Yugoslavija July 1985…. Cycling our way to Greece

Source: The diary of Luc Boeke (1985). “LBO” indicates comments added to the story, at a later date.

 

1. Entering Yugoslavia/Slovenia

July 18 (Thursday): Lava becomes Drau, or Drava. We first reported at a border crossing where only locals, from Austria or Yugoslavia are allowed to cross.  

LBO (December 2021): that must have been at Leifling/Libelice, see the Google Maps picture here below.

Some blokes at the border proposed us hash. In Dravograd, wherever we asked for “Zimmer”, people proposed us “Fräulein”. We ended up in a wild camping spot, that evening. The next day, we decided to cycle back to Austria to cash some traveller checks. The amount of cash we could be entitled to withdraw in Yugoslavia on those checks amounted to 8000 Dinar only, maybe a third of what we expected to be required for our survival.

Supermarkets (there is nothing ‘super’ in it) are state-owned and have some western brands like Coca Cola. People in the street do not greet us, they just stare. So many red flags, is today some sort of Remembrance Day? Condition of the roads is totally poor; our bicycles suffer a lot. If Tito would have known that some westerners were on these awful roads, he would have turned himself around in his grave (Dutch expression). We see photographs of Tito in a lot of places.

Courtesy: Google Maps, 20211229

 

2. What is everybody drinking in Croatia?

July 21 (Sunday): This is a communist country, but it has some western influences: we hear and see advertising, western brands and pop music (Modern Talking!). Bought a cassette of a Yugo pop group: Plavi Orkestar, very cheap, at just a fourth of the price you pay in the West for a pop music album.

Yugoslavia is a mix of success and failure, we see brand new apartment buildings, with dirt roads leading to them. We are pushing hard to cross this dull, dusty and flat area, as quick as we can, on our way to Osijek and Belgrade. People are staring at us (women) or sitting drinking (men) in worn out cafes, we just drink our Coca Cola. In Osijek we found a (free!) camp site and met a guy in the bar, he was glad he could talk English to us. Lots of easterners: Polish, Hungarians, Czechs around.

We feel a lot of pressure: still 192 KMs to Belgrade and 660 KMs to Greece!

 

Doesn’t this Yugo “Mond” chocolate bar look like a Mars bar!??

 

3. Hospitability in Serbia

July 22 (Monday): finally reached Belgrade, we survived the M1 motorway that links Zagreb to the capital, the smell of roadkill of all possible sizes is still with us. The city is not good for cyclists: lots of streets are forbidden territory for cyclists and those signs in Cyrillic do not make our lives any easier. We ate out that night, downtown, cheap… and after one pizza were simply told to leave the restaurant. What a shame, we were ready to eat at least four pizzas each. Lots of military in the city.

July 23 (Tuesday): lost in the area around Cacak, a Serbian family welcomed us to stay the night, we could not get it into his head that we just wanted to mount our tents on his land. Zivko insisted we sleep in his house and, when the women had gone to bed, there was time to drink his cherry brandy and listen to his wartime stories from Iraq, where he had done his military service. Tito overlooked the scene from his picture on the wall.

July 24 (Wednesday): Zivko left for work early, so we did not have the chance to thank him. We continued our way south, on very hostile roads, even roads in France were safer, we felt. Nobody talks a word of German, English or French; Now good luck for your European integration! We see Muslim women with black veils, looks like they are living like nomads here. This must be the area that has increasingly become unstable, after Tito’s death. Lots of JHA around, the red army. Tomorrow, we want to reach Skopje. And that without milk or butter, surviving on bottles of Coca Cola. And no way we can call the homeland, from here, simply not possible.

Yugoslavian police car, a Zastava with a remarkable Fiat 500 resemblance, somewhere near the town Ljig

 

4. Hostility in Macedonia

July 25 (Thursday): Drivers consistently honk at us, are they really all concerned about our safety? Dead cattle alongside the road, what a smell! Children who see us on time run to the roadside, to throw stones at us. This way, we are pushed to make our way as fast as we can, to Greece, yes: very helpful, we no longer solely rely on our motivation!

LBO (April 1986): The Albanians in Kosovo are seen as the dissidents.

But, on the other hand: people here seem more internationally oriented, less proud and stubborn. Road sign in both Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, good for us … who just graduated on the latter of these alphabets, at the Dutch Gymnasium. 200 KMs to go to the Greek border.

In the city of Skopje, I ran into trouble when I got angry not being able to find the youth hostel. A local Macedonian version of James Dean came to see me and directly punched me in the guts. No, thanks, I do not want your cigarette, James, but nice you feel you should offer me one, to calm me down.

 

  

 

5. Leaving Yugoslavia

July 26 (Friday): leaving Skopje really early, cracking hot day, hostile eyes wherever we go. Hardly any villages on our way, cobble-stone roads. Titov Veles, tough mountain pass, Prilep, Bitola, we thrive on fruit juice and Coca Cola and the count down to the Greek border… where we finally reached Niki, around 10 PM: what a joy! We immediately spent our last cash on whatever they had, in this roadside restaurant where the owner allowed our tents in the backyard.

July 27 (Saturday): when we woke up, we discovered wild dogs had plundered our eatable stock, including this glass container with chocolate spread: everything gone or perished! Quick, quick, on our way to the post office: cash another one of our remaining traveller checks, we need food!

What a disappointment, post offices only open next Monday… and we can’t wait: Ioannina is calling! And our ferry to Italy. On our way to Florina, then Kozani, 33 degrees centigrade, but we are going strong, although rather easy. When we stop around noon, Greeks come to see us and share fresh fruits and other comestibles, what a relief! We bought old bread at a “no price”, so we can eat a little. We felt free to set up tents behind a gas station, no worries.

July 28 (Sunday): our last day without money, 38 degrees centigrade, Ioannina at 184 KMs. We soak the bread in a well. Lots of climbing: the Pindus mountains. Drinkable water everywhere, we are surviving on water-filled stomachs. Found a lost tin of Yugo food in our bags: a meal of gods!

We make it to Ioannina in the dark; our last stretch I had to ride my bicycle with one flat tyre… no way to fix it and anyway not the patience to do it.

July 29 (Monday): doing shopping and trying not to be ripped off in the port of Igoumenitsa, buying our ferry tickets to Brindisi, Italy. That night, we sleep in the park, close to the ferries, chatting our night away with some Flemish youngsters.

…

August 11 (Sunday): we reached our final destination and home town Nijmegen in the Netherlands at 9:50 PM.

Lots of stories to tell … got nicked in the Italian city named Monopoli… found a wallet on a Swiss mountain road … never paid our camp site fees in the last week … but those stories I will keep for next time we meet. Let us first digest the whole Yugoslavia adventure properly.