28th May 1984 Through Yugoslavia to the Greek Border

Monday 28^th May. Apparently the road had been rough and rainswept. But here were spectacular mountains with waterfalls, bits of snow, some encrusted with necklaces of snow. The valleys were either broad and flat or narrow and flat; a narrow river carried white water through a wide bed of pebbles, and villages. A grander scale Italianate version of Taroko Gorge (Taiwan) but inhabited and more magnificent. We passed through toll gates and tunnels.

   By and by, we left the mountains and came into a flat Italianate coastal plain, went past Trieste and arrived at the border, where we had to wait a few hours for clearance to get into Yugoslavia. Light-ever-so-light drizzle. I had breakfast of ham and cheese roll and bought another one for later.

   Eventually we were allowed to continue, including our friend from Zimbabwe – his passport always gets close inspection.

   Through Yugoslavia we drove, passing any trucks on a lot of bad road – patched concrete, bumpbump,bumpbump,bumpbump.

   Run of the mill countryside on the whole, but they do have unusual hay barns. The hay is stored behind crisscross lattice walls, sometimes with unusual shaped roves. This is built on stilts; underneath are stored tractors, trucks, anti-submarine tanks, hay ricks, etc.

   Red poppies in evidence unless they’re something else. The country looks more developed – more Westernized – than Russia, with many roadside service stations with restaurants/cafes.

   However, the fields are still cultivated by hand and hoof – for the most part; there are some tractors. Old women bending down in fields in their skirts, thick stockings, boughts and headscarves; old men following their old horses pulling their old ploughs in the old soil.

   What do Yugoslavian women wear on their feet? Boughts. Definitely boughts.

   It’s also a lot greener than I saw Russia as. I didn’t really see Russia as green at all. [Obviously, it’s a seasonal thing.]

We by-passed the big cities like Ljubljana, Zagreb, Niš (might have gone through it), but actually passed through Belgrade which looks like a surprisingly interesting city, though I was terribly dozy at the time so I might have been mistaken. I think it must have been rebuilt extensively after the war – perhaps it was bombed extensively during the war. [At least twice. In 1941 and 1944.] [Niš is after Belgrade.]

   Yugoslavian condominiums are more modern-looking, avant-garde compared to the Russian ones.

  We stopped lately at a motel restaurant and I had some soup and bread with two Kiwis, Gavin and Marian. Then onward, onward until we finally got to the border. The Yugoslavian side was no problem but we had to wait a while at the Greek side. We hauled our luggage out of the bus but they didn’t inspect it. Zimbabwe wasn’t allowed through with us so we left him behind while he waited for clearance.

Probable route of our bus, being turned back at teh Austria/Yugoslavia border.