Day 42 - Europe 2011

Day 42 - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - Mohacs, HU to Osijek, Croatia - Trip 90.77 kms Time 5:14:55

Got up at 6:30 after a good night's sleep once the ferry stopped running at 10:30 except for a bunch of drunks who came by on their bikes at 12:30 and made a hell of a racket for 10 minutes or so. I'm not sure if they heard me yell at them to F... Off!!! but they soon left after that.
I went up to the 4th floor looking for b'fast as I had been told by the desk clerk that's where I would find it. A maid took me down in the elevator to the 1st floor and showed me where I could get b'fast.
I checked out at 8:30 after paying 11,415 Ft (415 Ft for taxes). I cycled to a drug store not far from the hotel hoping to find some maps for Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Turkey. There were none. Oh well, I would surely find some on the way.
I left for Udvar and the Croatian border at 8:45. It was a nicely paved quiet country road through mainly farm land i.e. corn, wheat, sunflower fields, vineyards and orchards. I passed through Hungarian and Croatian customs without any problems. Both custom agents asked for my passport and stamped it.
Before crossing the border I had stopped at a gas station convenience store and was able to buy maps for Croatia, Serbia and Romania and a large bottle of water. I dumped the water from the hotel as it stank of sulphur or some such chemical and filled my water bottles with the water I had just bought.
I cycled through Dubosevica, Topolje, Gajic and Batina. I had to stop and get directions several times especially at Batina. Apparently my GPS maps of Europe did not include Croatia!!! The road from Batina to Majevac/Suza was especially difficult to find. It was barred to traffic because it was being resurfaced with asphalt and the Ruta Dunav sign was hidden behind some trucks. I tried 2 other directions before coming back to the 5 way intersection and spotting the sign for Suza. The trucks had moved on. The road had only been paved for about the 1st km the rest of the 7 kms or so were pretty rough gravel that had been passed over by a grader and was being prepped for paving. After that he rest of the route to Osijek was well paved and I was able to arrive at 3:00 after a short stop at an ATM to get some local currency, the Kuna. I'm a bit shaky when it comes to math. I checked my guide and it said 1 Euro = 7.2 KN. I figured I only needed enough KN for 2 days so got 3,000 KN. Later I realized I had gotten around 400 E worth of KN. Me and my lousy math skills. I had a feeling I was going to be stuck with a lot of KN!!!
On the way in to Osijek, which is quite a big city, there were several signs pointing to various 4, 3 and 2 star hotels. I'll be damned if I could find any of them. I ended up at the main train station where a taxi driver noticed I looked a bit lost. When he offered to help I told him I was looking for an hotel. He said he had a room to rent for 240 KN I think with W/C and shower. No b'fast. Maybe Internet. He would have to check with his son. He said it was 900 M from the main cathedral. I agreed to go and have a look. I had a little trouble keeping up to him even though he said he would go slowly in his taxi. It was several kms before we arrived at a nice house in a quiet street. It was a very nice apartment but a bit of a hike from restaurants, etc and after checking with his son no Internet. I decided to look for an hotel.
On the way I had spotted a hotel so retraced my steps. It was a 3 star at 45 E/night with b'fast but no Internet. I decided to try elsewhere. I eventually found the Waldinger a 4 star hotel at 105 E. with b'fast and Wi-Fi. The desk clerk spoke both English and German fluently. I decided to check in in spite of the high cost of the room. the clerk helped me carry my two heavy rear panniers up to my room on the 1st floor after securing my bike in a storage room for the night.
I went down to the bar for a local beer (bottled). A draught beer would have been nicer I'm sure. I started filling in my journal. Went back up to my room and did my laundry. Showered and went out for dinner after checking Wi-Fi. It was OK. I walked towards the cathedral in the main square and found a shop where I was able to buy a note pad and scotch tape. There wasn't enough space in my journal for all my notes and I was having to add pages which were starting to fall out all over the place. I had dinner at McDs, walked back to the hotel and typed up Day 40 of my blog. Finished filling in my journal for the day and was off to bed at 9:30
Cheers, Roly

This blog was posted at the Hotel Dunav in Ilok, Croatia, on Wednesday, July 6, 2011