Dear friends and family,
I am finally out of the Shengen group of countries. I used up 86 days out of my allotted 90, saving the last four in case I want to layover in a Shengen country while flying back to the US in a couple of months.
I do feel the pressure off, and what pressure, to have only 90 days for my “Europe vacation” which is really a joke, as I am thinking of the limited vacation time I could take when still working, and laugh to myself.
I thought I would now reflect back on my month that I spent in Croatia.
Because of the off season timing, I had to change what typically would be a bike tour of this country to suit the season. The normal bike tour across Croatia would take one off the highways and inland over more mountains, and trails and away from so much of the touristic towns on the coast.
In my case I chose not to go inland where it was cold and rainy and in some cases snowy. So I rode the coast roads the length of the country.
Even on the two lane highways (the ones I rode were still the secondary or old highway roads) I found the drivers had respect for the bicyclist that they shared the road with and I felt fairly safe. There was never a shoulder next to these two lane roads, so we had to share the road itself.
I was surprised at the prices of things. The lodgings were still relatively cheap, but most hotels were closed for the season and often apartments were my only choice, but turned out to be a good choice as I could cook healthier and cheaper meals for myself.
The people: I didn’t find people reaching out to me as is usual on bike tours in the past. But, once I reached out to them, they went out of their way to help me. I even ran an experiment in small towns to meet people. I, even though I wasn’t desperate for water would see someone in their garden working and ask if they could top up my water supply for me. Without exception, they invited me into their house and tell me a little of their story as they filled my water bottles.
I heard that “my husband is remodeling this house and it will be perfect because he is so skilled” and “wow, you touring at your age is really something and there should be a book written by you for this”
It became such fun that I purposely didn’t fill my bottles in the morning if I knew that I would be passing through small towns on my way.
The language barrier was not hard. Most young people speak some English, often very well. The older people spoke some, but with few words and mime, communicated just fine.
The food: restaurant prices were fairly high but not by US pricing, so most of the time I would eat dinner out. For about $20 USD you could get a salad or bowl of soup and spaghetti, which would fill me up and carb load me for the next day’s ride. Octopus is on all the menus, but I stayed away from that as I know too much about their intelligence and felt bad eating them. There’s lots of seafood offered as it is next to the sea, but I doubt most or none of it is really caught this time of year nearby. I thought the bread was awful, but remember, I’ve just spent six weeks in France. If going out to breakfast they would often serve you six pieces of very plain white bread toast, served cold with nothing to put on it. When I ordered butter and jam, I was often told that they had neither. Sometimes I would dress the toast with the olive oil on the table.
There are lots of Italian restaurants and a few sushi places to augment the more traditional Croatian places.
The idea of so much tourism as such a big part of this country’s economy is interesting. Obviously it is seasonal, so I saw the infrastructure for it, but nothing “in action”. There is a lot to see, lots of history with all the ancient walled cities and the beautiful waters and islands to play among. Still, anytime that an economy is so highly based on tourism bothers me in that it seems like it is not real, just a version of Disneyland, although built many years BCE.
The Croatians brag about how good their tap water is throughout the country and they are correct-it is. Another thing I noticed especially inside the castle walls off the old towns, is how good the plumbing was throughout the country. All of it worked and was very modern. Under those stone or marble streets real quite new and efficient plumbing infrastructures. And all of it outside in the streets looked like it hadn’t been touched in at least a few hundred years.
Winter is the time to do heavy construction and I was told there are even local laws prohibiting it during tourist season. About an even amount of new villas for the rich and big government buildings and street improvements. Cranes everywhere. I saw very few laborers working these many work sites. I am guessing that must make progress extremely slow, but it’s just my observation from riding by.
Each riding day I have a destination set up with a hotel or apartment booked for that night. Often I find myself looking forward to arrival, a hot shower, and a good meal. I’m not bicycling just to get to a destination but to enjoy the actual process of moving across the country in slow motion to see it as it passes and to enjoy the experience of using my body to propel myself and to test myself and to feel the wind I create by motion against my face. Often I forget or start thinking of destination only.
My last ride into Kotor, where I presently reside was in a steady downpour with a headwind on a coldish (45F) day. I started that forward thinking ( being warm and dry in my room) and then quickly caught myself to realize that due to the foul weather I had the local streets to myself and could cruise along an inland sea and be comfortable ( enough) in my proper clothing, generating adequate body heat by riding hard while in a magical environment. Suddenly, I was in no hurry to arrive. I felt if this type riding would go forever I’d be okay with that.
Maybe I intuited that once I arrived I’d have to carry my bike up the five skinny stairways to my room and didn’t look forward to that. Or maybe I am learning something.
Montenegro adventures coming.
Sending love,
Charley
