Budapest to Sarajevo Fishing Trip.
Tuesday
Checked-in with Air Serbia and got boarding passes.
Wednesday
Set up City Taxi on their App to pick me up at 5am on Thursday.
Pack bags. One 21 x 14 x 9 carry-on packed with clothes. 7.9kg. One 16 x 10 x 4 backpack with my fishing gear.
Very small cross body pouch for wallet, passport and watch till I get trough security.
Thursday
4:55 am City Taxi shows up.
5:20 am Taxi Arrives Airport terminal 2B. Cost 12.000 forints with tip. Always the same. I should leave 30 minutes later. But what if something goes wrong? No time for Plan B!
5:34 am cleared Security and sitting at O’Leary’s waiting for my breakfast.
6:45 am proceed through passport control. No one in line. Show passport and residency card. Go to gate for first leg, to Belgrade. Less than 5 min from breakfast to gate.
7:35 am time to board announcement for Belgrade flight. Five minutes later on bus on way to plane.
Note to self: ATR 72 aircraft boards from back. Row 2 not so good.
Carry-on fits nicely in overhead, backpack fits nice under the seat.
Seats are “cozy”.
Flight a little more than half full.
7:45 am airline ground crew begins winding up rubber bands that drive propellers.
7:50 am the scheduled 7:55 am departure flight begins taxi. Advertised flight time is 1:05.
Professional, nice flight attendant.
8:50 am arrived in Belgrade and boarded the bus. 8:55 am in the terminal 5 minutes ahead of scheduled arrival time.
Waiting on my connection to Sarajevo.
2:00 pm After a short bus ride the carry-on was tarmac checked, flight boarded and taxi begun …. 15 minutes late. 45 minute flight ahead.
Another ATR74 to Sarajevo. Never research the safety of a particular airplane before boarding it.
Arrived pretty much on time. Passport control 5 minutes.
Got 50BM from ATM for taxi. ATM clipped me 5BM. No problem.
Taxi 20 minutes. Let him clip me for 5 euro. It’s a holiday, don’t care.
Hotel is perfect location, staff excellent. Room great. “Hotel Old Town”
Hotel clerk was funny. Asked for passport, saw it was US, immediately said “you are American, so you won’t leave ut with me, so I take a picture. Every other nationality leaves it and come back in 10 min for it. But Americans are afraid. So I photograph and give back to you.”
Sitting across the street with my first wine. No credit card accepted so had to change 100euro bill next to bar. Those of you on my WhatsApp already see... while I listen to Queen, "I want to break free" (wine bar) and the Call to Prayer (Mosque) at the same time.
Friday, 1:00 pm my driver shows up on time. We begin what should have been a 3.5 hour druve to the high country. We stopped for water, for coffee, for beer. Then crossed the border into the Republika Srpska which is a bit ... i cant find the right words. The mosques fade away, the street signs turn to Cyrillic and each village flies the flag of the Republic as a vertical banner at the entrance of the village. So going in it is left to right red, blue, white (identical to the Serbian flag, except for the crest in the Serbian flag). Seen from the other side its white, blue, red (?)
My hotel is in a village in an enclave that is still in Bosnia so we crossed back into Bosnia
Aɓout 5pm we arrive at the hotel and meet my guide for the next three days, discuss start times, rivers and gear. He was amused it all fit in a backpack.
The Hotel Kraljavec is amazing, sitting on the side of a river. Worth the trip for this.
The fishing guide company set up transfers from Sarajevo and back, fishing guides and hotel. A fraction of the cost of something similar in the US.
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