load up the skoda, we're going to bosnia

Having done the same sales pitch to my mother, with lukewarm response, I tried my Travel Club.

To: She Who Hates Socialists, L, S, Brit, American Colleague
From: Peas On "I'm addicted to travelling" Toast
Subject: Sarajevo = the new Budapest = the new Prague

Chaps hi.

So, because I have 8 months left on my Schengen visa, and my sole purpose to be on this Earth is to travel and drink wine - I have a proposition. It's a bit out there - some might say unorthodox - but it is one based on timing, literal thought and logical preparation.

I think, as the Travel Club, we like to push the envelope don't we? Rye today, Turkmenistan tomorrow. We are the modern David Livingstone's of our time.
We like a place to hang our hats; but we also like the sense of the unknown. The unexplored. American Colleague went to Ukraine last year. Ukraine is a country that is not Spain. This much we know. He spent a summer in Odessa with a girl called Vanessa. You can't make this shit up.

I've seen the movie, and it looks good. (My plan, not American's & Vanessa's Adventures in the Eastern Bloc.)

So I have another amaaazing and highly feasible itinerary. It will comprise three elements:

1) Adventure - a place none of us have ever been to before, and this I can personally guarantee
2) One x Schengen visa for the Saffa passport holders amongst us
3) Eight days. Five days leave, the rest weekends.

Right.
Everyone. LOAD UP THE SKODA; WE'RE GOING TO BOSNIA.

If you don't know what a Skoda is, then the irony is lost. For the rest of us, there's Wikipedia. It's a notoriously shite Czech vehicle. Until recently when it got AC, reclining leather seats, and now runs on petrol not butane.

I digress.

If we're going to do Eastern Europe - where factory workers once wished they were Tories while putting in long hours in the Skoda factoriess - we need to hire one.

Or go on a train between each place. Whatever.

I propose the prettiest, most architecturally stimulating places on the Eastern European canvas. And these would be:

FLY KRAKOW, POLAND-------->train, Skoda, whatever---->PRAGUE/BUDAPEST (deemed the new Prague)-----train, Skoda, whatever---->SARAJEVO, BOSNIA (where the first world war started! Sir Francis Ferdinand got capped here - you owe this visit to your war-going grandparents-------------->SPLIT, CROATIA (with blue oceans and sand).

Now if that doesn't work - think about this - EasyJet now flies to Kosovo. War torn once, yes. Trendy yet inexpensive now? DEFINITELY YES.

Let's go before it becomes the place to go. Already half these places ARE the place to go.

For inspiration, here are some pictures:

[enter postcard pictures randomly selected from Google Images]

October? Just say yes. Or think about it first THEN say yes.

.........

Do you think they will? I really really want to go.

This is Sarajevo. Doesn't look like a war-torn bullet-holed dump now does it?