Impression – Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking (Reprise)

Had to get up early to start hitchhiking, since the people at the bus station in Sarajevo told me it would take me over 16 hours by bus to get to Bihac, which is like a 5 hour drive. They told me there was no direct connection between Sarajevo & Bihac, and only way to get there was to get another bus in Jajce, and I would have to leave Sarajevo at 7:30, and arrive at 22:00 in Bihac).

So I decided to take some local transport to just outside of Sarajevo & start hitchhiking. After all, I had such wonderful experiences in Montenegro and the east of Bosnia.

Well.. 3 rides later, of each 20km or less, and 3 guys trying to grab me or otherwise being sexist assholes, I arrived in Visoko. Where there are two roads leading out of the town going northwest, and all the time the locals telling me “wrong road” & I went to the other, where again I heard “wrong road”..

After one hour of walking back& forth, and meeting the local hippie (nice guy btw), who told me he never saw hitchhikers in this part of the country, I decided to give up after one more annoying guy bringing me to Kakanj and, while standing there near the (right) road, some idiot doing rounds in his car around me.

Ok, 100% idiots, plus another idiot checking on me all the time, there’s risks I take, and risks I don’t. Time to find the bus station. And guess. There ARE direct buses between Sarajevo and Bihac. And they only take 6 hours. So far for getting the right information from the people from the Sarajevo Bus Station… Ah well.. at least I will arrive in Bihac.

Though again the people from the bus station itself were utterly friendly, also in Kakanj, where I had to wait 5 hours, I magically attracted all the males thinking with their underbellies. Happy to get on the bus, where I met a NICE older musician speaking german, who lived in Travnik, and I had the usual experience of getting lots of local info, someone being proud of his town, and an invite, which I turned down, since I still wanted to make it to Bihac. Poor guy, because of the not so nice experiences I had that day, I almost didn’t trust him…. Oh, btw, pf course I drank a lot more bosnian coffee while waiting ;).

So, except for not seeing the waterfall near Sanski Most, everything will be alright :).