Bosnia and Herzegovina

Currency and money

The official currency in Bosnia is the Convertible Mark (KM for short). The value of this is fixed (hence the name Convertible) at 1.951... Marks to the Euro. In practice, although most trading is done in Marks, and you will get Marks from cash machines, Euro notes and coins are almost universally accepted at a rate of 2 to 1 (meaning you get a slight discount for paying in Euros). As a rule of thumb the exchange rates to the Mark are approximately:

• 0.5 Euros
• 0.3 British Pounds
• 0.7 US Dollars
• 0.8 Canadian Dollars
• 0.8 Australian Dollars

Travellers Cheques:

Only carry Euro travellers cheques. You will need to exchange them in banks, where you will incur hefty charges. You are better off carrying cash or credit cards.

Credit and Debit cards:

There is little widespread acceptance of Credit or Debit cards except for high value transactions at places such as hotels or travel agents.

ATM Machines:

Bosnia is not overrun with ATMs, and they are generally attached to banks rather than at remote locations. You should not have any problem finding an ATM in general, and they will accept foreign VISA cards etc. Do not bank on being able to find one at the station or airport however. Luckily the habit of accepting Euros means that you are unlikely to be caught short on arrival.

Language

The population of Bosnia is split between Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs. All of these speak very similar languages which before the fall of Yugoslavia used to be referred to as Serbo-Croat. Latin script is generally used in the Bosnian/Croat areas (including Sarajevo and Mostar), so you should only really have to worry about the Cyrillic alphabet if you venture in the Bosnian Serbia area. Even then, as with Serbia proper, use of the Latin alphabet becomes more widespread by the day

English is spoken fairly widely in Bosnia, as it has been normal to learn it in schools since long before the fall of communism. If you are having trouble communicating in English you may find the odd German or French speaker. In addition, Serbian/Croatian is quite closely related to other Slavic languages, so knowing Russian, or better yet Bulgarian will do you no harm

Shop opening

Shops are typically open from around 9 or 10 in the morning until around 6 at night. They will often be closed on Mondays, and may close for the afternoon on Saturdays. In larger towns and cities there should be no shortage of convenience stores and food outlets open 24 hours (indicated either by 0-24 or Non-Stop on the signs

Tobaconnists seem to be open until around 10pm, but with more limited hours on Sundays and Mondays. They will be pleased to sell you a variety of insanely cheap cigarettes starting from around half a euro for suspicious-looking brands, up to about a euro for brands which will satisfy even the most narrow-minded western tastes. Why not take the opportunity to smoke twice as many and bring death just that little bit closer?

Crime and punishment

Bosnia is in many ways a developing country, and it has a substantial number of extremely poor and desperate people. In such circumstances there is always a risk of comparatively rich people such as travellers being robbed. Exercise a little care, and try to avoid going out alone at night however and you should be fine.

The justice system in Bosnia is reasonably-well established, and in most cases the police force is large enough to counter crime, without being filled with petty officials looking to collect bribes. There is still a slight feel of border country about Bosnia however, possibly thanks to the patrols of troops, which might lead you to be wary of the police. The best way to avoid them is to take care not to be involved either as the perpetrator or victim in any crime.