Serbia, Where, have coffee with me translates to come drink Snapps with me...

A great week here, friendlier more outgoing people and great getting off the beaten track. But back to summer weather, 35 degrees all week.
Campground to Cacak 65 km
A mixed first day that started off on a quiet road but soon joined a main highway. Drivers thinking nothing of overtaking coming towards us, as if we were not there... Lots of exiting into the gravel until we found some secondary roads. And just a few more tunnels... Our knee jerk reaction on seeing a train line at lunchtime was to get a ticket straight through and out but we opted instead to continue and find the quieter rds, which made for a much more enjoyable afternoon but we had to head back onto the busy road to find somewhere to sleep. There was a cheap motel right along the highway, great food with all the truckies stopping to eat and fitting, I thought,  watching Novak Djokovic win the US open tennis while in Serbia. They are very proud of him.
Cacak - Kraljevo 68 km
25 km on the busy highway then onto a local rd for the afternoon, we met a school teacher, Borac, who rode up behind us on his way home, he spoke quite good English and led us through the town then a stop for coffee, then to his place for Snapps, its compulsory to have at least 3... He had a basement apartment available and offered it to us for the night so after a restaurant meal we were set. We were ready to go at 8.15 when he dropped by on his way to school to pick up the key. Lovely friendly person who went out of his way to make our stay in his town memorable.  He was telling us there are not enough buildings at the schools for the students so they have half the students coming in the morning, the other half in the afternoon and no sign of that changing.  Again the people here seem to have little faith in their government but it does seem a little more prosperous than Bosnia.
A lot of buildings half finished though and abandoned as if the money has run out. Old decrepit cars, still a lot of Yugo cars made in the old Yugoslavia last made in 1981.
Kraljevo - Krusevac  80 km.
We took a parallel rural road which was interesting, small holdings growing produce, we overtook lots of tractors and trailers carrying the cabbages and red capsicums to market, everyone friendly, waving and smiling. Not a great day in the food ordering department, lost in translation again. The coffee did come in a big cup but was undrinkable, later we ordered lunch and got enormous bread buns, salad and then 2 meat patties nearly as big as bread and butter plates and an inch thick... Massive hamburgers, not quite what we expected.
We stayed right in the centre of Krusavac and enjoyed an evening out. The main street in the towns gets closed off to cars around 7 pm and becomes a walking only street, the people who live in the nearby apartments enjoying coffee, ice cream or beer,  shopping or watching cable TV, mainly sport, the Serbian basketball team was doing well in the euro league so everyone was out watching the game. Not a lot of restaurants, more fast food or takeaways, hamburgers, pizza, kebabs.  Nice looking people, most quite tall, but quite clearly a very mono culture.
It felt too hot to go anywhere the next day so we had a quiet day off the bike.
We heard the main road to Bulgaria and Sophie was really busy and lined with tunnels so we opted for the longer steeper border crossing more south.
Krusevac - Prokuplje 80 km
Country rds, we stopped for ice cream at a shop and the lady and elderly gentleman there were thrilled to bits to see foreigners. Coffee and photos and  maps being drawn and animated discussions took place. I think they believed if they repeated it over and over louder each time then we would eventually understand what they were trying to tell us. Luckily a sales rep dropped by,  she spoke English and translated, turned out the road we were on soon became a dead end and we needed to take a different rd which was under construction, so that was helpful and saved us unnecessary kms in what was a long hilly day.
The alphabet here is cryillic and makes the road sign reading really difficult, in the main cities it is written in English letters as well but not in the country places. It was hard to match our map with where we wanted to go but we figured it out, found a nice hotel and enjoyed another evening strolling the town with the locals.
More churches and old monastries to visit in this area.
Poorer as we went south, rubbish tips on the outskirts of villages just dumped anywhere. Basic housing and as usual lots of people stocking up on firewood. 
Prokuplje - Leskovac 73 km
Straighter flatter roads parallel to the new motorway but we decided it must have been a toll road as all the traffic was still on the road we were on! About 6 km from our stopping place, about 3 pm a guy on his way home from work cycled beside us and insisted we come to his place for coffee. His house was right beside the road and his wife and mother were there too. As well as his dog called Linda... A big house and section, lots of fruit trees and garden. So coffee first, followed quickly by Snapps and lots of food, tomatoes, Snapps,cheese, Snapps, walnuts, pears, more Snapps, it was hilarious, basically playing charades to communicate, he showed us his supply of home made Snapps, he had over 300 litres. More Snapps... it took a supreme effort to get away but was a very enjoyable couple of hours. On to the motel complex we were heading too, only to find it full with 2 bus loads of Polish tourists, "a very unusual situation" the chap in reception told us. The camping area was not very nice but we got talking to a Hungarian couple in a camper van, another half hour gone, then we moved a few hundred metres to look at the next accommodation option only to be stopped on route by a cafe owner, shouting us beer and trying to give us free food. I left Trevor happily being entertained for a bit and sorted a room at the next place before it too was full. So the last 6 km took us over 5 hours... But great fun.
Leskovac - Trans in Bulgaria 98 km
We had to spend all our Serbian money so stocked up on a few things at a village on route to Bulgaria and a few more potato pastries.  Another conversation with a local who told us the Serbians are used to being called the bad guys himself included even though he was only 10 when the war began. A legacy that seems will remain a long long time.
Then it was up, up and up, 30 km up. And tough. Amazing what we will do to avoid tunnels. Then a great fast 15 km down to the border crossing into Bulgaria about 4 pm. It was a Saturday, no money exchange places at the border and the first day of a 4 day national holiday. No banks open until Wednesday... Hmm... Hope they take euros...