Slowly, a veil drops.
Ensconced in fog, biking's hard,
But we still make it.
It was a slow start from Sežana this morning, but it was okay. We only planned to go about 80km to another host's house in Opatija, Hrvatska (Croatia). We saw Aleksander off on his first day of work, and we thanked him and Azra for all their kindness. We took our group photo, loaded the bikes, and set off into some gloom.
The gloom held off for a while; we stopped at a supermarket for breakfast, at an ATM for a little more cash, and at the post office to mail things (our giant pile of 15 maps plus all our trinkets from recently cost just 13€13 to send priority to the USA!). Some drizzles pelted us as we biked past Lipica, which is famous for its white horses. Aleksander's mom told us about them yesterday; they were brought by an Austrian queen some centuries ago, and they are still bred in the stables there. We saw some wandering around the field, and they've been trained to walk in a particular way, so we laughed a little as they strode up to us for a quick pet.
From there, we followed the road back into Italia and then back into Slovenija, which makes 4 separate crossings spots that we have changed between those two countries. Sort of silly, yes. But then it was a dead easy single-road path all the way down to Rijeka in Hrvatska.
The road led us up and up, into the mountains. Much of the day was gorgeous, if cloudy, but as we neared the Croatian border, a thick fog blanketed everything. We pulled out all our lights and our vest, but we were still nervous as we biked slowly through the murk. It was getting colder and colder, too, and our long-sleeved shirts were barely enough to keep us warm. We'll definitely have to invest in some jackets or sweatshirts before fall really shows up.
The border was uneventful, which we were sad about. We had been so excited to leave Schengen and start getting passport stamps, but the woman at the desk simply laughed at our pathetic-ness and said, "All the way from America by bike?" before waving us on. We did look pathetic, I guess. The fog and our general dampness from the earlier rain did not make us a happy sight, and certainly our bags and bikes are filthy as they have been for months. I hope we get a stamp when we go through Bosnia later, though.
It was an easy downhill from the border, and the fog lifted quickly as we sped into the warm, Mediterranean air. We passed an ATM conveniently located next to a shop, so we picked up some kuna (the local currency) and some Ožujsko (the local crappy beer). I remember having Ožujsko when I was in Croatia this spring, and it was nothing special, but the name is so damn funny that Evan and I felt we had to make a commercial about it after purchasing the cans. It will show up on our Youtube channel (http://youtube.com/biketotheearth) whenever we find a wifi connection reliable- and fast enough to upload it.
Down and down and down to the sea, where our host's house in Opatija is. We successfully found our way this time, and we knocked on his door to find him at home, even. His name is Ivo, and he's really cool. He doesn't like crap from anybody, and he knows loads about Croatia. We spent the evening discussing possible routes southward and the history of Croatia and Yugoslavia. I'm not sure where we can put all the information he gave us... it might wind up as notes on our map, or it might wind up as comments on photos? Anyway, it would be awkward to write in this blog post with no context, so we'll just save it for later. Now, we're going to head to bed. A bed! Three nights in a row!