Central Europe: From Zagreb to Warsaw

Friend, K and I have been talking about seeing this part of Europe for awhile but it was sidelined many times for some unexpected reasons. Central Europe came up again this year, and the thought was, "Why not?" so got our tickets in May and off we went in mid August.

Despite our numerous chats, there wasn't much dwelling on which country except we both wanted to do Prague, Budapest and Poland. The rest were open for options. We have initially thought of including Russia and Ukraine but it was not the best time to travel there at the time, so we included Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)! After I found an excellent flight option (in reference to timing and number of transit) to Zagreb and out of Warsaw, K told me to go ahead and she will find a flight to coincide with mine.

There isn't much flights going in and out of Sarajevo without many transits. Most transports options out of Sarajevo are through Zagreb and Belgrade, and both of us hold a Malaysian passport which requires tourist visa to Serbia. It doesn't seem feasible in both cost and effort to apply for a visa for one train from Sarajevo to Belgrade, so we abandoned the plan.

Many asked us why not fly from Zagreb to Dubrovnik and travel north from there. Of course, it does seem like a good route but Croatia wasn't in our radar. In fact it wasn't in our itinerary in the first place, the only reason we fly to Zagreb as it was closest to Sarajevo and it involved only one transits for both of us. (I'm sorry Croatia but yes, you are allowed to gasp at me not considering the cities along the Adriatic Sea!)

Initially we wasn't keen on trekking back to Zagreb but direct train from Sarajevo to Budapest is no longer in service. After contemplating many options, we decided to do Sarajevo-Mostar-Split-Budapest. There are direct trains from Split to Budapest running on Wednesdays and Saturdays during the summer months but it didn't suit our plan, so we took a train from Split to Zagreb and from Zagreb to Budapest.

So you can see, my excellent flight option was flying out on a Friday after work (I'm all about optimising my annual leave) and reached on a Saturday afternoon. Return flight involving flying out of Warsaw on a Saturday at 16:45 and reached Melbourne on Sunday night. Back to work on Monday ;)
Both flights only had one transit, in Doha. However the flight out of Melbourne had a technical stop in Budapest. I don't know, airline companies referred the stop as a technical stop - a stop where they pick up passengers at Budapest Airport but the ones going to Zagreb do not need to get off the plane)

N = night, A = afternoon, M = morning, E = evening

15/08, Day 00 - On flight
16/08, Day 01 - Half day in Zagreb, then fly out to Sarajevo* at night (Hostel & Guest House Bistrik)
17/08, Day 02 - Sarajevo
18/08, Day 03 - Sarajevo
19/08, Day 04 - Sarajevo, departed for Mostar* in the morning (Hostel Miran Mostar)
20/08, Day 05 - Mostar*. Day trip to Blagaj, Pocitelj, Krevice
21/08, Day 06 - Mostar, departed for Split in the morning. Night train* to Budapest with stopover in Zagreb
22/08, Day 07 - Reached Zagreb in the morning. Second leg of train to Budapest* (Avenue Hostel)
23/08, Day 08 - Budapest*
24/08, Day 09 - Budapest*
25/08, Day 10 - Budapest*
26/08, Day 11 - Budapest, train out to Prague* (Hostel Mango)
27/08, Day 12 - Prague*
28/08, Day 13 - Prague*
29/08, Day 14 - Prague*
30/08, Day 15 - Prague. Night train* to Krakow
31/08, Day 16 - Krakow* (Let's Rock Hostel)
01/09, Day 17 - Krakow*
02/09, Day 18 - Krakow*
03/09, Day 19 - Krakow. Evening train to Warsaw* (Oki Doki Hostel)
04/09, Day 20 - Warsaw*
05/09, Day 21 - Warsaw*
06/09, Day 22 - Warsaw. Afternoon flight* out to Melbourne, transit in Doha
07/09, Day 23 - Reached Doha just passed midnight. Reached Melbourne* at night.
Note: * referring to where we overnight

We roughly have an idea of where we want to go but decided to keep our options open and only booked our accommodation in Sarajevo. The rest of accommodations were booked after we got our train tickets, generally a day before leaving the city except for the Prague-Krakow leg where we booked our accommodation first. We turned up at the train station asking for the next train out. And many thanks for my friend who paid for my domestic flight from Zagreb to Sarajevo. :)


Side note: I know these countries are also referred to Eastern Europe or East Central Europe, but I'll go with Central Europe as I think Eastern Europe more of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, etc.