27 June 09
Emily and Russell flew back to London on Saturday and it was a sad parting but we’ve all promised to reconvene the Balkans Reunion in London on 16 October. So it won’t be too long. Plus they’re off to India in like a week or so. After they left I led some new recruits to the Pirate Pub and we had some drinks, then Haris found us, and then Murphy showed up. We decided that since it was Saturday we should have a barbecue and so we started making plans purchased 3 kilos of meat, some veggies, bread and 14 liters of beer…there were to be at least 10 or so.
Tony our resident Doctor and half-Thai, half-Hungarian had met some other people in his travels so we invited them, Climmy (another Dutch girl) and her two friends. A load of new friends were made including Paul, Danny from Seattle, Norwegian Annette (whom we met before we all went to Serbia), and of course the Irish-in-residence Brian Murphy. After the barbecue, which was amazing we went out clubbing. Not much to report, it was your typical Duke of Debauchery style mayhem during which I smashed a glass or bottle with my palm and got a little cut up. It was purely an accident where I stood up in our booth and the table got knocked into me causing me to lurch forward and extend my hand to catch myself…Just a couple cuts, nothing serious so no one need worry about me. When we returned to the hostel it turns out that Murphy had packed a bag and left. A strange time to leave the hostel (4.20 in the morning). He didn’t tell anyone where he was going, why he was going or really even that he was. He just happened to be seen and told them he was leaving. Thinking back we think he had a plan because he had drank water from the well in the square and told us that if you drink from it you’ll return to Sarajevo.
28 June 09
Today has been a day of doing nothing but catching up on some work and lounging about watching terrible films that were on TV including Undercover Brother (which was appalling horrible), In the Name of the King (by Uwe boll) and Borat which is of course stunningly funny. Tony and Paul were leaving and Annette had to head to the hospital to get a check up because she’s ill and has lost her voice which means she now sort of squeeks like a mouse. So we headed into town for a quick bite and that was about it really. I grabbed up some food for back at the hostel and wrote this up for you. I know, not at all exciting but hey, everyday can’t be action-packed.
I’ve made a ‘plan’ for the next week. I’ve got to meet Josje in Skopje on the 3rd so I’m going to take a but to Podgorica in Montenegro and then into Kosovo before continuing on to Skopje, Macedonia to meet her. From there we’ll go to Ochrid and then I’ll head into Albania and hang out in Tirana for about a week. After that I’ll make my slow way back up to Split and begin the journey back to Prague after that… Today is day 25 of travel, it’s hard to believe that much time has passed already and I’ve got about that much ahead of me before I return to Prague. Sorry there’s nothing interesting today but work called and I had to get some things done. Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting… Sarajevo is a great town and I quite like it. The people are great as well and I’m very glad I came.
Murphy