Re: [Debconf-discuss] Beta testing Zagreb-Banja Luka bus
Trying again, as it seems this didn't get anywhere yet:
On 7/17/11, Moray Allan <moray@sermisy.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just arrived in Banja Luka a little while ago, after beta testing
> the connections from Zagreb airport. I of course wanted to make sure
> that this was a fair test, so:
>
> - It was arranged that the plane escaped from London Heathrow an hour
> late after a long wait for a take-off slot following boarding,
> reducing my two hour connection time in Zagreb to one hour.
>
> - To make sure that I was tired out, I spent the flight reading a
> novel in Spanish while the child next to me distracted me by singing
> and trying to draw on my arm, and the baby two seats over cried
> loudly.
>
> On arrival at Zagreb, I as usual chose an appropriate standing
> location on the bus from plane to terminal so that I was towards the
> front of the queue for passport control, and was then lucky that my
> bag was one of the first onto the conveyor belt. These bits might
> seem like cheating, but, sorry, I did want to try to catch the first
> bus to Banja Luka.
>
> Reverting to non-cheating mode (and since I had some, but not much,
> Croatian money with me) I left the airport terminal and put my luggage
> in the bus directly outside and got on it, around 21.15, after being
> assured by the driver that yes it was going to the bus station and it
> would leave in "five minutes", instead of looking for a taxi to the
> bus station. After a while the driver came through the bus selling
> tickets (30 Kn each). I noticed that one couple didn't have local
> currency, and the driver appeared to accept €10 for the two of them
> instead.
>
> The bus left between 21.25 and 21.30 after it was almost full, and
> took 20-25 minutes to reach its terminus at the bus station, arriving
> about 21.50. It stopped a couple of times on the way, but these were
> fairly obviously just brief roadside halts. The bus stopped in an
> overspill car park outside the main bus station area, and the obvious
> pedestrian entrance/exit from this area was closed (perhaps just
> because it was the evening), so I left via the way we'd come in,
> crossing over to the main bus station. After checking the way with
> someone waiting for a bus, I then went upstairs (just taking any of
> the stairs going up from the bus 'platforms') and followed the "exit"
> signs along to the ticket desks. There was some complicated signage
> above these, but the guy at the first desk I tried was happy to sell
> me a ticket for the 22.00 bus to Banja Luka (108 Kn, as the wiki had
> said). He pointed out to me the platform number (marked "PERON" on
> the ticket).
>
> After going back along and down the stairs to the right place, I found
> the bus waiting, and put my bag in the hold. This time there was a 12
> Kn fee for checking a bag, in return for which I got a receipt
> matching a tag put on the bag. (This is fairly standard on Balkan
> buses, but doesn't apply to the bus from the airport to the bus
> station.) The main ticket had something that may have been a seat
> number, but if it was then people were ignoring them to spread out --
> the bus was about half full.
>
> We arrived at the Croatian border about 23.40, and left the Bosnian
> border about 00.20. At the Croatian border we all had to get off the
> bus, show our passports, then get back on one by one, while at the
> Bosnian border someone collected all the passports from us on the bus,
> and took them off to stamp, then someone from the bus company gave
> them back to us after we had started driving again.
>
> At about 00.40 we stopped at a cafe for people to smoke/use the
> toilets/stretch their legs, departing again about 1.05.
>
> We arrived at the Banja Luka bus station at about 1.35. Some time
> before this we'd passed a big sign for the city and a second sign with
> a long list of twinned towns; the bus station itself was mostly just
> an open-air car park, but they announced "Banja Luka" over the bus
> speakers as we drove in, and it was the first major stop of the
> journey. (A few people had got off immediately after the border
> earlier.)
>
> At this time of night it wasn't completely obvious which way to go
> from the bus, but while I was looking around, a taxi driver spotted me
> and offered his services. By the end of the ride to Hotel Bosna the
> meter was at about 8 KM. As I didn't have the right money for this, I
> told him to wait -- he didn't speak English, but mentioning 'bank' and
> leaving my bags in the car gave the right message -- and popped into
> the hotel lobby to use the ATM there. (If I hadn't known there was an
> ATM in the Hotel Bosna lobby, I'd have asked him to stop at a bank on
> the way, given that I hadn't waited around to look for a possible ATM
> around the bus terminal.)
>
> After paying the taxi-driver and collecting my bag, giving my passport
> (along with a greeting) was sufficient for the guy on the hotel
> check-in desk to find me on a list of DebConf people and give me a
> room key. I'm just writing this note from the hotel wireless while I
> remember details, and look forward to meeting up with everyone here in
> the morning. :)
>
> --
> Moray
>
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