Our transfer this morning was going to be some time between 7am - 8am, so we had to be ready in case it was 7am. Which it turned out to be, as at 6.55am there was a knock at our door from the hostel reception, saying our ride would be arriving in 5 minutes.
Shouldering our luggage we went out and shortly after a mini van pulled up. The man motioned to us to climb in the very back, which did not suit me at all. He started driving off quite erratically, and so I popped myself a travel sickness pill and proceeded to zonk out.
We had been told this transfer would take approximately 4 hours and would take us through Croatia as it would be quicker. NONE OF THIS WAS THE CASE. We were still fart-arseing around Belgrade at 8.30am (one and a half hours after we had been picked up) still collecting people. Soon we had a full van, and the last person to be collected was a lady who joined us on the back seat.
I wasn’t feeling too great - all the winding and stop starting through the backstreets for an hour and a half - and still not leaving the city - wasn’t sitting so well with me. After a little while, Dan roused me to sign the passport form, and in doing so we discovered the lady next to us spoke English, and was from Canada. Dan and she started talking, and occasionally I woke up enough to throw a few words in too. The chat helped pass the time, and Lee (as we later discovered her name) was lovely - we would see her a few times over the next few days!
The day before I had sent an email to a tour company - I had discovered a tour in Sarajevo called War Scars and New Times that would start at 3.30pm - we would surely arrive in time to be able to do that. Not the case. At one of the stops when it looked obvious we were never going to make it to Sarajevo in time, I found some wifi to let them know as we had pre-registered to attend.
We stopped a few times on the way and each stop seemingly took forever. I don’t think anyone else in the bus was in a particular rush. At one stop, the driver came up to us and in halting English asked where he could deposit us. This was a surprise as we had been assured it would be door-to-door, so we gave him the name of our accommodation (Lee also) and he had no idea where it was. Another lady in the bus said that there are no house numbers in Sarajevo so our best bet would be to get a local taxi driver to take us to our accommodation. Not going to happen! We found a square on the map that was supposed to be near us where both us and Lee could be dropped off, and had some choice words about the service.
We had a few border crossings on this trip. First from Serbia to Croatia, and then Croatia to Bosnia. We didn’t any stamps for Bosnia or Serbia, but got ourselves plenty of Croatian stamps. The border crossings didn’t seem to take all that long. Eventually, we were in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Immediately across the border into Bosnia we were greeted with giant Welcome to the Republic of Sprska. At the time this didn't register anything to me other than "oh maybe that's like the Republic of Užupis in Vilnius". What was to happen over the next few days in Bosnia was a huge and incredible education for me - there was so much I had never even realised I had never known.
We eventually get dropped off in Sarajevo at about 4pm. Definitely no opportunity to go on the walking tour! As Dan had been here before he was able to point Lee in the right direction (Altho we had spotted her hotel on the way) and we set off towards us. Mostly uphill.
And then downhill again. Then sideways. We couldn't find it, of course. And now it started to chubby rain. We took refuge under the alcove of another hotel and tried messaging the accommodation. Earlier in the day when our arrival time was going to change they had been particularly responsive, but now they were not replying to messages or picking up calls. Shit. We didn't know where we had to go.
I eventually went into the hotel that we were sheltering under and asked. They said it was House number 1 up the little side street right next to us. Fantastic - a lead! Up this street and there's no signage, no "Apartment Nina". Dan went up the first time and tried ringing the doorbell to no avail. We waited. I went up, rang the doorbell and knocked on the gate. I asked a passing gentlemen and he confirmed this was Apartment Nina.
Finally, umbrella shielding me from the drops, I knocked with force and anger on the gate, which caught the attention of a dog inside and a man opened the gate.
"Apartment nina?" I asked angrily.
"Ah yes!" Was his reply.
"We have a booking. We've been trying to contact you for 45 minutes. I'll get my things." And stormed off.
We are let inside by a very confused lady. Turns out someone else had been past previously whom they thought was us - they were shown our room and declined in. Fuck knows what would have happened if the other people had chosen to take the room? I was like, "you didn't even check?!"
We eventually got it all settled, we were charged less (as we were supposed to have a private bathroom but they'd messed that up to) and we were all sorted. The daughter of the adults seemed to have her head screwed on, but the other two were utterly hopeless.
Between the 9 hour transfer and the ballache getting checked in, I was pretty damn unimpressed with Sarajevo. Thankfully my opinion changed over the next day and I was sad to leave! First things first: food. We were located right on the corner of the old town so we had a small wander through the streets and back alleys before returning to the main square again where we found a cevapi place Lee had been recommended and which I had also seen on tripadvisor.
Once inside, it was cevapi time. We ordered a late each (7 marks, or €3.50) and the famous sour cream/cheese stuff. These cevapi were markedly different to the ones we had in Belgrade - much much better! And the pita was nice and soft too. We sat here for a long time as it started raining outside - quite heavily! Dan had warned me that it downpours around here then stops, then pours again - it usually passes quickly.
When it had eased up we jumped back out into the streets. During our previous walk we had passed a cool looking cocktail bar called Tesla with a statue of him holding a lit globe outside. It seems everywhere wants to claim his as their own, too! Inside we sat in an open window but soon it started pouring again and we were getting a fraction wet, so we moved a bit further inside the bar.
There were a few crazy looking cocktails on the menu. Dan ordered the Tesla, which was every conceivable spirit combined including absinthe. A bit of a heart starter. I got a Mai Tai to start, and both of the cocktails were very good and strong - a change from the poor ones we had in Belgrade!
Looking around the bar, there were crazy lightbulbs hung sporadically from the ceiling, and Tesla quotes all along the wall. I noticed a man at the bar smoking, and then realised he was a waiter waiting to be summoned! It took a little getting used to, the indoor smoking.
We enjoyed our cocktail so much that we ordered another round of slightly less strong cocktails. Finishing them, it was time to call it a night. We noticed a small shop near our accommodation so we popped inside for some supplies - namely cheap wine!
Til next time
xxx
Shouldering our luggage we went out and shortly after a mini van pulled up. The man motioned to us to climb in the very back, which did not suit me at all. He started driving off quite erratically, and so I popped myself a travel sickness pill and proceeded to zonk out.
We had been told this transfer would take approximately 4 hours and would take us through Croatia as it would be quicker. NONE OF THIS WAS THE CASE. We were still fart-arseing around Belgrade at 8.30am (one and a half hours after we had been picked up) still collecting people. Soon we had a full van, and the last person to be collected was a lady who joined us on the back seat.
I wasn’t feeling too great - all the winding and stop starting through the backstreets for an hour and a half - and still not leaving the city - wasn’t sitting so well with me. After a little while, Dan roused me to sign the passport form, and in doing so we discovered the lady next to us spoke English, and was from Canada. Dan and she started talking, and occasionally I woke up enough to throw a few words in too. The chat helped pass the time, and Lee (as we later discovered her name) was lovely - we would see her a few times over the next few days!
The day before I had sent an email to a tour company - I had discovered a tour in Sarajevo called War Scars and New Times that would start at 3.30pm - we would surely arrive in time to be able to do that. Not the case. At one of the stops when it looked obvious we were never going to make it to Sarajevo in time, I found some wifi to let them know as we had pre-registered to attend.
We stopped a few times on the way and each stop seemingly took forever. I don’t think anyone else in the bus was in a particular rush. At one stop, the driver came up to us and in halting English asked where he could deposit us. This was a surprise as we had been assured it would be door-to-door, so we gave him the name of our accommodation (Lee also) and he had no idea where it was. Another lady in the bus said that there are no house numbers in Sarajevo so our best bet would be to get a local taxi driver to take us to our accommodation. Not going to happen! We found a square on the map that was supposed to be near us where both us and Lee could be dropped off, and had some choice words about the service.
We had a few border crossings on this trip. First from Serbia to Croatia, and then Croatia to Bosnia. We didn’t any stamps for Bosnia or Serbia, but got ourselves plenty of Croatian stamps. The border crossings didn’t seem to take all that long. Eventually, we were in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Immediately across the border into Bosnia we were greeted with giant Welcome to the Republic of Sprska. At the time this didn't register anything to me other than "oh maybe that's like the Republic of Užupis in Vilnius". What was to happen over the next few days in Bosnia was a huge and incredible education for me - there was so much I had never even realised I had never known.
We eventually get dropped off in Sarajevo at about 4pm. Definitely no opportunity to go on the walking tour! As Dan had been here before he was able to point Lee in the right direction (Altho we had spotted her hotel on the way) and we set off towards us. Mostly uphill.
And then downhill again. Then sideways. We couldn't find it, of course. And now it started to chubby rain. We took refuge under the alcove of another hotel and tried messaging the accommodation. Earlier in the day when our arrival time was going to change they had been particularly responsive, but now they were not replying to messages or picking up calls. Shit. We didn't know where we had to go.
I eventually went into the hotel that we were sheltering under and asked. They said it was House number 1 up the little side street right next to us. Fantastic - a lead! Up this street and there's no signage, no "Apartment Nina". Dan went up the first time and tried ringing the doorbell to no avail. We waited. I went up, rang the doorbell and knocked on the gate. I asked a passing gentlemen and he confirmed this was Apartment Nina.
Finally, umbrella shielding me from the drops, I knocked with force and anger on the gate, which caught the attention of a dog inside and a man opened the gate.
"Apartment nina?" I asked angrily.
"Ah yes!" Was his reply.
"We have a booking. We've been trying to contact you for 45 minutes. I'll get my things." And stormed off.
We are let inside by a very confused lady. Turns out someone else had been past previously whom they thought was us - they were shown our room and declined in. Fuck knows what would have happened if the other people had chosen to take the room? I was like, "you didn't even check?!"
We eventually got it all settled, we were charged less (as we were supposed to have a private bathroom but they'd messed that up to) and we were all sorted. The daughter of the adults seemed to have her head screwed on, but the other two were utterly hopeless.
Between the 9 hour transfer and the ballache getting checked in, I was pretty damn unimpressed with Sarajevo. Thankfully my opinion changed over the next day and I was sad to leave! First things first: food. We were located right on the corner of the old town so we had a small wander through the streets and back alleys before returning to the main square again where we found a cevapi place Lee had been recommended and which I had also seen on tripadvisor.
Once inside, it was cevapi time. We ordered a late each (7 marks, or €3.50) and the famous sour cream/cheese stuff. These cevapi were markedly different to the ones we had in Belgrade - much much better! And the pita was nice and soft too. We sat here for a long time as it started raining outside - quite heavily! Dan had warned me that it downpours around here then stops, then pours again - it usually passes quickly.
When it had eased up we jumped back out into the streets. During our previous walk we had passed a cool looking cocktail bar called Tesla with a statue of him holding a lit globe outside. It seems everywhere wants to claim his as their own, too! Inside we sat in an open window but soon it started pouring again and we were getting a fraction wet, so we moved a bit further inside the bar.
There were a few crazy looking cocktails on the menu. Dan ordered the Tesla, which was every conceivable spirit combined including absinthe. A bit of a heart starter. I got a Mai Tai to start, and both of the cocktails were very good and strong - a change from the poor ones we had in Belgrade!
Looking around the bar, there were crazy lightbulbs hung sporadically from the ceiling, and Tesla quotes all along the wall. I noticed a man at the bar smoking, and then realised he was a waiter waiting to be summoned! It took a little getting used to, the indoor smoking.
We enjoyed our cocktail so much that we ordered another round of slightly less strong cocktails. Finishing them, it was time to call it a night. We noticed a small shop near our accommodation so we popped inside for some supplies - namely cheap wine!
Til next time
xxx
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