July 4th
The day began quite early for Julian and Sasha, who went to the local TV and Radio station to give an interview about the project. As it turns out, everyone in Backa Palanka rides a bicycle. Everyone. Nice choice for a first stop.
After that, the group went for some nice breakfast and attended a meeting with the Mayor of Backa Palanka. We had a chance to learn a few things about the city and the municipality, and managed to spread the message that our generation only needs a few simple tools to achieve great things - student mobility being one of those tools, of course!
Once the meeting was over, we began an incredibly quick preparation for the road up ahead (about one hour) while we read the newspapers where the opening ceremony was mentioned. If we've managed to reach a few people already, that's a victory for us, but we hope to achieve many more in the coming months.
Off to Croatia, we crossed the border into Ilok and paid a visit to the local castle. From then on, we were cruising over the plains and battling the steep valleys that made our trip more challenging. Our legs suffered a bit, but nothing some roadside cherry picking wouldn't cure.
At this point we must mention some of the people who have joined the Ride for your Rights!, by conviction or by mere chance, and who don't exactly fit into the student category.
On the top of the list, we have Reinhard and Solbritt from Austria, both very young in spirit and whose path happened to cross our own during these first few days, bringing some good mood to the group - not a scarce commodity around here, but always welcome. They managed to take some time to ride until Vukovar, where we had to part ways, but only for a little while. We're all looking forward to seeing them again when we stop in Vienna.
We also ran into a most unusual character. Stephanie, a German lady who has been riding her bicycle around the world for the past two years, ended up joining us for the evening in Vukovar, with some pretty amazing stories to share. We all wish her the best time on her way back home.
In the middle of all this, we reached the entrance of Vukovar, where we took a little detour to a horse ranch called Dunavski Raj. Yes, horse ranch, with real horses, whose shower we shared. Hosing ourselves down after such a long day was quite the treat we needed.
We had a very nice dinner, set up camp, grabbed the guitar and lit the bonfire. Another day had passed, we'd come to the second country on our itinerary and we'd already met some very interesting people. Just a couple of reasons why we all decided to join this ride.
We're all looking forward for whatever comes next.
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