This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Herzegovina.
A student’s life is not the most active. Thus I like to go for a run once or twice a week. Running keeps me fit and makes me feel healthier and stronger, but most of all after the exercise I feel an incredible surge of energy. Running gives me the opportunity to empty my mind and to listen to the rhythm of my steps and the beating of my heart.
This article was submitted by LISA DRITTENBAS, a traveler in Bosnia.
My friend Yanush and I arrived in the pouring rain one cold, early December day in Mostar. We tried to find a couple of hostels but they were all closed. Finally, we ended up at Hostel Miturno, the last hostel on our list, whose doors were also closed. The nice lady in the shop next door called the hostel manager, Armel, and soon we were comfy in our sleigh beds with a big powerful heater drying our drenched clothes. Although there were only a few guests, Armel was so hospitable.
Belgrade is an ugly city…Jelena dragged me here and there which I had not the slightest idea where in Belgrade, which I found to be big, ugly, dirty, gray and polluted. I stealthily looked at almost every Serb who crossed my path to find something, something to explain the reason for my disdain.
No matter how hard I looked, I could not discover anything new, and yet I kept recalling old memories. Hearing the familiar Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/Serbo-Croatian language made me deliriously happy. The Croats, Bosniaks, and the Serbs speak as if they are singing. When I hear them talk, I feel I can see a river flow. Everybody from old to young, from the capital to the countryside speak loud and clear as how a language should be spoken, especially for a foreigner because you are assured that if you try hard enough, someday you will understand. I looked at men, women, at the way they looked and dressed and turned to Jelena. “You are no different from the Bosniaks in Sarajevo.” “No, we don’t.” She replied.
“Life is what happens when you are making other plans.” – John Lennon
Do you plan your life to the minute details of how it should be? Most Americans will tell you yes, thanks to all those bargain-on-the-shelf, flying-off-the-chart pop psychology, self-development books like how to organizing your life in 30 minutes, life skills for dummies, etc. and etc. Your school counselors grill you about your life plan: how do you imagine your life five or ten years from now? Heck! Job interviewers interrogate you about your professional outlook to know what you see yourself doing before letting you dig into their 401K. A former boyfriend of my high-school friend told her the age marks when he would buy his first car, mortgage his first house, get a wife.
This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Mostar, Herzegovina.
Trebinje is a city in the far south of Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of Republika Srpska entity. Only 10km from the Adriatic Sea and 24 km by road to the jewel of Dubrovnik makes it a perfect day trip from there. It is a little bit longer by bus from Mostar for those who want to start the excursion from there.
This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Mostar, Herzegovina.
People in the Balkan love football, and Bosnia is no exception. They play, watch and support big clubs from the English Premier League and then fight about it. There have been several occasions when I was not allowed to leave my house in Mostar because the city’s rival teams were playing against each other resulting in riots after the game. Local people say that it has less to do with the match than the temperamental Balkans who need to burst.
This tip was submitted by BELEN, a foreign student studying in Sarajevo.
The best way to get to Sarajevo is by plane. There are daily flights from a few European airports for example Franz Josef Strauss Airport in Munich or Vienna International Airport in Austria. If you are departing from another European city, you will have to book a flight which stops at one of these cities. It’s also possible via Budapest, in Hungary.
I arrived in Zurich by train from Feldkirch, Austria quite early in the morning and had almost half a day until my bus back to Prague would depart. Three days ago, I took an overnight bus from Prague to Zurich, hopped on a train from Zurich to Feldkirch Austria, my base to visit Liechtenstein. I quickly stored my backpack at the train station and inquired about the free bike service. Yup, you could rent a bike for free in one of the most expensive cities in Europe. Perhaps the city wants to encourage people to switch to bike and free the streets of cars, attract more tourists or experiment different method of advertising.
Banja Luka is the capital of Republika Srpska, one of the two entities of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As you can see from the name, the population of Republika Srpska consists of mainly Bosnian Serbs versus Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats from the Federation. Banja Luka has around 200,000 people, making it the second biggest city, after Sarajevo. Over the past year, I have visited a lot of places in the Federation, but I have never properly been in the Republika Srpska. Thus I was curious to go there and see whether it would be any different from the Federation. I know that I should visit the entire entity to come to a clear conclusion, but I don’t have the opportunity to do that–and nobody ever will see something in its entirety–so I thought the capital was a good place to start.
While researching for the trip, I found a travel forum that suggested biking in Liechtenstein. When I stayed in Feldkirch, Austria, a city located on the border with Switzerland and Liechtenstein, I checked with other people about biking to Liechtenstein from here but got talked down. Tourists at the hostel where I was staying all took the bus to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. At first, I didn’t want to go. My overeaten-breakfast stomach and discouraging comments from other hostelers almost convinced me to buy a day pass and hop on the Liechtenstein bus to enjoy a smooth ride. Thank god my curiosity got over my laziness, and I took bus no.2 to Hotel Gasthof Löwen to rent a bicycle. (www.hotel-loewen.at)
My name is Cindy, also rhymes with travel junkie. A friend said I was probably a gipsy in my previous life. One of my many secret missions in life is to convert you to run off every once in awhile.
