Hey there,
last summer Me and my Brother made a little trip into the Balkan area.
Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and ofcourse all the way back to Holland.

My brother was already cruising around for 2,5 weeks. Through Poland, Slovakia, Romania into Hungary and finally Croatia.
The plan is that I would drive From Amsterdam to Zagreb in 1,5 day and we continue together south.

40Km's out of Zagreb on the highway in Slovenia i get a flat front tire (at 120km/h) I can barely keep the rubber down and need 2 lanes and the escape lane before i come to a halt. With a heart rate over 200 I'm on the shoulder of the road trying to catch my breath again.

The Valve was completely ripped off and i didn't carry a spare inner tire.
I called my brother, and he managed to find some other biker on a Chopper to guide him to the nearest motoshop.


So far for a smooth start of the trip.

After Zagreb we head down south via Banja Luka towards Sarajevo.
Trying to find the smallest gravel roads means that sometimes you have to turn around because roads just happen to end in nothing (except for the little red signs "MINES"...
Lucky for me we needed to turn around one time, so i found my license plate again.

(Sir...where is you Liceneplate?)





(end of the road)

From Sarajevo we head East, into Serbia were we'll try to get into Kosovo.
The border into Kosovo has just recently been opened for foreigners.
(lot's of dead ends)

(Tenny in the night)


(Bosnia looks a bit like Mongolia)

The crossing into Kosovo was something awkward. First you've got the Serbian side with armoured vehicles an heavily armed soldiers. Then you enter into nomansland where there is some international police force. After several KM's you encounter a sandbag bunker emplacement then you cross in to Kosovo.





We tried to get out of Kosovo via a small mountain road into Montenegro.
Turned out that the road ended into a 'tanktrap' right on the border. We were stuck in a horseshoe valley with a thunderstorm in our back. No way we were turning around!! BTW, what is a tanktrap for a Tenere?? nothing of course. So we cross.





And just behind the border a superb new stretch of asphalt...Sponsored by the European Union.
We followed the road for about 20 km's and ofcourse we ran into a border patrol... with badass automatic rifles.
After lots of talking, motorcyclesitting and 'flirting' they let us pass. But not without telling us that there is a 'big boss' down in the valley and we could get in trouble. They literately 'closed there eyes, covered there ears and shut there mouth'.
And off we go again, illegal into Montenegro.




We spend the night just before the border with Bosnia which we wanted to cross early in the morning.
But when we arrived at the border, the Montenegro side was no problem (despite we were illegal ) but the Bosnian side wouldn't let us through because it was for 'locals' only...DAMN YOU!! Now wee had a detour of about 300km for that day....



And i got a fine for speeding and taking over a car ignoring the white stripes....The fine was 200 euro's or he'll take my licence and we go to the station...I said no not 200!...He: 150?...no....100?..no...50?...no...ok, what you have in Bosnian money...haha About 12 euro......That'll do....
Try that in Holland...You'll get ****ed.



We were running a bit out of time, and had to speed up so we used the Highway, which noone else uses because you have to pay toll.
We slept under the motorbike on the side of the road and 2 days later we were back home (Amsterdam).





Resum�;
The Balkan region is just amazing. When you take the little roads on a paper map (my Navigation wasn't up to date) you are riding all alone and on the most awesome gravel (mountain) roads. The history is macabre and most of the times painfully visible. Talking to people you still feel the separation between the ethnic groups. In Kosovo you feel a lot of tension towards the Serbs. When we were in Montenegro at a motorcycle garage we told them where we came from that day (Kosovo), the guy stopped his work and looked sort of intense at us and said; "we call it South Serbia"....I think that says enough.

I probably go back when i have a bit more time.

Short movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MVAx...O_mHpw&index=1
Thanks for 'travelling' with me today.
Maybe see you soon.
Nico

Excellent, lovely little write-up. I've been there myself, a few years ago (not on a motorbike sadly) and it's a really beautiful part of the world.

__________________
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?

Thanks Nico
Enjoyed that , i'll be there in June , and sorry HCR it'll probably be on the Tenere

__________________
"I'm here for a good time, not a long time"

__________________
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?

Nice ride report and pics.

Was last down that way in back in 2008. It is without doubt a great place to go and visit on two wheels.

__________________

Thanks Pleiades.

:-) i forgot to post the link to a movie we made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MVAx...O_mHpw&index=1

Enjoyed that
cheers Phil

__________________
"I'm here for a good time, not a long time"

Thanks for posting that.

Neil

Nice little film

__________________
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?