I studied my map as I took a break in a village. It was a small and quiet place. Cars passed me only once in a while. While studying my maps, I realized, that I had no clue where I actually was and that this village wasn't on the map. And since there were no locals around, I couldn't ask anyone for directions. So, I decided to use my offline open street maps for the first time outside of the cities.

Approximate scribble of the route

I followed the directions that the app gave me and it was great. I went through scenic hilly landscapes and every now and then I came through smaller villages. The facades of many houses were in a rather poor condition and teenagers and young adult were hanging out in front of the very few stores.

Kids were waving at me and asking: 'Hellooo! Where are you from?' as I entered another village. I waved back and answered: 'Hellooo! Germanyyy' as I passed them. I stopped to check the navigation app when I reached a crossroad. My options were to continue straight ahead or turn left. Straight ahead was a solid paved road and the road to the left was a gravel road but seemed okay to cycle. The app suggested to turn left. This route would be even 10 kilometers shorter than the other one. I was hesitating because going straight seemed better to me. A young couple walked up the road with a bucket full of blackberries. Seeing them told me that must be the nicer way to go. Villagers were burning trash aside of the gravel road and lots of black smoke blow over the fields. I felt like I was in the middle of a fairy tale and had to make a decision. Straight ahead the nice, easy and sunny road and left the dark, unknown and mysterious path. I thought, Hey, why not turn left? It'll save me 10 kilometers. And this is what I did. Huge mistake!

The villagers were looking at me kind of suspiciously as I rolled down the gravel road. I passed the big trash fire and left the village. The road surface changed into sand at times which made it a bit harder to move on but it was still fine. However, first doubts came into my mind whether I had chosen the right road. The road led me through a hilly and forested area and it was incredible quiet around me. After a while it turned into a pebble road which made cycling very challenging. I had to get off the bike and push it. At this point I knew that I had chosen the wrong road but I felt like that I went too far to turn around. Moving on went really slow and I was cursing a lot. So I checked the navigation app again to find out if I'd get off this road soon. Just a few kilometers ahead of me there would be another road. The upcoming road must be better. There's no way that there are worse roads than that, went through my mind. So I kept pushing my bike. At times it wasn't too bad so I was even able cycle for a few hundred meters. I was surprised to come through a small village along this road. Two elderly men were looking at me like they had never seen someone on a bicycle before. And I honestly wouldn't wonder if it really was the first time. Having a bike in this area is probably the dumbest and most useless thing to have.

The closer I got to the other road the more excited I got. I pushed my bike an uphill section. Now it wasn't even a pebble road anymore. It was only rocks. The rocks had a size of bowling balls and now I was even cursing more than before. It felt like forever to pass that section and the sun was also about to go down. I prayed: 'Please! Let the new road be better than this one'. I didn’t want to be on such a road in the middle of nowhere at nights not to mention to camp somewhere around here.

'NOOOOO', was my first reaction when I reached the new road. Its surface was the same as the one that I just left. I was done, frustrated and ready to give up. I asked myself Why am I doing this? and wished to be at home right now. Even if I want to give up, I still have to go at least to the next town. So I kept going. Hiking my bike up a mountain through the dark forest.

It was already midnight when I reached the top of the mountain. I was on 1,100 meters altitude which was the highest peak of my journey so far. And again, I reached a crossroad. This time I had the option to turn left or right. Both roads were in the same horrible condition. I decided to turn left although it would be the longer route towards to border to Kosovo but since I 'saved' 10 kilometers earlier I didn't want to make the same mistake of 'saving' a few kilometers again. Also, the next villages would be closer on this route.

The moon and my bike lamp gave enough light to hike my bicycle down the rocky mountain road. I felt tired and frustrated. After a while I realized a white reflection on the road ahead of me. 'Is it really? ... No way ... It is! ... WOHOOO!' It was the median of a paved road. Such a relief! I jumped on my biked and rolled down the hill through the forests. It made me happy to see the lights of a parking car. A couple enjoyed some let's say private time in their car and they were very surprised to see me bombing down the hill.

There was a tiny church in the small village Gazdare and since it was under construction it didn't have any doors and windows yet. I walked inside and put my sleeping mat and sleeping bag on the floor for the night. I fell asleep immediately.

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'We just installed another gate to my little piece of land here to enter it from the road. Since there's the new cycling path, we're not allowed to drive on there with our cars anymore', told me Milan.

He and his buddies shared their food with me and even offered me something to drink. After having that meal they put homemade Rakja (Serbia's national alcoholic drink) on the table. It was filled up into 0.5 liter Fanta bottles. Of course I accepted to have one together with them because I didn't want to be rude. And of course we didn't have only one. As refreshment drinks on the side we had beer. :D

They cracked lots of jokes and later they told me stories about the wars in Serbia in the 90's and that they feel that since then their country has a very bad image in the world. 'But this is not who we are', they said. 'We're not wild men with knifes between our teeth. We're good people and we would love to show it to the world'. I can tell, these guys were everything else than a herd of wild men. These were just some harmless elderly men chilling, drinking and enjoying their retirement.

The temperatures were above 40 degrees Celsius the day I left Novi Sad. I took the direct road to Belgrade. There was a pretty steep section just outside of Novi Sad and my t-shirt was soaking wet due to the heat and the effort of climbing up the road. Another elderly man waved at me and also yelled: 'Hellooo'. So I stopped again to also say hi. He and his brother offered me some coffee and a bucket of water as a shower. It was a great shower! Exactly what I needed in this moment. And again, those guys were no wild men.

My next destination was Kosovo. The ride there was not only a challenge, I even experienced the worst night of my journey so far. It was a night full of frustrations and doubts about this trip. But I'll tell this story another time. ;)

One last thing about the wild men of Serbia. I cycled across the entire country and I got the chance to meet quite some Serbians. Everyone who I talked to or even spent time with was super friendly and welcoming to me. For me, there are no wild Serbians with knifes between their teeth. I'd visit this country any time again. Without any doubts!

If you enjoy reading this blog then please support my fundraising campaign to equip two school class rooms in Darfur, Sudan. Thank you!

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Dear readers, followers and awesome people,

You might have realized that there's a new section 'Partners & Supporters' on my website. On the one hand, this section is to say thank you to those people and companies that are supporting my journeys and challenges. On the other hand, the majority of the company links/banners are affiliate links. That means, every time when you click on one of them and make a purchase, I'll receive a small commission. There are no extra costs for you. You'll see these banners also in some other places on my website.

I won't get rich through it by any means but if you do your future online shopping through them, then I might make a few bucks at the end of each months That will help me to cover the costs to run this website and if I'm lucky it'll be even enough to buy me once in a while a meal or a beverage on my current cycling the world journey.

I'll also donate 10% of all profits that are done through these links into my fundraising campaign to equip two school class rooms in Darfur, Sudan.

So it would be awesome if you would keep me in mind when you online shop next time. I'd really appreciate your support! Cheers!

The road on the other side of the border was also very quiet. Once in a while a car passed by and the road conditions were perfect. I passed one corn field after another. This rural area reminded me on the areas North Friesland and Dithmarschen in my home state in Germany. I pedaled through some smaller villages and still there were not many cars and I even barely saw people. It was just a good and relaxing ride.

I could watch the sun slowly going down behind the corn fields the longer I kept pedaling. A few kilometers outside of Osijek I got off the road to find a camp spot for the night. I took a small track across the fields, went through a couple of puddles until I found a good spot behind a few trees and bushes a bit aside of the small track. I thought: Here I am invisible from the rest of the world. It didn't rain for many days and there were also only a few clouds in the sky so I only put up the mosquito net of my tent. After sunset I crawled into my tent and read for a while. I could hear and see a few rabbits running nearby my tent and later I heard some gun shots in far distance. Nothing unusual in a rural area. Most likely someone hunting for some game. Later I watched the stars and was about to fall asleep.

Light was pointing in my direction. A car came down the track. I laid down flat on my stomach. The closer the car came into my direction the more I was wondering if the driver can see my tent. Then it stopped. Maybe 10-12 meters away from me. I was still lying flat on my stomach and observing what's happening. I was really nervous about what would happen next. What shall I do if it's the person with the gun who I heard earlier? What shall I say? No clue! I guess I just have to improvise. Time went really slow now. Please don't get out of your car! Please don't get out of your car!

He slowly kept driving after about one minute - a veeery long minute. He slowly passed me and my tent. Only the few trees and bushes in between us. Hopefully he's not going to stop again! He didn't. Such a relief! I wonder if he actually saw me!?

I cycled through Osijek the next morning and Vukovar later that day. In the evening I arrived the Croatian - Serbian border at Backa Palanka. The border control lady on the Serbian side was very amused to see the little toy turtle on top of my handle bar bag and waved me through.

If you enjoy reading this blog then please support my fundraising campaign to equip two school class rooms in Darfur, Sudan. Thank you!
 
And if you enjoy reading it a lot and you want be part of the creative process of future blogs and other content, then you can buy me a coffee on here. ;) Cheers!
 
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Location: Pecs
Km on the clock: 2,136

My stay in Budapest went by really fast. Although I was pretty tired and exhausted from my 135 kilometers ride alongside the Danube from Slovakia into Hungary, I managed to join a free walking tour. I learned a few fun things about Hungary on this 1.5 hours tour.

1. There's a Michael Jackson Memorial in Budapest. You should think it's a life-sized statue, but no, it's just a random tree plastered with lots of pictures of him. He stayed at the Kempinski Hotel when came to play a concert in Budapest in the early 1990's. Since then many Hungarians are huge fans. So they wanted the government to build a memorial. However, the Hungarian law doesn't allow to build a memorial for people that are alive. Thus the people helped themselves by putting pictures on this tree just across the hotel.
   
2. The first McDonalds's in Hungary was opened in Budapest in 1988. The people didn't know what kind of food place McDonald's is. The only thing they knew was that there'll be a new western restaurant. Their expectation was that it'll be a nice and fancy restaurant because that was their image of the western world. So they dressed up nicely for the grand opening, like they would go to the opera. Well, I'm not sure if their expectations were met that day. Just paint your own picture of how they must have felt when they got served soggy burgers and oily fries. :D
3. The translation of the Hungarian word and national dish goulash is cowboy.

I had the pleasure to meet with Marie from Neue Zeitung - Ungarisches Wochenblatt for an interview the next day. We talked about my first weeks experiences of my cycling the world journey and the reasons of why I'm actually doing it. Here's the link to the full interview (written in German). Again, thank you Marie for the opportunity to meet with you and thank you Neue Zeitung for publishing my story and thus supporting my fundraising campaign.

Pecs is located in the southwest of the country near the border to Croatia. The closer I got to Pecs the steeper were some sections of the road. At some point the road had even a slope of 12 percent and before entering Pecs there was a longerish uphill section. A few days earlier someone said to me "The whole country is flat". Well, I'm sure this person hasn't been in this area before. Going into the city was a fun downhill ride though.

Just outside of Pecs I found the first note of German culture in this area. It wasn't anything significant. The word 'Deutsch' was written in big letters above a window on the facade of a house. Left and right of the window were paintings of huge beer mugs.

Unfortunately I couldn't find anything significant 'German' in Pecs itself. I even asked at my hostel and some locals if they knew anything about the German minority and if there are places that I could visit to learn something about it. But they couldn't help me either. They even seemed that they didn't even have a clue what I was talking about. I'm sure there are places to visit but since I stayed there for only two days I used the time to explore the city.

Pecs is Hungary's fifth largest city and is the home of the country's oldest university - founded in 1367. The old town is a beautiful, calm, non-touristy place. There are many little museums for literally anything - arts, mining, agriculture, etc. Most significant is definitely the Mosque of Pasha Quasim at the old town's main square. Even there were barely any tourists. It kind of felt like I was the only tourist in town.

My original plan was to go to Serbia after cycling through Hungary. But since I didn't plan to go to the southwestern part of the country, I decided to take the 'shortcut' via Croatia. So I left Pecs after two days and pedaled in direction Republika Hrvatska.

If you enjoy reading this blog then please support my fundraising campaign to equip two school class rooms in Darfur, Sudan. Thank you!
 
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Location: Budapest
Km on the clock: 1,840

The sun was just about to set when I entered the old town of Bratislava via the "UFO bridge". Watching the sun going down behind Bratislava Castle on the other side of the Danube River created an amazing atmosphere.

I spent the following day with some sightseeing. First stop was the castle. The view is really not bad. I could see entire Bratislava and its beautiful surroundings. It's said that you could see Austria and Hungary from up here if the weather is clear. Unfortunately it wasn't too clear that day but since I just came from Austria the day before and would go to Hungary next it didn't really matter to me.

The old town of Bratislava isn't that big so it took me only half the day to see pretty much all its sights. Although the little sculptures Man at Work and Schoener Naci are rather nondescript, they definitely caught my eye most. Apparently they didn't just catch my eye. It seemed like almost everyone - but for sure every tourist - took a selfie with them.

I ended up in a club that night. I don't remember its name but I had to enter it through a cafe, walk downstairs and the corridors reminded me to a dungeon. The club was quite small and the DJ played the most bizarre music that I've heard in a long time. It started off with electronic music from the 90's such as Hyper Hyper of the German band Scooter and later German anti-fascist music. Whatever kind of music the DJ played, the audience went bonkers. :D

I came back to the hostel late that night. I actually wanted to leave Bratislava the next day but I decided to stay for another night since I only got a couple of hours of sleep after being out for the night. Through that I could keep cycling well rested in direction Hungary the next day.

I simply followed the Danube and the EuroVelo 6 on the Slovakian side. In the beginning the cycling path was tarred and it was lots of fun pedaling on top of the embankment - the river to my right and the open fields to my left. At times I reached speeds of 30 km/h. However, the further I went the worse the cycling path got. At some point it turned into a gravel path and later into a sandy path which made it quite challenging to cover some distance. I thought this is supposed to be a cycling path!? went through my mind. What idiot came up with the brilliant idea to cover its surface with sand? I'm sure that this person has never ridden a bicycle.

When the sun went down and an army of incredible aggressive mosquitos started to sting me all over - even through my clothes - I pitched my tent behind the embankment to get away from those tiny bastards. Honesty, what are mosquitoes actually good for? And what is their purpose on this planet besides being annoying? I really don't know!

I got up early the next morning to make it to Budapest that day. At not even 10 am it was already way above 30 degrees Celsius. Later the temperatures reached 40+ degrees which made it a bit more exhausting going on the gravel or sandy path. I kept cycling alongside the Danube until I reached the small town Sturovo where I crossed the bridge Esztergom in Hungary over which dark clouds hung.

Just a few minutes being in Hungary it started pouring. Fantastic! Now it's not only hot it's even raining and it's still 50 kilometers to Budapest. I tried to hide from the rain at a supermarket and hoped it would stop soon but it didn't happen. I put on my rain clothes and kept pedaling to Budapest. Although I didn't get wet through the rain, I was wet through the high temperatures which made me sweat really hard.

Luckily it stopped raining a few kilometers outside of Budapest and it was already dark when I entered the city. I simply followed the signs to the city center and got already a good feeling about this place. I also got very surprised about the good bicycle lane infrastructure. It was just fun riding through Budapest at night. As soon as I saw the lightened up Hungarian Parliament Building on the other side of the Danube I knew that I'll stay here for a few days because it had such a wow-effect on me.

If you enjoy reading this blog then please support my fundraising campaign to equip two school class rooms in Darfur, Sudan. Thank you!
 
And if you enjoy reading it a lot and you want be part of the creative process of future blogs and other content, then you can buy me a coffee on here. ;) Cheers!
 
Click here if you want to take a look at my equipment.