Sarajevo to Niš

On bus from Sarajevo to Niš. Not the most comfortable. Seems to be standard that you pay for the luggage separately when you put your suitcase into the luggage compartment.

Less than an hour out of Sarajevo and we stopped at Pale where I was surprised to see just about all signs in Serbian Cyrillic which was basically not to be seen anywhere in Sarajevo. I asked the woman next to me whether we were in Serbia already and she told me we were not in Serbia but some other region, with Serbia in the name. Must be some sort of buffer zone where the locals would be happy to be part of Serbia. Probably something worked out to bring an end to the war.

I might as well include the photo that I took from my seat on the bus. Perhaps it will give some feel for the mood of the trip.



Scenery on the way to Niš was nothing short of breath-taking. High steep mountains covered in green trees. Just when I was thinking that the slopes are so thickly wooded and steep that it must be pretty difficult to climb these slopes - we turned a corner and half-way up one of these slopes was a picturesque house standing in a clearing - glorious!

Stopped for 20 minutes at some small village. Just to reinforce the stereo-typical image of Australian travellers being everywhere, here's a pic of me with the two fellows who were sitting behind me on the bus.



Note the proliferation of Australian t-shirts - and yes, all three of us had an Australian accent. It's not the bus that's proof I was there but the Australians I found.

Here are my Esperanto travelling companions - a Russian and a Macedonian.



I seem to know half the bus. More than I'd ever know on any bus to Sandy Bay... but then again I'm not likely to run into any of my Mercedes/BMW/Audi driving friends on any bus in Hobart.

Finally turned up in Niš. The worst part of the ten hour bus trip were the three back to back American movies they showed and the last hour when about ten people got on the already full bus. It became suffocating and a bit claustrophobic. As for the movies, I must have been subjected to about 2 rapes, about 15 murders, 25 maimings, one torture and 12 beatings. Yes, an extremely harrowing experience. The Serbs must be hardening their children in readiness for another war. Or perhaps they've been watching these movies for a long time and are partly responsible for the atrocities that were committed.

Niš is a bit run-down but there is a huge pedestrian mall that is one long outside drinking area from one end to the other.

Unlike Florence which was all tourists and no-one could afford to enjoy themselves,


and Sarajevo which was mainly a touristy downtown area and mostly male in the drinkeries, Niš is bubbling with life at night. And again, no drunks.


Sort of what might happen in Hobart if people were given the chance. All in all a rather refreshing scene.