Tuesday 24th August

 

24/05/04 Day 52

Another peaceful waking up lesson where I have never head been so reluctant to do anything before by carefully preparing our breakfast the night before it was all very straightforward and Brian managed to eat about 6.80 loaf of bread like all (and a reasonable size king container) loaf of bread like quite to the least walls down the staircase we said, Spencer, because George Daddy? made the effort to come out and say goodbye. It must have been a cramton tortoise. At gravel no 7 the bus was open and buses full as ever (reminiscent of concentration camptransportation, as Brian noted). There were in fact enough tickets left for us, and our ridiculously small packs fitted in the overhead lockers so we didn't have to pay extra. Another benefit of having nothing clear to wear...

(working out whose seat was whose caused much amusement as the croatians sat in their 'allocated' seats and kicked people out of them if they were in the wrong place whilst the English (of which have were many) just picked the seat liked the best. Muchos confusion. We managed to sit where we liked though. And so the road slowly rotted out of Dubrovnik and up the Dalmatian coast which gave more different, stark views of the islands, unfortunately many of which I missed due to feeling a bit the seats were of course cramped and uncomfortable and I yearned for a days of the train. We went into Bosnia, through passport control only to stop at a service station for the first of 3 breaks in the 6 hours. I'm sure we'd have got there a lot quicker if the driver had just got on with it and stopped neither a big every 5 mins. So we went back through passport control where we 'lost' 2 English women and drove a bit to more before going through customs again. However, not once did we get a stamp. I was relying on Bosnia. As soon as we hit the new country the air got a lot cooler and the grass and trees a lot more lush. It was a return to Slovenia (with a lovely river too) and almost a return to Austria (casthere were might green fields). If ind it not been for the 'Thomsō' (I use the term loosely), I think I expected Bosnia to consisted of a barren piece of sandy road and a firescattered bricks. In fact, it would be a lovely place to live and some of the houses were quite posh with private pools. I was shocked and then pleasantly surprised as I saw the country in years to come as a haven for mountain climbers and country lovers. If only they could get rid g these damn mines! I think this is clearly why the whole country has been put on the 'work in progress' list. As we neared towns there were burnt brick houses decidedly lacking in rooves. And when we hit Mostar the whole coach was taken aback by the destruction. Every second building was either a complete crumbling ruin, which could, for all we knew have been bombed yesterday, or shattered from one end to the other with bullet indention. It really did look as though someone had stood with a machine gun and shot systematically from one end of the street to the other with no aim at all. Clearly all the many left are had gone to Sarajevo to start the rebuilding. What was frightening was the fact that those who we saw walking down the street, would remember it so clearly and it was hard to imagine whether they were relieved or still distraught. We drove on to Sarajevo and were pointed in the direction of the centre. It was nice to be back in a city again after all the beaching was wearing thin. We walked down 'Sniper alley' which I found nerving even today, and passed Holiday Inn, wlee the international journalists stayed (I'd have liked to have thought they were further out of the action!) This was definitely the most damaged road(today anyway) and huge towering appartment blocks stood empty and dark with no windows glass and again, splattered with bullet marks and grenade damage. The roads are well, like they have craters in them about the size of tennis balls indentations. Finding our hostel/guesthouse involved a rather snarting visit to the tourist info, where the staff are v.v. friendly and insist on you filling in a survey about how Sarajevo can be improved. They are trying very hard anyway. We made about 4 trips to the tourist info and had 4 conversations with the same crazy, drunk, jumpling, smick-loving employee. Our room is slightly more uphill than we would have liked. And the avvos are burning mad - I'm sure Brian will better describe the sorting out of money. We eventually escaped, did some sopping, booked our plane ticket GO. After another communication -hindered conversation to try and translate 'meal' as in "do you have one?" we are before we were sold chicken. We found a nice restaurant in which we were the only customers of the night. I had chips, steak, broad salad and wine for 16. Not bad.

To wrap up Dubrovnik - very lovely old town - cute streets, loads of cafes/restaurants. Not a lot of things to see but the walls were great. Doesn't take long to though so I don't know whether I'll be back - oh and another one umm, it's hard to imagine people live there because there's nothing like to do: no big shops, etc.. unnus ... it was particularly great for it's views of the adriatic... vaaan... and it was a nice end to Croatia, much nicer than Split but perhaps not as nice as Rovinj... emm. Nice beach, nice sunset, that's about it really, I think.I suppose it's my own lazy fault for being left out of the diary writing for the last three days, so I will try to quickly catch up while Heather showers (no rush then).

Firstly our last full day in Odry and the mystery of the food... It was a flashback to my former Warttree days, sitting through the fridge and discarding or 'reclaiming' as I saw fit - only we got a bit worried when we returned to find our stuff rummaged and to some 'reclaimed' items gone. Our suspicion that it maybe they were not quite as reclaimable as first supposed was heightened by the fact that the majority of them were quite new and unopened (eg.3 yoghurts, tin of tomatoes, bag of pasta...). But we escaped with what was left and all was well.

My swim on the beach was the best yet, as the shape of the cove created a glut acting almost than your average public pool.

I spent most of the next day (the day we left Odry) suffering from the effects of eating too much bread. As well as the HUGE bowl of cereal I had a small loaf for breakfast. And then to compensate for all the energy used up sitting on the bus - another loaf for lunch. This is what happens when people give you free food!

The journey into Bosnia was very exciting as it was full of contrasts and heart blacked back to our Eastern countries. Firstly, as Heather said the final end to the barren Croatian wasteland was a huge relief, and as we climbed into the mountains the air cooled while the sun remained hot - my type of climate! A large proportion of the journey followed a mineral blue river within a mountain gorge. The very start of the journey was interesting enough as we drove through the strip of land that cuts of Dubrovnik from the rest of Croatia. I always assumed this was to give access to the sea, but there seemed to be no major road (is any at all). Rumour in land and it seems quite possible that that land belongs to Bosnia just because the majority of the population are Bosnian. The border controls werenot particularly strict here (a man came on the bus and checked our passports), and we saw cars being waved past on the Bosnia-Croatian crossing without any checks. At the 3rd (and "proper") control, though, there was a long Queue and our passports were collected while the bus parked its self to wait. Still no stamp though.

My final point concerning today would be to re assert how close we came to acquiring a whole spit-roasted chicken, rather than the preferred menu that we were after. So we ran away from her while she had her back turned (buy wrapping said clieper), and found instead a lovely Lyiljana style restaurant, which served me deep fried brain in breadcrumbs for a most reasonable price.

The Bosnians seem to like their spit-roasts: we saw 4 whole sheep, spalked through the mouth, out the neck, in the chest and out the rareend on the journey from Dubr.

Slovenian sentiments (on the bus to Slovenia)

Landscape: green, lush, scratch, like austria but less dynamic

People: Crazy hostel owners

laid back - lazy in fact

women show extras

Young

Food: cafes by day, nothing by night. Restaurants

close at 6, loads don't eat.

Mixture of Balkans, Austria & Italian.

Beer: Zlatorog not available in Slovenia

(because they know full well that there

is nothing but water in Zlatorog), but is

drunk thru-out the rest of the Balkans.

- can't remember what we drank

Costly: small, cute & v. laid back.

Tourism: none except in Postojna (even charles didn't

offer)Transport system: red tokens for buses.

Train station almost non-existant.

Croatian credentials

landscape: barren, dry, scrub.

Nice sea (Heathers not feeling very 'imaginative' with her adjectives)

People: barmen, dry, scatlos! (Majority = tourists)

rude, unsociable & anti-tourists.

Tourism: Big rife. But impersonal.

Pubs & good vibe. Beach -resort-y. Not much else to see/do.

Food: Cheese x apple pastry - mmmm

Balkanese? markets spin the very early

-> mmm, the markets.

no chips.

Fish was probably very good!

Beer: nice - not outstanding. Went down

easily, amazingly cheap.

averagely

Cheese - soft in Bureks

fluid in bread with apples

Thats how we like it!

Bosnian Bullet points

Landscape: surprising - lush after croatia, but still

not quite slovenia.

mountaineous

People: still can't queue. Hot cuts though, just bad at cops.

Food: very lite on the restaurant front, but heavy

on the spit-joint. Very Balkan. Lots cute a

bit of Turkish (ce Cevapi with turkish bread

and yogurt drink).

Cheap & v. cheap pastries & cake (both great)

Transport system: doesn't seem so good really.

Tourism: zero. despite helpful information centre, the

saw only 1 video camera between us.

Education: not good - in two days we were

short-changed twice and once a set meal

cost 'THE CHIFE 70 price!!!'