Photo: Mosque in Skopje
Apr 25, 1979 I mostly bummed around Skopje with Charlie, an accountant from Los Angeles. I had decided to heed the American Library directors warning about biking and take a bus from Skopje to the Adriatic Coast. The bus to Titograd left at 7 PM.
Just out of Skopje we had to wait for 3 hours because a truck and car had wrecked on the narrow 2 lane road. The car was totaled and the driver dead. The truck lay across both lanes of traffic. A very rainy night, and I did not regret my decision to not bike the route.
Photo: Wall of Dubrovnik Old Town
Photo: Dubrovnik Old Town
Apr 26, 1979 In the early morning I awoke and gazed out the bus window at the harsh landscape of Montenegra. The narrow road wound around many spectacular waterfalls and through countless tunnels. We arrived in Titograd at 6 AM. (After the 1990’s breakup of Yugoslavia, Titograd was renamed to Podgorica in Montenegra. Montenegra and Macedonia became separate countries). It was still raining so I tried to catch a bus to Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Coast. The ticket staff told me that bikes were not allowed on buses although I had just taken my bike on the bus from Skopje. My alternatives were to bike in the rain, wait until the rain stopped and bike, or see if a bus would allow me to take the bike.
A girl from Macedonia and now working in Berlin waited with me for the next bus. She told me she did not trust the Montenegrin men who were hanging out in the bus terminal and eyeing her from a distance. Both Macedonia and Montenegra had a mix of Muslim and Orthodox Christian religions/ethnicity.
The 9:30 bus was full and couldn’t take my bike. At 12:45 a bus driver agreed to take me and the bike. Later, I changed buses at Cetinje, but still was able to take the bike. Just before the coast we had to descend 4,000 feet down the side of a mountain. The view was awesome as the bus went through 26 hairpin turns. The bus conductor spoke some English and kept saying to me “Hello boy.” He told me most of his family was in the US.
At Kotor, on the coast, part of the road was gone. We reached Dubrovnik at 8:30 PM and at the bus station a lady approached me and asked if I needed accommodation. I stayed at her home in one of the rooms she kept for travelers.
Photo: Dubrovnik Old Town
Apr 27, 1979 The B&B hostess served me a breakfast of bread, jam, cheese and an egg. I took the bus to the old town and saw the old walled city dating from hundreds of years ago. Inside the walls are many old churches, museums, monuments and other historic sights.
Apr 28, 1979 With breakfast, the lady served a tea brewed from a yellow flower. I saw more of the old town, including attending a Catholic Mass in an old church. I also went to a modern department store that catered to the tourists, many of whom were Americans on organized tours. I witnessed an American woman go ballistic because store clerks did not speak English.
Map of Greece & Yugoslavia
