Journey to myself

I woke up between the ruins, next to the Adriatic Sea, my night felt endless. I woke up countless times, in the early hours of the night, thinking, it must be certainly time to get up. When finally the hour had come, I greeted the day with yoga, meditation, had porridge and coffee. Afterwards some bike maintenance was necessary. One of the bolts of my back rack went missing, also the bike bags needed adjusting to stop them from breaking, as well as the brakes.

Following that I bushbashed, myself and the bike out of my campsite and back to the path. Back on the eurovelo 8, the route lead me on a gravel path through walls of dry stone, that characterise the Croatian landscape.

Signs predicted the town of Trogir to be about 56kms away. An easy goal for the day, I thought. Little did I know, that the path would lead me straight back into mountainous terrain. Once again was I climbing heights. I was grateful though, for being off the main road. Only few cars or trucks were overtaking me. Sadly I am noticing many memorials on the side of Croatian roads, which leaves me miserable and upset, especially seeing drivers on their phone.

The route lead me through many remote villages, some felt like no tourist would ever loose themselves here. I stopped in one village to ask for voda – water, at an old woman’s house – she did not speak English, however asked in Croatian, if I want some lemon cordial with it. We laughed when we eventually understood each other.

I was passing perpetual olive orchards, hugged by mountains. Often I did not meet a single soul for hours.

The road to Trogir felt endless – easy ride hah, I thought and laughed.

When I finally was close to Trogir, I scoped out possible campsites, which was difficult, as usual close to a town. Every possible campsite was on a slope.

First of all, I purchased a beer and some chips, in a suburb close to the main town – carbs were desperately needed. After wolfing down, so said chips, I went back to the Adriatic Sea to have my beer at a scenic spot. I worried about finding a safe campsite, as the sun was already setting. When I set down, I realised, I did so, exactly in front of an official campsite, I had eyed out earlier. I slurped on my beer, thinking this must be fate and decided to walk up to reception, to check for prices. The campsite was cheap and I decided to listen to my need for safety and ease and checked in.

I felt happy about my decision, built my tent and was looking forward to the luxury of having a shower.

The only other tent at the campsite – all other campers had RV’s, was next to me. I looked at the set up, a big motorbike, a pink towel on a hung up washing line, a hammock. I decided a middle aged biker couple must stay there – probably German. When, after visiting the bathroom, I came back to my tent, an English guy, Jack, got out of the other tent and introduced himself . We were laughing, as he equally had contemplated, who could have arrived next to him, with a bike and tent – a lad he thought. After a shower, Jack was asking me if I want to join him for a walk and food in Trogir. I agreed, as it was nice, for once to spend the evening in company and simultaneously a good opportunity to discover the town.

On the way to town, Jack and me unfortunately needed to witness a horrifying accident. Indeed we were so close to it – a couple of metres apart, that it shook me to the core. A scooter ran into a car, that had stopped, waiting to turn. It seemed like the driver of the scooter, did not brake at all, but ran, with full speed into the car and flew over the handle bar. I was scared, he got seriously injured, however he stood up immediately after. The driver of the car however, seemed to be only worried about his car, this left me in disbelief.

After these unlucky events we went for food and wandered through Trogir, a medieval town, surrounded by the Adriatic Sea. Trogir, as many other historic Croatian towns has an abundance of petite nested alleys, like a maze. We had a beer and walked back to the campsite. We were about to call it a night, when Jack said: Do you wanna fuck? We both broke out in laughter over his boldness and retreated to our tents – each to our own.

So long – haide ciao from Seget Donji!