show us, and we took him up on it. The car was pretty sweet, two 16 valve engines, one in the front and one in the back. He showed us how he connected everything, and it was quite impressive. He fired it up, and actually took Greg on quite the ride around the city, some of which he got on video.

While Greg was gone, Fitz and i talked with Nikola's son, Nikica, who is about our age and who not only races cars, but also bicycles. He had with him his mountain bike, which was incredibly light but looked more than capable of taking on the most rugged terrain.

Nikola returned with a dazed Greg, and offered to take us back to the hotel. On the way, he said he would show us around some of the city. He took us to a medical center which is on the top of a hill overlooking a city. He then took us to another overlook, then to another hotel in the city, which is actually owned by the same lady, Maria, who owned the hotel we stayed in. This hotel was along the river, very peaceful, and had a 14 hole miniature golf course. Nikola is friends with the owner, and he hooked us up with a round of putt putt, from which Fitz took home the gold. Afterwards, we had some lunch by the river, and just relaxed and talked some more with our friendly host.

The rains returned, and we left the hotel. Nikola spoke of an overlook on the other side of the city near a WWII monument, that he said was the best in the area. The problem, though, was that it was a three km hike on a road from where you could park your car. Driving up, usually, is not an option. Nikola drove us there, and worked some magic (telling the guard at the parking lot that we were Americans working on a special report), and was able to drive us up to about 500 m or so from the top. We waited a bit for the rain to cease, and walked the rest of the way up the hill. The view was spectacular, and the monument offered a very detailed picture history of the area during WWII.

On the way down, we were fortunate enough to get a very thorough and relatively objective explanation of the most recent war in the area. It was the best personal story i had heard on the issue, and was very informative.

Nikola drove us back to the hotel, after what felt like a day of VIP treatment. We thanked our host, who was to turn 63 the following day, picked up our stuff, and headed towards the train station to make our train. After pleading our case to allow our bikes on, we had to attach them above the seats in the train. We slept a little on the train, but arrived early the next morning in Belgrade, pretty tired. Fortunately, we found a hostel right away, and slept a few hours, before exploring the city.

Belgrade was a large, bustling city, particularly relative to the cities we had recently visited. Larger than probably Banja Luka and Sarajevo combined (Sarajevo really hasn't regained a lot of the population it lost during its seige), it is home of the largest Orthodox Church in the world (started in 1935 and still not anywhere near completed) and an incredibly large castle, which sits right where the Danube and the Sava rivers meet.

After exploring the city for at least half the day, we ended up eating at a less than high quality Italian restaurant. We were just finishing up our meal, prepared to make it an early night and go to bed, when someone walks up from the street and covers up Fitzy's eyes. We were all surprised to see our friend from the day before, on his birthday, with Maria, in Belgrade.

Nikola, of course, had us join him for a birthday drink. We had beers, he and Maria coffee (they were going to drive back to Banja Luka that night), all of which he paid for. The outdoor cafe we stopped at had some musicians, which we got to come to our table and play for us. It was a wonderful conclusion to an exhausting day, and it wasn't without some sentiment that we said good-bye, again, to our last link with Bosnia.

It is a truly wonderful and blessed person who can offer so much hospitality, and expect nothing in return. If there is one thing i have encountered on this trip so far that has simply caught me by surprise, it's the unassuming kindness that we've been shown by complete strangers. We're foreigners, don't know really any of the language, and yet we're treated like family.

And in that same light, Bosnian hospitality, we have found ourselves with an American family in Sophia, Bulgaria. The Sassers, John and Nancy, have been incredibly kind and hospitable to us, letting us stay in their house, hooking us up with incredibly comfortable beds, great food (Nancy's brownies are amazing), and a great place to kind of use as a base to explore Sohpia and the surrounding area (they live on a mountain that overlooks the city, which we will try to climb probably today, since it is clear).

So, yeah, that's the update. It was three days in the making, sorry it is so long. i may actually get a chance to get some pictures up while here at the Sassers, so look for that in the coming days, and as a precursor to that event, here's a video from Fitz's camera of me jumping into the Adriatic (pardon the obscenity):

(How about that tanline, eh? The midsection has definitely shrunk some (i'm down to 87 kg now) and the hair is looking short and poofy. Still don't like heights, though. )

And as usual, check Fitz's and Greg's blogs for more exciting pics and videos. Thanks for holding out this long on this incredibly extensive post. Hope all are well.

JC