Gradiška and Banja Luka Bosnia

I know what you're thinking, Bosnia? There was a change in plans and our Bosnia and Croatia weekends were swapped. I would just like to say that I know the country is called Bosnia and Herzegovina, but that it far too long to write over and over, so I'll just call it Bosnia.

So, Friday at 3pm Andrew, MA, José, Cora, Predrag, and I boarded a bus for Gradiška (š = sh). The trip took 7.5 hours, taking us through Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. Thankfully the bus was nice and modern and not full, giving us some room to stretch and sleep. We also had one rest stop somewhere in Slovenia where we played frisbee and I took the photo below. Although it still felt like home we knew we weren't in Kansas anymore.
We arrived in Predrag's home town of Gradiška at 10:30, 30 minutes ahead of schedule because we flew through the borders. We were met by Predrag's half-sister Milana and some of his friends. They took us and our 500lbs of luggage (I brought a normal sized backpack, I don't know why others (Cora) felt the need to bring enough for a week), to a really nice bar where his sister bought us a gigantic pizza (which came with bottles of sweet and spicy ketchup, something common in Eastern Europe) and a round of beer. Like in most Eastern European countries the beer was very cheap and good, around 1€ for 0.5L. From there we went on to a bar with live music. The place was very smoky, but the Serbian music was half decent. I asked Predrag to burn me a CD which I'll bring home at Christmas.

At that point we headed to Predrag's house as it was getting late. We were greeted by his mom and dad. His dad spoke broken German (about as much as I know) so we could communicate alright, but his mom only spoke Serbian, so Predrag had to be our translator. Even though we had just come from a bar and a giant pizza we were quickly offered a beer, a big piece of delicious pineapple cake, and our first shot of home-made plum schnapps (I would guess it was at least 60% alcohol, 1% plum, and 39% fire). By the time I finally got to sleep I was out like a light.

The next morning we had a chance to explore a bit before breakfast. This is Predrag's house, with the separate kitchen building to the right.To celebrate our visit to Bosnia, Predrag's parents killed one of their pigs, which is a big honour. Here is Predrag's dad roasting the pig.
Someone must have been sitting there all day turning it while we visited Banja Luka, because there was no motor, just a wooden pole.As a pre-breakfast snack Predrag picked us some white and black (red) grapes. They were really sweet, and the black ones tasted like artificial grape flavouring, who knew it was actually a real flavour?
Here is Predrag's niece Leo watching us cautiously as we checked out the pig pens.
The pig pens were filled with a bunch of 3 day old piglets. They were really cute, but we had to keep in mind that they were the younger siblings and cousins of supper, not pets.
The fields behind the house were filled with old-fashioned haystacks
After a hearty supper of eggs, chicken, bread, and pita (a mixture of egg and cheese topped with a thin crust) we drove to Banja Luka (Бања Лука), the second largest city in Bosnia, which was about 45 minutes away. On the way we met up with Laslo, our Serbian friend who used to used to work in Wiener Neustadt with Cora, José, and I.

In Banja Luka we stopped for coffee and beer at a bar in Predrag's dorm. The coffee was served in tiny little cups and wasn't very strong. I opted for a Pepsi, which was good but tasted almost nothing like the North American version. The guy between Andrew and MA is Sascha, one of Predrag's roommates.The beer (pivo or пиво) everyone drinks in Bosnia is Nektar, but in most cases you see it written in cursive Cyrillic like below.
Knowing my Greek letters from math and science courses, and receiving a quick crash course from Laslo I was able to read most of the Cyrillic writing, which when translated was usually easily understood. For example try and read the sign below.Mashinski Phakultet Banja Luka = Banja Luka Machining (Mechanical Engineering) Faculty.

After the bar we stopped in to see Predrag's room which he shared with 2 other guys. It was fairly small, but clean, much
nicer than the room we had in Budapest. The floor's bathrooms were pretty sick, just a row of dirty squat toilets. However, he only pays 5€/month so it was understandable, and worth it.

While walking down the street Andrew saw someone he had met in Austria at a conference the weekend before. While they were talking about their random encounter in Banja Luka, Cora, MA, and Laslo tried to balance on one of the a small poles which line the sidewalks. Thanks to my amazing photographic skills it looks like they actually managed it, when in fact they failed miserably.
Throughout Bosnia we saw churches and mosques being built. Many were destroyed or damaged in the recent war or in previous invasions. This Orthodox church with the gold roof was being re-built in the centre of the city where it once stood 100 years ago.
The high-price shopping street with painted plaster buildings reminds you that Bosnia used to be part of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire, and that is is recovering, slowly, from the war.In a large communist-era department store in the center of town we found this Popeye ride.
The Cyrillic street signs just looked really cool. The second line on the yellow part (градишка)
reads Gradiška. This sign also shows the prevalence of English as the international language of tourism, with both airport (aerodrom) and town center (centar) being written in both languages.
We checked out a few markets and walked over to the Kastel fortress. Unfortunately I don't remember much about the history of it, and the Wikipedia (Википедија) article is in Cyrillic Serbian. Either it was built to defend the city against the Ottomans or to protect the Ottomans against other invaders.

Me, Cora, Laslo, Drazen, Predrag, Sascha, Andrew, Ma, JoséParts of the fortress were still in ruins.

Taking a break form all the walking.

Downtown Banja Luka

On the walk back to the cars we passed this church, it looked like something from Expo '67 or the Jetsons.
Banja Luka is the capital of the Republika Srpska, the new (post war) Serbian portion of Bosnia. The government buildings were almost complete, but there were still some very brave construction workers on some very sketchy scaffolding.
We peaked in on a soccer game between FC Radnik from Bijeljina and FC Borac from Banja Luka (I directly translated the names from the poster, so they're probably spelled wrong). We didn't stay long, but it was cool to see.
On the way back to Gradiška we stopped into a restaurant for, you guessed it, a beer. When we finally got back Predrag's mom had made an amazing 3 course dinner with chicken noodle soup, cabbage rolls, pickled peppers, coleslaw, and pork. There was also plenty of bread, beer, and schnapps (surprise, surprise) and more pineapple cake for dessert.

Predrag and Leo

After dinner we just stayed around the table drinking and singing while MA played the guitar. Predrag's dad and friends sang some Serbian songs and we sang some English ones. It was a really fun night which reminded me of hanging out with friends at home.

Sunday morning I wandered around some more. Here are all the nuts they've gathered from the trees on their property. They became our pre-breakfast a few minutes later.
The ugliest bird I've ever seen. It is called a guinea fowl and is used as an alarm for the chicken coop. When scared by a snake or any other predator it apparently screams, alerting the farmer.Here we are eating nuts and pretzels for pre-breakfast. The guy in the white hat is Predrag's older brother.

What's breakfast without some home-made schnapps? For breakfast we had everything from the supper before, again, including the beer. I think I had more alcohol this weekend than I did last month at Oktoberfest! but, when in Rome...A group photo infront of the house right before we left. There were others where everyone is looking into the camera, but I like this one because Predrag's mom is laughing.

We got on the bus to head home at 2:30. Laslo, Drazen, Sascha, Leo, and Predrag stayed to wave goodbye. Predrag was going to stay another day and come back on Monday. The second bus was packed, and the guy I sat beside stank, so I knew it was going to feel like a much longer journey. What I didn't expect was how long we would have to wait at the borders. At the Bosnia-Croatia border and Croatia-Slovenia(EU) border we waited for over an hour, and had to get out of the bus to go through passport control. However, as I was sitting beside a smelly Bulgarian who kept pushing me further into the aisle, I was happy to get out of the bus to show my passport and stretch my legs. The trip ended up being over 9 hours long, but thankfully I caught the last tram home.

I would have to say that this was the best weekend so far. Seeing a country from the perspective of the locals is so much better than being a tourist and living in a hostel. So many people had warned me about Bosnia being a scary impoverished place, but I saw it as a country with a rough history and the desire to change and grow. As it is with all poorer countries I've been to, the people seem nicer and more sociable, with plenty of time to relax with friends and family.

This weekend we're going to Rijeka Croatia by car. While there we're going to hang out with IAESTE Rijeka, hike, and hopefully visit the coast. I'll be sure to take lots of photos for all of you who read this regularily (and never comment).

I've been going over old posts at work and finding lots of gramatical and spelling mistakes, so, if you find one (which many people have) please tell me so I can fix it. For example, in the Oktoberfest post I had written Liederhosen, which Szilvia reminded me means songs-pants, and that she was pretty sure I meant to write lederhosen which means leather-pants.