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/

From Kotor to Budva… The catastrophe

October 22, 2008 • Comments Montenegro

Things start badly this morning, impossible to find something to fix Martin's bike..

We spend the morning trying to understand what is broken in the complex “changing gear system”, for four hours until we give up… and use an elastic to make it work… .

Adrien is annoyed that we might not do the next stage, we cycle hard but it is already late..

and we don't want to cycle at night.. Particularly in Montenegro, where cars and truck drivers seem to have no consideration for cyclists. It is worst than ever..

Martin has a little accident with a car, only the klaxon is broken, we fix it quickly…. and carry on cycling.

We stop in Budva for a roast chicken, we are bit exhausted and we still have a lot to do. We carry on and start to climb the mountain to reach Cetinje…. We have never seen that.  The road is so narrow, trucks are going so close to us… Some youngsters are racing up and down… Our speed is 10km/h and theirs a 100 more.. On the road, we can see pictures of their mates who crashed a few months before..  We decide that our pictures won't be among this people… Nevermind, for the first time we thing we should put the bikes in a bus, and carry on the cycling after Podgoriga where the road should be quiet…

We come back to Budva, and when we are going to pay for the bus,  We realise that we have lost something…. Martin's Passport…. Panic… horrible… what can we do… We come back to the Supermarket, look everywhere, go to the police station…. It is lost. The first time something so silly happens to us.

We need to do everything quickly.. Cancell Credit card, phone the French Embassy, and find somewhere to stay.

As Adrien ask for an internet Coffee, he meets Rovshan, a russian young man, our saviour.. who will do all his possible to help us… Thank you Rovshan….

We stay at Budva… But realise that we won't make Istambul.. because of a silly mistake…. we can't sleep at night.