About The Adrien and Martin Joly Blog

Brothers Adrien and Martin follow in the footsteps of many travelers who crossed the Balkans from antiquity to modern times. But they do it by bicycle! Starting on October 6, they have given themselves one month to cycle the nearly 2,100-kilometre distance between Venice and Istanbul. In their blog, they reflect on and document their journey as they travel through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Turkey.
Their blog in French is at http://balkansavelo.unblog.fr/

Peaceful day in Zadar

October 16, 2008 • Comments Croatia

After the last day of hard cycling, we spend the day relaxing in Zadar. Not really in fact, we have to update the website, charge all our electric devises and our bodies need a rest. Knees and bottom are particularly in pain.

We do a bit of shopping for us and also for “Connor and Maximus”(our bikes) in Zadar, which is very pleasant city, surrounded by the sea, with a medieval area.

On the road as we are cycling we see a car coming in front of us at high speed and the driver throws his cat through the window… The very young cat seems unhurt, but slightly traumatised by the treatment inflicted… How can people do that ? We are slightly choked, we have seen so many dead animals on the roads…  And also, very often, we see candles and flowers on the road left with the remains of a motorcycle or a car which crashed a few years ago..  Most of the croatians are driving like maniacs on the little coast road.When you enter in a supermarket, the first thing you see are funeral flowers and candles.

At night, we think we will stay in an camp site so we can wash our clothes and relax, as tomorrow we have a 170 km to do to go to Split.

Unfortunately the camping area is closed but on the camp site, there are bungalows where we decide to stay. We cook some pasta and fall asleep, despite some annoying mosquitoes for company the whole night.