Inland Croatia

Wednesday was the first day I did not get rained on and to celebrate that, I chose to follow a sign saying "Castle 2.5 kilometers". The sign was right, it was a nice castle with the view of Rijeka, the sea, behind me the mountains I had crossed the previous evening, the only thing they forgot to mention is that the incline was around 30 percent. It took me close to an hour to make those 2.5 "clicks". It was worth it, though.

I then continued on the mountain road running more or less parallel to the coast, on the one hand, I wanted just to fly all the way to the water, but then coast roads can also be very busy, as I experienced some two years ago at the exact same spot. Climbing was I yet again, getting close to the Risnjak National Park; one of the few places in Europe that have bears and bobcats. I saw neither, but this is also a place I can recommend to anyone (the Croatian Tourism Office thanks me). Taking  some back roads, I got to the entrance of the park, where I had a great meal (more Hungarian than Croatian; mushroom soup and goulash made from game, then a blueberry pie, now I am hungry). Close to the park I met three student hikers from Zagreb, they saw  a bear and told me I was in the nicest corners of Croatia. I am sure about the bear, but not so sure if that was really THE nicest place, what I mean by that is that there is more beauty coming up.

Here I stop writing for a second, trying to think back if anything eventful happened in the afternoon: and actually, yes, something did. So I was biking (have I mentioned that before?) on some really deserted road, when suddenly I see four foxes holding some very important meeting in the middle of the road. One had its back to me, two jumped to the left when they spotted me, one to the right; the guy with his back to me had no idea what was happening and froze. Well, at least for a few seconds, I was only a few yards away, then it too jumped into the woods and disappeared.

For a long time I thought Croatians only built roads that went uphill, that was the impression I had the entire day, but in the evening, I was rewarded with a nice, long, downhill ride to the town of Vrbovsko. Mind you, I was only able to  write it down as I have the map in front of me, I still can neither remember, nor pronounce the name of this town. There I got a nice apartment for 20 Euros and I just got there when Germany started playing the Netherlands in EURO 2012, but I was fast asleep before the  game was over (had to look up the final score the next morning, Germany won 2:1). Again: no rain the entire day and my bike was a happy fellow, too. A nice, round day - and I discovered more of inland Croatia.