On Saturday (27.05) we woke up early. And by early I mean really early, because we had to bring Madita to the bus station at 6 am. After racing through the city we arrived with time to spare. We had asked beforehand if transporting bicycles was possible and were told that it depends on the driver if he thinks there is enough space. Well this driver thought there would only be enough space if he got 15€, and so with a lighter wallet, Madita boarded the bus with her bike and waved us goodbye.

Ida and me went back to the apartment, after all we had rented it till 10, so we were going to use it till then! After sleeping till 9:30 we quickly gathered our things and prepared to leave Split. The chaos we experienced entering the city was no better on the way out. And so we paused at our trusted LIDL and had a break in the shadow while the asphalt glimmered under the relentless sun. And while sitting there we thought not being able to ride form 10:30 till 17:00 was not ideal and that maybe Greece was not the way to go. And so we descended to the beach to search for alternatives. Our first idea was to just sail downwards, but looking on the internet we didn't immediately find someone willing to transport two people with their bikes south (I mean that would be too much luck!) and we didn't want to spend a few days asking in the harbour. We had heard that Dubrovnik was not best visited by bike anyway and so we decided to just leave it for another day.

As a first rough plan we decided to just cycle inland direction Romania. And so up the hills we went and soon we were behind the hills that kept the clouds from the coast. And just like that the temperatures became more manageable.

As we hid on a bench under grape vines that was just next to the road, our decision solidified; Romania was the place to go and that way we would have more time in the north as well. After the pause we encountered our first wedding: 20-30 cars all honking with us encouraging them by honking back.

And after all that climbing we got a few height meters back as we descended into a village where some kind of petanque tournament was happening. A bit of grocery shopping later we resumed the climbing as every km we did today we would not have to do tomorrow.

Just as always with dawn came our time to ask people if their garden would fit a tent and two stinky cyclists. But today luck was not on our side and everyone kept sending us 5 km back down a mountain to a camping place (it's not that far, it's not that much of a climb are the things people who ride a car say when you're in the mountains).

For us the only logical solution was to keep going up and as it was starting to get dark we arrived at the final town we would be able to climb that day. And as luck would have it there were still two people outside, and while we weren't able to communicate too well, Idas croatian (🙆‍♀️ šator, ☝ noć, jutro pfsssssh *hands showing us riding*) was good enough that they at least understood what we wanted. So they got someone who spoke English, and that person got someone else, and very soon the whole town was looking for a place for us to stay. We ended up just next to a road (if the bit of asphalt where only 3 cars had to pass could be called a road) on what seemed the only flat piece of land in the town. As we were putting up our tent two more people passed by and told us to come inside. That was the first time we heard the words that would follow us the next week:

Čaj? Kava?

Tea? Coffee? And as we didn't know any better we said yes to tea and just like that we got tea, water with self-made sirop, cheese and salted meat, bread, an offer to shower, and Ida got to enjoy self-made šljivovica (plum spirit).

The next day (28.05) at 6 we headed to the border. In the cold morning we mastered our way up to the windmills and as a wise man once told us: when you reach the windmills you're at the top!

Now came an exciting new experience: our first border crossing! So we took out our passports and looked as innocent as we could and with a stamp we left into our 13th country.

We had no idea what to expect of this country as we hadn't even planed to visit it for longer than the 10km it would have take us to cross Neum. Till this point in time we had only snooped out from conversations that Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided in two: Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that Herzegovina was catholic and Bosnia was muslim. But as it turns out reality is way more complicated. So Bosnia and Herzegovina is politically divided into two: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republika Srpska, while historically it's divided into, well Bosnia, and Herzegovina. But that's not all, the regions Bosnia as well as Herzegovina are both within both the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. If this seems very confusing, don't worry, as it gets even weirder. The presidency is 3 people (a Bosniak, a Croatian and a Serb), that rotate as acting president every 4 months. There is also a High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (currently a German) that has Veto powers.

But in order for us to find all that out we had to get a SIM card as BiH is also not part of EU Roaming! And so we stopped at the next supermarket payed 4 KM and were good to go! If you're wondering why we could pay with distance, I was just as confused when I saw -0.75 KM/l at the gas station! Turns out the currency of BiH is KM (konvertibilna marka or convertible mark), which was fixed to the German Mark (DM) at an exchange rate 1 DM:1 KM, and is now fixed to the Euro as 1.96KM:1€.

Exhausted by all this knowledge we decided to cook next to a church and then took a siesta in the complete calm of the cemetery.

All out of water we decided to ask at the next house if we could get some by asking:

Voda?
Do you want water?
Yes, please!

And so the person left to fill the bottles. The rest of the people on the veranda continued the conversation:

Where do you come from?
Germany
Ja, servus! Ich komme aus München! [Traditional bavarian greeting, I come from Munich!]

And just like that we added to our knowledge databank, that many people from BiH moved to Germany to work there, which makes sense seeing how many German number plates we had seen at that point, and explains the fixing of their currency.

But before we could talk much more the first man came back with our bottles, and some tasty pastry, two for each of us.

Going uphill we met our second wedding, and again a lot of honking ensured. As we entered Tomislavgrad we started asking people if we could sleep in their garden, but there only ones we saw sadly wouldn't let us as they had more than just a few dogs who would go crazy at night, and so we rode till the next cemetery where we were pretty sure we were not going to be disturbed during the night (and there should be no mines!)

On the 29.05 we woke up even earlier. By 5 we were ready to go! To be safe we made a quick stop at the gas station to fill up water and might have left a pretty confused cashier. The street was a bit busier than we might have expected, but everyone passed us pretty well. Which the oncoming traffic might have seen a bit different as a car was almost swept by a truck who passed us, but he did so on the opposing lane!

Still climbing we made it onto a plateau, something I would not have expected at 1100 m.o.s.l.

After grocery shopping in Kupres, we decided to do the only sensible thing and take a midday nap in the sun ... from 10 to 12!

With repowered legs we climbed the last 200 height meters and crossed a tunnel (which might or might not have been closed for cyclists, we may never know!) to the other side of the mountains.

On the other side, not only the landscape had changed, but also the climate and we started seeing abandoned dogs on the 20km descent into Bugonjo, where we started seeing the first mosques. As the bewelcome hadn't answered at this point we decided to just continue but not before stopping to get some stamps!

As the post office wouldn't take payments by card we had to exchange a bit of money. We taught 15€ would be enough and so we gladly payed the 1% exchange tax (0.15€) and had 39 KM. Half of that was then spent immediately to get Bosnian stamps. The lady behind the counter was the only one speaking English and so she was stuck with me. When I asked if I could see the album with their stamps, she handed them over the counter, but not before asking me to please not run as she then would have to pay for it out of her pocket. Not running, I selected a few stamps before the lady of the next counter came over. She had seen me choosing stamps and went to get some special ones they had somewhere else just for philatelists!
In the meanwhile, Ida had been talking to a local cyclist who recommended her a different route, and so we followed that route, up a last hill for the day. The following descent we enjoyed a lot, stopping just to ask if we could camp in someones garden. We soon realized, that the people where really willing to help but they simply didn't seem to understand that we wanted to voluntarily camp.

As the street was starting to get a bit busier we took a small detour and didn't give up with the asking (the idea of wildcamping between mines does that to you) to which a man told us, that while he didn't speak English his family just two houses down the road did. So two houses down the road we asked, and the woman did indeed speak perfect English! But as we later figured out, she was not related to the first guy! Anyway she told us her parents should have absolutely no problem when they came back, as they had been dogsitting while she was on vacation. When they did come back, she explained the situation and then left to Sarajevo leaving us to communicate with an online translator and whatever both of us could say in German/Englisch/Croatian.

And then again came the question:

Čaj? Kava?

This time we were prepared and said only tea please! No food!

With a tea in hand we all called their son who lived in Augsburg and who immediately invited us to stay if we ever came by. He also told us in German, that we could absolutely not say no to the food as they would be offended and so again we ended up eating tomatoes with salted pork from the pigs that ran behind their house and with self-made cheese from their cow that was now sleeping just on the other side of the fence. We also got to see the chickens which provided them with eggs, eat the muffins the neighbour brought by and of course, Ida had to drink a good night šljivovica!

On the 30.05 one of us had the luxury of coffee in the morning! And the other one got the last muffin from the neighbour. Because we really didn't want to take advantage of the hospitality we were being offered, after a few kilometers we took our own breakfast on a bench next to a church. The road to the gorge we had planned to take wasn't the most empty one and so the inevitable happened and I almost got hit by a truck, because of shock we stopped at the next possibility, which was the parking lot of a restaurant. As we were preparing to leave two men approached us and asked us:

Čaj? Kava?

Well this time we were a bit cautious, and declined the offer. They still invited us inside the restaurant and asked us if we wanted some of the dessert displayed there, which we again kindly refused. And so the older of the two just said something to the waiter who left and came back with a whole grilled chicken with bread. Turns out they were the owners of the restaurant and they had just gifted us a chicken for lunch because we said no to everything else!

So now with a chicken more and a bit of stress less we made our way the last few km until the road split into the M17 and the old road which we would take till Zenica.

There we chose a bench next to the river and started eating the chicken, when someone approached us

Are you travelers?
Kind of (?)
I saw you through the window of my apartment and I thought you might need energy, here have this homemade jam.

And just like that he left and left us with jam and wondering if people could be any kinder!

After a few kilometers more on small streets we sadly had to get back onto the main highways. And as thunder and lightning followed us we stopped under the first roofed building we found. Soon enough it started raining and even through language barriers the security guard, who discovered us over the cameras and came to see what those two up-to-no-good cyclists were doing, quickly understood why we were sitting there on the floor and just gave us a thumbs up.

During a quick rain pause we changed our shelter to a gas station to use their (un)sanitary installations, which proved to be an error as it started raining cats and dogs (or tacos) and the shelter didn't shelter that much. So Ida, in a heroic and selfless act (I swear, she didn't force me to write this!) crossed the street to the hotel to ask for prices. Well they didn't want to let us leave at 4am as planned, because they just opened at 7, so that was a no go as the street would be just as full at 7 as it was now.

As Ida was conveying the bad news we noticed a man leaving the house just in front of the hotel, and so we took our chance and asked if we could camp in his garden. After asking his wife he gave us a thumbs up that we could come over and by the time we arrived he had moved his car out of the garage so we could put up our tent somewhere dry. Using a combination of hands and feet, and online translators we talked a bit as he had guests and kept going inside, but we had the feeling it was more his wifes guests and which is why he kept coming out to talk to us.

Safe in our little garage we saw an other cyclists riding down the road in the rain with the trucks and were both happy it wasn't us and impressed by the crazyness some cyclists out there have.

And then came the moment we knew was coming:

Čaj?

But this was a day where we really needed the tea and so we agreed. And lo and behold, he came back with not only tea, but with two kinds of cookies and sirop and water. At least he asked us if we wanted something to eat and didn't just bring dinner!

Wednesday (31.05) we started riding at 5 in the morning and flew the first 25 km, which was perfect because as soon as we left the street and stopped to have breakfast, we saw the street fill with commuters!

After a few more km, Ida decided to stop to take nap because of the short night. And then out of nowhere came Antun.

After the usual "Where do you come from?" "Where are you going?" (Cotton eye Joeing?) we realized it was probably him that we saw last night, and by pure chance he lived on our route in Slavonski Brod just behind the border to Croatia. And even though it was 40km farther than we had planned to ride that day, it was still early in the morning and so we accepted his invitation to sleep at his place.

And after a nice chat while riding we split at thr next town as we wanted to take a break to visit the local fortress.

But first we had to get postcards, as Ida wanted to send at least one from Bosnia and Herzegovina. As Doboj wasn't the most touristic town we stopped at the place where we expected to have the best chances of getting them which was the local museum. But as it turns out the didn't have any, instead Ida came out with two gifted books about the local history and an invitation to visit the museum. And while Ida went inside and I kept an eye on our bikes as they are currently our lifes.

But soon a coworker came out and talked to me about our trip and gave me some chocolate ("you need the energy"), then went back in and came out with two bottles of some kind of liquor with a plant in it. Turns out it is Iva grass and picking it is on the UNESCO list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity!

When it was my turn to visit the museum a person initiated conversation. It was Serb and he told me Serbia was the best country out there and it was incredibly safe not as BiH where you had to watch your back because of all the muslims. Ironically at the same time a museum worker talking with Ida told her, that in the street there were a Mosque, a Synagoge, an orthodox and a catholic church and there have been no problems at all. We'll see if Serbia is such a paradise next week I guess.

When we left the city, we quickly discovered, that our planned route would take us along a bunch on unpaved streets and so we continued on the main road as it didn't seem to busy and was just a few km more (but asphalted!)

After a long day riding we crossed the border a day earlier than planned and went directly to Antuns place. After a lifegiving shower Antun ordered food for us all!

After we all stuffed our faces he showed us his bike room where we would be able to sleep that night and to say we were impressed was kind of an understatement! Antun has been travelling his whole life and all across the world as he used to work as a sea man, sometimes on cargo ships and later on cruise boats. No wonder he couldn't stop after he retired!

On Thursday (01.06.) we celebrated Antuns 70th birthday with an extensive breakfast, then went on a little walk through the city and as we had to leave we realized if we stay as fit as Antun is, then we had a good life. And for everyone looking for excuses to not cycle: when we met him he was finishing his 1300km 5 day preparation for a 24 hour race next week, where he would attempt to break 600km! Age is no excuse!

Because we had done a few extra kilometers yesterday we just had 35km to our WS host Marie Louise! But of course just before arriving we got rained on...

When we arrived we were introduced to François, a french cyclist who had arrived in the morning. We talked a bit with Marie Louise, who moved back to her husbands village in Croatia two decades ago and admired the farm animals she had: from white peacocks to baby rabbits and sheep.

We were also introduced to mulberries which were planted in the region in order to raise silkworms. But when the silk production declined, since it was being imported from Asia cheaper, all that was left were the tasty berry trees!

And to finish the day in the evening we even made fresh dinner with François as Marie Louise had given us some veggies from her garden!

On Friday (02.06) we took a day off! Finally after a lot of riding! We said goodbye to François and hope to see him again soon! Maybe in the north if he's fast or maybe in the south if we're faster!

Then it was time to work as resting does only mean not moving the legs! And so we joined Marie Louise and peeled the peas that they had harvested yesterday, and even though our work didn't seem to make a dent, after an hour we were done. And while half of them went into the freezer we had the chance to taste some for supper.

After nap time, Ida changed her breakpads and soon after an other cyclist, Jodi from the Netherlands, arrived. After a bit of talking, Marie Louise gave us some stuff to prepare dinner and afterwards we fell into bed, ready to fully charge the batteries for the comming days!