Bosnia and Serbia Blog-June 18, 2008
My farewell from Vegehana in Sarajevo, Bosnia
My last day relay crew Nevena, Mirela, Reza and I
Milan and Jamie 82km out of Sarajevo
Mirela from Bosnia and Bobo from Serbia
Greetings from Novi Sad, Serbia! I have good news and not so good news for you blog readers. Good news is that I posted an amazing 7 page newsletter with stunning photos of my most recent Balkan adventure in Bosnia. I have decided to keep the tradition of newsletters going as I’ve had about a dozen regular supporters request it and I want to make the time to write good stuff for my book. So the blog will just be short updates and links to the newsletters. I think that sounds right :)
I strongly suggest taking the time to have an armchair adventure with me and some very awesome Bosnians—head to www.peacepedalers.com/bosnia-nl.html and enjoy the ride! Do it!
The not so good news is that I’ve been here in Serbia for about 5 days and I’m hitting a few speed bumps on getting the pedals moving both physically and emotionally. Yesterday I had my first day of official riding here in Serbia and something still is just not right. In fact, ever since I crossed the border I have not felt comfortable, peaceful or any real connection to the people or the country. It is likely just a case of “Balkan Burnout”, or perhaps some fears or even anger I have towards the country and its recent flexing of military muscles. But whatever it is from an emotional standpoint it is manifesting into physical issues too.
Check this out. Just as I arrived last Friday and was riding into town my rear rack bent again and the tire was rubbing the rack. Then when I attempted to bend it back I broke my rear hard case so now I have to strap it to the trailer, making the use of the rear tripod impossible. I decided to leave that event in the past and hit the town that night to experience some of the famous Belgrade nightlife. But for some reason all I found were heavy smoking, almost as heavy drinking and cold groups of people that seems to me to be unhappy deep inside and just hiding it with this big party. Could this just be me in a negative mood? Me being sad and projecting it on others? Perhaps...
Now that was just my initial feeling but as I went out walking the next morning I still experienced the people the same way—coldness, sadness, tension, anger and aggressive vibes all over. My smiles were met with a cold looks, my “Dober Dan” (Good Day) greetings unreturned, and this happened over and over again. As I sat on benches to just observe I saw a business and worried look on the majority of the people. I still don’t know if it’s just me or if it was really just the way the Serbians I saw were.
Things started looking up later Saturday morning. My good friend and guest rider Mirela from Sarajevo decided to join me for the weekend in Belgrade and hopped in her car for the 4 hour drive. While she was on her way I met my host Bobo, another friend of Svemir from Croatia. He is a sweet man who just published his 5th book about people who “protect the light” and has several portraits of people making a difference in the world. He is doing a book signing and release party and wanted me to be part of it. He lined up a meeting with the Blic newspaper for me, which resulted in a great full page article the next day, which I was very grateful.
I had a 20km ride to get to Bobo’s house and he was not interested in riding it with me so I pedaled my way out of the busy capital just as the rain began to fall once again. It was then that I realized my rear hub was locking up and the freewheel was not working. I also noticed that the rear tire had a bubble in it and was on the verge of popping! If that was not enough, the front rack also had two cracks in it, likely from when I loaded it up when the first rear rack break happened. Now you see what I mean when I say the mental stuff and the physical stuff were coming together here!
Mirela had to leave early Monday morning and when I woke up to start my day I just could not be bothered to get out of bed. Bobo must have felt the same way as neither of us got anything going until after 10. I spent most of the day working on fixing all the issues on my bike and equipment, washing up stinky clothes from Bosnia, catching up on newsletters and missing Mirela and my Bosnian crew big time. Again, as I was out on the town getting my tasks done I still did not find anyone I connected with like in other countries, and the hopes of finding a rider out of town with me were fading.
I did some maintenance on my hub, got a new tire, found a way to bend my rack back enough to ride and thought yesterday would be the day I’d pedal on north. I rode off solo with a late start to Novi Sad at about 4PM. It was only a 60km ride so no sweat getting to the city before dark, so I thought. I was rolling along great at the start but at the 30km mark the rack started to bend again and the tire rubbing. I had to take all the weight off it and put it in the rear bag, a process that took about 30 minutes.
Then I got my first flat tire at about 30 km mark, which I feared would be the case on a cheap tire, even though it was the best I could find. And it takes a while to fix a flat on my rear tire, another almost 30 minutes. Then came the climb over the mountain that never seemed to end. Nearly at the top, just as the sun was going down, I realized I had another flat tire! I pumped it up and it held, meaning it was just a slow leak. I figured rather than take the 20-30 minutes in the last bits of daylight I’d pump it up and hope to make it to Novi Sad like this. The slow leak got faster and faster, it got darker and darker, and eventually I was riding at night with heaps of cars having to stop every few kilometers to pump up my tire. Oh, and it started raining too. Nice! Not.
If that was not enough, when I arrived into Novi Sad every place in town was full from convention in town and it took me over an hour to find a bed. I was showered and ready to finally eat at 11PM, but tried to remain optimistic about going out and meeting some folks to ride with me the next day. I walked around the stunning town of Novi Sad, gave friendly smiles as I normally do, tried to meet some people and tried to meld into the community a bit. After 3 hours on the town I just gave up and accepted that I am not meant to ride the next day with anyone
I slept in this morning until 10AM as the rain hammered the roof, only making me feel worse. But the good news, and only really positive thing getting me excited right now as I sit on a train, without my bike, back to Bobo’s book launch event, is that Mirela is going to be there too. Mirela and Bobo connected and built a great friendship last visit and Bobo painted a portrait of her for his event. And, because the book is about peace and positivity in many ways, he invited Mirela to return from Bosnia to Serbia for the event. So Mirela has today and tomorrow off work so at this point I can see us just hanging out together and scrapping the rest of my ride in Serbia for the most part, unless some of these crazy bike issues and emotional blocks start mellowing out!
That’s the latest from the road. It’s not always peachy perfect but even my worst days out here on the road are still pretty darn epic! It's actually facinating to just watch my own head, emotions and thoughts during all the ups and downs of life on the road too! Just gonna go with the flow, give myself some time to digest everything, listen to what God or “The Universe” might be telling me, and I have no doubt it’s all part of some divine plan of yummy goodness!
Over n out from somewhere in Serbia!
binks
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