theatre of the absurd: Sarajevo to Zagreb, Maribor, Graz - no actual sightseeing done, just transportation/ Wrapup of continental #6

Zagreb train station, which I think is appropriate for this entry's theme

The bus from Sarajevo back to Zagreb took about 5-6 hours, so by the time I reached Zagreb it was already late afternoon. The journey was made less arduous by a guy I met sitting in the seats in front of me, who was very chatty. When he saw me trying to take photos of a coal plant on the highway that was emitting black, bilious smoke and looked like an absolute environmental disaster, he turned around and offered background info on it, which turned into a conversation that lasted several hours. That's the beauty of travel, though - the spontaneity, the conversations, the people and the random interesting tidbits that you probably wouldn't have learnt otherwise. He was nice enough to buy me coffee and a bagel when we stopped for a coffee/toilet break, and provided a blow-by-blow commentary during the entire journey.

Once we were out of the Dinarics, it got extremely hot. I don't really want to think about what this bus is like during summer.

I arrived in Zagreb and found my hostel easily - it was next to the AS, for ease of access - and almost immediately regretted my choice the moment I was shown to my room. (The reception and the common areas were all right, standard fare.) The rooms themselves were horrible - the beds were old and creaky, the ceiling was filled with damp and mould and peeling, and the bathrooms were broken for the most part, and I had to go up and down before I could find one that was actually functional. It looked like I was the only houseguest in that room - fine by me - but at the same time, absolutely not the sort of hostel where you meet lifelong friends. *cough Lital cough!* Or in fact, anyone at all. But that was fine by me - I wanted some time to myself, after having had what I can only call too much excitement in Sarajevo. I walked to the old town, to my old favourite restaurant opposite the church on the hill in Gornji Grad, ordered some food, and then walked back to the hostel, feeling very happy with life.

Yum!

I didn't like this very much

I was annoyed to find that there was someone in my room when I got back, a middle aged woman who aggressively asked me - in German - if I could speak German. Do I look German, I thought, and responded with an infuriated "Nein." She looked like a gypsy and smelled weird, and tried to draw me into German conversation, which I didn't want to blow off too abruptly as I didn't want to be murdered during my sleep (it seemed like that sort of hostel and she seemed like that sort of woman), so I just laughed uncomfortably, and then turned off the lights and went to bed. During the middle of the night an asshole - a middle aged man who also looked like a hobo - walked into our room, turned on all the lights, and then walked out. Without turning off the lights. The German woman swore and got out to turn off the lights. I was flabbergasted, and thanked my lucky stars I was only there for the one night.

I woke up the next morning, looking forward to my very last city on my itinerary, Graz, Austria. Alas, it was not meant to be. I think I am a woman of science - for the most part - but sometimes there are patterns in events and incidents, and in the case of a certain friend of mine, my travel plans are always horribly disrupted and I frequently encounter slightly unpleasant incidents in the aftermath of meeting him. I was due to catch a Panturist bus to Graz in the morning, and went off to the AS, rather relieved to be rid of Zagreb, which I was now slightly sick of. The slightly confused lady working at the ticket booth in the AS told me that my bus had been cancelled. "Cancelled, what do you mean, cancelled!? I bought this ticket," I said angrily. "I'm sorry, it's been cancelled by the company.. I don't know why, I don't work for them. Here's the company address," she scrawled something on a scrap of paper and pushed it towards me, "go ask them and see if they can do anything for you. The company is just down the street there."

I took the piece of paper, since it was obvious that my making a scene there wasn't going to help the situation in the slightest, and googled the address, and found that it was indeed only 5 mins walk from the AS. I walked there, very grumpily, and found two people who looked to be my age, smoking outside the building, as you will.

"Is this Panturist?" I asked, trying to sound as agreeable as I could under the circumstances.

"Yes," the girl said, looking pleasant. "How can I help you?"

I made her aware of the situation, and whilst she was able to refund me by bus fare on the spot, she said there was nothing she could do for alternate transportation, other than a bus that left at 1800, but I would have to spend the entire day in Zagreb waiting for that bus. By this time I was completely and utterly sick of the damn city and shot that suggestion down immediately - as courteously as I could, of course.
"Well, if you want to go there immediately, you can also take the train," she said. "But we will not be able to reimburse you for that as they are not affiliated with us. However what I can do for you is look up the timetables for the train." Which she did, and she printed them out, whilst I sipped some of the coffee that they had gotten me, and complained vociferously on Whatsapp to Lital and some of my other friends.

I ended up taking the train after all, which cost about 25 euros and meant that I had to transfer twice as the only daily direct train to Austria had already left, but at this point I didn't care anymore. I was advised to switch at a tiny Slovene station in the middle of nowhere, called Zidani Most, but the train conductor told me that Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia, would be a nicer place to transfer and wait in, so I did that instead. I met a nice Croatian guy on my train from Zagreb to Slovenia, and we had a nice chat, although he seemed to have the worst cold, and I was careful to sit away from him. When he kissed my hand in farewell, the first thing I did when I got off the train was to thoroughly disinfect my hands. I looked at my phone and noticed that I had about 3 hours to kill until my train to Graz, so I walked into the city centre. It had begun to rain at this point and was freezing. I was out of money, so had to stop at a bank to get some, and then I walked crossly into the city centre, thinking about my wasted day and the fact that I hadn't been able to see Graz. It was already dark, and raining, and freezing, and to make things worse, I couldn't seem to find a single place that served hot food. Travelling is great and all, but when things go wrong it's extremely frustrating.

Zidani Most train station, which really was in the middle of nowhere

Zidani Most train station

Anyway, I managed to find a bar that served coffee, so I ducked into that, and ordered a tall latte, and camped there for about an hour, but it was in a rather seedy part of town and homeless people kept coming in, so I hurriedly drank up and paid and left, and went back to the cold, dark, wet station, where I had to wait an additional hour for the train. It felt like centuries, but the train did eventually come, and I boarded it. At this point I didn't care about anything anymore, I just wanted to get to Graz safely. The train, as always in this part of the world, was a Soviet-style compartment train, and I managed to get a whole compartment to myself. I listened to my music - for the entire day I played The Script's Rain on replay, which seemed appropriate for my mood and the weather - and I watched the pitch black countryside outside fade into more pitch black countryside, and let my mind go blank, checking on google maps every now and then to see where we were now.

Maribor train station

Ugh at long last!

At long last we drew up in Graz, and I jumped out, weary but elated. It was snowing slightly, but I was beyond caring at this point. I found my hostel - which was one of those typical hotel-converted hostels that are so common in Austria and Bavarian Germany - I had picked it because it was the only semi affordable place in Graz, and was next to the Hbf. This certainly came in handy, especially on a night like this. I checked in and got my room key, and was delighted when I found that the room was gigantic and spacey, and that there was no one else there. The first thing I did was to take a piping hot shower and thank the Austrians. It felt as if I had come back to civilisation and I revelled in the free soap and shampoo, the crisp clean towels and the power sockets by my bed, which was a single bed - no more bunk beds for me, thank you very much.

The next morning I checked out, bought a coffee from the hostel bar, and went off to catch my train to Wien Flughafen, and that was that.

Coffee from the hostel bar

Graz hbf

I've already written too much here and there's not really much to wrapup, but this was my favourite trip I've made so far, I think. Everything - well, most things, were right. I loved ex Yu and still do. I really liked most of the people I met on this trip. Some of them, too much. My soul was dying when I came here back to Europe, but now it's alive again.