Travel, 50+, Bosnia and Herzegovina

If it's worthy enough for an archduke's summer leave, it should damn well be worthy enough for a commoner's long weekend. Under these winds of thought, I aimed at Bosnia and Herzegovina and landed at ... Republika Srpska.

This is actually the second attempt. The last time around I was trying to get a bus from Zagreb, but the staff at the bus station kept insisting "There is no bus". The locals and the internet kept insisting there, in fact, is a bus. Didn't get it. So, the second time around, I was obliged to borrow some wings to get there.

I had been warned before (both times) that this is somehow a "high risk" area. Apparently, there is some form of semi-Putinist, hardliner "independence" group rallying around with a racist agenda and all the "wrong" people might end up targeted by them. And... I saw no trace of such groups. There were no rallies and, in fact, Banja Luka turned out to deliver one of the warmest welcomes of any place I have visited.

What comes to Banja Luka as a travel target, I'm afraid I have less to say than I would have hoped for. One of our group fell ill and it threw some sticks in our figurative bicycle front wheels. The face of our plan plowed the asphalt so hard we ended up with a couple of days stroll around town. While being one of the largest cities in B&H and the de facto capital of Republika Srpska, there is not all that much to see in town. You can cover it all within half a day or less. We spent the other half (and then some) looking for touristy postcards, which, apparently, are not a thing here. A lot of the places sold stuff like magnets and other souvenir knickknacks, but it took us a day to find a shop carrying postcards with images other than generic birthday and other celebration themes. The locals we asked had no idea where to get such things. So... We checked all the usual suspects and then stumbled upon a small establishment that seemed like a Qur'an shop, thinking "What the inferno!What have we got to lose?" And voilà! Just what we needed.

While we missed many of our main targets, mostly sights of natural beauty in the area, here comes...

The judgment:
Bosnia+ is one of the more wallet friendly locations in Europe. Some places can be a bit run-down, but the central locations (at least in BL) seem to be in good condition. There are many "undiscovered" nature locations that compete with the more famous ones just across the border in Croatia (packed full of tourist, there). Some rumors state these locations are pristine, some claim them dump sites for the trash of (mostly local) tourists. I cannot swear one way or another.

The food in Banja Luka was good and the atmosphere was nice and relaxed. You will get bang for the buck! For now, you are still somewhat of an explorer instead of a bulk tourist. It is likely the place will be a moderately popular tourist target in the future, a center for day trips in the area. That's about all I can say at this time.

Would I go again? Yes. There is unfinished business between me and B&H.