We Do Adventure

I was forwarded an email today from the British Embassy in Sarajevo. It was about passports. In the interests of efficiency and rationalisation they are grouping certain consular functions together at regional centres. The email assures British residents in Bosnia Herzegovina that “similar mergers have already taken place between Portugal/Spain, and France/Benelux countries and all are working smoothly.” So where are “all passport services” moving to? Perhaps Zagreb, the Croatian capital; or Belgrade, the Serbian capital? No! The logic of proximity and shared borders does not apply here. Then perhaps Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. It shares no border with Bosnia Herzegovina and is within the EU; perhaps that tips things in its favour? Wrong again! Why be bound by any obvious geographical grouping? Portugal and Spain may be neighbours and France and the Benelux bunch a natural cluster but it’s hard to see it any other way than the British Passport office is making a strategic withdra...

This is not a comment on Bosnia or the Bosnian systems of administration that owe much to its communist history. Today we came up against the sharp end of the British system. For reasons too dull and long-winded to explain here we needed to get photocopies of our driving licences authenticated at the British Embassy in Sarajevo. Rowan had phoned ahead to check when and where we needed to arrive, as the Embassy has two sites. We arrived on a crisp, snowy morning after a fairy-tale train ride through a winter-wonderland of Herzegovinan and Bosnian mountains. It was a fantastic start to a day, despite needing to be up early to get the train. If there was any chance that we’d not shaken of our slumbers Her Majesty’s Government was on hand to deliver a rude awakening. It takes less than five minutes to check four photocopies against original documents and apply a stamp indicating their authenticity. For this privilege the Embassy extracted a sum of money in three figures, whether you measur...