BOSNIA
The official languages in the Bosnia and Herzegovina are Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian. In the Republika Srpska you'll see signs in Cyrillic, so a Serbian-English dictionary would be helpful there. A lot of Bosnians, especially the younger generation will speak English. A surprising number of young people will also know at least some German, because Bosnian kids learn German at school. The older generations tended to have studied English, French or German in school. Many Bosnians speak excellent English, but these are professionals and none of them work in hotels, restaurants, bus stations, or drive taxis. Stated positively, every day Bosnians will insist upon buying you coffee and cakes while engaging you in long and deep intellectual discussions, in perfect English. You'll need to learn a little Bosnian to buy a snack at a bakery and tell a taxi driver where you're staying, but this is easy enough. Bosnia and Herzegovina was the 1984 host for the Winter Olympics, and it still takes pride of its winter sports potential. Especially around Sarajevo there are challenging venues. During the war of the 1990s many Olympic venues were severely affected, but at present all is put in place to give the skier a great experience. Close to Sarajevo there are the Bjelasnica, with over 8km of ski trails, the Jahorina (20km) and Igman mountains. Close to Travnik is the Vlasic Mountain with 14km. Other resorts are Blidinje, Vlasenica in the east and Kupres in Western Bosnia. Bjelašnica and Jahorina are also beautiful for hikes during summer.
Cities:
Banja Luka, Banovići, Bihać, Bijeljina, Bosanska Krupa, Brčko, Bugojno, Čapljina, Cazin, Derventa, Doboj, Gračanica, Gradačac, Gradiška, Jajce, Kakanj, Kalesija, Konjic, Kozarska Dubica, Laktaši, Livno, Ljubuški, Lukavac, Maglaj, Modriča, Mostar, Novi Grad, Novi Travnik, Prijedor, Prnjavor, Sanski Most, Sarajevo, Široki Brijeg, Srebrenik, Tešanj, Teslić, Tomislavgrad, Travnik, Trebinje, Tuzla, Velika Kladuša, Visoko, Vitez, Zavidovići, Zenica, Žepče, Živinice, Zvornik
