Oh. My. God. (Day 1 cycling)

Today I started the real vacation, the plan was to go from Skopje to Gostivar and a little past it to pitch my tent for my first night outdoors. At the moment I am sitting in a Hilton hotel and I ate a hamburger from a place called Amigo here in Gostivar last night.

So why did I end up here, well to make the story somewhat short I will try and cut it short.

Leaving Skopje after going up and down sidewalks and getting chased by my first dog wen't fine - it took a while but I managed. I headed to Matka Canyon, a incredibly beautiful place - a natural reserve with huge mountains and rivers with crystal clear water. The ride there was through a small village with quite a steep climb and the sweat was pouring and my thighs was burning after only two hours on the trip - I had to walk parts of it since it was too hard.

Matka Canyon

After that I decided to use my compass and took a chance at going further up the mountain by using the compass and my map and just using the GPS as a tracking device. I went through some really poor villages as well as a lot of buildings that was half finished, big mansions scattered some parts of the route kind of in mid production.

After really getting high up and when the villages, people and civilization disappeared I realized I needed my GPS - it started with suggesting a mud road which was terrible, scattered rocks all over but I was happy because it was this I were looking for. Then it suggested a turn in the road where there wasn't any road to turn to so I just went offroad and hoped the road would show up - it did a few minutes later, two dirt tracks cutting through grassy plains.

At the start of the mud road.

Mud road turned into this.

This is the road I ended up on after going offroad where the GPS said I should turn .

 After 30 minutes or so I started reaching small villages where people looked with big eyes on me, I smiled and waved left and right - it was amazing.

A little later I realized something had gone very wrong with the navigation, I had pre-planned a route to cut across and go diagonally between Skopje and Gostivar and skipping Tetovo tho since I just used the GPS to get me to Gostivar and not use the road I had planned it took me straight down to the highway again not anywhere near where I planned to go.

So I felt I didn't have the strength to climb up on the mountain again I started following the route along the highway, a mid-sized road not with the best scenery.

But with those delays I ended up in Tetovo late and after going around there for quite some time to find the way out of the town and south towards Gostivar I realized it was gonna get dark before I reached my goal.

My legs were aching incredibly and I just battled on, small towns seemed to scatter the entire route and in the dark with potholes, speed bumps, cobblestone streets and very bad patching on the asphalt parts I was getting quite low.

When I finally reached I felt I had to choose an hotel because it was too late to pitch my tent somewhere where I never been before. I asked a guy who walked with me to a hotel called Elena but it had stairs right in the entrance so I looked for something else. After a couple of people that I've asked talked a bit among themselves they suggested Hilton and for the second time another guy and his kid walked with me for like 10 minutes to show me where it was - the kid guarded the bike while me and the man went inside and asked for a room of which they had.

So that's my first day cut short, the longer version will be in my video diaries when I get home.

Oh, this is the route as tracked by the GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/288662192 (Click "Spelare" or "Player" to see it playing out, top right corner)