What Are The Chances
Waking up in Mostar the day after the Villa match feeling a bit rough from the festivities from the day before . Today is a day off beer or this is what I thought . I do know all this is hard on my body and I really have to be sharp for my next ice time which is in Croatia where I hopefully will play in my 47th country but you know the saying …. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch . last year I visited three countries to play hockey in and didn’t get on the ice so I know all too well how things can turn on a dime .
We had to get to Sarajevo from Mostar by mini bus with the Dubai Lions but one of our friends travelling with us lost or had his passport stolen at the game we went to . He needed the passport to get into the game or was it just to get the ticket from Aston Villa . I’m not exactly sure but the fella who has it missing believes it was stolen off him at the game . That person is none other then Sniper . He’s kinda screwed …. So he went to a police station and we had to wait for him until 10 am but we wanted to leave around 9 . I’m gonna miss my chance to say bye to Nermin in Sarajevo :( my hockey bags are at the rink and he has to hit the road at noon .
We made our way back eventually , the Dubai Lions had their flight delayed so it bought them that time that was spent waiting for Sniper . He was denied entry to his flight and while this was all going down I took a Crveni taxi to the rink , had the driver wait then went back to the airport and all this was the same price that the scumbag from Sarajevo Taxi charged me for the one way drive to the rink when I arrived !
When I got back to the airport I had to wait for the check in which is two hours before flight . Dropped my bags at oversized then went upstairs to security where I saw the gold member line for star alliance so I followed the path and walked by everyone . The security person was this burly woman and they didn’t seem prepared for anyone to use that line and she was angry that she had to do her job . Asked me for my card I showed it to her and she said it was expired …. I told her it’s not and if she can read it better she will realize it’s expiry is the end of 2023 and she got angrier ….. not my fault you hate your life . She said have fun getting into the lounge so that’s what I did hahaha! When I got to the lounge I got to say one more good bye to the Dubai Lions who were in there and I then sat around waiting for my flight .
When I got on the flight I was tired , it was less then an hour flight so I pulled my toque over my eyes and took a nap and woke up with a very dry throat and asked for some water . I was in a row of two seats and there was nobody beside me and across the aisle was another person who had the row to himself . He took off his head phones and looked at me as asked if I was the travelling goalie ? Am I canadian ? I was in this state of wondering who this was …. He then said we had met in Minnesota in 2019 at a baseball game and it all flooded back that this was Oliver . What a small world . This is great because now I have a friend to hang out with in Zagreb. The only problem is we are definitely gonna have a beer or two .
We got off the plane and I told him I’d ask my driver who is picking me up if he can drop him off also and that wasn’t a problem . I’m staying at the Westin and he’s at a air bnb type place not far away so we decided we would meet for a pint to watch the football match at my hosts bar here in Zagreb . Dado Ljubic has organized everything for me here ! My hotel , ice time , rides …. You name it this guy has done it all so I have to go meet him as he also owns a bar here called Drvarnica.
When I got to the hotel I didn’t grab a SIM card which is not great because so many things can happen . Just like what happened to me . I called Uber and a taxi arrived and took me to the place I chose to go to but it was the wrong place and was this high end night club with some big burly bouncers out front . When I jumped out the cab I was confused and they probably realized immediately I was in the wrong place so as I sauntered up confidently saying I know the owner of the establishment they knew I didn’t . They didn’t know Dado and in fact I was at the wrong place ? Uh oh ! Now here I am in a foreign country with no way of getting wifi since the bouncers didn’t want to give me wifi or help me because that’s what dickhead bouncers do right ? I mean why be nice to anyone when you have to look like this big mean bruiser ? So I walked down the road to a kebab shop and the guys there pointed me in the right direction and finally I arrived and both Oliver and Dado were there waiting for me . Quite the first bit of adventure .
Dado’s bar is a nice small place with a tv and it’s a quiet night then this older fella comes in and just starts harassing us . Doesn’t let us watch the game and generally doesn’t get the point that we want to watch the game without him bothering us constantly. It almost seemed like he was threatening us at some point and honestly I don’t know what this fellas involvement is with the pub but we had to go . I need to ask Dado in person about this but obviously don’t want to offend anyone .
We took off and jumped on the transit which thankfully got us to where we wanted to go which was this Irish pub called Harats Pub . It was packed but there was a game on , unfortunately not the game we wanted to watch so we found a table sat down and ordered a few beers , Oliver put the prem game on his phone and we had a few laughs catching up on lost time while breathing in smoke . Everyone chain smokes indoors here and ventilation is absolutely non existent . Great my clothes are gonna reek and my throat is gonna be raw from all this smoke yay! The pubs I visited in Sarajevo were better ventilated and the ones in Mostar I mostly hung outside so it hadn’t been so hard on me like it was here . Can’t do anything about it though as I’m just a tourist here and this is the way it is . Cough cough
