Slivovic for breakfast

We write this entry from Serbia, which has not got off to a good start though through no fault of the Serbs or their country. More to follow, but nothing more serious than a dodgy tummy and a few bike issues. However, the gist of this update will be in full praise of Croatia and its wonderful people. We hadn´t even thought about crossing the border until the day before when it seemed like a cool idea to do a tiny detour, delay Serbia and add another country (number 8) to the list.

Sophie got into trouble on the border by taking pictures of the diplomatically sensitive "welcome to Croatia" sign and was forced to delete them by a rather joyless border gaurd. From this point though, the country provided us with wholly pleasurable experiences.

The landscape immediately changed as vine covered hills emerged from the plain and hospitality during the whole stay was unsurpassed. We camped one night in an old couple´s garden who, for a small fee, forced us to eat all their food and drink all their booze, including an 8am breakfast rakija. This was perhaps a good preparation for the rather sobering experience of passing through Vukovar, a Danube port town that was devastated in 1991 during the war and still bears the very obvious scars.

Searching for a place to eat that night in Ilok, we walked into a restaurant where a private party was in full swing. The restaurant was closed, but that didn´t stop Marco and friends forcing us to eat all their food and drink all their booze. See a theme developing? Their hospitality was so generous that our cycling the next day was limited to an afternoon limp across the border into Serbia where Luke´s back wheel promptly contributed to the hangover by losing a couple of spokes and having to be straightened twice. We went no further that day.