Milica and Silvana are neighbours. Milica is Serbian, Silvana is Croatian. They live in Krupa, a small village of about 50 inhabitants in the hinterland of Zadar. We are in the so-called Krajina, the region that in 1991 proclaimed itself a “republic” and was reconquered by Croatia in 1995, causing the exodus of over 200,000 Serbs. Today this area, far from Zagreb and partly depopulated, is among the poorest in the country.

Thanks to European Cohesion policies and funds, through the Interreg VA Slovenia-Croatia cooperation programme, two projects were born and developed over time which spanned a period of approximately 15 years: Ride&Bike  between 2007 and 2013, and Ride&Bike II, between 2018 and 2021. These projects have transformed the hilly regions between Slovenia and Croatia along the Sava and its tributaries into popular destinations for cyclists, walkers and horseback excursionists. We talked about the project in general here.