Japan to Australia via Eastern Europe Part 20 - Day 17 Cont...

The last 30 mins or so of our fabulous train trip to Sarajevo was pretty much in pitch darkness - no thanks to some electrical problem only 30 year old russian trains can have...

Sarajevo station was a little bit of a mind fark - it looked like you had landed on the set of "Dawn of the Dead" or something - with hardly any signs of life (apart from the occasional tout) - it had the "incredibly run down" look down pat. There was visible signs of shelling from the recent war, plus lots of graffiti and a lack of signs to boot. Also there was a complete lack of ATM machine-machines there - making it a little awkward if we wanted to try and get to our hotel.

Outside of the station - and it was no better... There wasn't just no sign of ATMs around - but also a complete lack of shops or people anywhere... Not to mention that the complete lack of signs or maps as well - it makes you feel very welcome.

Ant and I (with all of our bags in tow) headed out in the general direction of a big tall building (to try and get some $$) but about 2 mins walk from the station - we managed to locate the seediest ATM in the free world. It was out the front of a closed supermarket - and there was heaps of light shining on the ATM and not much light anywhere else - as if the ATM was trying to say "Rob me!" to passers-by.

We took our chances and I got some cash out first... Whilst Ant was getting some cash out - a guy doign some crazy driving did a 180 when he saw us at the ATM and parked his car really close to us... I was starting to get the sinking feeling that we were going to be robbed. The guy got out of his car - checked the sides of his boots (as you do) and then proceeded to walk in our direction... I was starting to think - "Ohh s$$t - we are getting robbed"... But alas he was just a really strange tout who was wanting to sell us some accommodation.

After grabbing our Bosnian cash (which is called KM or something) - we made fast tracks back to the station. After checking out the tram station (with its complete lack of signs or timetables anywhere) - we thought that we should bite the bullet and get a cab instead to our hotel.

There was a taxi waiting out the front of the train station. Having a quick read through LP - it said that all taxis in BIH are metered and should cost about $2AUD flag all then $1 every Km or something... So our five km trip to our hotel shouldn't cost more than 6 or so AUD.

However - my rip-off detector started to go off a bit when the taxi guy didn't have a meter and said that it would cost 5 Euro to get to our hotel (about $10 AUD)... Also - he had made the flippant comment that there are no trams this late at night... Of course - as soon as he said that - a tram had pulled up at the tram stop nearby.

When we were both in the taxi - he mentioned that he "did not know the hotel address" but it "looks a bit further out than what he first thought..." I wonder if this guy went to the "School of Bangkok Taxi Drivers" or something??

Anyhow - on our journey to the hotel - the taxi driver kept continually bitching about how "far" our hotel was and that there are no trams (when there were at least half a dozen trams going past the taxi... as you do).

So after five minutes of driving (and claiming on not knowing where our hotel was) - he pulled up a seedy side street (where I thought - sh## we are going to be robbed Sth American style..) and stopped and said "Here it is! Banana City Hotel!"... I sort had got the feeling that he knew where the hotel was from the start...

Ant was dealing with the money - and the supposed "really long trip" to somewhere he "didn't know" costs 20km - more than double what he originally had said... I'm sure a five minute taxi trip in Canberra (the mother of all rip of taxi trips) wouldn't cost $20AUD... (maybe $15 instead). So yay for us - our first rip off experience in the trip.

Now - onto the Banana City Hotel... When we entered into the lobby (which suspiciously doesn't look like anything like its "photo-shopped to the max" website pics - there was a couple behind the desk having a bit of a Jerry Springer tiff (as you do). The reception reaked of tobacco - I meant it smelt like flowers...! We check in and have to surrender our passports - where the hotel was keeping them in a very fort knox secure location - behind the desk in some pigeon holes...

Our room, like the lobby - smelt badly of cigarettes... It had smelt like someone had done a four week tobacco dutch oven festival in there... then some... Ant got a bit moody and was thinking about checking out to somewhere else (flashbacks to Guilin Hotel from Hell) but I had food on my mind (following our death nazi starvation train trip from today).

We wander outside the hotel - where there isn't any sign of a single shop or restaurant... Talk about Location Location Location for the Banana City Hotel. It sort of feels like Banana City is situated in Sarajevo's version of "Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets" - as there was a closed market right outside of the hotel.

We wander to a nearby petrol station (we are getting desperate here) where there was no signs of any food and stuff... We cross the road over to a local tram stop (past some BIH cops at the scene of a motorbike accident - which looked kinda bad). We waited for about 10 mins and had caught the first tram which appeared - not quite knowing where it would take us...

Sarajevo was looking really dire in the "shops/food" department. We had not seen a single open shop since we arrived at the station - and although Ant thought we were on the "main road" of Sarajevo (which we sort of were) - there was no signs of any food places.

Five minutes into the tram trip - and I spot what looks like to be an open bakery - so we both pop off the tram and check it out. We both had ordered a slice of luke warm but tasty pizza and some local pastry thing. I hand over a 50km note to the kid behind the counter - and it had looked like it was the biggest note he had ever seen in his life. He starts to get a bit panicky - and gets his dad from the back to help him... That bakery looked like it had the whole child slave labour thing down pat - with the kid out the front to serve customers and an ever younger kid out the back making the stuff...

We decide to walk back to the hotel (in order to get a bit of exercise) - but I think it took us 45 mins to walk back - it was quite a distance to get to the bakery. Ant was a little worried in some parts of the walk - telling me to "tone it down" so that we don't attract the unwanted attention of any locals...

We crash back at the hotel - where Bosnian TV is even more sick and deranged than Euroitca TV... We were innocently change the stations when suddenly - Ant had put it on a hard core Euro pron channel - with about 3 guys doing the money shot on one woman.. as you do...