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| The crystal clear waters on Krk Island - Magical |
Exploring the island we soon stumbled on a place called Silo. It wasn’t accidentally if
you are thinking that. Silo was actually one of the reasons we chose to go to
Krk Island. A nice little village, which
also has a camping ground but we thought
that we would be able to find a better place to sleep somewhere else. Silo is located in a tucked away spot on the island and we
had to go down more narrow and steep roads to reach our target destination. It
was well worth the trip. After all how many people do you know that have a town named after them.
From Silo we travelled off Krk Island and drove back to
Opatija. I don’t like to go to the same
place twice but it was too late in the
day to travel south to Serbia. We spent
another night on the outskirts of
Opatija. Only to be woken up at 4am in the morning by Slovenian tourists screaming out loud that the camp site was not worth
the 30 Euro per night. Little did they know that there were
no hot showers or electricity that would really have given them some ammunition to scream and carry
on. Desperate to wash my hair before travelling on
I braved the cold shower. Not a pleasant experience given that the temperature
outside had dropped to a minimal 10 degrees. Major drops in temperatures these
past few weeks seems to be normal. We
were pleased to leave the site on the 6th
May which also happened to be our
anniversary.
Merrily driving down the freeway in the rain , 160km later we
finally felt rays of sunshine just prior
to entering into Zagreb. It was nice to
feel the suns’ rays and take off our long sleeves and turn the heating off. The journey from Opatija to Belgrade took us no more than 9 hours with just under
600km travelled. 2 pit stops on the way. That was pit , even though other
people that were at these stops seemed to freely urinate . Almost like an open
toilet for men. I was astounded. Every
time I looked up there was someone new
urinating beside the public toilet. I
assumed then that the toilet was locked as that could be the only logical
explanation. However, at the next pit stop the same thing happened .
The guys didn’t even attempt to enter the toilet , they just got out of their
cars , watered the grass and got back on
the road. Are they really in such a hurry to get to their destination?. Do men really believe that open spaces are
their own toilet to freely piss where they feel most comfortable. No shame. They don’t care if anyone is close
by, having their lunch or dinner. Oh well after that interesting revelation I
praised my partner who at least has the decency to find a public toilet or goes
behind a bush not to be seen. Bravo, men are so lucky in that respect.
We stopped to fill up Duca just after we passed Zagreb. I
noticed that there was not a single sign on the road to direct us towards
Belgrade all signs where to Slavonski Brod but none to Belgrade. I was amazed at first given that Serbia is the next country and throughout Italy and
Slovenia signs directed us to cities over 400km in distance. It must be a
result of the past war. From Belgrade there are still signs showing Zagreb so
it’s most unfortunate that the same gesture does not apply both ways. Maybe
this will change when both
countries enter the European Union and borders open. When we
filled the tank I asked how many more petrol stations I could expect on the
freeway and the man decided to tell me that I will need quite a few as my car
will guzzle petrol to Belgrade. Unbeknown to him we got to Zagreb from
Porec with one tank via Krk Isalnd. Duca
managed to get us to Belgrade from Zagreb on just under half a tank.
We travelled on and arrived at our second border crossing in
7 weeks. Our first one was from Slovenia into Croatia
and the second from Croatia into
Serbia. While we waited to present our
passports from the comforts of our car
we were entertained by a bus load of tourists from Turkey. At least the bus was a
Turkish carrier and from attire of the ladies and gentlemen it was evident they were also from that
region. Not familiar with their destination but amazed at the fact that everyone was
asked to disembark the bus, present their passports and walk to the other side
of the border. Most of the men took
advantage of the situation and immediately lit up their cigarettes. Women and
children just stood and chatted as the bus driver drove on without them to the
designated spot. In the meantime the bus
was searched by customs officials.
Up until now we have crossed borders and not even realised that we had entered into another country, avoiding
the strict faces of customs and border
control. Sure we are used to border control at airports but car border
crossings in Europe are certainly becoming a thing of the past. Interestingly
the airports are not so lenient with
customs officers still greeting tourists like potential terrorists and not
tourists. Maybe this will change but given the world climate I think that things will only get worse. That’s the great advantage of driving through
Europe with a motor home. We entered customs once and have had minimal contact
with border controls. Once we leave this
part of Europe we will once again freely travel from country to country and not
feel the transition.
Both Croatia and Serbia are candidates to enter into the EU.
Once they become members of the EU then the borders will open and border
controls will be gone forever. We plan to travel on to Greece via Macedonia from here so it will be
interesting how we are greeted on that journey.
Nine hours later we arrived into Belgrade. Having safely
arrived at our destination – auto camp Dunav located on the outskirts of
Belgrade we are now ready to explore the white city. From our spot beside the Danube river we watch the city change colour
dependant on the weather. When the sun
shines onto the city of Belgrade the
buildings are white so I am intrigued to
find out why it is actually called the “white city”. For that same reason
perhaps.
Until my next blog from the White city , bless you all and
particularly my lovely beagle Chapa who this week gave us all a terrible
fright. He is now back with his caring family and it appears that he is making a slow but sure recovery.
We love you Chapa and you are with us
throughout this journey. Thank you to my
friends and family for their support and best wishes.
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| Chapa chilling out at home |
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