Stories from Baracs to Banja Luka

Croatia is a country, where i stayed the shortest time, only two nights. My time in Hungary was filled with meetings with different animals, but in Croatia i met People. I crossed the boarder  at Barcs without any map, since in Hungarian side was out of maps of Croatia and Bosnia. After 15km from the boarder, I got into town called Virovitica, where a girl showed me a place to buy map. I went to have coffee and look at the map into nearby cafeteria, where the locals were already offering me a place to stay. One of the guys was very keen on Finland and knew probably more facts about Finland than me! Normally, I would have stayed, but since first time on the trip I have some sort of schedule to meet my mom in Montenegro, I had to continue my way forward.

From Virovitica the road started to climb up to hills. How happy I was to start to get some elevation and views again. The whole area made me smile and laugh, forest, small villages, cute grandmothers, rivers and mountains. Unfortunately, I have lost all my pictures (since Hungary)because of broken memory card. Well, that is life and the most beautiful moments will stay only as memories.

I have been swimming in the rivers and lakes over a week now. I was lucky and found a river also after the climbings and got refreshing bath. I had checked from the map, that there were two lakes along the way and my plan was to set up my tent next to one of the lakes. I found the lake, found beautiful camping spot again with both sunset and sunrise. Ah, and how much I love to go to sleep after sunset and wake up with sunrise. Perfect rhythm for me. I slept like a baby until 4am, when a man woke me up shouting and shaking my tent. For some time, I hoped that if I am just very quite and will not show myself he will go a way, or forget that the whole tent even exists. Well.. The tent was shaking so much that I had to get up. I was actually more angry than scared that somebody is waking me up middle of the night in such violent way.




We had a small chat with the man, without same language. I understood he wanted money, but he gave up pretty easy and left me alone. I went back into my tent and was not able to fall asleep again, so had early morning coffee and breakfast. Before sunrise I was already on the road. Thank you to that man, I had one of the most magical morning with lot of birds, watching otters playing ( how cute they can be!) In very close distance to me.

I stopped in Daruvar to charge my batteries, it's always great reason to stop and have a coffee. When I was done and just about to leave, I got stopped by man talking in Swedish to me. I would have never thought how well I could understand Swedish after spending some days alone. I went to have a coffee with the couple and suddenly I found myself from thermal pool, having the most relaxing day ever. The water cooked my muscles into jelly and I was barely able to walk to another pool. I have not had a break since Budapest, and even if the road has been mainly flat I felt it in my legs. I was treated like a little princess. I got front tire, and I was not allowed to touch it, but my new friends fixed it, while I was sitting on the shadow.



I was served with food, friends, positive energy, kindness and happiness. I got my own private two floor house to sleep, where I had shower and soft bead. How touching the kindness of strangers can be. How openly people have been welcoming me during this trip. Next morning, it felt like the whole town was planning my trip to Bosnia. So many different route ideas and safety tips. I even got company to drive with all the way to the border. The route from Daruvar to Gradiska was hilly and beautiful, with lot of abandoned houses due to the war.

So far Bosnia has been treating me good as well. First night, when I got tired I went to ask from caffe/bar, if I can pitch my tent behind the bar. The people in the bar had a discussion and came into solution that I better not to stay there but in the house. I ended up staying with the family in the countryside. Such a lovely Bosnian mother took me in like a lost daughter, giving me many kisses and hugs all the time. While watching the family photos from the times of war, I learned lot of history of Bosnia and whole Balkans. I also learned that in Bosnia, people kiss three times on the cheek to say good bye.

What can I say, thank you everybody for making my route from Barcs to Banja Luka unforgettable experience. While cycling in Hungary, I was finding my way to continue alone again. I was hoping to meet people and once again my hopes were heard. Before this experience, I had to go back into the memories, go through them, find myself back into the present situation. I am positive person by nature and it helps me through many situations, but by denying the negative thoughts would be just cheating. "Luckily" while riding, on some of the roads there is nowhere to hide my own thoughts.

What have I been up to in Banja Luka? Big big surprise, fixing my bicycle. This time, I straightened the front wheel (took only 1 hour, I am getting good at this). I also was fixing the front break system and found out that the plastic around one certain screw had cracked. So I decided to change the whole front brake system to new one. Anyways, the left side of the front brake had started to be a bit lazy and end of every day not returning the brake pad into its place anymore. Thank you Huntteri, Helkama and Pyörähuolto.com for goving me such a compact and usufull repair kits. Honestly, I have used them every second day with my old bicycle.






 
 
Now, i am as ready as I can be to start to do some serious climbing up to the canyons and mountains. Bigger and steeper than in Slovakia. I hope to make it on time to meet my mom :)

Song for today: http://youtu.be/mehLx_Fjv_c