Bosnia and Herzegovina

What an amazing long weekend trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), nice people, great weather (up to 35C), an amazing hotel, and lots of adventures.

Did you know that BiH consists of two political entities: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska?

Mostar airport (OMO) is cute, one hall, three gates (although i.e. today there is only one scheduled flight for the entire day, plus few charter flights). On arrival, I left the plane, and five minutes later I was through passport control, and had already my checked luggage in my hand. I call that efficient. Less efficient was the way into town, as there are so few flights, no taxis wait at the airport, you need to order them, so I lost some time until I managed to call a cab.

On the first day I visited historic Mostar, and the Kravica waterfalls (like Plitvice in Croatia, but much smaller). As BiH has also few kilometers of sea access, I wanted to do some diving. But there is no diving center, only a diving club. And on Saturday there was an important football game, so no one wanted to dive with me. But they just gave me a tank and weights, and showed me where to dive! Below 12m it was extremely murky, so, much better to stay shallow. And I found in the yellow sponges a tall and beautiful yellow thorny seahorse. So hard to spot, but so cute! And its even better, if you spot it on your own, instead of having a guide finding the cool stuff!

As it was so hot in the town, I spent the last day in the mountains hiking, amazing, like Switzerland, but without other hikers! And the drive through the Republika Srpska to reach the national park was really scenic, along rivers, and white and yellow flowers in full bloom everywhere.

No tourist rip-off anywhere, all prices are fixed, taxis don’t try “My taximeter is broken, it costs xx”. The driving is quite easy. Lots of curves and bends and small roads, but only few bump holes and drivers are easy going, not much honking or tailgating.

So highly recommended country to visit!