We love Serbia

Cycling through Belgrade was pretty terrifying - there don't seem to be any rules for traffic, (or if there are, nobody seems to be bothered by them) road-works along the entire 12km uphill strech out of the city, 38 degree heat and buses and lorries blowing out black exhaust didn't really improve the experience. We didn't see a single other bicycle, which wasn't very surprising!

The rest of Serbia however, was amazing - stunning landscapes and extraordinarily friendly and generous people. For example, one the screws on my pannier rack snapped off. I asked a guy in the nearby town if he knew where I could find a mechanic, he said there was one 60km away and used some wire to fix it temporarily. After arriving in the next town I asked two men sitting outside a cafe. They gestured for us to follow them in their van and took us to a block of flats (where the mechanic lived). They sat us down at a table outside and brought us delicious fish. The mechanic's father then came out with a bottle of fizzy water and a couple of glasses. He then went back inside and reappeared with some freshly washed pears and peaches. Meanwhile, the mechanic - Rajkoth, had a look at my bike and disappeared to get tools from the workshop. The neighbour then poked her head out the window and called down to ask if we would like some coffee. We both declined so she came down with a carton of apple juice instead. An hour and a half later and after lots more offers of food and drink the bike was fixed and we were on our way again. Rajkoth, refused to take any money for his work.

Highlights from our 6 days in Serbia: drinking holy water from a monestary, snakes, meeting crazy spanish guy Juan, aka Pedro (George's new idol - it's now all "Pedro this.. Pedro that..'') According to George, me crashing was a higlight, apparently the most dramatic of the trip (so far), lack of rain, lovely people - everyone gives us a bemused wave as we cycle past.

Today was our final day in Serbia, we stopped to buy breakfast from a small shop in Pirot and sat on the pavement outside to eat it. The shop owner brought us out a couple of stools to sit on and the neighbour brought us cups of tea. Another guy insisted that we sample the traditional Serbian Whisky that he had with him. We were then asked to pose for a photo on the balcony of a very smart new office building oposite the shop. It looked quite out of place. We then cycled on to cross the border into Bulgaria. We passed a 2km que of Turkish lorries waiting to cross into Bulgaria, we got a lot of shouts and waves. We also spotted a sign to Istanbul - 615km (our route is about double that!). In the afternoon we climbed our first proper mountain (since Czech Republic). A quick look on google maps shows that it was over 1000 metres, I fear this was merely a gentle warm up for what the next few days have in store...