Slovakia and fun in Bosnia

Up at 630 to get an early start to the day, and to our surprise we have visitors. During the night another tent was staked next to ours in the cornfield. Neither of us heard them. Apparently it was a good spot. The weather was perfect to sleeping, cooler weather with just a bit of rain. We packed the car and headed to the other side of Feistritz for breakfast. What an amazing bakery! We had cappuccinos, Andy had a salmon half sammie and I had salami, then we ordered two coffees and croissants for the road. We moved on and took the scenic route to Villach and then crossed into the Slovenia border. 

After we crossed the border, we stopped in a quaint little town called Skofja Loka to view the castle and check out the little town. We wobbled up the hill to the castle that overlooked the town. The sun was starting to come out. We checked out all the little gardens that are on any available piece of land. Their gardens were very healthy. Another scenic route to Ljubljana, we stopped at Lidl, a cheap grocery story that had fresh croissants and baguettes. We also picked up some Meat Salad (for Andy), OJ and bologna for lunch. The lady at the cash register asked us what kind of croissants they were (in whatever language she was speaking) to which I shrugged and Andy tried his German. She replied (in English), you don't understand me do you? That's for sure. We paid and moved on. 

Paying the tolls with the Vignette is new to us. We stopped at the toll in Slovenia and the toll guy asked for our Vignette so which Andy said we don't have one. Not understanding what he was saying, he got out of his toll to get us one, obviously pissed at the stupid tourists. This is news to us. Oh well, traveling is full of new experiences and pissing people off. 

We were just traveling along, driving through Croatia, which was very warm and seemed like middle America with all the farms and corn. The villages still looked a bit like Slovakia with the red roofs. Then we turned off for Banja Luka, Bosnia and paid to get off the highway. We only have a map of Europe so I can't see the details in this part of the world. We continued down a back road thinking we were going the right way. It's all we got so we continued. We then came to the Bosnia border crossing. The line of trucks were off to the right and the cars were to the left in the oncoming traffic lane (small cars could get by). We pulled up to the border guard and he told us we needed a green card. A Visa? No a green card. Where do we get one? Blah blah, red building, right left, blah. OK, can we have our passports back? No, you get green card and we hold here. Well then. 

We pulled off the side of the road into the walkway. Andy got out to ask someone and an old man pointed in the the direction. I jumped into the drivers seat to park the car and I couldn't get it in reverse (I'm not used to the reverse button). After frustration I figured it out and parked the car. We both headed over to the green card place passing a dude with no arm and other dudes who looked pissed off. I asked a lady and she walked us over to a small booth where she got in and started to fill out the form. We tried to understand what information she asked for during the next 10min. Andy had to go back to the car to get out car paperwork. Andy told me to go back to the car to keep an eye on it. 27EUR later we had a green card and our passports and we got the hell out of there. The feel in this border town is a stark difference of that in Croatia. 

Outside of town we stopped to fill up the gas tank so we wouldn't have to stop again if necessary. I went in to get some water and handed the guy 1EUR. No he said. Me with a questioning look on my face. I knew they took Euros. No coins I figured out 5 min later. They could give me some EUR and Bosnian money back. Um not really sure when I'm going to need 5EUR worth of Bosnian cash. Andy came in and we figured out how to pay for the gas. All of this is seriously a lot of effort. Time to move on. 

Once we got out of Banja Luka the drive was beautiful down a canyon where they have rafting (slalom), fly fishing, Lots of camping spots, we could stay here. Not as scary as the border town. We drove across the top of the Balkans through the small towns. It got a little hairy passing large tour buses on the curves two lane road, especially since our little car doesn't have much torque and they try to run you off the road every new and then. There were police set up around the bends down the hills with cameras catching people speeding. We were only going 175km to people's 190 so we were good. There were lots of minnarets (Islamic tours holding loud speakers for call to prayer) and some churches here and there. Andy said it would be cool to hear the call to prayer and then we did. 

Children were standing on the side of the road waving the Bosnian flag for winner a game to qualify for the World Cup. We were hoping Germany didn't beat them since we had German plates and we weren't supposed to be in the country according to our rental agreement. After driving the whole country on a two lane road, we got on the highway to Sarajevo for only 40 min but it was a much needed break for Andy. 

We drove into the city center. It's not a big city and the downtown area isn't something we wanted to walk around in. There were houses on the hills surrounding the city and large tall apartment buildings which housed snipers during the Balkins conflict. We started to drive up a hill near some apartments which we could see some bullet marks in the walls. The road narrowed and quickly got sketchy so we turned around Austin Powers style. On the way out of the city we drove down the main road which was Sniper Alley during the war. It was a little creepy thinking about people running across the road getting picked off by a sniper. We headed towards Mostar for the Croatia border.

Another beautiful drive down the mountain in a canyon filled with short tunnels and walls of rock shaved at an inverted angle. There were pigs on spits and lots of restaurants for tourists but it was dark and Andy's eyes were playing tricks on him as he dodged kids and hedgehogs running in the the dark street. The border crossing was uneventful this time and we waiting for 30 to get through to Croatia. As soon as we hit the main road heading S in Croatia we pulled into the first camping area we saw. At this point Andy had been driving for 14 hours straight and he was beat. Luckily people were drinking at the bar so we got some Croatian beers and watched the Croatia/Serbia World Cup qualifiers match. A dude came over to us a said, Croatians and Serbians re not so good, we are Croatians, and gave us a huge watermelon. There you have it. Another filled day exploring and we are so ready for bed. The weather is dry and warm, we will sleep well in the flat ground tonight.