Heart of Darkness

(see)

We entered the heart of darkness as we entered Sarajevo. We progressed from tourist to adventure tourist to kamakazi tourist. The train station was void of map, direction, language and we were picked up by a guy who was renting space in his house, which turned out OK. No ATMs, no place to sit and pretty scary. The boys went off with the guy offering the room and visions of them being kidnapped by gypsies was not far from our minds. However they returned and the guy was fine He was a journalist with good English skills, had a 7th grade son and was the son of a prominent communist who was a WWII hero and had a nice flat. His dad was gone but her got the apartment; it appeared renting his house was a good part of his income because he had to be careful what he wrote in a magazine he wrote for-mostly stories of corruption of police, war crimes, etc. We found the old part of town with all the mosques and churches- an odd lot to see the covered up Islamics next to the nudie magazines and open display of affection-more of a wonder that there is not more conflict. Kinda like if Bob Jones University was located on the Vegas strip.
Today was an adventure that ranged from exciting to sheer terror as we tried to find the airport where there was a war museum and the SPOR or UN forces were stationed. The US Army force left before Christmas and it was now European force- we saw Italians, German Army etc. The buses were like those in Germany in that no one took the tickets. We noticed no one was using them so we stopped on the third day which was a major mistake. As we were headed to the airport we were accosted by the train police who asked for out tickets. People on the train told us not to stamp them so we didn't (except Pam) The police asked for and took our passports and wouldn't give them back unless we paid a 20 mark fine- about $10. It caused quite a ruckus with people who saw what was happening all talking to us, telling the police to leave us alone and the police being insistent- it was like a scene out of Midnight Express- we with no passport and officials in civilian clothes threatening us, Jeremiah physically grabbing one of the police, Pam telling them what bad people they were (over and over again) and me trying to get us out of this deteriorating situation. We finally paid the fine and got our passports back. We given tickets and got off the train- did I mention it was pouring down rain? Since no one else was checked for tickets and Pam's was stamped it was a bit of a scary shakedown. Still undeterred we tried again to figure out how to get to the airport but no one spoke English and dad convinced everyone that we had enough adventure for this trip and we went back to where we knew was friendly country.
We are pretty deep into a scary country where when much is translated, it is into four languages, none of which his English. This is the first country where the music is authentic-none of the 1980s pop like in everyplace else we've been. Odd to hear Frank Sinatra singing New York New York on Christmas day in Zagreb or Michael Jackson's Thriller in Slovinia. The water pressure is still good but we ran out of hot water in the guy's flat. Everyone but Bob is eating native food, betting that he won't get food poisoning. There are fountains throughout the city where everyone (except Bob) is drinking from. Ordering food is still a mystery, not knowing what will show up or what is costs. An odd thing is that there is no tipping.
We bought train tickets to Budapest today, leaving at 8 pm and arriving at 8 am so it’s a continued day of not getting arrested, kidnapped or lost (although Pam and the boys still want to go separate ways and meet up later- again the reference to Kamakazi).