N 044° 29.487 E 016° 49.600 -> Today: 64.4 °F (
+18 °C)
05 Sep 2016
5408 km
The petrol is only 0.85 Euro here. That is great! But they probably get it back on the speeding tickets. They only have 40 km/h in the villages and cities and 80 km/h outside. We think we got caught by a speed camera yesterday. Maybe we get a fine in the post in a few months…
There are still a lot of traces of the war here. We can see a lot of houses with bullet holes and wounds of grenades, and some are completely destroyed. Maybe they don’t have the money to repair them or they just don’t think it is important.
Late in the afternoon we arrived at the Pakistani embassy. Dress for success is the game, especially if we want to try complicated things. After an hour of waiting we got to meet the ambassador. That we applied for a visa from a third country was a big problem and would probably not work. On top of that we wanted to drive our own car through Pakistan that made it even more complicated. A normal 4-6 weeks processing time would probably not cut it.
But he told us he would do what he could to help us apply for a visa. But the documents are handled in Pakistan, and he didn’t want to be responsible for approving a visa. And then he told us a story about a person from Europe that he had approved a visa for years ago, who disappeared in Pakistan. He didn’t want to risk being a part of that again. We realized we have to find another way to get a visa.
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
N 043° 50.630 E 018° 25.081 -> Today: 60.8 °F (
+16 °C)
06 Sep 2016
5637 km
Sarajevo is situated in a valley and we found a small campsite called Ollywood, in a private home up on the mountain. But it was very difficult to get up there in the pouring rain. The roads were crazy steep and slippery as hell. We lost the grip several times and were sliding backwards downhill. It was not only us that had problems, everyone was slipping and sliding.
Today we visited Sarajevo. We started out with a small museum telling the story about the four year long siege of Sarajevo during the war in the 90-ties. After that we had lunch at a restaurant. Our first meal out since we left Sweden. We had a Bosnian meal, a very tasty meat stew and two beers each for only 10 Euro. That was a bargain!
After that we took tram number 3 to the end station in the suburbs. That is a great way to take a look around town and to see how the people live their lives and what they do. And there are absolutely no tourists there.
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
N 043° 50.630 E 018° 25.081 -> Today: 60.8 °F (
+16 °C)
07 Sep 2016
5637 km
This morning we searched the web for a way to get the visa authorization code that we need to even apply for an Iranian visa. At the website Caranvanistian, we could get in contact with an Iranian agent who could help us get a code for, 35 Euro per person. In 2-3 days they will contact us, and when all the paperwork is done the process for getting the code is 7-10 working days. After that we can apply for a visa at an Iranian embassy. Then we jumped in our car and headed for Sofia in Bulgaria.
We drove all day. The closest way was through Serbia. When it got dark and we were looking for a spot to park for the night, we were sent on a detour due to road work. But after that there were no signs of where we were supposed to go. We tried to use the gps and drove around on tiny, tiny dirt roads for hours in the dark. We didn’t seem to make it even though we used two different gps. And we met several cars probably also trying to drive by gps in the middle of nowhere, also looking confused.