Osijek - Zupanja 17/08 - 19/08/2016 (142 km)
After saying goodbye to Hungary, we headed to Croatia, where the adventure really started, as home was left behind. We spent two nights in Osijek even though nobody accepted our requests on Couchsurfing. Playing the same game, we stopped randomly at detached houses and asked the owners to camp in their gardens. We were lucky to be accepted by the second person. Mirko - a former soldier welcomed us to his old house - which has been on sale for years without having anyone interested in. This house now becomes a storage with some kind of vegetables and fruits in a small garden, next to the second house, where Mirko’s family lives. In a moment, he turned on the lawn mover and created a nice camp site for us. Moreover, he allowed us to camp inside the old house if it would rain or so. We could use the bathroom and even join a family party the next day at his second house. It was the birthday party of his daughter and daughter-in-law.
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| Camping at the balcony of Mirko's old house |
The next morning, Mirko and us cycled to the open market in the city center to prepare for the big lunch. It was a nice recall for me of the open markets in my hometown where everyone is so happy to see each other as the shopkeepers and customers are good friends. For lunch, I was requested to make some Vietnamese salad when Mirko was the main Chef who prepared a huge tray of fried meat and vegetable sauce following the traditional Croatian recipe. His family was so nice to us as well. His wife never let me help with anything and instead offering us food and drinks all the time. They were strangers but treated us as if we were family members.
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| Preparing lunch with Mirko in Osijek |
In the afternoon, we visited the Old town of Osijek as well as the nice part of the city which lies along the river Drava. One sad thing about this town is the vestiges of the Civil war in the former Yugoslavia during 1992-1995. Some buildings in the city center are still cover by the scars of human conflicts and the Old town is almost withered away. The grey houses leaned on each other helplessly and even though some Cafes and restaurants have tried hard to save the area, the sorrow from the past is still there. Walking around the houses, I felt like the smell of gunpowder was still lingering in the air. The war is over, religions, races, who was wrong, who was right, is still a big question mark...
Leaving Osijek, goodbye Mirko, we went to Zupanja, the last Croatian city we visited before going to Bosnia. We sent quite a lot of requests on Couchsurfing for Zupanja but received only one reply from Vladimir. That’s a special reply as he didn’t invite us to his home but to the 11th annual event of the motorcycle club where he was one of the organizers. So that night we ended up camping on the bank of Sava river, next to the event where rock music was play until 3 a.m and the motorcycles roaring all night. Oh, and surrounded by 5000 hungry mosquitos. Luckily, Vladimir took us to his home for taking shower and having dinner so we didn’t have to suffer from the mosquitos for too long. After a while, we could finally sleep, but the next morning, we got up quite early without an alarm and ready to leave. Vladimir came on time to say goodbye to us even though he got home quite late the night before. Such a kind and hospitable person that we truly respect!
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| With Vladimir in Zupanja |
Thanks Croatia for treating us so well. Thanks the beautiful nature for giving us moved-to-speechless moments. Thanks for all the good meals, the cheering honks from the drivers, thank you all, the familiar strangers!
Linh
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