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Fourth lnstalment

On the main road I caught the first bus to Newport where I would get the connection for London and beyond. When I arrived in Newport I found out that I had three quarters of an hour to wait so I decided to buy some papers to read on the way and then I went and had some breakfast. The bus was right on time and as the driver took my bergan he asked "are you going on holiday" I replied "no, I'm going to Croatia" he then asked "don't you know that there is a war going on over there" I replied politely "yes" and got on the bus.
He must have thought that I was out of my mind but was too well manared to say anything. On the bus I started to read the papers looking for articles on the war, I needed as much information as possible so as to prepare myself for what I might expect there if and when I arrived. The bus went over the Seven Bridge that is a part of the border between England and Wales and I thought to myself what if anything separated Croatia and Yugoslavia, the only difference between here and there was that we had no war here in Wales. We arrived in London and I went straight to the left luggage office where I left my bergan and went to sell my coins, it took me a few hours to actually find someone to buy them but because they were so new they were not worth as much as I had hoped but every pound counted so I took money and went back to wait for the next part of my journey. As I still had three hours to wait I sat down on my bergan and looked around at all the people in the bus station, it was packed with people waiting for or getting off a bus, I looked around and saw a line of telephones on the wall and thought about calling home to say goodbye, no, I had made my decision and there was no turning back now. The bus arrived on time so I put my bergan in the luggage compartment and boarded the bus, it was not as full as I had thought so the driver informed me as no one wanted to go through or anywhere near the war zone, was I the only person that actually wanted to go there I thought to myself. I didn't care I wanted to go as close as possible and perhaps because of this perhaps the biggest idiot on the bus but at least I was on my way to help.
It wasn't long before we arrived in Dover, we went through customs and onto the ferry while the bus was checked and after a short while we were underway, off into Europe again I thought to myself. We were now crossing the English channel, if I wanted to turn back now then I would have to swim. Onto the bus at Ostend again knowing that the next time I would get off this bus would be in Croatia. We went through Belgium, Germany, Austria and lastly into Hungary, I found out from the bus driver that the bus didn't go anywhere near Vukovar so I decided it would be better if I got off the bus at the border and tried to hitchhike, how stupid an idea that was going to turn out to be. The bus stopped just before we actually reached the border so I got off, took my bergan from the driver and started to walk towards the custom post, it was a place called Subotica and perhaps this was the gateway to self destruction. There was no problem getting through the Hungarian side of the border and I hoped it would be as easy going through the Yugoslavian side, as it happened it was and I just walked straight through perhaps it was because I had a British passport, I didn't worry too much as I was on my way to Vukovar or so I thought. The local currency was dinars so I changed some money of what I had left, at least that way I would have some local money to buy food with. What the hell was I doing, I was walking into a country at war as if I had nothing to worry about just a normal tourist looking for work I thought. This was the first time I had ever been in a completely communest country although I had traveled quite a lot, I was walking into the unknown, not speaking the language, not having a great deal of money and worst of all I was carrying my milatery clothing in my milatery bergan in full view of what might be the enemy if I ever reached my destination Vukovar. We have a slang saying in the UK.. "Shit or Bust".. I was on my way, where I was not sure, I had a map and all I had to do was follow the main roads to my ultimate destination, which even at the end it could mean my death.

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