Planes Trains and Automobiles

Things have been very fast paced the last little while since leaving Dubrovnik. We took a short yet vomit enducing bus ride through the winding hills of Bosnia to Mostar. Here, we had some delicious "Burek" which is a pastry-ish snack filled with potato and spinach, which was delicious, and we became fast friends. At one point, Cam and I ordered so much Burek at a restaurant, that we sent the server into a tizzy. "But..but.. I just gave your food to the girl" she whimpered with confusion. "Oohh, no thats just for her, we very hungry miss". We spent the next hour force feeding ourselves the five heaping platters of pastries in an attempt to hide our failure. We happened to be sitting at the same table as a British man, working in Sarajevo who quickly understood how foolish we had been, and kindly informed us that it would be OK if we asked for a doggie bag, which would come in handy whilst trying to fend off the stray cats. Our time in Bosnia was delightful, quite different then our routine in Croatia, which consisting of swimming, eating Pistaccio gelato, and creating home made sangria (sp?) in the evenings with our newfound Australian, British, and NZ friends. "We are all from the Commonwealth!" we exclaimed with glee one evening, likely the to shudders of the other tourists who were sitting close by. In Sarajevo, we were blasted with +15C weather, however the incredible sights made up for the climatic reality check.

After our night in Sarajevo, which included a delicious dinner at the Brewery, and unfortunatley the discovery of some type of insects in our beds-which ultimatley led to Cam sleeping in her suitcase, and I, wrapping myself into my sleeping bag.. we then boarded an overnight train to Zagreb. This 10 hour train ride was a rollercoaster of emotions, yet overall, in my opinion, was a delight. We managed to snag our own cabin, a term I use loosely, and we spent a solid 30 minutes devising a plan to convince any incoming passengers to leave, "how to we make a sign to communicate Infectious diseases?" we pondered, and decided to tell anyone who may try to smoke that we were both asthmatic with zero tolerance policies. Luckily, the train was eventually abandonded, likely because the locals knew the implications of travelling via train through rural Bosnia. It was eventually just us and the Gypsies, playing their flutes and devil music in the cart next to us, and once they lept from the train, likely to avoid the ticket guard, it was just us. We were startled awake three times during the ride, and by "startled" I mean with the presense of fire arms, on the authorities of course. "Do they want our passports or tickets!!?" we mumbled under our breaths, as we riffled through our bags in fear.

Eventually we arrived back in Zagreb, Croatia in one piece, and spent the morning migrating from one coffee shop to the next, until it was time to board our flights to Munich, and eventually Istanbul, where I am writing this post.

Tomorrow we are off to Cairo, to begin our tour of Egypt and Jordan. I will make a much better effort to relay the hilarious stories that have followed me on my travels.

Until next time,
B