Bosnian experience part 2 - Stereotypes

The beautiful mountain riverside in Bosnia.

For some of you this may sound as first April jokes, however a huge part of ex Yugoslav nowadays life are  based on stereotypes between the new set countries, and of course there exist also many of the jokes but still, somehow based on the same stereotypes.

What`s been my experience?

Well, just before going for my trip to Bosnia, i got warning from a Slovene telling me, that i should better watch out as in Bosnia there are many mine fields. And telling this to me, i had this image just straight into my head...but well, of 8 days and Bosnian experiences, there were exactly 0 mine fields i got to see. The truth is that the couple of mine fields still exist, however for sure not MANY.

Before i went to see Bosnia myself, and telling to others how much i want to visit it,
there were many question marks in air, almost pointing out, that there is nothing to see. Well, i just can say, as it is with every your non discovered country, for sure there is many things to see and I was positively amazed by the beauty of the nature, with the mountains, rivers, lakes and of course the weather could not be better these days.

The walking dollars stereotype, well, i did not feel much on myself, but have to admit that this may be partially true, however not that much as some of you may have though. What is Walking dollars? Well, that`s the slang for the tourists, as they are the ones coming with bunch of money, and sometimes happening that they just simply "overpay" for different services or activities, as the locals try to get most out of the situations by setting a new price system.

The thing I got surprised most, as i never expected or heard of that a wide part of Bosnia is under Islam religion and so many mosques i never seen in my life...and every day couple of times they play songs, prayers within the speakers and you can hear all over the city. For me that is not even close within any religion, it was a strange new learning and experience, that i won`t forget for some more time.

Last but not least, i decided to leave Bosnia with the early taxi ride from Kljuc to Zagreb, and that was another adventurous trip i got myself into...I would define it as a roller coaster adrenaline ride more than just a usual taxi ride, seems the stereotype i heard of the crazy driving habits may be completely true. Nevertheless, we were 4 of passengers in the car and i chose the "best" spot ever, just in the middle of back seat, with perfect overview of the road. As it was late night or very early morning, then we were supposed to sleep, so did the all others of us, aside me, as at some point i woke up and saw that the taxi driver is driving in the opposite direction line and the curve is coming...or a bit later, when the sigh says 30km/h for sure it was at least double as fast... adventurous and we survived, so maybe they know how to drive with all the weird habits after all :)

That`s it my folks, my Bosnian adventures have finished and i am safely back in Ljubljana for the last few days to experience and feel more of sLOVEnia.

S.