Its been about a week since my last post, sorry for the delay however internet access has been hard to find in some places.
Firstly thanks for the positive feedback on my writing, however I have to iterate that these are fast single thought drafts usually written in smoky, noisy, (foreign music and yelling kids predominate) internet cafes. Rereading them makes me cringe at the repetition, spelling mistakes, clunky phrasing, and grammatical errors. Believe me if there was a final draft it would only bare a faint resemblance to what you are reading at present!
Anyway along with the story. In Turkey we found ourselves in a dilemma, how do we get to Croatia? The buses and trains wouldn't take us and flying was too expensive. That left just ferries, and the only one going our direction went to Ancona in Italy so we grabbed it.
On the 3 day voyage we met an interesting half American and half Italian guy writing his dissertation on Roman architecture and cycling with a bike laden in books. Robert had also just inherited an old hunting lodge in the Italian mountains from his late aunt. It was originally owned by a Pope and hadn't been lived in for 30 years, and has ghosts. He was wondering what to do with it and promised to send pictures. Such a fascinating situation :)
After Ancona we caught, within a few hours, a ferry to Split in Croatia, since then we have been cycling up the country. On the first night stopping at a beach camp, then off to a national park to see some great waterfalls, and the third day out to an island. Today we have returned to the mainland and are heading north from Zadar to Pag, a small town on the end of a long peninsular.
We have seen such a wide variety of landscapes and situations, from the beautiful beaches, to rugged Kast landscapes to bombed villages and finally a peaceful island. The highlight in my mind are the destroyed villages we saw while cycling inland. The whole area was full of ghosts, not the haunting kind, but the absence of people, children laughing, elderly sunning and people working. Every village had abandoned buildings some with bullet holes and others with head sized holes in the walls, all stripped of anything of value.
The ultimate was a village in which every house seemed to be abandoned. About 15 or so empty and destroyed buildings, I didn't recall even seeing a village name sign on the road as we passed through. The village had just ceased to exist, generations of families were gone, either killed, exiled or just moved out. It was a very sobering experience.
From that we went back to the relatively unscathed coast and out to a small village. It was a peaceful idyllic place and well worth the visit. The roads here are fantastic, totally smooth black tar surface with no stones whatsoever, the only problem is the lack of a cycling verge so we are often slowing the traffic down.
After Turkey the people here are great, friendly yet not pushy, when they see our NZ flag we get great responses one elderly man took us on a tour of his ancient town just because he saw our flag and we are kiwis.
Anyway time is limited here as the internet cafes charge outrageous prices for access, but I totally recommend cycling here its the best way to see the country and meet the people.