I dipped back in to the old town to eat. I
went next door to where I ate last night and ordered steak. It was lovely. Not
to outstay my welcome, I left as soon as I was finished (it was a small venue,
so didn’t want to stop new customers) and went over to the City Pub. I had a
couple of pints before going back to the hotel. Such was my last night in
Sarajevo. At the hotel, I asked the lad on duty if my clothes were done, and
they were! So I did 95% of my packing. I then drifted off to sleep.
I woke up around 08:15 and showered and
changed first, then went for breakfast. The muscled guy was on duty this
morning, so I helped myself to breakfast. I then dashed out, through the old
town, to a sandwich shop I saw earlier in the week. So I got a cheese &
tomato baton. I also collected some bananas from the ‘Konsum’ shop. I quickly
packed my satchel then went downstairs. I thanked the lad, and asked him the
protocol for getting the tram. So I walked to the stop that was in-between the
hotel and the water spring, and bought the 1.5KM ticket from a kiosk. My tram No.
1 arrived 3 minutes later, and I got on then stamped my ticket. The latter
point was important because 2 stops down, 4 inspectors got on. My ticket was
fine, but a lad didn’t have one – tried to buy one, but got fined. One
inspector, a stern looking woman, wrote down his details. I continued on to the
train station. Once there, I lugged my bag inside then wrote out my ticket. I
then went to Platform 1.
My train was 15 minutes late (not bad since
it had to cross the border near Ploce). So I got on and into a cabin. Luckily
these windows opened properly. A mother with son and daughter joined me as we
set off, but she got off at the next stop. It was an extremely hot day, as we
passed through familiar valleys, past Zenica, and up to Doboj. We then turned
west on our journey, to Banja Luka. The train trundled along at 20 mph for
about 15 miles. It was annoying. I just kept on reading, or falling in and out
of sleep-induced consciousness.
The area became more plain-like, and
agriculture still dominated. Still a smattering of mosques, but churches were
more present here – definitely in Republika Srpska! However, not as many in
density as the mosques. A lot of newly built or partially built homes were
there too. The border was seamless enough, and then we picked up speed towards
Zagreb. 20 minutes out, and you could see it sprawled out ahead, glowing in the
distance, with a hill/mountain as a backdrop. The sun had gone now, but an
orange glow still remained.
The station was modern enough, with a
shopping centre below it, to a road that I needed to take. I walked over a main
boulevard in to a residential area, quiet now – then found my hotel. The two
girls were cheery enough, and wondering where I was. They called ahead to a
restaurant for me, so I dropped my things and walked 200 meters to it. Lost in
translation, I said to the English deprived waitress “salad” and “chicken”. The
salad came sure enough, but followed by steak and chips – twice in 24 hours! Oh
well, I was starving so tucked in hungrily. I had two ‘Pivo’s’ to help it go
down too. I paid the 134K and then left for the comfort of my bed and slept.
