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Yup, another media reference, this one requires a Tattoo.
So, last I reported I was in Bosnia. I had been outside of the Schengen area for most of a month. I have also been outside of the "Smile Zone" for the same period of time.
Most of the former Soviet Bloc countries, and in fact many of the countries I have been in lately are devoid of smiles. I don't mean to say that the people are not happy. In many cases they are. They can also be very friendly. But you don't see a lot of smiles. If you go to the grocery store, everyone looks like they just bit into an onion. If you try to make conversation, forget it. Unless they understand English, which is rare. But if you see them talking to friends, they are all smiles, and if you can break the ice, they are friendly and will even smile, but you don't see people looking happy on the street much. And they stare. Well, at me anyway.
I rode some great roads in northern Bosnia then into Croatia. There were some great roads in Bosnia, but too many of my choices went from awesome to gravel. One looked like it was going to be a good 40 kM of gravel. I did not want to end up in the middle of nowhere again, so I turned around and took some more major roads. These were OK, but not great. The crossing into Croatia was easy, and friendly on both sides. In fact, all my border crossings were great on this trip, and only a few grumpy looking border guards. But even these were OK, I just don't think they spoke much English. Most of the others were talkative and friendly. The best was my crossing into Kosovo. They were wonderful. I halfway expected to be invited to someone's home for lunch.
Not long after getting into Croatia I stopped to get off the Autobahn and figure out where I was going to stay. Air BnB is not very useful around these parts. As it was explained to me by a hotel owner, most people use Booking.com. I kinda' got the feeling they did not get the point of Air BnB. It is not about Hotels. It is about renting out your home, apartment, or spare room.
Anyway, there were not a lot of options that were not in the city. There were a few along the highway that were as you would expect. There was one that was way off the main drag, in a national forest. It was rated as "wonderful" and it was cheap, looked interesting, had a restaurant. Book em Danno. It was a great ride there and I got there just before dark. VERY old log building very far off the beaten path with a Stork Nest prominent on the roof. I did not get a photo that night, and should have, as will be explained shortly.
The host was great, nice room, the restaurant had a great selection. I chose a simple affordable meal thinking it was off season so I should keep it simple, but when a few other people from the area came in and ordered some of the roasted meat meals "under a bell" as they called it, I really wished I had gone big time.
Anyway, nice place, good breakfast that started early, but it was foggy outside. Really foggy. No way to take a good photo of the building kind of foggy. I figured it would burn off, so played on my mapping programs, ate slowly, and waited. About 9 AM I asked when the fog usually burned off. "Oh, about noon". Well that changed my plans of riding nice curvy roads.
Anyway, found some decent roads into the mountains, the fog eventually burning off, and tried to stay off the highways as much as possible. There was some stunning scenery along with some stunning roads. Then into Slovenia. The border crossing was so fast I thought maybe I missed a window.
The only problem is that I was back in the Schengen area. I only have 15 more days that I can be here, and thought that Slovenia was NOT in the area. I thought that would put me over my limit, but it looks like the latest ferry I would take will be on the last day I can be here. That is cutting it close, although I have still not found out what kind of penalty there is.
Slovenia. Oh Slovenia. Smiles Everyone Please, I forgot what it was like to have smiling people. And people that want to talk. In English. Or not, they still want to talk. It is like coming back from the moon.
Oh, and Castles. Castles on the hills, castles in the towns, mansions, churches, everything is so beautiful.
The roads I took were mostly but not always awesome. The drivers treat motorcycles as they should be treated, special. And there are motorcycles. LOTS of motorcycles. Big adventure bikes. Sport bikes. I am home again. Northern Slovenia is, well, awesome. I rode through Luce and realized that I needed to find a place fairly soon. This is the mountains. It gets dark in the valleys early and I was heading to a less than populated area. I found a tiny little ski town, with a few good choices and a good hotel. Cheap very good food, cheap hotel, nice SMILING people. I am home again.
