Distress on the Drina

So Visegrad was great for, like, ten minutes, until I realized I needed local currency and there were no banks or ATMs, and that there was absolutely no bus to Sarajevo.  I had just disembarked from the last one.  So I had a coffee to calm myself, and then decided that I was only in Visegrad for one reason: to see that bridge and then find a way to get out.  So I walked to bridge, which was beautiful and well built for something from the middle ages, and then began the arduous task of walking along the road to Sarajevo.  I stopped to sketch a few helpful signs, that might get me as far as Gorazde or Ustipraca, but neither of them seemed to help me much.  In fact, it looked like the world was finally getting sick of my shit. 

Aren't you excited about the bridge over the Drina at Visegrad?

How about now?

I walked for a really, really long time, and the weather was not looking promising.  Cars passed, buses passed, and I also encounter stretches in which no one passed for a long period of time.  Then I encountered the tunnels.  This was so awful.  There were a series of tunnels in the roads with absolutely no lighting that seemed to twist a bit so that there was absolutely no end in sight.  They were so dark. Once I started to walk into the first one, I realized how awful it was, as I could hear the echoey water dripping down, and my own breath, and footsteps as a tepidly inched my way through.  When a car would enter, I would hear the rumble echoing through the tunnel, and enough light would allow me to see far enough ahead so I ran as fast as I could until the car passed I couldn't see anymore.  It took forever to make it through the tunnels.  This is probably the only time I have felt honestly nervous, almost exclusively because I could not see a thing in front of me.  Oh, and also because it was a dark tunnel in Bosnia.  

Interestingly enough I met someone coming the other way.  He was a Czech who was coming from Gorazde and he was headed to Visegrad.  He also had a miner's light thing on his head because he was anticipating the tunnels apparently.  What a resourceful Czech!  He was very friendly and we briefly chatted before going on our way.  He also was having no luck with the hitchhiking, which made me feel better that it's not me, it's them.

Once I made it through my 3rd or so tunnel I resolved that I just could not do it anymore.  It was so nerve racking.  I saw a bus parked on the side of the road with Bulgarian plates.  I figured Bulgaria owed me for some ancient debt so I knocked on the window and the driver absolutely shut me out and refused to talk to me.  Disheartened, I continued walking and heard shouting from a house up the hill from the road.  A bunch of people with a fire were yelling towards me and gesturing me to come over.  I figured that literally nothing could be worse than the tunnels, so up the hill I went to join them.