Pizzas aside (personal best three in one day) Northern Italy didn't prove to be too exiciting. I was stuck with either hitting the hills - not tempting or dealing with the congestion as I moved from one town to the next along the flat. Having just polished off the Alps I took the lazy option and dealt with the traffic. Quick progress though and even took the bike for its second McDriveThrough.
Managed to knock off a fair chunk of Italy and the whole of Slovenia in one day. Sounds impressive? Well I only really intened to whizz across the corner of Slovenia into Croatia. Trouble was I didn't have a map and didn't fancy my chances on the motorways. Rather than splashing out and getting a new map i thought it would be best to just crack on and head south. With the benefit of hindsight this was an error. The winding roads around the hills meant that it pretty damn hard to tell which direction I was heading in. Much to my surprise I even ended up gpong back into Italy again. I did try following the coast only to venture off down a peninsular. All very scenic but somewhat of a relief when I eventually stumbled across the border to Croatia.
Scenic routes aside Slovenia and Croatia have so far proved to be great. The roads are pretty empty, the scenery is stunning, bush camping is easy and on the whole the people seem to be tame.
Had a pretty amusing morning. Popped ito a restuarant for a ham ommlette for breakfast (sold to me a bacon and eggs - did I feel short changed or what...) and started chatting away to the waiter:
George: So then - how far is it to the next town?
Waiter Thinking: This smelly, bearded Englishman is stinking out my restaurant and is bad for business. How can I get rid of him ASAP...?
Waiter: It is not far - one hour maximum by bicycle. Just folow this road straight all the way.
Five hours later, after 45km and a cheeky mountain pass I roll into town. That waiter is either very fast on a bicycle or wanted to get me out of his restaurant. Fair play I have spent the past five days sleeping in the woods.
Plan is now to head south down the Croatia coast. Pop into Bosnia (for some reason Croatia is split in two) before heading back into Croatia and onto Albania. All sounds pretty simple. My map is fairly useless but so long as the sea dosn't appear on my right hand side it should be alright.
I've finally managed to upload some of my photos - scroll across the tbs at the top of the page.
All the best
Gx