The HIVE Tour - Episode 16 - Cooking and house spotting @ East Croatia

My first sleep in this agricultural rural corner of East Croatia SE of Zagreb was hard to get any better. The studio I rent is brand new, and while it's tiny, it sets the bar really high when it comes to taking advantage of the available space. It's got a bathroom that can embarrass even medium houses and the owner even managed to fit an ironing board in it! Not that I use one but just saying...

Moody weather means less excursions and more indoor time which equals to more cooking time. More than happy to do so since this tiny thing even has an (almost) fully equipped kitchen. The stuff here is so brand new that I even have the honour and privilege to unbox this IKEA peeler 🙂

The HIVE Tour - Episode 15 - My first morning @ East Croatia

This is what I see as soon as I turn left from my AirBnB here in the least famous village on earth called Vidrenjak:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 14 - Hello Croatia

As I get close to the Serbo-Croatian border I see a queue of trucks as long as several kms. That doesn't make me that happy cause I don't want to imagine that anything similar might be the case for the rest of the vehicles, especially on a day that the weather can rain anytime and the forecast said it should be raining already. Fortunately the queue for us non truckers is much shorter but nothing to not worry about. Fortunately, soon the queue splits in two for EU residents and non EU and luckily the EU one is shorter and faster.

In both sides they just ask my ID and bike document so after a short while I am riding over Croatian soil. Looking for some Croatian fuel though cause I already run on my second reserve. No worries when you run an efficient bike and you know the fuel gauge is rather pessimistic. Many would question this choice to run so low in fuel but logic says that there's no way they won't have a gas station if not a full rest area near the border. And after a few km I realise they really do.

With a full tank I ride the rest of the km to my Croatian AirBnB and the surprising absence of rain puts a smile on my face but a regret that I believed the forecast and didn't put my camera on. It's a pity you miss this part of the ride cause it's nice green though flat. Finally it rains for a few km around the last quarter of the distance but seriously, I don't care at all. I'm dry by the time I arrive.

Ladies and Gents, welcome to Vidrenjak, Croatia:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 13 - Goodbye Serbia

My time in Serbia is getting close to an end. After nearly 3 weeks here I only have two days left before I leave the country to enter Croatia. I must say at this point that I would have left a week earlier but as soon as I arrived at my AirBnB outside Belgrade I knew I should add a plus week of relaxation at this place. It was just what I needed at this time with a very generous courtyard to work on my bike if needed and you can check it out here in case you're looking for accommodation around this area (you can also check out the location of this post at the end). Aleksandra, the host, is as good as it gets.

So, the bad weather plus the rich content I have harvested during my visit around the area of Novi Sad (check previous episodes) obliged me to focus on cooking and resting. Speaking about the former, by pure luck I bought me some of the best mushrooms I've ever tried which contributed to a delicious dish together with bits of eggplant, all done in the oven escorted by mustard.

Simple and yummy:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 12 - From Novi Sad to Fruska Gora

My short visit to Novi Sad is over though I wish I had more time to dedicate but I have Fruska Gora ahead to explore in this dry parenthesis of rainy weather so that's all I can do at the moment. Don't misunderstand me, I can't complain when I ride on roads like the 119 heading West parallel to Danube river: