Third installment

After about five hours on the train we arrived at Rijeke and got off the train, we now had to catch a bus to our final destination, Opatia. There was one good thing and that was Paula had been here before and she knew what bus to catch so at least we wouldn't get lost on our first day, fifteen minutes on the bus and our travels were over, we had reached our hotel. We booked in and went straight to our room, it was huge, back in GB you would have had to pay a fortune for a room like this but because of the lack of tourists we didn't have to pay a great amount. We were on the fifth floor, colour tv, our own bathroom and a balcony overlooking the sea, it was terrific. We unpacked and put everything away and decided that we should try and get some sleep as we had not had much the night before, the bed was very comfortable and it was not long before we were both asleep, what a way to start a holiday, arrive at your hotel and sleep. Later that afternoon we awoke, I turned on the tv and Paula took a bath, we didn't have a care in the world, we were here to enjoy ourselves, we walked, slept, drank and ate, it was a great feeling. The greatest thing was that it was just Paula and I, we had each other and nothing to spoil it. The way we were behaving anyone who saw us must have thought we were newly weds on their honeymoon and to be honest it felt like that to me. One day we walked to Rijeka along the coast, it was quite a long way and very soon Paula was complaining but I laughed it off as we walked we saw the only signs of war, there were numerous anti-aircraft guns supposedly to protect shipping but the war had never reached this part of Croatia, I couldn't help but remark how useful these guns would be in Osijek instead of just sitting there getting rusty, the soldiers who were manning the guns were just sitting around doing nothing, they also would have been very useful on the front line perhaps helping stop the death and destruction. We continued on into the town where life was as normal as in any other town or city anywhere in the rest of the world, there was definitely no war here. We had something to eat and drink before catching the bus back to the hotel, it had been a nice day out but now we were tired, we had explored the area and enjoyed the scenery. During the those days we slowly spent what little money we had but everything we did was worth while. During the times that we just lay around doing nothing I was trying to write another article it's topic was to be Ernie. Throughout the time I was writing it I constantly argued with myself over whether it should be written or not, I felt the way I wrote but after what I had found out over the last few months I was not sure that I should print it but after reading it to Paula she said that if I thought it then I would be an idiot not to allow it to be published, after thinking about what she had said I agreed but the article about two sides of the war should be first. When Wednesday arrived we went to get a copy of the the newspaper and there was my article on page six and the best was still to be written, it gave me a lot of satisfaction to see my thoughts in print although I didn't think that Paula was feeling the same, perhaps it didn't mean as much to her as it did to me although she never said anything. The day of our departure was almost upon us, we were now thinking about going back but not before one last fling, we decided to go to town and try and find some night life in this out of season town, we didn't find any discos but we did enjoy our last night. The next day we packed, paid the bill for telephones etc and left, it was a shame that the holiday couldn't have lasted longer but I was a soldier, a Croatian soldier and I was needed back where I belonged, on the front line. When we reached Zagreb we visited Paula's sister and stay for the remaining two days of our holiday as I didn't have to be back until Monday morning, it was good for Paula and a good end to our holiday. Whilst we were there we also visited our friends at the press center even though they were more Paula's friends than mine. All good things must come to an end and on Sunday we said goodbye to Paula's sister and left for the station. At the station two of our friends were waiting to see us off, one of them was Paula's best friend Debbie who shared a room with her while she was working in Zagreb and even though Debbie was younger than Paula they were very good friends, both were from towns near the front line and both had family and friends in daily peril so they shared a lot of fears and worried every every time there was a report from Osijek. The other girl was James girlfriend from America who had come to Croatia to be near James, she was a very riligeous girl who visited the church daily which seemed to get on everybody's nerves back at the press center but everyone on this earth has to have something or someone to turn to in times of trouble, she turned to the church, I turned to Paula. We had a couple of photos taken and got on the train just before it pulled out, we were on our way back, not to Osijek but to hell.