To Istanbul.. maybe.

July 2022 - March 2024
An open-ended adventure by Celine
Currently traveling
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  • 6countries
  • 608days
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  • 4.3kkilometers
  • 32kilometers
  • Day 1

    Day 1: From Opatja to Njivive (Croatia)

    July 31, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Hello there, I will try to document my biking trip this way but not sure how often I will be able to update this, I guess it depends on my phone battery, the wifi, or if I just prefer being lazy at the beach instead. ;D

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    Starting close to Opatja, the tour took me up and down along the Croatian coastline, with steeper hills than expected. I had to get off and push my bike quite a few times, and almost even failed at pushing in some parts. Guess I'm not (yet?) trained for steepnesses above 8% with all the extra weight due to my bags. Things I realized at Day 1 already:

    - 30°C + degrees is way too hot to cycle uphills in the sun!

    - I may have a little too much stuff with me.. at least it's obvious that the weight is pretty hard on the tyres of the bike..

    - The bike is shaky with this much weight on due to my bags, which can be dangerous when sharing the road with vehicles. The vehicles on the main roads mostly ignored me and the campervans only kept little distance when driving past me, also it was hard to keep the bike straight due to the wind.

    - Don't trust komoot, not even if you paid for a premium account. :D Just because kommot tells you there's a connection between roads doesn't mean there is one or thar it's even suitable for biking. (And yes, the app was set to road biking. :D) At some point I found myself in the middle of nowhere on a dead end road blocked by concrete blocks. Standing on the edge I could see the main road 20m below me. The only way to get down there was to take off my bags and carry the bike down the steep hill first and go up again to grab the bags. From there on I tried to stick to main roads..

    - If your destination is on the way to a bigger city, "Lidl"-wallpapers every 3km are a great indicator for your progress on the road. :D

    I initially planned to get all the way to Krk city that day, but around 7pm I decided to stop in a little village called Njivice and search for a camp ground. They said they were full but they will squeeze me in after I told them I really don't want to ride any further today. :D So I set up my tent and went for a swim during a colourful sunset at a pretty prebble beach with amazing clear water, showered and cooked pasta after. :) Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the beach and sunset since my phone was charging during this time in a locker.
    I had a little chat with Marcello, my Brasilian/German tent neighbor and went to bed after. :)
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  • Day 2

    Day 2: From Njivive to Krk City

    August 1, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    I kept it short on Day 2 and only cycled from Njivive to Krk City, where I wanted to go diving with the dive instructor who taught me diving 14 years ago. I planned to get up super early to cycle while it's still cool outside and to arrive early at the diving school as a surprise and go diving the same day. Well, that didn't work out. 🙈 I had a terrible sleep that night and couldn't get up in the morning, so I arrived around noon. Even though it wasn't that far, I felt the muscle ache from the previous day. Also, it again shared the main road with really wreckless mobile home drivers.
    Once arrived, the diving school staff recommended me a beautiful camping ground on top of a hill. So I went there, set up my tent and chatted with tent neighbours (Germans, of course 😅). After, I went back to the beach and the city for a swim and some strolling around. :) In the afternoon (once the diving boat returned) I went back to the school. It was great seeing everyone again and I put my name on the boat list for the next day. 👌😁

    I also went to a bicycle store that day since I noticed a "bumpy" feeling I assumed to be caused by the front tyre. The guy wasn't really keen on finding the cause but added air to both tyres for free, which was nice but didn't actually solve the problem. 😅 Will figure that out another day.

    Some lessons learned today include:
    - Don't put sunscreen on while sitting on your camping matress, the oily spots will now last forever I guess.. -.-
    - Fig trees are great for spending shadow and a snack, but if there's ripe fruits on it you'll have ants EVERYWHERE if you forget to close the tent for just a second.. 🙄

    Looking forward to diving tomorrow!! 🐙🐠🐡🦈🐢🐬
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  • Day 3

    Fun Diving Krk

    August 2, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    No cycling this day. Instead, I had a great day on the diving boat with two amazing dives at the coast of the island Plavnik. 🐙🐠🐟🦀 We saw a couple of catshark eggs hanging onto an old fisher net at 27m and 34m depths. 🦈😁👌 When placing the torch underneath the eggs we could see something little wiggle inside!! :)) Other than that we saw colourful fish, an octopus, ans played with a crab. The water was pretty cold down there with only 17 °C but the dives were totally worth it and it was nice seeing my former diving teacher again! :)

    Unfortuantely, there's no room for an underwater camera on this trip.. but here are some photos anyway. :)
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  • Day 4

    Day 4: From Krk (City) to Rab (City)

    August 3, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    I got up early this morning, had breakfast with my two tent neighbours, packed my stuff and saddled the bike to get to the ferry terminal in Valbiska. It was only a 10km ride with around 200m elevation, but it was ridiculously hot day and I arrived pretty exhausted at 11:30am. I was also rushing a little since ferrys here don't always stick to the schedule (they arrive, load, and once their full they just leave again), and I was late - as usual. 🙈

    The ferry ride took about 1.5 hours and offered some great views on the surrounding islands on its way. I mostly stayed inside the air conditioned sitting area though and read a little.

    I arrived in Lopar on the island of Rab. From this very touristy place I cycled along the coast towards Rab City. There were some amazing views along the way and for some kilometers I was cycling right along the sea, which was great.
    Once I arrived in Rab around 5pm I went to a campground close by to ask for a night stay, but the lady told me they are more than full and I should cycle further south and try a little campground in Barbat. So I went there but as expected, it was also full. 😬 Germans on the campground offered me to set up my tent in their pitch but the owner didn't allow it, however, he offered me to use the washrooms and recommended to just sleep at the beach without setting up my tent. This way it wouldn't be too obvious and they apparently don't control this beach too frequently (wild camping is forbidden in Croatia, it's a 400€ fine if they catch you 🤑🥴). I didn't feel very comfortable just sleeping there thinking I wouldn't get a proper rest.. it was a pretty busy and open beach and there was nowhere to hide my stuff and bike. So I checked up the ferry time table to leave the islands again and decided to cycle back to Rab to catch the last ferry to Pag island at 6:55pm. It was around 6:30pm when I arrived in Rab City again and I had to check the way to the ferry terminal when I stopped along the road where two other bikepackers where jist having a break. We started talking and they told me that they mostly wildcamp and never got caught. They offered me to join them for the night instead of taking the ferry which I then did. So we cycled again(!) to the south to find a sheltered sleeping space, which we found on a dead end road past the houses on a hillside. We set up the tents, when a curious older couple came past. Since they obviously noticed us, we asked them if we could stay for the night which was fine with them.
    I had a sunset swim in the sea, went back to the camp and chattet with Heike and Chris for two more hours before we went to sleep.
    They are truely amazing people from Berlin. They are in their 50s and already did many of such trips, this time they started cycling in Vienna. I was lucky to bump into them! :)
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  • Day 5

    Day 5 - I think I lost my passport..

    August 4, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Good morning people - I lost my passport. -.-

    Chronologically:
    Chris, Heike, and me woke up around 6am this morning because the guy from yesterday came by and parked his car literally right next to hour tents. He fed his sheep and left again. We then packed up and cycled back to Rab City to grab a coffee and some breakfast. My plan for the day was to stroll around the city and catch a ferry in the afternoon to Pag. Before we left our bikes and bags unattended, I wanted yo grab my valuables to take them with me. Well, I couldn't find my passport. I unpacked everything but it wasn't there anymore. I started to get stressed. It's the only valid ID I took with me and I will need it to get into Albania since it's not EU territory.
    The last time having the passport for sure was at the first campground in Rab City where I took it out to check in. Once that didn't work I put in the front pocket for easy access at the next campground. On the way there, I took my phone out of this pocket for navigation a few times. I assume the passport fell out at some point. 😞 I also did leave my bike unattended for a few minutes twice that time for a swim and the supermarket. But I honestly doubt it was stolen.

    I skipped on the city tour and drove back to the first campground, then our sleeping place and called the second campground. I unpacked everything again to make sure and called the police then. They told me to come by to get a confirmation for the loss which would allow me "to get out of Croatia and back home", since Croatia is not a Schengen-country. So I went there and it took the very friendly police officer 1.5h to manually write down in Croation bold letters what happened. He asked pretty detailed where I've been since I recognized the loss, even wanted to know the supermarkets. I had to kind of alter the reality a little when it came to the sleeping situation, so I told that locals allowed us to stay with them but holding back the fact that it wasn't actually their propery..🙈 In the end he recommended me to stay for another night on the island in case it was found and handed to the police, and to call the embassy in Zagreb to get a replacement.

    So I will stay for another night on the island wild camping with Chris and Heike, waiting for a call from the police which didn't happen. I called the embassy and willl go there on Monday for a day. They will give me a temporary one year passport that will allow me to continue my trip for 540 Kuna (~70€).
    The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, not much cycling but camping in one of the largest and mosr beautiful holm oak forests in the Mediteranean area and having a swim in the sea.
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  • Day 6

    Day 6 - No call from the police..

    August 5, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    I woke up quite a few times that night because I heard something moving around the forest close to the tent. I tried not to bother about it too much and eventually fell back to sleep. Around 6am (it was bright already) I heard it again amd decided to get up and check. In about 10m distance to my tent a sheep and a little lamb were staring at me. 🐑🐑 I guess we were camping on their trail and they weren't sure what to do about it. At some point they walked off into the woods again but I stayed up and continued reading my book in the hammock until Chris and Heike woke up.

    Once we packet our stuff, we went for a little cycling trip in the holm oak tree forest / national park, in which we got a little lost. On the way out we wanted to take a different route and ended up carrying our bikes and bags individually down a very steep and rocky hiking path for about 600m. 😅 Not the best start of the day but once we grabbed breakfast in a little town nearby it got better. We cycled back to Rab where we split up and said goodbye for now. I stayed in Rab for some strolling and a ferry to Pag island in the afternoon, while Heike and Chris moved on to the south. I locked my bike including all my in a very public and busy spot, thinking that the more people there the less likely it gets stolen. I'm still struggling a bit with leaving all my stuff unattended for quite some time but it's way too exhausting to take it with me on a walking tour. It was still there once I got back. 😁 I also called up a campsite in advance to check for availability this time so that I could search for wild camping spots along the way alreafy if there's again nothing available.
    The taxi boat ride to Lun (Pag island) took around 20 min, when I got to the small boat I wondered how all people including me and my stuff will fit on it but the captain didn't seem to worry. 😅
    Arriving in Lun I had to cycle up a really steep hill (well, I pushed half the way), but once I was up there it was worth all the hassle!! There were beautiful olive trees everywhere and cycling along that ride with sea view on the right and the Velebit mountains to the left was amazing. Also it wasn't that hot anymore.

    I arrived at a little campground and went straight for swim. After I was hanging out in my hammock at the beach and read a little until the sun was set.

    All in all it felt good to leave Rab island and it felt like moving on from my passport disaster, even though it wasn't found that day..
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  • Day 7

    Day 7 - From Potočnica (Pag) to Rtina

    August 6, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Crazy day. It started all pretty easygoing, not much traffic, elevation gain was fine. Until I reached Novalja. I dodn't know that it's also called the New Ibiza, a party place for young people. And there were hundreds of them with packed suitcases waiting along the road for their busses to pick them up when I drove through the city in the morning. I didn't like the place too much so I didn't even stop there and continued on a pretty nice well paved highway out of the town. Unfortunately, theany busses I just passed where soon to be passing me again, most of them won't even give me some space while driving by. 😒 It wasn't fun at all and at some point I even stopped to let them pass and get off the road anytime I saw one coming.
    After a few kilometers komoot finally told me to take a turn and get off the highway to cycle along the coast instead. At first I was pretty happy about the decision, shortly after I found myself on a never ending gravel road with huge holes. Eventually, there was no road anymore and I had to cycle back to find an alternative road. It was boiling hot in the sun, my 2.5l water supply was almost finished and there was nothing there to refill and nowhere to hide from the sun. I continued until I finally reached a little town and paved road again. I was pretty exhausted so I stopped for swim at a pretty beach right at the road.

    A while later I continued and met a cyclist from Seoul ( I can't recall his name 🙈) in Pag City, who was going the other way. He started about six weeks ago in Ankara and pland to go all the way to São Paulo. The first thing he said was "I'm so tired of mountains", since the southern countries are more hilly and expected. 🥴 We exchanged some knowledge about the roads to come and continued cycling im different directions. Again I found myself on a gravel path gor 7km. 😞 But that wasn't even the worst part of the trip.

    About 1.8km before passing the bridge to the mainland again I was on top of the mountain ridge with an incredibly strong side wind blowing me off the road. This wind is called Bora in Croatia and it blows from the mainland out to the sea. It became impossible to continue cycling, I had to get off the bike and push it. Once I arrived at the bridge it has gotten even worse and I seriously doubted to be able to pass the bridge even as a foot passenger with bike. I thought about turning around but I didn't pass any camp site and I would have to get up the hill again the next day. So I thought I give it a try and made it, but I'm bruised up to my hips on my left side since the bike was constantly pushed against it by the wind. On the other side, I walked for another kilometer until the road was more sheltered from the wimd and cycled the last bit to the campground.

    There I got a great pitch first row right at the beach. I was too tired for a swim though so I just did the regular routine (setting upy tent, cooking, cleaning) and had a nice chat with my tent neighbor Andy from London, who was also bikepacking in Croatia before going off to sleep.
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  • Day 8

    Day 8 - From Rtina to Zadar

    August 7, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Another ridiculously hot day (37 °C In the sun) but luckily I only had about 25km left to Zadar, where I wanted tostay Sunday to Tuesday. That way I could get to the German embassy in Zagreb on Monday for the day to get a temporary passport. I had also called the police in Rab again but my passport remains lost.

    I wasn't too keen on cycling, so I was again having a nice chat with Andy instead and and booked bus tickets to Zagreb for the next day. I left the camp ground around 11am. Stupid me - it was way too hot for cycling and I felt pretty exhausted from the previous day. I chose the straight way to Zadar to avoid extra kilometers, which lead me inlands. There were some really steep parts with 17% elevation, I had to get off the bike and push it instead. There was hardly any shade along the way. It wasn't possible for me to stop, as soon as the wind from driving was gone it was umbearable stay in the sun.

    Once I found a spot I stopped and called up campgrounds to check availability but only an RV campground had vacancies. It is located around 5km away from the bus terminal but the only safe option I had for leaving my bike and my bags. It is seriously the worst campground ever. It's in the middle of nowhere right next to the highway, there are almost no trees and it's ridiculoulsy expensive since they charge me the same amount as if I was there with a campervan. -.-

    I arrived there in the afternoon and left my stuff with a nice dutch guy since the reception was closed. Once the tent was set up, I cycled into the city to see where the bus is leaving in the morning and how to get there. Turns out that I don't want to leave my bike there all day until almost midnight and the locker room is closed ad 10pm, which is too early. Also a taxi ride turns out to be about 30€ for 5km. -.- So I decided to have a morning and night walk instead.

    I also had a stroll around Zadar and went back to the camp ground, where I had a nice talk and drink with the dutch guy before going to bed.

    I didn't take many photos that day, it was simply too hot to stop along the way. :D
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  • Day 9

    Day 9 - German embassy in Zagreb

    August 8, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    I had to get up around 6am, to start walking to the bus station in Zadar around 6:25am, to be there for the departure at 7:30am. It was a nice and refreshing morning walk. I was pretty tired though since I woke upnaroumd 3:30am having around ten mosquitoes inside my tent. It didn't really cool down at night, so I left both tent entrances open for just a little bit. Apparently this was enough for the tiny little beasts. It took me about 20min to get them all and I couldn't really go back to sleep afterwards. They bit me really badly all around my fingers so I basically just soaked them in cream for the rest of the night. Certainly won't make this mistake again.. 😒🙈😅

    The bus ride was fine (3.5 hours) but I had to hurry a little to get to the embassy once we arrived. It was only open until noon, I got there 11:40am. 😅 I don't know exactely what I expected but I certainly assumed it to be well organized - I mean it's the German (!) embassy. 💁‍♀️ I went to the main entrance which was locked (of course) when a guard came and sent me around the corner to the line. And it was a mess. There were around 20+ people sitting oiside on the street with documents in their hands. Obviously all of them Germans, some of them had beem waiting since 9am even though they had an appointment. Occasionally a lady screamed out a name onto the street and that person got up to go inside. I was a little confused and went up the stairs to at least put my name on the list. Some haven't even done that, how would they eben know that they're waiting outside?! 🤔 I still don't get the system. 😅 I was lucky, 20 minutes and 540 Kuna spent I walked out again with a cheap looking green temporary passport. 👌😁

    Next I went into the city center and spontanouslyet up with some couchsurfing people (two travellers from Germany, one from Indonesia living in Germany and a local guy Ante who gave us a fun little tour of the city center. We enjoyed hanging out together and found a lot of common interests. I'm sure I'll see some of them again at some point. 😊 I liked Zagreb, it's a pretty coolnplace with lots of history and lots of green parks in the center to hang out. 👌 After a couple of hours I had to get back to bus, where I currently sit in and eventually arrive at my tent around midnight.
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  • Day 10

    Day 10 - From Zadar to Nin

    August 9, 2022 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Recap from last night:
    When I arrived at the bus station in Zadar around 11pm, it already started raining. So I hitchhiked with a German family to the camp ground instead of walking. Think I gave them a huge fright when I approached them at the red lights in the middle of the night. Once I arrived at the camp ground, I found my tent to be soaked and muddy from the bottom and strangely in a slightly different place. Also my power plug, which I left inside (!) the tent was removed. Apparently, someone tried to move my tent to make room for more campervans, even though it was my pitch. By trying to move the tent (I assume it was pulled, even though all my bags were in there and it could have ripped easily due to the weight), the underlaying protection matt got twisted, which caused the tent to leak from the bottom.
    To sum it up: it was a pretty bad night and most of my stuff was slightly wet in the morning. I woke up around 6:15am already and starting cleaning off the mud. Around 7am, the owners of the campground arrived for their morning visit and I asked the woman whether she knows anything about moving my tent. She admitted that it was her and the husband to squeeze in another campervan. I told her about all my stuff being wet and that I find it disrespectful to take stuff out of the tent without asking or me being there. She told me "Okay, you don't have to pay but go." I told her again that it's not about the money, but that's not how you treat paying guests. She didn't even apologize and I went off to get my stuff. I was really sick of this place.

    I was so exhausted from the trip to Zagreb that I didn't feel like cycling all day, so I decided to go to Nin to have a beach day and meet up with Chris and Heike again. On the way I stopped at a bicycle shop in Zadar to have my front tyre checked - I was so annoyed by the bumpy feeling, I just wanted it fixed by now. The guy at the shop was super helpful and friendly, within minutes he not only fixed the bump but also adjusted my brakes and gear switch, and added oil to the chain. It felt like riding a new bike after and he only asked for less than 5€. He made my day. 😁👌🚲
    In Nin I found a nice spot on the beach to set up my hammock. I read for a while and dozed off. It was very windy unfortunately, so I didn't feel like swimming anymore. But at least I could watch many kite surfers in the lagoon. I then strolled around beautiful Nin with Heike and Chris and we had a swim at a different beach before going to a restaurant in the evening to which they invited me. Since they have already spotted a nice place to wild camp on the night, we could take it easy that evening. :)

    The spot was a bit outside Nin close to a forest. We got there on a gravel road along a river during sunset. Arriving there we heard occasional shots in the area, probably someone was hunting ducks. Luckily it stopped once it got dark, it was a little creepy to be honest. 😅
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