The country you didn't know you wanted to visit
Bosnia-Herzegovina is a different kind of country. What is it really like?
By Dahn
“To travel is to discover that everyone is right, since everyone has their own point of view”
Mahatma Gandhi
The wise words of the good Gandhi came to mind when we traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina to explore the possibilities for cycling and hiking in one of Europe's most underrated countries. We ourselves didn't know what to expect and traveled with completely open eyes - a privilege in our information society. The result was some of the most eye-opening travel experiences in a long time, and a truly wonderful cycling trip from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik.
A different kind of country
The first sip makes me flinch. A gritty feeling in the mouth, and then I remember: bosanska kafa is a variant of Turkish coffee. I lean back and let the grounds settle with Trebinje's shady square before me. Bosnian coffee drinking is ceremonially slow, a bit like the Swedish fika. You even drink your boiled coffee alongside a sweet.
The coffee sets the tone for a journey through Bosnia and Herzegovina as a different kind of country. We are in Europe but slightly off to the side of the stage. The stars on the flag are ambitious, but EU membership hasn't been achieved yet. Perhaps that's because both we and they themselves are still in the process of deciphering the country.
Map chaos
Curious, I ask my guide to explain the situation, and afterwards I seek out different kinds of maps. The triangular country bordered by the coastal mountains and the rivers Sava and Drina is easy enough to understand. The political map, with the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a result of the Dayton Agreement that ended the war in 1996, and it's so complicated that the inhabitants themselves mostly roll their eyes when it comes up. It doesn't match either the ethnic map, which remains patchy, or the historical division between Bosnia and Herzegovina (which seems to lack significance beyond differences in climate). In any case, everyone is very certain that the many levels create fertile ground for corruption.
No Eastern Bloc here
As a prospective traveler, you'll surely be pleased to hear that none of that affects the travel experience, and that there's no Eastern Bloc feeling in Bosnia and Herzegovina either. Yugoslavia never went behind the Iron Curtain and chose a “third way” instead. These were the cool communists, with freedom of movement, products from the West, small businesses, and their own rock and punk scene. Yugoslav means South Slav, and you find yourself in a Mediterranean country, at least in the southern “Herzegovina California.” Northern Bosnia is more characterized by forest, mountains, and a continental climate. The ice-cold and crystal-clear rivers rush forth everywhere, suddenly appearing and disappearing into the porous karst bedrock.
Cultural encounters
The whole thing is an ancient meeting between East and West, and besides the overlapping maps, they have two alphabets – for one and the same language. This meeting is highly tangible in cities like Sarajevo and Mostar, where on the way into the center you pass through different historical eras like the growth rings of a tree. From brutalism to elegant Austro-Hungarian buildings to Ottoman single-story houses and bazaars. The shift is surprising and completely unique in Europe. Every city has two kinds of churches and a mosque, and you understand that in this particular part of Yugoslavia, it wasn't possible to separate the peoples. It's simply too mixed. If you're not a Croatian Catholic or Serbian Orthodox, then you're a Bosniak, Europe's only Muslims. I, at least, don't see any difference between the peoples, except for the occasional headscarf, or when I have to wait outside a pastry shop while the young shop owner attends to his afternoon prayer at an angle to the premises but directly facing Mecca.
...and the food!
If you're interested in food, and surely all real travelers are, you're in for a treat in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The coffee is actually good once you understand how it should be drunk, and nothing is really strange, yet stimulatingly different. Schnapps (rakija) is distilled at home (legal for personal use) and is drunk before, during, and after the meal. Practical. And yes, even the Muslims have a drink sometimes; the Ottomans founded the first beer brewery in Sarajevo. On a hot summer day, you sip cold herbal tea with mint, honey, and lemon, unless you choose Jugo-Cola or Cockta instead. On your plate, you'll likely find lamb and trout from the many rivers, and perhaps you'll recognize cevapcici, stuffed grape leaves, ajvar, yogurt, fried bread, and kajmak (something between butter and fresh cheese). At the market in Trebinje, only vegetables, herbs, dried meat, and homemade goods with handwritten labels were sold during my visit. Perhaps that's all one needs. Wine, of course, is grown in Herzegovina. White Zilavka, red Blatina, or whichever French grape you prefer. The wine landscape looks like Italy or Spain until a minaret pokes up between the cypresses. A different country indeed, as mentioned. Perhaps the Balkans' most interesting one.
Discover Bosnia-Herzegovina
