Day 51 – “monologue to the field”, Sečanj to Vršac (62km)

I begin my day with a monologue.

It was something about the uselessness of cars in cities and the importance of cycling, and how this works together with out respect and love for Pachamama.

Funny thing is I didn’t even realize I was gifting the grassy fields around me with this loud speech, all in Spanish, and with some flailing of one hand or the other to further illustrate my ideas while continuously cycling along…

Am I going a little loopy (or I should say loopier) from spending so much time alone?

Or maybe I just have a lot of thoughts to share and at 9:00 am on the empty road to Vršac the riding is effortless (the wind has finally died down!) and my voice is liberated.

I think some of the storks heard me.

Cycle, cycle, cycle. I share about 30 minute of the ride with an Austrian of Serbian origin who is back in his homeland on holiday. He loves cycling around the flat plains. Does he have a map? No, he exclaims, divulging what I didn’t know was his big secret, shame in life – he doesn’t know how to read a map.

What?? We’ve already established that he is multilingual, so it’s next to impossible that he is actually illiterate. No, no, he explains, simply his sense of direction is so horrendous that he can’t tell south from north, up from down or right from left.

Now if that’s not real cycling courage – to set out on a bicycle in full knowledge of your inability to independantly find your way home – then I don’t know what is!

I’m in Vršac pretty early, around 18:00, coming upon the hills that mark the beginning of the Karpaty mountains in Romania. I have never been so happy to see an interesting and hilly horizon after so many days of cycling in the plains!

My host Sanja, my first host to ever be younger than me (she is 22), meets me at the main square to show me to her home. There, it’s the Serbian paradigm all over again: anything I want, I can have it. Shower, food, internet, even a rare phone call to my parents in Calgary! “Guest” = “Royalty“, in Serbia, and I send my hosts into a frenzy when I am fool enough to admit that I would like some lettuce. They run around all over trying to procure me that darn lettuce…that wasn’t at all my intention!

In the evening we go out to see some of the city and to meet with Sanja’s friend Vlad. As he himself puts it he’s a “cleaner on cruise ships with a bachelor’s degree in economics”. It is all too often the story of the youth here who, after graduation, can’t find work in their actual field of study. He doesn’t sound too hard done by however as he tells us of the gorgeous coast of British Columbia and Alaska, as seen from the cruise ship and during the brief hours of shore leave that employees are granted. The ship is “the world in miniature” with just about every nationality present – just like in Canada, he exclaims. He has already learned from his Canadian colleagues of the multiculturalism that we are so proud of. For me too, it’s always been one of my main reasons for loving Canada.

A late night, yet again (I’m getting the feeling that I write that a lot!) and a hoped for early start tomorrow which, realistically, is not going to happen

Kasia – your loopy cyclist

Photos

- beautiful stork
- Sanja and her cat and guinea pig
- Sanja and I

Day 36 – from Vhrpolje to Ljubljana (72km)

The first 15km were straight uphill, no joke. Not the least stretch of flat to warm up the legs, no road signs either as there was only one road to follow – up and over the mountains I had admired so much the previous evening. It took me all morning and my entire reserve of 2,5L of water to lug myself and Juan (my bike) up that first stretch. It was sweat, drink, peddle and repeat in the blazing hot sun…and not a cloud in the sky to witness my efforts!

Came upon the town of Hrušica, tiny speck on the map but at that moment most significant town ever marking the beginning of my descent to Logatec. Pausing next to a closed bar on the side of the road, without a soul in sight to break the silence, I turned to see another bicycle traveller coming up the hill I was about to descend! I greated him happily, amazed that in a place devoid of human activity the one living, breathing and friendly face was also a sweaty cyclist!

Alexander, from Croatia, was in his 4th day of his first ever bicycle expedition – he was headed to a Radiohead concert in Italy and had decided to try out the two wheel mode of transportation for a change.

Newbies that we both are to bicycle travel we wasted no time in comparing notes on everything from gear, the classic whether-to-couchsurf-or-use-warmshowers cyclers dilemma and experiences up to date. And, Alex hesitated to ask me, had I already wild camped? He pronounced the last two words as though they represented the epitomy of daring, wild and rebellious behaviour – had I, with over 30 more days experience than he – already ventured down that path? Why, of course! It’s perfectly fine, I assured him, and if you want to be less jumpy about it just ask the land owner if they can spare a patch of grass for your tent for one night, they usually don’t mind

We spent an hour or so chatting, regrettably unable to share the road for so much as 5 minutes since we were headed in opposite directions!

From there on in, the riding was much less grueling. It was almost all downhill or slightly downhill to Ljubljana from where Alex and I parted ways, what with lunch break during the hottest hours, I got to Bojana’s place, my WarmShowers host in the Slovenian capital, a little past 19:00.

There, I was greated by a friendly, one-eyed Beagle named Rona and a piano in my very bedroom! After a stroll with Bojana through the romantic, historic center and a mango icecream, I return here to well deserved rest.

Lahko noč! (“goodnight” in Slovenian)

Kasia – your hill-climbing cyclist