We Do Adventure

We're back from our holiday and back to work. While our work is based in Bosnia and this blog is for the most part dedicated to given an alternative glimpse into life in Bosnia and Herzegovina we're going to allow this post to talk about the neighbours: in this case, Croatia. After a week on the beautiful Zlatni rat beach near Bol, on the island of Brac, it seems a good time to promote a bit of regional tourism. Remembering that we once posted a video from the BiH Tourist Board I went searching on YouTube to see if I could turn up something similar for Croatia. I found this. There are too reasons to love this fancy little 30-second clip: the American voice-over and the fact that it opens with a superb we-were-there shot - enjoy!

Our summer activities are over; our summer holiday is just a little way ahead, around the corner. For the young people we've been working with this summer, yesterday's highlight was probably the water slide at Aquana, in Banja Luka. Either that or the opportunity to tease me, a Spurs supporter, about Dzeko's four goals for Manchester City at the weekend. In the interests of impartiality I left a bit of both in the video. We now have a month before we resume Novi Most courses and activities here in Jajce. I probably don't need to point out that is not the same as a month's holiday but, there, I did anyway! Our holiday is booked for later in the month. My only concern is that although the sunshine and the temperature yesterday spoke clearly of summer still being here the trees on the drive back had definitely decided autumn is on its way. Give it a couple of weeks and who know where we'll be. Well, we know where we'll be; we just hope the good weather w...

It's a sad fact that most news stories about Bosnia and Herzegovina that make English language news sites tend not to be happy ones. The article from this week's Economist that landed in my Facebook inbox this week would be a good example. While I don't believe you, me or the international community at large should ignore the issues this kind of journalism highlights it is important to offer proof of the positives of this place. As an example of this I present this quote from an article a friend posted on my Facebook wall last night. “ The country described sometimes as the heart between the mouths of two lions, hosts one of the two greatest tracks of primeval forests in Europe, unmatched biodiversity, daunting mountain faces yet to be climbed, deep gorges yet to be traversed, wild rivers with water so pure you can cup your hand to drink, some of the highest concentrations of wildlife, and perhaps the last highland tribes of semi-nomadic peoples on the continent. In ma...

This is tomorrow here is Bosnia and Herzegovina. What's it all about? Google it! I say that because I don't want to appear either ill-informed or insensitive and I know enough to know there are different opinions about the day. Are such disagreements so surprising? Let me avoid any deep issues and give my less-than-totally-serious answer. Things surprise me less and less but I think, in a way, this is surprising. In the UK people don't seem to care what a Bank Holiday is for, just that it's a day off work. For example, I'm sure it's that inherent laziness, rather than deep-seated English pride, that fuels the annual call for St George's Day to get added to the list national days off. Here, it seems, people are perhaps more principled. Anyway I post this picture for the friend who was really excited when we saw this sign during a Sunday afternoon stroll through her town centre.