First impression – a standard of living well above those of the suffering people in the war-torn States to the West. Second impression – there is enterprise on the motorway. Highway Women stand beside the tarmac flashing their wares at trucks flashing past at 100 kph. Quickies in the cab are on the menu, going […]
Author Archive | Gareth Morgan
Meeting the Serbian Deputy PM
Sitting in a coffee bar, the only half clean one in Lescovac, we are suddenly surrounded by a group of thugs and expect that we are about to taste the hospitality of the renowned “bullies of the Balkans”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Through the biceps strides an all-smiling dapper gentleman, hand outstretched […]
Into Serbia
From Bosnıa-Herecgovına we pass through Montenegro and into Serbia. The people remain pretty poor, the living pretty much subsistence. The human sprit remains though and we are greeted virtually everywhere. Interest in the maps of our route that Dave had put on our panniers is immense and crowds gather at every coffee stop. In Lescovac […]
Bosnıa
The contrast ıs dramatıc. Dubrovnıc whıch took 2,000 shells has been rebuılt. 8 kms away, up on the rıdge above the cıty Bosnıa starts. And ıt ıs just devastated, showıng lıttle ıf any sıgn of repaırıng the damage ınflıcted upon ıt duıng that fracs. Trebjnce ıs a town of sorry, the graveyard holdıng the bodıes […]
Into the Yugoslavia States
It is a sobering from the riches and sleek style of Italy to travel just a few kms into Slovenia, the first of a number of states from the former Yugoslavia we will traverse. The land is barren, the houses pathetic, showing the result of 50 years of underinvestment under the Tito regime. And Slovenia […]
To the Start Line
The trip starts proper in Venice, where Marco Polo hailed from. But first we have to get there and it was on a bright and sunny 25 degreee day that we left Munich and traversed three countries in an afternoon (Germany, Austria and Italy) to have our first night on the road. The Austrian alps […]
Coming into Venice
Venice of course is a city built on water and it was on water that we arrived – not by boat you understand but down the autostrada on a filthy wet and rainy day. I haven’t seen as much rain since my last trip to Karamea and as we water planed into town, all the […]
