8/17/05 Well after staying in one place for a total of 2 full days the desire to get back on the road was to strong to ignore, so after saying my goodbyes to Mike I was once again riding down the road.  Now that I have seen  this side of the war story I figured I had better see Serbia (former Yugoslavia) and see their side.  So as usual with not really any plan or idea where to go off I set.     The roads leading to Serbia were far from good but they were perfect for the GS, I think many a lesser bike would have made for an uncomfortable ride. The border crossing into Serbia was fairly uneventful and after the usual questions, why and where and a stern look I was on my way.   As I was making my way across Serbia and feeling kinda bored I decided to liven it up and try some smaller roads that were heading in the general direction of Turkey.   I ended up getting quite lost down a road that seemed like it was leading somewhere but came to a nice dead end at some resort (using resort very liberally here).  Since it was about 6:00 I thought it might be a good time to try find a place for the night, remembering a sign offering rooms to rent a couple miles back I  figured that seemed to be a good place. After several minutes of trying to convey that I was looking for a room the lady helping me seemed to be saying she had no more rooms, well I was a little confused, was she saying she had no more rooms or that she couldn’t understand me or both.  Well not giving up I tried a few more times to convey that I was looking for a place for one night, something must have worked because she grabbed my hand and pulled me to three different neighbors house where she talked to them to no result, I was pretty much at a loss of what to do.  But she had one more nieghbor who lived behind her house, so as we walked down the muddy drive way past the pig barn full of snorting smelly pigs we came to her neighbors who did have a room for me.  So for the steep price of $3 a night I  had a room and all the food and bad coffee I could eat and drink. Now this is where I need to mention that I am really in the equivalent of the deep deep south.  I really felt I was in the middle of nowhere, these peoples house had two rooms and a kitchen area in which 6 people lived.  I was staying in a separate little house with also two rooms, the grandmothers I think lived in the other room and they would rent out the room I was staying in. As I was unloading my bike the “Big Boss Lady”  (that is what everyone I would later meet would refer to the lady that owned the first house and help me find my current home for the night) brought over a Serbian who had been living in Australia for a the last 6 years and spoke perfect English.  As it turns out the resort place up the road is a hospital/resort and due to the natural mineral water springs allot of people come here to use the hospital and/or bathe in the pools.  Part of the complex is private and the other part is state run.  So some people come here just to use the pools and stay in the hotel. They insisted that after I get situated I come back up to the first house for dinner and drinks.  So much to the chagrin of my host family (who really creeped me out, the father who looked about 100 had freakishly large ears and seemed to have spent the day drinking and could barely talk, the twin daughters who looked aobut 25 and weighed 80lbs had inherited their fathers ears,  there were a couple sons in and out of the placed but I never really talked to them, one grandmother had a mustache thicker than any man I have ever seen, the other grandmother who was a very large lady seemed alright, there was a pregnant daughter who must have been from somewhere else cause she seemed pretty normal, and the mom was probably the most normal but I think really wanted me to take one of her crazy twin daughters). So off I went up to the front house where more normal people were and I didn’t feel like I was in a scene from deliverance.   I met up with the English speaking fellow who was staying in the front house with about 15 other people who came here for the hospital and the springs.    The people staying there were some of the nicest and most friendly people I have ever met, it was definitely nice to have a translator.   After eating a large dinner and sharing several stories and asking as many questions as I was answering, several of us piled into an old Yugo, owned by a young fellow named Dragon (real name but I think it means something different in Serbian than English),  and went to the hospital to watch and outdoor dance show put on by a group of local kids.  After the show there was a large tower with a bar at the top where we went and enjoyed a local beer, and as I found out over the next couple days I was not allowed and almost forcefully told to put away my wallet whenever I tried to pay for anything.  The hospitality of these people is amazing,  for the mere price of talking about myself I could eat and drink for free.  Today’s Specs Weather:  70 F,  cloudy Distance: 190miles Sarajevo to somewhere in Serbia     8/18/05 This morning was pooring down rain so I decided I would stay another night here.     My friend who spoke English had to leave but left me in the care of Dragon and Doole who only spoke a few words of English but that was ok.   So they insisted that I go see the mineral pools and go swimming with them.    So this is where the story gets a little weird, no not like freaky Serbian male bathhouse weird, but  the pools were filled daily from natural hot springs so the temperature was about 85F but as I went into the pool, which was really a large indoor swimming pool that was about 5ft deep,  I saw one of the worst sights ever,  it was filled with about 75 eighty year old people with the occasional young person and child,  all I could think about was the week bladders and saggy skin of all the old people.   Doole and Dragon saw me hesitate but must have thought that I couldn’t swim as my reason as hesitation so after insisting it was safe and since they had paid my entrance I really had no choice.  So enough of that story. After using allot of soap and shampoo to wash myself I met Doole and Dragon again who took me to a restaurant for a beer then afterwards we walked around the hospital/resort complex.  This was the first time I felt a little nervous is when we walked behind the private resort building and went in through the back enterance.     Once inside the back of the building we walked down a large service halway to an open room with several people in it.  At the center was a man sitting at a desk giving orders in Serbian.  Now having watched too many movies my imagination instantly started running wild but really I think he was just the services manager of the hotel.   As I sat there looking interested in what everyone was saying and noticing every now and again that the word americano and occasionally the boss guy would glance at me,  I was pretty much hoping they weren’t talking about how much they could get for a white American boy on the black market.   After a few minutes the boss guy got up and poured everyone a drink from one bottles on the shelf then after the drink we said our goodbyes and headed back to the house.     This night was much like the night before but without an interpeter, so it was allot more smiling using basic words and gestures to get the point across. I definitely learned how simple these peoples lives are, they are very poor and really use the land for allot of their necessities.  Food comes from the garden,  allot of the clothes come from sheeps wool and so on.   The father and sons worked but that really doesn’t provide them much money more just to cover what they cant make on their own.   Today’s Specs Weather:  70 F,  rainy Distance: 0 miles somewhere in Serbia