The real beginning of my journey - from Montenegro to Serbia

For me, it's really starting now. The stress and the routine from Switzerand is now far away in my mind. I'm leaving the touristic places to find pure and natural places unspoiled from the tourism and where the people live from the land. Just after the border, there's a kind of Fjord, a splendid place called Kotor. Here everything seems to be asleep and nothing seems to have changed since the beginning of the century. In this kind of place, time looses importance and passes slowly, very quietly. I'm camping 2 nights on an old place where shepards lived and the only store I find is located about 10 kilometers away. Of course, the store is almost empty and I'm spending my last Euro. Still in this fjord, on the way, I'm repairing for the third time my front carry-luggage with the help of a German guy. A very nice guy who lost 3 fingers because a mine explosed in his hand. He was a soldier for the UN and helped to clean out the mines in ex-Yougoslavia until his accident happened. The coast is like in Croatia but a lot wilder. Since I crossed the border (as always at the border they thought that I was really crazy but in fact, there were all drunk and they didn't even look at my passport, they just wanted to look at my bicycle...) everything since has been different. The people start greeting me much more frequently than before and that, with a large smile on the face. Speaking German is now a big advantage and each time I meet someone, I start speaking in German. They all know more or less German or at least someone who works or worked in Germany. A superb night sleeping outside, watching the sea and the stars and I'm saying good-bye to the sea. The next time I'll see it will be in Istanbul. During the first climb of the mountains in Montenegro, I'm feeling a bit of apprehension because all the people warned me that they are very difficult. In fact they aren't at all (well a bit but not as hard as they said). Today is my third day that I'm without money and I've really nothing more to eat. After a few hours riding with an empty stomach I'm finally finding a ATM and buy all the best products in the next

supermarket. I have already a different opinion of "the best products" than at the beginning of my journey (that means the best pasta, the first quality of fruits not the second or the third, etc....). Now I know that I have to be careful to always have enough money on me because the "civilisation" stops at the Croatian border. I'm getting my first real tests in Montenegro. Test Number one: The tunnel - All those I drove through so far were all quite short (maximum 50 meters) and lighted. But this is one is different. Suddenly in the middle of it, I am stopping in the total obscurity. This one is 250 meters long and there is no light at all ! I'm deciding to wait for some cars (they got lights) but the only time of the day there's no traffic, of course... After 10 minutes waiting in the total obscurity a truck is coming in the opposite side. I'm realizing that I'm very close of the wall but on the wrong side... Test Number Two: The dog - I'm driving further away when a dog is is showing up and is starting to run after me. This one is a real agressiv one and from far away, he's taking exactly the good direction to get me. He is coming from the fields on the down side of the hill. Suddenly I am turning in his direction and giving a kick in the air. He is falling down the hill and is leaving me alive... Final Test, Number Three: The truck - The day is slowly quite full of emotions but the best is coming. I'm starting to climb the highest pass in Montenegro for me at about 2'000 meters high and the road is just about 5 meters wide (large). A truck is passing me by, everything normal so far but another truck is coming and passing by the first one! I'm hearing horns and suddenly I'm seeing the "nose" of the second truck passing the first one..The first truck is coming closer to me. He is coming so close that, because of the aspiration, my front bag is touching his door and I'm loosing all control. All my bicycle is now touching the truck until the handle, used to attach the cover of the truck, is hitting me from behind, just under the shoulder.

This ejects me against the wall of the mountain. I'm quite shocked during a few minutes and the fist trucker who stopped is giving me some water to clean myself and coca-cola to drink. My greater surprise is to realize than neither me or my bike suffered of this accident ! (well during the next 10 days I kept strong pains but that's a detail). I am letting the driver go and I'm continuing my driving's day. To apologize the drivers, I've to say that they don't know how to handle with bicycles. "why driving a bicycle when you can have a car?" -it's what I always heard in ex-Yougoslavia. I drove two weeks before seeing a normal bicycle on the road...

Result of the Test: After a very few kilometers, I decide that it's enough for today. I'm camping behind some trees close to the road. During the evening, I am realizing the chance I had. Since this day all my fears are gone. By a couple of centimetres, I would have trespassed. but thanks to God, Allah, the chance, my karma or whatever, I'm still in this world. I'm nothing and so small so I have to enjoy every moment of the life as a gift (and actually I'm trying to enjoy it even more that I was already enjoying it...). Instead to be depressive, I'm feeling a big interior joy: the joy of life, the joy of simply being, the joy to realize at which point my freedom doesn't have any limit and even the joy to have had this accident as well ! And there's a sentence which means very well what I've learned about this lesson: That what does not kill you, makes you stronger.

The day after, I'm passing the pass and I'm driving along a beautiful and wild countryside, I'm deciding that I will offer myself a hotel, a restaurant and a good beer for the night. After one of my hardest days with the tunnels, the dogs and the trucks I'm spending one of my best days just after that! That's the travel, one day you are down and the next one you're on the top ! I want to pay myslef a beer but I am offered one, as well many more.... to eat and a place to stay! So nice people and so incredible hospitality ! The son of this family is showing me his elevage of pigeons. I will realize on my road how much the people in the Balkan (and even until Turkey) love the pigeons. Not for the competition but simply for the beauty of the specimens in every race. This family is Bosniac and lives in Serbia Montenegro. This is the complex problem of the ex-Yougoslavia. There are Serbo-Croat in Macedonian or there are Albanian people leaving in Kosovo, which is more or less a part of the Serbia-Montenegro, etc... All this ethnies are mixed together and live everywhere but there is now a border to each state. In Slovenia, there are in Europe but still don't have the EURO. In Croatia they don't want to be in Europe and they have the currency Koona. When you reach the Montenegro, there would like to be in Europe but not Serbia (which is one country) and they have the EURO. When you cross the border to Serbia (because of course there is a border between Montenegro and Serbia...) they have the currency Dinnar. Very difficult to understand even for the local people because of all the interests existing, mixed with corrupted politics or religious ideas.

In Montenegro, everything lives with his own rythm, very slowly. Everything is peaceful, the cows feed themself quietly and the farmers spend the day with them. By the chimneys you can see the smoke of fine dishes which the women are preparing. At this time of the year cabbage and pepperoni are on all menus. It's the time to dry the grass for the cows to pass the winter season. The evening, when I'm camping in the wild immensity with a roof of millions and millions of stars. And then, I envy this noble and pure life they have, so close from Switzerland but already so different.

I'm already in Serbia, everything is going so fast, perhaps too fast I think but the future will show me that I was right to drive quickly (soon it will be very cold). At the border, they want to register my name and passeport number (probably because they think I'm insane) and the custom officer is pushing aside his porno magazines to do it. What a country... a few kilometers after that, 2 drunk police officers are
stopping me and are telling me with red noses that I'm crazy, for me actually it's sounds very normal. Often the contact with the police is very nice and relax, but in Serbia it's very colorful ! They are greeting
me, are trying to motivate me and they are even registrating my speed on the radar machine two times (one was at 19 k/m not fast enough to get a bill...) !!!

I'm leaving the mountains and in front of me there is a large valley. I know now that until Istanbul there is no more mountains and everything is flat. I'm feeling really happy and I'm now ready to drive very fast to Turkey. But the fact is that you should never thing that you win a battle, because the nature wins all the wars anyway. The wind started and of course it's a frontal wind. It will be like that until I get to Istanbul...I will have now a very hard life and the Summer is definitively gone. After having to camp outside far away from everything in the wildness of the mountains with as only occupation the visit of wild dogs (which I didn't really enjoy), it will be harder for me to find good places and I don't really want to sleep in the middle
of villages because I know I will have to drink all the alcoholic beverages they have.... 

One day, I am offering myself a hotel. The manager is offering me to pay half price and to eat and drink when I tell him about my plans. Often until now and that will be probably like that all along my road, people are really nice with me and I often get food and drinks and sometimes invitation to sleep in a house. I'm learning what in Switzerland we don't really know: hospitality, to share a diner with a stranger, take some time to learn about someone different and talk about simple things or very serious discussions. But in fact in our country nobody has time because most of the people think they can better invest their time or precious money. All the time in Serbia, I'm fighting against the wind, a terrible battle, and I need to make a lot of breaks. At the end, I'm afraid to stop because every time I stop in a city or village people offer me a beer or a schnaps. At the beginning I thought the rain would be my public enemy Nr One but now I know, that's the wind !!! After a second drive on a highway (the first one was in Croatia) I'm meeting two Serbs, the father and the son. They are coming back from Basel, Switzerland, and are speaking German, even Swiss-German !! They are inviting me in their house and I'm spending 3 very pleasant nights to rest and to enjoy the heating and at the shelter of the wind. The cold is suddently taking possession of the place. In one day we are losing about 10 degrees which won't come back. I'm enjoying my stay in Nis and I take take this occasion to visit the mausolee of Nis: the Tower of the Skulls. The Ottoman won the battle where 500'000 turcs soldiers died. They killed the whole Serb army (200'000 people) and to instore the fear, they made a tower in the middle of the city to dispay the decapitated heads of the Serbs. They took off the skin to bring back to Istanbul to show their victory. The Serbs got violent and agressive like never and after that the Ottoman lost definitively the control of all this area. I'm meeting so much nice people in Nis where they are opening me so kindly their doors. The visits are taking hours (and of course some schnapps and beer) and I am meeting people and speaking with them in German, French, English and sometimes Italian. I'm also meeting an orthodox priest (who likes the schnaps and especially early in the morning), a general of the Serbian army and a halterophile. The last one didn't go to the Olympic Games in Athen just because the Serbian Federation doesn't have money. I hope he will be ready for Beijing in 2008 and I hope the Federation will find some money for him ! A great memory will remain for ever in my heart for this town and after these few days I'm leaving, under the rain and in the cold....