Day 12 - May 17 - Hope on the Horizon
The ride was not a pleasant one. At first, it was empty and I took the entire back row. However, we stopped at various road junctions and more and more people boarded (as I recall, only men), till each seat was taken. We drove through the Serbia, meaning the delicate border crossing from Kosovo to Serbia (Kosovo is not recognized by Serbia), then from Serbia to Croatia. At both border, we had to get off twice, once on each side. So not much of sleep, and that only in upright position.
We arrived with an hour of delay in Zagreb (caused by traffic jam just outside the city) and got my bike, which was now just a roller. Near to the bus stop, I found a small bicycle shop, the owner was unable to help, but he was kind enough to store the bags I did not need. He gave an address of another shop near the center and I rolled there - no luck. They did, however, give the phone number of some kind of a bike magician - alas; he did not answer.
In the meantime, I got a contact to another shop, far from the center - this actually came from my parents, who happened to know someone living in Zagreb with a love for sports. I hailed a cab, rode there - now comes the funny part - while he also was unable to help, he gave contact to the same magician (small Zagreb.. .) - and he even managed to contact the magician. He assured me the magician will be able to fix my bike. There were now two issues - this was yet another part of town, plus he only worked in the afternoon. Whatever - another taxi ride to the small shop on the other side of town; then I killed time with a nice Greek salad in this residential part of Zagreb.
...Then, at 2 pm sharp, the magic started: he was already briefed about my issue (broken Chris King hub) and brought specialized tools. It took him about two hours or so - yes, for me it was true magic. He was a super nice, modest guy, with very good English - I I cannot thank him enough. He asked for just 200 Kunas (about Eur 25) - I gave twice that, plus an ice cream and a coke. Boy, was I a happy rider!
In fact, so happy rhat I decided to ride into town, go right past it and bike up the mountain above it. In my native Budapest, where the hill looked similar, it is just over 500 meters - well, the one above Zagreb was over 1,000 - and quite an exhausting ride. It was super tired by the time I made it to the top, enjoyed the views and rolled down - I was freezing a bit in the chilly evening.
I booked a room in the center of town, a pleasant, small apartment - as I had an idea - the town is lovely and the coast is just two hours away... So I convinced a friend to take a Flixbus from Vienna and visit me there.
