On the road to Dubrovnik

Shame, shame, shame… on the road to Dubrovnik

Yes, Cersei walking through the streets of King’s Landing in Game of Thrones.

But also Jimmy doing the walk of shame off the coach to Dubrovnik, the setting for King’s Landing, only ten minutes into our 5-hour journey.

In one of those document-checking moments I felt in my pocket to make sure I had my passport.

Only for the passport holder to feel lighter than it should have done because I was one passport short.

Let me explain.

I carry two passports with me… not because I am an international spy, although I guess I wouldn’t tell you if I was.

But because I have to keep my old one which has a ten-year working visa for the US stamped in it.

Now the two passports sit opposite each other in a passport holder.

Only Ina has been holding the current unclipped passport in the hotel back in Medjugorje In Bosnia and Herzegovina.

She had given it back to me when I went to Sarajevo earlier in the week as you can’t exchange money without it.

And instead of putting it back in the holder I put it in loose with my luggage.

So, bleary-eyed at 6am I reached for the holder which had the old passport in it.

Now, disappointed as I was to miss out on an afternoon in Dubrovnik which George Bernard Shaw called ‘paradise on Earth’ it could have been worse.

My taxi fare back to Medge was only €10 when it could have been higher if I’d been stopped at the border between B&H and Croatia.

Or worse… I could have ended up in pokey.

I also got to find out that my cab driver who liked to clear his throat has a big friend Joseph in Glasgow.

Fare play

And I don’t know what the elderly Californian couple or the New Yorker who works for Qatar Airways made of me having to leave the bus early either.

But it’ll make a good story for them and we’d got to know each other a little waiting 50 minutes at the station for the coach.

Oh, and I got €23 of my €26 fare back.

The good news is I get to go to 10am Mass at St James’s in Medge.

I think it’s Fr Leon today. I feel I know all his jokes by now.

I’m here as a guest of Marian Pulgrimages and Aer Lingus.

And I’ve been keeping you amused/confused about Medge and Give us this day – Confessions and Medjugorje.

With a bit of Sarajevo thrown in.

I hope to get to Dubrovnik one day with my very own Queen of Dragons… which really is how it should be.

And here’s who to go with

And Croatia Tours will give you the lowdown on ‘The Pearl of the Adriatic’ better than I did.

Thinking on it now as I sit in front of Ina’s steaming hot porridge maybe Our Lady saved me.

From a Border water boarding so that I could spend more time in Medge.

She and her son sure do move in mysterious ways.