Fewer cycling paths, more fascinating inside stories and stray dogs

Dries Van Ransbeeck
Road to the Rising Sun
5 min readMar 18, 2019

Zdravo! We’re 2160 km and 6 weeks away from home — we’ve made it to Belgrade. With the help of strong yet enjoyable tailwind, we’ve cycled over the last 2 weeks from Bratislava — which was our door to the Eastern part of Europe — to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and former Yugoslavia.

In Zemum, breathtaking view on the Danube and the city of Belgrade
Perfect spot to take travel notes after a day of cycling

Having crossed parts of Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia, we clearly noticed that everyday life started looking less and less familiar to us, and that it’s getting more adventurous by bicycle.

As the tradition goes

Firstly, a short movie about our journey through Hungary. Enjoy!

Cycling in Hungary— made by the one and only Manon Brulard

Welcome to the peloton, Margot and Arnaud!

In Bratislava, we have welcomed our first guests. Margot and Arnaud came and joined us for a week for a ride between Bratislava and Budapest.

Happy peloton! Looking at our hats, this could have been a sponsored picture by Coureur du Monde.

Change of plan: through the Hungarian and Croatian countryside

Initially, we planned to cycle the whole way between Bratislava and Budapest along the Danube river. That quickly turned out to be as other cyclists told us before: totally flat without great sights. Therefore, after one day of cycling from Bratislava, we changed our itinerary in Győr and decided to cycle to Serbia via the Balaton Lake and the Northern part of Croatia.

Manon in good shape: it looks like she even doesn’t have to pedal anymore

In Hungary, we followed the bike route 24 which goes from Pannonhalma, close to Győr, to the Balaton Lake. It was definitely worth the change since it allowed us to experience the Hungarian countryside.

Tiny villages with small hills along bike route 24 in Hungary
End of the local bike route 24: arrival at Lake Balaton

As we also wanted to spend a few days in Budapest, we took a train from the Balaton lake to Budapest and the same train back to continue our journey.

When expectations differ from reality

As our host in Belgrade beautifully framed it: as touring cyclists we do control time, but we don’t control space. We know where we want to be at what time, but not what it is going to look like in reality.

We headed with very high expectations towards the border between Hungary and Croatia. Unfortunately, it turned out to be very different from we expected it to be. It already started at the border with huge fences placed to control the border. After the border crossing, we entered Northern Croatia and quickly felt that there would not be much nice to see: flat landscapes with small farming villages and many uncompleted houses surrounded by car graveyards. No, we didn’t like to cycle in this part of Croatia. That’s why we headed back to Hungary before we crossed the border with Serbia.

The least we can say is that Hungary takes its border control very seriously
Car graveyards all over the place in Northern Croatia

Welcome to Serbia!

Fortunately, soon after we left the border controls and car graveyards behind, we entered another country that we had never visited before: Serbia. A country we quickly fell in love with! Not because of its cycling paths since it’s quite hard to find them, but because of its friendly and curious people who all want to have a chat with us and share personal stories about their country.

We mostly follow Eurovelo 6 in Serbia

It’s intriguing in Serbia to identify different cultural influences coming from different wind directions. The country was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for almost three centuries, most citizens are adherents of the Serbian Orthodox Church and it’s geographically also closely located to Europe.

Quite a lot of cyclists in Serbia — bicycles are mostly used as a need rather than for leisure

We’ll never cycle alone: stray dogs

A new region brings new discoveries but also challenges. As soon as we crossed the border with Croatia, we started getting chased by dogs. The first few times it happened, we intuitively started pedaling like crazy, what made it very exhausting at the end of the day. Each time we saw a dog, we started to cycle as fast as we could with about 30 to 40 kg luggage on our bikes. Of course, this only works if it’s flat or downhill.

After having read about this issue online, we found out that we counterintuitively have to stop each time we see a dog coming towards us. We tested this out in reality and it really works: dogs lose interest and stop chasing as soon as we get off our bicycles. Issue resolved for now!

Our journey goes on via the Iron Gates and Bulgaria to Istanbul

Very encouraging street sign — the countdown has started

After a few days of rest in Belgrade, we’ll cycle eastwards to the Iron Gates. Afterwards, we’ll cross Bulgaria, what — based on the website of Bicycle Touring Bulgaria — looks like a very promising country for bike touring. To be discovered!

Some more pictures to end with:

Our incredible Warmshowers hosts Louis and Laura put a welcome package in our room in Bratislava
Our favourite place in Bratislava: the colorful Old Market Hall
Great night in a cozy restaurant in Bratislava (look at what’s hanging on the wall!)
In Hungary, not everyone seems to like Brussels as much as we do.
Emma and Zubi, from the bike delivery company Hajtás Pajtás, in Budapest helped us repair and maintain our bicycles
Strong woman on a bike: International Women’s Day’s edition
Best plans are made uphill! Arnaud finally agreed to cycle up the Mont Ventoux in 2020. Now, there’s no way back Arnaud!
Beautiful night scene along the Danube in Belgrade
Ruins of Yugoslav Army Headquarters in Belgrade
Belgrade fortress on the confluence of the River Sava and Danube

See you in 2 weeks — happy cycling!

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Road to the Rising Sun
Road to the Rising Sun

Published in Road to the Rising Sun

We’re Manon and Dries, cycling all the way from Brussels to Tokyo. This is our story!

Dries Van Ransbeeck
Dries Van Ransbeeck

Written by Dries Van Ransbeeck

Making slow travel the new normal · Co-founder Welcome To My Garden · Former coordinator @OpenKnowledgeBE

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