8/15
The last week and a half has seen me zigzag from Kosovo to coastal Montenegro to Sarajevo to Zagreb before finally reaching Ljubljana, Slovenia, this morning. I enjoyed my time in everywhere I went, even though it was often brief.
The first legs of this journey were done via overnight buses. These always seem like a great idea as a way to save on accommodation, but I usually end up paying for it by spending half the next day sleeping.
The last leg of the journey between Sarajevo and Ljubljana was covered in the relative comfort of trains. My train between Sarajevo had a few issues however. The window in the compartment was such that it would not stay locked down. Actively holding a window for hours did not seem that appealing, though it might have beat being in a stuffy compartment. Thankfully I had a fix in the form of 550 cord. It's often claimed that duct tape is that universally hand piece gear, however the military will teach you that its actually 550 cord that has the most uses. I always travel with a bit of it. Usually it serves the function of a clothesline, but in this case it helped me (and my compartment mates) avoid suffering through an international train line.
The other issue with the trip came when a station further down the line had some sort of fire. This created a significant delay and ultimately a 9 hour ride turned into a 12 hour one. I would have preferred more time exploring Zagreb over sitting in the middle nowhere in Bosnia, but it was only a minor issue. Happily, the train between Zagreb and Ljubljana was clean, efficient, and arrived right on time.