Date:         Fri, 2 Apr 1999 13:38:10 -0800
Reply-To:     harald_nancy <harald_nancy@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         harald_nancy <harald_nancy@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      VW bus trip through Yugoslavia
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

My VW bus camping trip through Yugoslavia in spring 1981:
Maybe some of you will find this interesting.
(since it's Friday anyway, but not a joke).

Our orange and beige '68 VW bus had already taken us
all the way from the border of Holland through Germany
down to Austria, when the red generator light came on.
Somewhere on the autobahn in Austria at  2 am..
It was pouring torrentially, and the headlights started to
dim, and the windshield wipers stopped wiping.
We found a vw garage, and camped there until they opened.
In the morning, they fixed the generator, but also told us
the engine was on its last legs. (something about bent pushrods
and leaky cylinder head valves).
The motor seemed to run just fine, so we drove on.
We crossed the border from Austria to Yugoslavia,
after crossing a very steep mountain pass.
First thing that we discovered in Yugoslavia was that
the roads were really bad. Biggest Potholes ever.
Gave the bus a real workout.
Stopped at a gas station-rest-stop with a restaurant.
The place was called Cafe Petrol.
They had some rooms for rent, but it was too expensive.
So we slept in the bus. The next morning, we sat down
in Cafe Petrol to order some breakfast.
The waitress showed up after maybe half an hour,
and informed us there was only some coffee left.
A glance at the menu, and I almost choked at the prices.
Got a cup of coffee, and we are out of there.
Cafe Petrol was state-run, and everybody working there
was a civil-servant. Socialism was alive and well.
Back in the parking lot next to our VW, was
a big tour bus filled with partying young English and
German tourists also on their way to Greece.
I remember thinking, I should have taken that bus instead.
Think the bus was called the Rainbow Bus-
anyone else remember the name?

The highway through Yugoslavia was called the Autoputt.
Named in honor for all the potholes.
Most of the time it was only a narrow two-lane road.
Lots of semis on their way to Greece and Turkey.
I think the route went through Ljubliana, Zagreb, Belgrade,
down through Skopje, and into Greece.
We met many different types of people while traversing the
country.  Serbs, Croats, Albanians, Macedonians, but the
country was at peace, and people seemed to get along.
We decided to take a detour to see the back-country.
Wild terrain. High mountains with gravel roads, and often
we were climbing or descending in first gear.
There were some small remote villages, and the children
would come out and run after the VW bus, and ask
for things like ballpoint pens and candy, or a ride in the
VW, like we were the first ones ever to drive through.
Once we had a whole bunch of kids in the bus,
all laughing and shouting, and happy for a short ride
in the funky bus.
The locals let us camp in the town square, and lots
of friendly folks would stop by and say hello.
We bought some fresh baked bread and
some cheese from a family. There were no stores.
People were self-sufficient, and traded with each other.
Also there were no gas stations in the remote regions.
But sometimes someone would sell us some gas, and
then we were on our way again.

Five days later we made it to the Greek border.
By then the bus had low compression on one
cylinder, and was using a ton of oil, but it still ran fine,
and even two months later took us all the way back
to Germany without any breakdowns.
I haven't been without a volkswagen van since.
Harald
90 westy