Photo: Baska Voda, Yugoslavia
May 1, 1979 Most everyone in Zaostrog were there to celebrate the May Day holiday. I believe most of the people came from the inland city of Sarajevo.
I had enjoyed much of my biking mode of transportation, until the last several days. It had become a traumatic experience. Yugoslav drivers were very erratic and dangerous. In the morning when I got on the bike, I was not sure if I would be alive and uninjured at the end of the day. I decided to try to sell my bike and do it in Zaostrog.
I wrote something in Serbo-Croation on a scrap of paper and hung it on the bike. I pushed the bike around town and gave free rides. The father of a couple of kids especially interested in the bike bought it for 1500 dinars.
May 2, 1979 In the morning the Sarajevo man who bought the bike, served me French bread for breakfast. I organized my two bike packs into a very cumbersome backpack and took the bus to Baska Voda, a favorite spot for Germans. I stayed in one of several cheap cabins on the beach. The beach was good and the town pleasant despite the heavy tourism.
Photo: Sibernak, Yugoslavia
May 3, 1979 In the morning I took the bus to Split and found a hotel for $6 with breakfast. Travel by bus was cheap, about 5 cents per mile. The old tourist town was interesting. I enjoyed the small ethnographic museum. At a sporting goods store I bought an external frame backpack that was a Commie Red color.
May 4, 1979 I took the bus to Sibernik and stayed at a $7 hotel which overlooked the harbor. The town, like Split, was very old with many narrow, stone streets. Much of the town was built on the side of a hill. I did not see many tourists.
Photo: Large red boat is part of Split "red light" district
May 5, 1979 I traveled up the coast to Zadar and looked for the youth hostel. Blacky, a young local Yugoslav who spoke English, showed me where the hostel was, but it didn t open until Monday. Nearby were a couple of campgrounds so I stayed at one nearest the hostel.
Later I met Blacky at an outdoor bar for a couple of beers. Then we went to a disco. For some reason Blacky got into an altercation with some of the punks who ran the place, and almost got a beating. The disco was not much but it was good to hear rock and roll. The kids loved the Bee Gees, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. They wore John Travolta and John Player Special (cigarettes) t-shirts. A Yugoslav who had worked in Australia surprised me because he spoke English just like an Aussie, including all the slang.
Map of Greece & Yugoslavia
