Serbia was great from the start - a lot more people speak english which not only makes it easier for me in terms of lonelines and getting around but it also seems that people are more approaching and open because of beeing able to communicate with the "foreigner" with the big bike.

I'm often greeted on the street and people approach me to talk with me or offer assistance.

→ www.flickr.com

State-of-the-art waste management in serbia

The map showed a spa in Apatin and after checking their website it seemed to be a good excuse to take a day of as a birthday present to myself. It got really late and dark when i reached Apatin and after some searching and desperation i accepted the offer of the last pension, which still appeared too high(20 EUR without recipe) for a run-down room with eighties-interieur.

→ www.flickr.com

I had asked several people on the street about the spa and everyone said it's nice and good. It was a 8km ride outside of the city and in the end it turned out that they only do medical treatment for rehabilitation and the like. The rest of the spa they advertise gloriously on the website is under construction. But bathing would still have been an option, they showed me their 10x10m tub where old people with bathing caps where assisted by nurses in white robes - not so much a relaxing spa feeling, rather the apperance of a militaristic soviet geriatrics center. I declined politely.