Good place, some v helpful posts from another thread below:
This has just reminded me of a story from our trip. To get to Sarajevo we needed to take a 6 hour coach journey from Dubrovnik and bought the tickets from the Dubrovnik Tourist Information office. We managed to get the last two tickets available which were seats A1 & A2, not knowing that the front two seats were not normally for sale and were usually given to the driver.
We got on the coach and shortly before departure his two mates got on and gruffly tried to order us out of ātheirā seats. After they told us about the above, we showed them our tickets making it clear that we were in the seats weād paid for, and so with the rest of the coach full we spent the journey with the pair of them sitting next to us on the aisle floor glaring at us.
They got off at Mostar and relaxed a bit. The driver set off again, circled the city twice and we started wondering what was going on as we kept seeing the same landmarks. Eventually the coach stopped, his two mates reappeared and got back on the bus with their arms full of bagsā¦we realised all the circling had just been killing time while his mates did their shopping!
The toilet on the coach was unavailable, and Mrs Z spent an uncomfortable last hour of the journey busting for a wee. We eventually pulled into the grim Saravevo bus terminal and darted for the station cafe to find a toilet. She politely asked the lady working in there if she could use it, who responded by shouting at her. It was so unexpected that she burst into tears and Iāll never forget the "youāve brought me here on holiday?" look she shot me. Fortunately it picked up after that and we had a great time.
It could have been worse. You could have been going to Banja Luka!
Suddenly reading about the frequent December fog/smog in Sarajevo and the resulting flight cancellationsā¦
It quite regularly tops the air pollution index for the entire globe.
Balkans in general really bad for this. Beograd and Skopje are often not far behind.
@McDonut ok first question out of⦠several?
Do I need to bring a bunch of cash? If so, convertible marks or euros?
Iād be surprised if you could get your hands on Bosnian KM before travel.
Euros could be useful - some places accept them as the currency is, technically, pegged to the euro as an inheritance from being pegged to the Deutschmark previously. If they do it should be a straight 2km to 1eur conversion
If you want to convert currency in the country you need a āmjenjaÄnicaā. If you have some KM left at the end of a trip itās probably worth doing it there as Balkan currencies make UK exchanges nervous
I tend to just withdraw a large amount from an ATM though. Try not to do that at the airport as the rates will be worse.
The bus from the airport accepts euros, or at least certainly did the last time I was there.
Yeah, it looks like KM are a scarce quantity around here. Weāll bring some euros we have lying around and take some cash out when we get there, but wondering how much card readers are used these days?
Otherwise a few other questions:
- Easy to find bakeries with baguette style bread? Comments on grocery shops in general?
- Places to see traditional music, preferably kid friendly and if possible smoke-free?
- Iām a big basketball fan, but it looks like the main teams arenāt playing when weāre there, maybe they have club shops where I could get a t-shirt or a scarf?
- Any other recommendations of any kind?
There are loads of bakeries in Bosnia and the Balkans in general. Iām sure youāll find baguettes. I recommend looking for āsomunā, a special bread of Turkish origin, there are some places that specialise in only that. Otherwise between normal bakeries and supermarket chains Iām sure youāll be fine.
Honestly donāt know about card readers as Iām quite analog! I would guess Sarajevo centre, yes. Further afield it maybe an issue but Iām just not sure.
Briefly searching the Bosnian net for a physical basketball team shop and it looks like there are sometimes āpopupsā of some kind - the one I saw was outside the āSkenderija centarā complex.
Thereās the Art kuÄa sevdaha in the centre which is a cafe and small museum about sevdah, the traditional music of Bosnia. Thatās the only potentially child friendly place I can think of. Smoking is still big in a lot of the Balkans! There may be a cultural program in the city when youāre there so keep an eye out. Also, mention you are interested in it to people you meet and talk to, hosts, hotel workers, shopkeepers etc. Bosnians are very happy when people are interested and sometimes a word of mouth or personal connection will pay dividends with this stuff. I can suggest some artists songs if youāre curious about the music. Iām on holiday but will try and delve into the Bosnian web and see if there are any events if you remind me of your travel dates.
Thereās the war childhood museum which, depending on the age of your children could be worth a visit
If you like cooking, some tour companies do burek cooking classes which could be fun.
Thereās a big fundraising concert on Christmas eve to raise money for flood victims (there was a terrible flood two or three weeks before those in Spain in the Jablanica region) which could be a vibe
Our general policy is if it isnāt wildly inappropriate and they donāt kick us out, our kids are good to go
The wartime child museum is on our list, the Srebrenica one definitely not!
Could be worse; much, much worse, if that monument was in Portugal
We made the mistake of being seduced by the cuteness and low price of our rental flat⦠it is indeed cute but much much higher up the hill than expected (despite being only half a mile from BaÅ”ÄarÅ”ija) and the walk is a bit treacherous in the snow.
Nice! Where did you find it?
At a little Christmas market next to the orthodox cathedral.