I will be going to Bosnia and Herzegovina. What should I know before I go there?

I will be going to Bosnia and Herzegovina. What should I know before I go there?

what do u wanna know? Also, what r you planning on doing, where are you from etc.?

Going on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje from the UK. its not a place im too familiar with in terms of history or politics. just about culture really.

I take it you're catholic then? In that case u should have no issues in medjugorje, it's mostly English-speaking foreigners there anyway. The country has three official religious groups (orthodox, catholic and muslim), but they're all essentially the same people. Culture is more or less what you could expect on the Balkans (a mix of eastern and western Europe with Turkish influence), but way more 'westernized' than, say, Bulgaria, Romania or even Greece, as Yugoslavia was never one of the Soviet states, nor did it lean too far East (e.g. Turkey etc). People are usually friendly, food and booze are dirt cheap, nature is nice (if you're into that), but what will probably strike you at some point is the discrepancy between the wealthy and the rest. You could see enormous private mansions but shitty public transportation, roads etc. Just ask away, I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities (since I'm from there anyway)

You MUST eat chivapičiči. Its the best food you will ever have!
Also pitta

You mean burek

What's the political climate like? Is it a generally safe place to live in terms of relatively low violent crime rates?

>low crime rates
Every 10th person you meet there is probably selling marijuana.
Bosnia is just an oversized village composed of Serbs and Croats.

Political climate is so-so, and by that I mean that the country is divided into two more or less autonomous regions and each sticks to the tried and true right-wing nationalism. On the other hand, anyone rarely ever bothers foreigners, on the contrary, we try to display ourselves in better light in front of tourists so we just quarrel with each-other. It always depends on who you're talking to, of course, and you will get different versions of history and who-did-what in the war in the '90s depending on who you ask. Catholics blame the Muslims and the Serbs, Muslims blame the Croats (Catholic) and Serbs (Orthodox) and Serbs blame the other two. So if they start telling you about war just nod your head and then go and read shit for yourself, cuz you won't get an objective version from the people anyhow. That being said, the new generation of youth seems to see shit more clearly and is slowly rejecting these nationalist divisions as well as the war-time rhetoric so, one can hope eh? :)
There is still a good deal of homophobia and the stance on women's rights tends to vary depending on who you ask.

Violent crime rates. Robberies, assaults, rapes, murders, anything like that. And the political climate?

Girls?

He said "low VIOLENT crime rates".
Also, this. Don't ask any muslims if they're Serbian or Croatian, since they will get really butthurt and say they're "Bosniaks" which is a made up ethnic group.

Also, speaking of crime rate, I think you'll be all right. Crime is often related to personal squabbles, as in, neigbour kills neighbour over land disagreement or stuff like that. Our police is corrupt as fuck (not as bad as Russians though) but if there is one thing that can be said is that they are brutal to criminals so gangsters are generally shit scared of the cops, xcept if we're talking white collar crime, of course.

>implying that selling marijuana is a horrible crime
And I've never tried weed, nor I support it's legalization, but on the other hand, there are no massive terrorist attacks nor anything similar there.
Our politicians are doing the real crime, but we are not discussing that here.
I live there and I feel more safe there, than when I go to some European city.

Seriously. I think in next 5 years, it will be more safe to live in Balkans than in western Europe, not because we are super developed or something, but because we are lucky and not so interesting to terrorists and immigrants.

This!

If you go to any of these ragtag bars, steer away from rednecks. Easy to spot, shaved head, thick gold chains around the neck, drives an SUV and generally large (fat or buff) and remind somewhat of Shrek

Well, in a nation where the three main religions are Catholic, I'm assuming Eastern Orthodox, and Muslim, it's no surprise the climate is a bit hard on homosexuals and women.

Just go to some club, talk in English and say where are you from. You'll get laid in no time. Most beautiful girls are Slavic and especially South Slavic girls in my opinion.

Balkans are closer to kebabs. If a war starts they're the first to fall.

Well, we have a saying in my town that the best penis is a foreign one so you should have no trouble with girls. Do not, however, think of them as docile, submissive eastern women because some of them can really fight. The whole region has been through hardship for the past 100-150 years or so, so the people are quite a proud bunch. Just take a friend with u in case u need a translator :D
And be careful not to hit on someone's girlfriend due to the prevalent macho attitude as the guys don't look kindly to that.

to the UK guy, here's my e-mail if you need more info and if you need some guidance once you're in the country (i'm abroad atm but I can help with info and contacts)
[email protected]

Balkans is not only close to kebabs, it HAS kebabs in it, and especially Bosnia, but these kebabs are not like kebabs in middle east. Kebabs in middle east always hated America and NATO, cause they know what they are doing to them.

These kebabs had an army that fought for Hitler against Partisans and Chetniks and later in this last war, were controlled by Alija who was directly controlled by NATO.
If these kebabs take a terrorist side or something this time, they'll disappear in no time and they know that.

Sure, it's closer to middle east, but it's not likely that it'll work like that. They immigrate to western Europe more and more and it'll completely destabilize it over time. In my opinion, I think that they'll concentrate on destroying these nations first. After that, we'll be next on the list, but I don't think that we are going to be first. Of course it's too early to talk about that (I HOPE SO).

CIA World Factbook would probably have statistics if that's what you're looking for.

Ama OP
I live in Bosnia,also which cities do you plan to visit?