First impressions of BOSNIA – It’s NOT what you Think!

First impressions of BOSNIA – It’s NOT what you Think!

What do you think of it so far, mate? When 
you hear Bosnia, what comes to mind? For many, it’s images of the ’90s war and the siege of 
Sarajevo. But what’s it really like today for travelers? Is it safe? How are the locals? 
And what about the food and beer? On our first week here, we explored Sarajevo, drove 
into the mountains, and hiked to Lukomir, Bosnia’s most remote village. Stick around 
for our first impressions and one of the most genuine local encounters we’ve ever 
experienced. Good morning, friends. It’s bright and early. It’s only just gone 7 a.m. 
And this is a great day. Nigel returns today. Yeah, baby. It’s 3:00 in the 
morning. Heading on break. Welcome to Sarajevo. Here we go. I got to figure 
out where these taxis are. I think there’s one there. Sue’s been raving about this place. We 
were here 2018. We only had one day here. So, as jet lagged as I am, I’m getting 
pretty excited. So, like there’s one, two, three, four taxis here and but no, no 
drivers in. Here we go. We found a driver. We will come. We made it. Oh, yeah. There 
to the right. Okay. Yeah, there’s the van. Hello. This is an interesting one where you pay 
for bags. He’s here. Hello. Bit tired. We’re a bit pissed off cuz the taxi driver just ripped 
us off. Tired. Tired and grumpy. Yeah. Yeah. 50 marks to come from the airport. I came from 
Ilidza, which is right next to the airport, and it cost me 10 marks. Cuz when you said you 
heard heard the um the planes from here. Yeah. And I’m thinking €25 doesn’t really stack up. He 
didn’t have a meter. I’m kind of jetlagged. What am I going to do? Well, I know it’s not like 
you can’t pay him now. He’s here. But yeah, that was a complete ripoff. So, that is 
not a great first impression for Nigel of Bosnia and Sarajevo. I just wanted to get 
here. Yeah, I know you’re here. It’s Look, what do we say? You can always make more money. 
We’re about to make our way into Sarajevo. Nigel has been here for about 5 hours. Little wink of 
sleep, sadly. So now we’re kind of rushing to get to the train station. The train only goes every 
couple of hours. Now you would think that’s where you wait for the train over where the building is 
and the chairs, but uh-uh. So you got to hail the bus. So you got to hail the train. That’s where 
we catch the train there. So here comes the train. So, a conductor comes around and sells you the 
ticket. It’s really cool how they do it. He writes the little ticket and gives you the carbon copy. 
Bit OF, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s like totally Look, there’s like all the different books. Stepping 
back in time here. Yeah, I know. It’s awesome, though. So, two marks and 20 cents. So, that’s 
one way. So that’s about €1 and10. Kind of pretty graffitied. Pretty pretty agricultural. Yeah. 
The actual train station looks really kind of communist though, doesn’t it? It does. It doesn’t 
definitely dates back from the Yugoslavian times. But there’s this high-rise building which is 
called the Well, they call it the Twist Tower. And you can go up to the top of there for a view. 
According to the local guide we did a walking tour with around 50% of the population of Sarajevo is 
Muslim and there are so many mosques around the city. Right. So we’re walking through the center 
of Sarajevo. We’re actually in the eastern part. So this is also known as Bascarcija. Hope I’m 
saying that right. Yeah. Bashia. Yeah. Just like that. Um so this is the old Ottoman part 
of the city. Got this big mosque complex here. Oh, I remember this. Yeah. Yeah. And we’re going 
to obviously do an entire video on Sarajevo and the sights. Today we’re just talking about or not 
mine cuz I’ve been here for 3 weeks. But Nigel’s first impressions. One of the good things about 
this city is that they do have several public toilets around. Just be careful which way you 
go because you might get those toilets instead of these ones. So yeah, there’s public water 
fountains here just on the outside of the mosque. I’m surprised that you’re feeling the heat, Nigel, 
having come just from Saudi where it’s like 45. I’m going to add a bit of jet lag in there as 
well. Yeah. Okay. Kind of feeling the effects of that more than No, it’s actually nice. It’s 
pleasant. It’s good. He wants to drink beer and I’m making him walk through the old town first. 
Ya big meanie. This is like the old caravanserei. It’s cool. It’s a bit packed in here today though. It’s cool, isn’t it? I like that. Beautiful. 
Yeah, it’s gorgeous, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s very nice. I don’t recall this. No, I don’t 
remember this either. I’ve had lunch here. This is the vegetarian plate at Morica Han.. It’s 
such a cool little rabbit warren of streets. Please. Holy crap, Nigel. Look at 
that. It’s massive. It’s bigger than being here. I just got enough food 
there for like the rest of the week. Look at what I’ve got. This is going 
to be so delicious. It’s half a cow now. Well, feel like I barely made a dent in 
that. There was a lot of meat there. That was a big meal. Oh, I don’t eat that much meat 
these days. Mine’s all gone. Nigel did help me. I think we need to go have a beer, though. 
I think we had to wash it down with a beer. So, this is where we had lunch at the Careva 
Cipija. My pronunciation is pretty terrible. I apologize to all Bosnians. There are some 
pretty cool funky bars in the city. We came back to this one a few times, you know, 
just to make sure it was as good as we thought it was. the first time and it was okay 
to recommend it to you friends having a beer. Cheers. Cheers. [Music] This is the bar. 
It’s called La Cava, which I think means the cave. And it’s just around the 
corner. The Latin Bridge is just down that street there. And then the old 
town here just up there. See the minaret. What do you think of it so far, mate? Finally 
making our way back to the railway station. First impressions of the city. Yeah, obviously 
part of it brought back memories from 2018. A lot of it I didn’t recognize. And so 
yeah, now I’m looking forward to tackling uh tomorrow after decent night’s sleep. Yeah, 
so much to see. It’s Yeah. And it was whole good buzz about the place with that festival 
coming up. M So this week the film festival of Sarajevo is on. Good morning friends. This is 
day two. We are going into Sarajevo again today. Right. All right. So, we’re in 
a taxi making our way to Ilidza, which is the closest town where there is 
the trams because it’s Saturday today. The trains don’t run the same time. And what’s 
interesting is I asked the taxi driver how much it was going to be after the ripoff we had 
yesterday with the airport taxi. And he’s got a meter. Yeah. Look at this. There we go. You’re 
a good man. These three of the very nice trams Pay on, do we? Yeah. Ticket for the tram is 220. Two. Cool. [Music] Voila. The tram goes 
along the main road into Sarajevo. During the Bosnian war in the 1990s, this road was 
known as Sniper Alley. We could still see a lot of bullet holes in the buildings. After 
a full day of sightseeing, and we’ll show you the Sarajevo sights in next week’s video, we 
stopped off at the local supermarket to get a few supplies. Nigel wants to send the trolley up 
the elevator for the escalator for the fun of it. No, you don’t go with it. Should put 
a little dog in there. Or, your kid. It’s pretty cool, isn’t it? Love it. So good. Thank you. This store is 
part supermarket, part cafeteria. There’s lots of hot food and salads that are sold 
by weight. We should note that not every supermarket in Bosnia is as fancy as this 
one, though. We’ve filled up our trolley. Now we have to go downstairs to pay. So the 
trolley has to go back down the escalator. So cool. It’s so cool. How good’s this Papua New Guinea coffee? Wow. I’m going to have to get some 
of that. How good is this? Get a bag by weight. We got a 
These two bags of coffee beans cost us around 30 Australian. Good 
morning, Friends. Morning. We’re leaving the campsite at Sarajevo today 
and we’re going to go into the mountains. Nige just taken his chances driving up this road. [Music] Well, we’ve come up a bit of a ways um 
into this funny looking little car park here. Oh my gosh. And we’re right at the ski jump. 
That’s the landing point we’re at. Yeah. So, we’re about Yeah. Like I 
say, you’re about halfway. Very overgrown, isn’t it? Yeah. Well, how 
about we go and put the put the billy on and hopefully this this uh rain will stop 
and we can get the drone up. Exactly. Yeah, that would be good cuz I’d like 
to fly the drone down. Yeah, that would be fun. Sarajevo hosted the Winter 
Olympic Games in 1984, just eight short years before the Bosnian War broke out. Many of the 
Olympic venues sustained damage during the war, and some, like the ski jump, have been 
left in ruins. Bit of a storm on horizon. Yoohoo. All right, time to run away. How’s that 
for timing?. Morning, friends. We might have done a sneaky little stealth camp here 
last night. We’re still right by the ski jump where we stopped yesterday. And it’s 
all misty and beautiful this morning. So, it looks like there’s one, two, three, four, five 
at least who’ve camped down at that bottom car park. Look at the clouds in the mountains. 
But we were alone up here. This was nice. It was very quiet in the night. There was 
a lot of rain, so no visitors during the night. And all the day visitors pretty much 
left by about 4:30 in the afternoon. So, it was super peaceful. We really liked it 
here. We drove higher up into the mountains towards Umoljani, passing ski resorts and 
more reminders of the Olympics. [Music] getting ready today. We are going for a hike 
to Lukomir. I think it’s about 6 km walk from here to Lukomir. Isn’t it the highest uh 
and most authentic village in Bosnia? So, we we just we want to get a taste of um how 
the people in the rural areas and the mountains uh live their lives. We’re hoping to see 
plenty of shepherds tending to their flocks, whether it be goats or sheep. Hopefully sheep. I 
do like my sheep. Yeah, there’s a couple of ways that you can go to Lukomir. can go the way 
the family’s going via OB Oblaj which is up and over that peak. Hello. How are you? But we’re 
going to go directly that way. Have you just come from Lukomir? Yes. How is the walk? Very good. 
Good. Super nice. How long did it take you to get from Lukomir to here? Okay. We might have 
to stop on the way back. Yeah. [Music] [Music] Oh my god. Me filming, Susie filming. Happy 
days. Happy days. 15 minutes. That was the longest 15 minutes ever. Dobar Dan (Hello) Look at that. “Bosanska Kafa – Jedem minute” Okay. Let it sit. Yeah. Bon cafe, Dobra Kafa English, Deutsch, italiano. Non Francais [Music] So I’ve been told. So you take 
you don’t put the sugar in the coffee. You bite a piece of the sugar off and 
then you drink the coffee and kind of melts the sugar in your mouth. Apparently 
that’s the correct way to do Go on then. Salut, you know. Good coffee. Is Lukomir 
an authentic village? Well, I guess maybe apart from the tourists and 
locals selling souvenirs. To be honest, we felt that Umoljani was more authentic where we 
started from, but it was an epic hike and Nigel got to see more sheep on the way back. Here 
we are. We’ve got a uh footpath traffic jam. It’s funny seeing sheep with long tails out there. [Music] Bobovic village over there. [Music] [Music] So there’s just this one sort of bit of nasty and it’s all downhill. It’s 
not Nigel. Stop saying that. I’m in trouble. [Music] Is that how you say drinking or smoking? Drinking. 
Have you got a fiver? Yes, probably. Hold it. Okay. So, we’re just negotiating some uh some tea. 
Okay. Oh, maybe it’s going to make our legs feel better. Make makes legs stronger. Yeah. Good 
for legs. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Lukomir. And back. It’s a long way. By all the way back, well, 
welcome back to the van. Oh my god. Poss!!. Give it a hug. Friends, we are back in Sarajevo. 
We have switched campsite. So, we’re now staying at it’s called Camping Zlatiste. And it’s just 
a small family run campsite here. It’s 46 marks per night, which is about €23. And the best thing 
about this campsite, here’s us, is the view. So, we get this incredible view out over the city of 
Sarajevo. We get to sit out here in the afternoon and have our beers or up on this platform. So, you 
can see all the way across the city through the Love Heart. Can’t quite see the old town. So this 
is the tea that we bought off that lovely old lady um near Umoljani if I pronounce Umoljani. Okay. So 
uh let us check what is inside. Nadja is going to tell us what it is. So you don’t smoke it. No no 
no it’s good. Is it good? It’s good. There inside you have uh it’s like mother soul. Ah there 
is writen. Yeah, I feel it. Uh, kunica. Oh, this is very good for for your whole body. 
When you hurt somewhere, you inside when you are hurt. This name is kunitsa. You drink then 
kunica. When you go some operation and you get infection. Mhm. You drink this one. So good for 
the guts. Yes. It’s good for everything. Kunitsa to save my father. From from the bacteria MRSA. 
Oh wow. Wow. In in the hospital. Yes. He drink a lot and he get away from the merca. But this is 
all original. So she Yeah. From the mountain. She take it. Yes. So you made it hot water. Mhm. Then 
you put in something and around uh 5 minutes that it’s like 5. Yep. And then you keep it somewhere 
and 10 minutes. But put something up and then you drink it. but to remove this one. Perfect. 
Awesome. But but it’s very good. Thank you. So, we’re staying here for the next three nights. Now, 
you can walk into the city from here. It’s about half an hour down a very steep hill, but because 
our legs are still very sore from yesterday, we are actually going to take a taxi. My son Luke has 
come to visit us for a few days, so we introduced him to Bosnian coffee and burek. We’ve just 
bought Luke his first burek. He got a meat burek which of course I don’t eat but smells really 
good and it’s really warm fresh. Let us know. It’s good. It’s good. Cheers. And 
of course the local beer. What do they say here in Bosian? It starts with this slo Senard taught us the other 
day and I can’t remember. “Zivjeli” That’s difficult. Thank you, Senard.

In this episode of our Balkans Road Trip we share our first impressions of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Nigel returns from work and we explore Sarajevo then drive up into the mountains and hike to Lukomir — Bosnia’s most remote village.

We enjoy Bosnian Food, chat with friendly locals, and of course, sample the local beer.

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WHO ARE WE?
We are Nigel and Sue, a couple of outdoor adventurers. After living in a van travelling around Australia for 3.5 years on our big lap, we’ve moved to Europe, bought a new van and we’re now exploring the highlights and hidden gems of this continent. Join us for all the history and culture of Europe along with the day to day realities of living in a van.

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