Breaking Habits

I feel that at the moment I have lost a lot of my good habits and started forming some really bad, need changing habits. The young explorer in me is wondering what has happened and who the person I now am is. I have always prided myself on having an adventurous spirit and yet here I am, on the verge of going to India, one of the most exciting and interesting places in the world and I'm shaking with fear. I understand that a lot of people would feel that way and its normal, but I'm not a lot of people. How can I have this crazy adventurous spirit and be terrified of leaving my comfortable life here in Switzerland. And there, I believe, lies the problem. It happens to a lot of people I'm sure who get comfortable jobs and settle in to a place, leaving and going somewhere new becomes a massive challenge that people who have no base don't have to face. When you are already a nomad, travelling and living out of a suitcase, going one more place before you stop travelling is just something that happens at every "last stop" you reach.

Once again I am moving out of my comfort zone, going across the world to one of the craziest countries in the world and I am not afraid. I am excited and going to make the most of every minute that I am there.

Bosnian border beasts

I'm now into the second day of my baltic tour and its had some ups and downs! We left slovenia yesterday for sarajevo in bosnia. Its a long, 7 hour drive through croatia and into bosnia.

Of all my traveling experiences I'm beginning to hate border patrol the most! It was no problem leaving slovenia our getting into croatia but as soon as we hit bosnia all the trouble started! We were held up at the border for not having the insurance green card with me and forced to pay a ridiculous amount of money for 3 days of insurance. You may not enter without buying this crazy insurance, be wanted people going to bosnia! Its also dreadful because it immediately makes you wonder what they expect to happen to your car while you're in their country! Then while I was waiting for my friend to arrive back from passport control a obviously bored border controller came over and demanded I open the van for him to search and proceeded to point to my bicycle and ask me what it was... Naturally I looked at him like he was an idiot and told him it was a bike. Thankfully ana came back at that point and chat to him probably saving a lot of drama and annoyance. When traveling in the balkans, take a slovenian with you, they're great! And they definitely compensate for your lack of speaking any other language but english!

We arrived under the cover of darkness safely to sarajevo and negotiated the roads (sometimes the same road many times over) until we found ana's friends house. After that things were smooth sailing. We had a lovely meal of burek which is a bosnian pie cooked in a black pan under coals. We followed that with a few beers and a really good night sleep!