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{"id":3370,"date":"2019-01-23T20:21:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T19:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/?p=3370"},"modified":"2019-01-23T20:21:20","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T19:21:20","slug":"from-the-balkans-into-central-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/blog\/2019\/01\/23\/from-the-balkans-into-central-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Balkans into central Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once in Belgrade, it seemed that we avoided the worst of the\nrainy weather during the previous night. We set out in the morning to wander\naround the Belgrade Fortress, which was originally built over 2000 years ago by\nthe Celtics and underwent many reconstructions, as well as battles, throughout\nthe years from about as many different occupying countries. Now, some\nstructures of the fortress remain, mostly as museums or a miniature dinosaur\npark, while the outer walls show wear from two millennia of wars and sieges.\nThe fortress now also houses a large number of more recent military equipment\n(and probably showing off what Serbia used in its most recent wars during the\nchaotic last few decades of post-Yugoslavia). Afterwards, we strolled through\nthe pedestrian streets before deciding that we needed find a caf\u00e9 and get out\nof the rain. We waited for an hour or so inside and then decided to see some\nmore sights in Belgrade and more importantly, a bike shop. Because our toes\nwere freezing in the icy temperatures, we found a bike store that had overshoes\n(this is a sure sign that we\u2019re getting to areas where people take more consideration\nto sports). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the walls of the Belgrade fortress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The famous Belgradosaurus-Rex<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The entrance of the Belgrad fortress – a mixture of architectures of the various occupants, from the Romans to the Austrians, and notably with the Ottomans along the way<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The current cathedral – St. Michael’s Cathedral – Serbian orthodox churches felt like really weird places: very dark, locals clearly not happy to see non-pious people in them, nowhere to sit and peculiar traditions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It’s November 20th and the Belgrade Christmas decorations are already out… after almost 10 months of summer it felt a little weird to get directly into Christmas decorations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Unhappy with the rain and the wind (see the banners in front of the parliament blown over behind me) – the Balkan wars have stopped in the 90s but there are still a lot of anti-NATO, anti-US resentment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The new cathedral of Belgrad, mostly still in construction, except the crypt (here) – a lot of gold and sparkles!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In the afternoon, we made our way back to the hotel and were surprised to find two other cyclists in our room: Corinne and Chris, who were also traveling on a Pino this year. As luck would have it, we have mutual friends in Augsburg and had been in contact with each other for the past few weeks, so we could finally meet. We were relatively close to each other in Kyrgyzstan, then we split \u2013 them going through Iran, we through the Caspian and the Caucasus, and even since Istanbul we had been playing cat and mouse throughout the Balkans \u2013 Cassie found her favorite French expression: chasse-patate! We finally found a way to join at the same place and same time in Belgrade, the (almost) final destination of their trip. The rest of the day, we exchanged stories of our travels over food and drink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Everyone blurry but Cedric<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
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Everyone unblurred but Cedric<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The next morning, C\u00e9dric and I said our goodbyes and headed north. Corinne and Chris, on the other hand, left to take a bus to Munich and were thus closer to ending their trip. Our day cycling on the road was a blur \u2013 with little opportunity for small roads, we joined the constant flow of traffic on a secondary road. The rolling showers and fog didn\u2019t make the ride exciting either, so we cycled into Novi Sad with few breaks and arrived there early in the afternoon. After getting scammed finding an accommodation (a very poorly rated hotel presented themselves as being the owner of the highly rated place next door \u2013 and found out about it after paying the night \u2013 certain that given the reviews we would not need to check the room first like we used to do in Asia), we went around to discover this historical city and so for the remaining part of the day, we walked around the picturesque downtown. Unlike Belgrade with its plethora of communist-style architecture and busy industrial suburbs, the center of Novi Sad still has an abundance of regal 19^{th<\/sup> century and older buildings. Novi Sad being on the extreme north east of Serbia, it had been part of multiple other countries (Hungary until recently), and the influence of Austria and other central European powers is a lot more visible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n}
$\"\"$
A few more winter gears bought in Belgrade, ready for the last few weeks in the winter!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cedric – metamorphosed into a Balkanic Sultan! (it’s a rain cover over the helmet…)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sremski Karlovci, a baroque town shortly before Novi Sad (also a good stop after a long climb where we sweated a lot followed by a long descent where we froze to the bones…
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The main square of Novi Sad. Not the greatest weather, and although a lot smaller, Novi Sad is a way nicer city than Belgrade. It was actually Hungarian until WW1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We really tried to find a good Serbian restaurant, but not much success (apart from uber-meaty stuff) so we simply decided to go for McDonald’s – the first in 2018! \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nicer architecture, pedestrian area, a lot more colorful – if there’s a city to visit in Serbia it would definitely be Novi Sad!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Only bad unfortunate event with Serbians, getting scammed by a crappy hotel faking itself as been the much nicer one next door…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
When we woke up the next day, it seemed like the bad weather\nwas behind us (for now). We packed our things and decided to head for the\nSerbia-Croatia border. C\u00e9dric and I were getting tired of the traffic and the\ncurrent hotel owners made us long for friendlier hosts \u2013 so we decided to give a\ndifferent country a try. However, that first meant cycling with the traffic to\nBacka Palanka. For a kilometer or two outside of Novi Sad, we thought we found\na newly paved bike path along the Danube (and the sight of a road cyclist made\nus hopeful), but the trail ended abruptly, so we pushed our bike back to the\nroad. We got rid of our excess dinar (the Serbian currency) at the last\nsupermarket and then crossed the Danube into Croatia. And just like that, the\ntraffic disappeared. As we were riding through some small towns along river, we\nnoticed that some houses were still riddled with bullet holes from the Croatian\nwar of Independence. Many houses had a fresh coating of stucco, but some buildings\nbore scars as a testament to the war. Before finishing our day in Vukovar, we\nvisited the military cemetery, which was another memorial to the war. Serbia is\njust across the river, and Serbians are not the souvenir of a good neighbor in\nhere. The Balkans is now composed of many small countries that may look silly\non a map, but the cultural difference is still significant \u2013 it is never\nsufficient for wars, but within a few kilometers we went from an industry-based\nChristian orthodox country to a Catholic wine growing touristic region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
The way out of Serbia towards Croatia (that’s supposedly a cycling way – currently more like a muddy path)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Last shops before been back in the EU, getting rid of our last Dinars, and excited to see a lot less traffic on the other side of the border.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sultan Cedric the first, hoping to make that flying iron horse take-off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Turns out that the border region between Croatia and Serbia was completely devastated by wars and most of the inhabitants either stayed to fight in a guerilla or left (or died). The population is still not back to the pre-war level and a lot of buildings have not been rebuilt. Here a church… and as you may imagine, Croatians aren’t too fond of Serbians, although just across the Danube. Ah, and the main difference between the two is that Serbians are orthodox whereas Croatians are catholics (and Croatian food tastes better!).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Several villages along the Danube to get to Vukovar (and as many short steep hills in-between)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Vukovar is the only town in Europe that has been completely destroyed after WW2 – a local self-organized militia fought an urban guerilla at 20:1 against the Yugoslav army (basically Serb), and surrenders after 3 months to a Serb pyrrhic victory, including a lot of war crimes. Not many Croats survived and the cemetary is now a large national memorial.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Over 25 years later, still a lot of scars…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Many buildings have been renovated, but the number of bullets in small walls is insane.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The next morning, we left Vukovar with brilliant blue skies\nand continued our journey north. Again, without many other options, we had to\njoin a larger, more trafficked road on our way into Osijek. When we cycled into\nthe city, we were greeted by bike lanes (they\u2019re becoming more prevalent to\nmore north we go) and stopped in the Tvrda, an old 18^{th<\/sup> century\nfortress built by the Hapsburg Empire. Heading west down the main street, we\nwere surprised to see multiple Art Nouveau buildings lining the streets \u2013\ncoming from places with cheap, new construction projects, cinderblock houses,\nor soviet-style apartment buildings, this immediately gave us the feeling of\nbeing in Western Europe. We wandered around the downtown to look for a lunch\nspot, and finally found a boat restaurant on the shores of the Drava river. In\nthe afternoon, we cycled through small villages and farmland to get to Valpovo,\nwhere we called it a day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n}
$\"\"$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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By the time we packed our bike the next morning, we noticed\nthat the gray clouds were promising rain for our ride. Our plan for the day was\nto cross the Croatia-Hungary border and ride towards P\u00e9cs. Leaving Valpovo\naround 9am, we crossed the Drava River and continued north to the border town. The\nHungarian border, with its new fencing and barbed wire, flanked us to the left\nand was a reminder of Hungary\u2019s harsh stance against refugees and migrants.\nShortly before the border, we met a few guys who where slaughtering and smoking\na pig and offered us a few shots of their homemade schnapps, but we didn\u2019t feel\nquite up for drinking at 10:30 in the morning. Just as we crossed the border\ninto Hungary, it started to sprinkle and didn\u2019t let up. We rode through small\npicturesque villages with their rows of wine houses and the wine bars in\nVillany. This would have been a perfect area to explore on a summer day, but we\nwere determined to find a dry room in P\u00e9cs, so we continued cycling. When we\narrived in the afternoon, C\u00e9dric and I dropped off our soaking wet bags and\nwent out to explore the city while there was still some daylight. We had a bit\nof luck and the rain stopped just as we arrived in the city. Many downtown\nbuildings were built at the turn of the 20^{th<\/sup> century and exhibit a\nneo-baroque style, but there are other vestiges of former periods and rule of\nother Empires, like a mosque-turned-church built during the Ottoman occupation\nand church foundations built during the Roman Empire. Our first reaction was\nthat cities in Europe are definitely the most beautiful, sorry the rest of the\nworld (okay, other countries or continents have other good things)! <\/p>\n\n\n\n}
$\"\"$
Locals smoking some pigs and offering us some schnaps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The most obvious change getting into Hungary are the vineyards: the first region after the Croatian border is the Vill\u00e1ny vineyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The second weird change is that the region in Hungary after the border was actually a partially German speaking area settled by Danube Swabians. The signs being in both languages helped us a lot (Hungarian is pretty much indecipherable)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Typical wine cellar house in the Vill\u00e1ny region.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The famous hungarian goullash for lunch!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Those months with shorts and T-shirts are long gone…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The surprising downtown of P\u00e9cs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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P\u00e9cs with historical buildings ranging from the roman empire until the Austro-Hungarian empire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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P\u00e9cs by night (i.e. 4pm…)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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All clothes on for a rainy and hilly day towards Szeksz\u00e1rd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Hungarian village.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The next morning, the bits of the sun were poking through\nthe clouds, and we were thinking that we\u2019d have an enjoyable ride into Szeksz\u00e1rd.\nDue to the rain from the previous day, C\u00e9dric diligently oiled our gears and\nchain, but we discovered that the lubrication exacerbated a growing problem\nwith our drivetrain: one of the chainrings was so worn down that the greasy chain\nwould just slip over the teeth. This is a big problem because only one person\nis transmitting the force to move our iron horse. After 45 minutes of\nunsuccessful meddling, we managed to set things right with a well-placed\nzip-tie putting more tension on the chain and thus sticking it onto the\nchainring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
The ride from P\u00e9cs to Szeksz\u00e1rd made us like Hungary even more: a highway just for (stupid) cars and the older road just for bicycle. The way goes through quiet hilly forests with a few historical villages on the way. Unfortunately late November is cold and rainy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A castle-looking church.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Upon leaving P\u00e9cs, we followed some hilly secondary roads\nnorth. Hungary is also the first country in Europe where we saw \u2018No bicycle\u2019\nsigns on the more-trafficked roads (which is probably a good thing, as those\nroads mean in Hungary that there is a quiet alternative nearby), but this meant\nthat we spent the day swerving through the hills to stay on the correct roads.\nHungary was also the first country where we met many people cycling as a hobby\nor sports \u2013 after all countries we visited, doing (and no watching!) sports is\napparently mostly a western countries thing. Around lunch time, the heavens\nonce again opened up and we were rained on the rest of the day. Towards the end\nof the day, we arrived in Szeksz\u00e1rd in a downpour and were happy to find our\nwarm apartment for the night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Last hill before heading to our apartment in Szeksz\u00e1rd. We met here the first local mountain-bikers in a very long time (since New-Zealand…).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Yes, we did try some hungarian wine – we approve. Some (improved) pastas are yet necessary!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Early in the morning, already soaking wet after cycling about 500m… and 85km left until Budapest. Not the best motivation!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Downtown Szeksz\u00e1rd. We may have to come bcak for a more enjoyable city strolling!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Our daily routine cycling in Hungary:
– leave at 9am
– shut-up and cycle non-stop until lunch
– when frozen enough, soaking wet and hungry stop in a local shack for lunch
– find a heater to try to dry gloves and jacket, possibly change the sweater, T-shirt or anything completely wet
– cycle non-stop with the sunset time in mind (i.e. avoid arriving after 3pm)
– spend the rest of the evening drying everything and huging the heaters at max level<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Enjoying life… the good thing with Hungary is that the cycling is great, the good thing with rain is that you don’t need to drink or carry water, and the good thing with winter is that you rarely get bothered by other people (except cars, but that’s year-around)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Our accomodation for the night, a hotel dedicated to cyclist on the EuroVelo 6, and because we were the only guests at that time of the year, we kinda took over the entire place for ourselves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
A shared area in a hostel for cyclists (mostly in the warmer months) that we turned into a huge apartment for the two of us.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
For the next two days as we rode\ntowards Budapest, the weather didn\u2019t improve \u2013 it remained cold, gray, and\nrainy. Out of Szeksz\u00e1rd, we rejoined the Danube and crossed onto the east side\nand followed the mix of bike lanes and roads into the capital Budapest. We\nattempted to stay out in the rain when biking wasn\u2019t necessary, so we cycled\nnon-stop to an indoor place for lunch, and then again to the apartment for the\nnight. Nothing very exciting on those flatlands, more and more traffic getting closer\nto Budapest, and as usual the chaotic and totally uninteresting suburbs before\nfinally reaching the much more bike friendly capital of Hungary. When we\narrived at our place to stay, we somewhat felt bad for bringing soaking bags\nand clothes into the room, but\u2026 oh well, we needed a place to stay \u2013 and we\ntend to have less remorse in large hotels than guesthouses or B&Bs (and we\nare super cautious when invited or Warmshowers!). As we arrived into Budapest,\nwe followed a bike lane along the Danube and into the heart of the city. It was\nnice to see grand buildings pop up out of the more modern suburban dwellings as\nwe approached our hotel for the evening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
An arm of the Danube on the way to Budapest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
The shores of the Danube – no need of maps, just head north and follow the river.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Finally into the Hungarian capital. Unlike the dreadful way into Belgrade, Budapest is a fantastic place for bicycle. We got into the city center almost without having to deal with any traffic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Just follow the river and get into our apartment for the next few days!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Budapest fashion week 2018: winter flashy colors fake-Georgian-garment collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Now in Budapest, eating (almost self-made!) Szilvas Gomboc (fruit dumpling – a dish with a long history in Cedric’s Hungarian family) in our room, A pack of 500g is supposed to be for 4 people – so we bought two bags of 500g each for dinner!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once in Belgrade, it seemed that we avoided the worst of the rainy weather during the previous night. We set out in the morning to wander around the Belgrade Fortress, which was originally built over 2000 years ago by the Celtics and underwent many reconstructions, as well as battles, throughout the years from about as many different occupying countries. Now, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[224,59,220,227,183,166,221,217,3,1,2],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3370"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3385,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions\/3385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

One of the walls of the Belgrade fortress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The famous Belgradosaurus-Rex<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The entrance of the Belgrad fortress – a mixture of architectures of the various occupants, from the Romans to the Austrians, and notably with the Ottomans along the way<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The current cathedral – St. Michael’s Cathedral – Serbian orthodox churches felt like really weird places: very dark, locals clearly not happy to see non-pious people in them, nowhere to sit and peculiar traditions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It’s November 20th and the Belgrade Christmas decorations are already out… after almost 10 months of summer it felt a little weird to get directly into Christmas decorations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Unhappy with the rain and the wind (see the banners in front of the parliament blown over behind me) – the Balkan wars have stopped in the 90s but there are still a lot of anti-NATO, anti-US resentment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The new cathedral of Belgrad, mostly still in construction, except the crypt (here) – a lot of gold and sparkles!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In the afternoon, we made our way back to the hotel and were surprised to find two other cyclists in our room: Corinne and Chris, who were also traveling on a Pino this year. As luck would have it, we have mutual friends in Augsburg and had been in contact with each other for the past few weeks, so we could finally meet. We were relatively close to each other in Kyrgyzstan, then we split \u2013 them going through Iran, we through the Caspian and the Caucasus, and even since Istanbul we had been playing cat and mouse throughout the Balkans \u2013 Cassie found her favorite French expression: chasse-patate! We finally found a way to join at the same place and same time in Belgrade, the (almost) final destination of their trip. The rest of the day, we exchanged stories of our travels over food and drink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Everyone blurry but Cedric<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
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Everyone unblurred but Cedric<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The next morning, C\u00e9dric and I said our goodbyes and headed north. Corinne and Chris, on the other hand, left to take a bus to Munich and were thus closer to ending their trip. Our day cycling on the road was a blur \u2013 with little opportunity for small roads, we joined the constant flow of traffic on a secondary road. The rolling showers and fog didn\u2019t make the ride exciting either, so we cycled into Novi Sad with few breaks and arrived there early in the afternoon. After getting scammed finding an accommodation (a very poorly rated hotel presented themselves as being the owner of the highly rated place next door \u2013 and found out about it after paying the night \u2013 certain that given the reviews we would not need to check the room first like we used to do in Asia), we went around to discover this historical city and so for the remaining part of the day, we walked around the picturesque downtown. Unlike Belgrade with its plethora of communist-style architecture and busy industrial suburbs, the center of Novi Sad still has an abundance of regal 19^{th<\/sup> century and older buildings. Novi Sad being on the extreme north east of Serbia, it had been part of multiple other countries (Hungary until recently), and the influence of Austria and other central European powers is a lot more visible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n}
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A few more winter gears bought in Belgrade, ready for the last few weeks in the winter!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cedric – metamorphosed into a Balkanic Sultan! (it’s a rain cover over the helmet…)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sremski Karlovci, a baroque town shortly before Novi Sad (also a good stop after a long climb where we sweated a lot followed by a long descent where we froze to the bones…
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The main square of Novi Sad. Not the greatest weather, and although a lot smaller, Novi Sad is a way nicer city than Belgrade. It was actually Hungarian until WW1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We really tried to find a good Serbian restaurant, but not much success (apart from uber-meaty stuff) so we simply decided to go for McDonald’s – the first in 2018! \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nicer architecture, pedestrian area, a lot more colorful – if there’s a city to visit in Serbia it would definitely be Novi Sad!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Only bad unfortunate event with Serbians, getting scammed by a crappy hotel faking itself as been the much nicer one next door…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
When we woke up the next day, it seemed like the bad weather\nwas behind us (for now). We packed our things and decided to head for the\nSerbia-Croatia border. C\u00e9dric and I were getting tired of the traffic and the\ncurrent hotel owners made us long for friendlier hosts \u2013 so we decided to give a\ndifferent country a try. However, that first meant cycling with the traffic to\nBacka Palanka. For a kilometer or two outside of Novi Sad, we thought we found\na newly paved bike path along the Danube (and the sight of a road cyclist made\nus hopeful), but the trail ended abruptly, so we pushed our bike back to the\nroad. We got rid of our excess dinar (the Serbian currency) at the last\nsupermarket and then crossed the Danube into Croatia. And just like that, the\ntraffic disappeared. As we were riding through some small towns along river, we\nnoticed that some houses were still riddled with bullet holes from the Croatian\nwar of Independence. Many houses had a fresh coating of stucco, but some buildings\nbore scars as a testament to the war. Before finishing our day in Vukovar, we\nvisited the military cemetery, which was another memorial to the war. Serbia is\njust across the river, and Serbians are not the souvenir of a good neighbor in\nhere. The Balkans is now composed of many small countries that may look silly\non a map, but the cultural difference is still significant \u2013 it is never\nsufficient for wars, but within a few kilometers we went from an industry-based\nChristian orthodox country to a Catholic wine growing touristic region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The way out of Serbia towards Croatia (that’s supposedly a cycling way – currently more like a muddy path)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Last shops before been back in the EU, getting rid of our last Dinars, and excited to see a lot less traffic on the other side of the border.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sultan Cedric the first, hoping to make that flying iron horse take-off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Turns out that the border region between Croatia and Serbia was completely devastated by wars and most of the inhabitants either stayed to fight in a guerilla or left (or died). The population is still not back to the pre-war level and a lot of buildings have not been rebuilt. Here a church… and as you may imagine, Croatians aren’t too fond of Serbians, although just across the Danube. Ah, and the main difference between the two is that Serbians are orthodox whereas Croatians are catholics (and Croatian food tastes better!).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Several villages along the Danube to get to Vukovar (and as many short steep hills in-between)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Vukovar is the only town in Europe that has been completely destroyed after WW2 – a local self-organized militia fought an urban guerilla at 20:1 against the Yugoslav army (basically Serb), and surrenders after 3 months to a Serb pyrrhic victory, including a lot of war crimes. Not many Croats survived and the cemetary is now a large national memorial.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Over 25 years later, still a lot of scars…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Many buildings have been renovated, but the number of bullets in small walls is insane.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The next morning, we left Vukovar with brilliant blue skies\nand continued our journey north. Again, without many other options, we had to\njoin a larger, more trafficked road on our way into Osijek. When we cycled into\nthe city, we were greeted by bike lanes (they\u2019re becoming more prevalent to\nmore north we go) and stopped in the Tvrda, an old 18^{th<\/sup> century\nfortress built by the Hapsburg Empire. Heading west down the main street, we\nwere surprised to see multiple Art Nouveau buildings lining the streets \u2013\ncoming from places with cheap, new construction projects, cinderblock houses,\nor soviet-style apartment buildings, this immediately gave us the feeling of\nbeing in Western Europe. We wandered around the downtown to look for a lunch\nspot, and finally found a boat restaurant on the shores of the Drava river. In\nthe afternoon, we cycled through small villages and farmland to get to Valpovo,\nwhere we called it a day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n}
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By the time we packed our bike the next morning, we noticed\nthat the gray clouds were promising rain for our ride. Our plan for the day was\nto cross the Croatia-Hungary border and ride towards P\u00e9cs. Leaving Valpovo\naround 9am, we crossed the Drava River and continued north to the border town. The\nHungarian border, with its new fencing and barbed wire, flanked us to the left\nand was a reminder of Hungary\u2019s harsh stance against refugees and migrants.\nShortly before the border, we met a few guys who where slaughtering and smoking\na pig and offered us a few shots of their homemade schnapps, but we didn\u2019t feel\nquite up for drinking at 10:30 in the morning. Just as we crossed the border\ninto Hungary, it started to sprinkle and didn\u2019t let up. We rode through small\npicturesque villages with their rows of wine houses and the wine bars in\nVillany. This would have been a perfect area to explore on a summer day, but we\nwere determined to find a dry room in P\u00e9cs, so we continued cycling. When we\narrived in the afternoon, C\u00e9dric and I dropped off our soaking wet bags and\nwent out to explore the city while there was still some daylight. We had a bit\nof luck and the rain stopped just as we arrived in the city. Many downtown\nbuildings were built at the turn of the 20^{th<\/sup> century and exhibit a\nneo-baroque style, but there are other vestiges of former periods and rule of\nother Empires, like a mosque-turned-church built during the Ottoman occupation\nand church foundations built during the Roman Empire. Our first reaction was\nthat cities in Europe are definitely the most beautiful, sorry the rest of the\nworld (okay, other countries or continents have other good things)! <\/p>\n\n\n\n}
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Locals smoking some pigs and offering us some schnaps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The most obvious change getting into Hungary are the vineyards: the first region after the Croatian border is the Vill\u00e1ny vineyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The second weird change is that the region in Hungary after the border was actually a partially German speaking area settled by Danube Swabians. The signs being in both languages helped us a lot (Hungarian is pretty much indecipherable)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Typical wine cellar house in the Vill\u00e1ny region.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The famous hungarian goullash for lunch!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Those months with shorts and T-shirts are long gone…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The surprising downtown of P\u00e9cs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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P\u00e9cs with historical buildings ranging from the roman empire until the Austro-Hungarian empire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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P\u00e9cs by night (i.e. 4pm…)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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All clothes on for a rainy and hilly day towards Szeksz\u00e1rd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hungarian village.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The next morning, the bits of the sun were poking through\nthe clouds, and we were thinking that we\u2019d have an enjoyable ride into Szeksz\u00e1rd.\nDue to the rain from the previous day, C\u00e9dric diligently oiled our gears and\nchain, but we discovered that the lubrication exacerbated a growing problem\nwith our drivetrain: one of the chainrings was so worn down that the greasy chain\nwould just slip over the teeth. This is a big problem because only one person\nis transmitting the force to move our iron horse. After 45 minutes of\nunsuccessful meddling, we managed to set things right with a well-placed\nzip-tie putting more tension on the chain and thus sticking it onto the\nchainring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The ride from P\u00e9cs to Szeksz\u00e1rd made us like Hungary even more: a highway just for (stupid) cars and the older road just for bicycle. The way goes through quiet hilly forests with a few historical villages on the way. Unfortunately late November is cold and rainy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A castle-looking church.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Upon leaving P\u00e9cs, we followed some hilly secondary roads\nnorth. Hungary is also the first country in Europe where we saw \u2018No bicycle\u2019\nsigns on the more-trafficked roads (which is probably a good thing, as those\nroads mean in Hungary that there is a quiet alternative nearby), but this meant\nthat we spent the day swerving through the hills to stay on the correct roads.\nHungary was also the first country where we met many people cycling as a hobby\nor sports \u2013 after all countries we visited, doing (and no watching!) sports is\napparently mostly a western countries thing. Around lunch time, the heavens\nonce again opened up and we were rained on the rest of the day. Towards the end\nof the day, we arrived in Szeksz\u00e1rd in a downpour and were happy to find our\nwarm apartment for the night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Last hill before heading to our apartment in Szeksz\u00e1rd. We met here the first local mountain-bikers in a very long time (since New-Zealand…).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Yes, we did try some hungarian wine – we approve. Some (improved) pastas are yet necessary!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Early in the morning, already soaking wet after cycling about 500m… and 85km left until Budapest. Not the best motivation!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Downtown Szeksz\u00e1rd. We may have to come bcak for a more enjoyable city strolling!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our daily routine cycling in Hungary:
– leave at 9am
– shut-up and cycle non-stop until lunch
– when frozen enough, soaking wet and hungry stop in a local shack for lunch
– find a heater to try to dry gloves and jacket, possibly change the sweater, T-shirt or anything completely wet
– cycle non-stop with the sunset time in mind (i.e. avoid arriving after 3pm)
– spend the rest of the evening drying everything and huging the heaters at max level<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Enjoying life… the good thing with Hungary is that the cycling is great, the good thing with rain is that you don’t need to drink or carry water, and the good thing with winter is that you rarely get bothered by other people (except cars, but that’s year-around)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our accomodation for the night, a hotel dedicated to cyclist on the EuroVelo 6, and because we were the only guests at that time of the year, we kinda took over the entire place for ourselves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A shared area in a hostel for cyclists (mostly in the warmer months) that we turned into a huge apartment for the two of us.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
For the next two days as we rode\ntowards Budapest, the weather didn\u2019t improve \u2013 it remained cold, gray, and\nrainy. Out of Szeksz\u00e1rd, we rejoined the Danube and crossed onto the east side\nand followed the mix of bike lanes and roads into the capital Budapest. We\nattempted to stay out in the rain when biking wasn\u2019t necessary, so we cycled\nnon-stop to an indoor place for lunch, and then again to the apartment for the\nnight. Nothing very exciting on those flatlands, more and more traffic getting closer\nto Budapest, and as usual the chaotic and totally uninteresting suburbs before\nfinally reaching the much more bike friendly capital of Hungary. When we\narrived at our place to stay, we somewhat felt bad for bringing soaking bags\nand clothes into the room, but\u2026 oh well, we needed a place to stay \u2013 and we\ntend to have less remorse in large hotels than guesthouses or B&Bs (and we\nare super cautious when invited or Warmshowers!). As we arrived into Budapest,\nwe followed a bike lane along the Danube and into the heart of the city. It was\nnice to see grand buildings pop up out of the more modern suburban dwellings as\nwe approached our hotel for the evening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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An arm of the Danube on the way to Budapest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The shores of the Danube – no need of maps, just head north and follow the river.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Finally into the Hungarian capital. Unlike the dreadful way into Belgrade, Budapest is a fantastic place for bicycle. We got into the city center almost without having to deal with any traffic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Just follow the river and get into our apartment for the next few days!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Budapest fashion week 2018: winter flashy colors fake-Georgian-garment collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Now in Budapest, eating (almost self-made!) Szilvas Gomboc (fruit dumpling – a dish with a long history in Cedric’s Hungarian family) in our room, A pack of 500g is supposed to be for 4 people – so we bought two bags of 500g each for dinner!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once in Belgrade, it seemed that we avoided the worst of the rainy weather during the previous night. We set out in the morning to wander around the Belgrade Fortress, which was originally built over 2000 years ago by the Celtics and underwent many reconstructions, as well as battles, throughout the years from about as many different occupying countries. Now, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[224,59,220,227,183,166,221,217,3,1,2],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3370"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3385,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions\/3385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}