We know Bosnia and Herzegovina only by our stay in Neum town, where we spent several days.

    It is a tiny piece of land, where Bosnia and Herzegovina has an access to the Adriatic Sea. Neum is situated about 65 km from Dubrovnik in extremely picturesque part of the coast. It is called the town of hotels and guesthouses by numerous tourists – in fact there is not much places to visit there. The major advantage are the beaches, where the visitors may be encountered from the early morning hours.  

    During the summer season, around the noon, it is very difficult to find a piece of unoccupied beach; however there are several beaches and you need to walk through some of them to find an interesting place, where you may rest and relax. While during the day you may lay on the rocky beach, getting the intensive suntan, thanks to an extraordinary intense sun, at evening Neum transforms into a great discotheque. At the main road, stretching along the costal line of the town, the vibrating with life cafés emerge, that are crowded with tourists. Until the late hours you may sit in the pub, eat the local delicacies and listen to local music, performed live. These rhythms are called “flop” – that are typical Croatian folk-songs, here mixed with the Bosnian folklore.

    We stayed at Sunce Hotel. Here, we need to present some of our observations and remarks, which we find interesting. The Hotel is very old, but its standard deserves for numerous compliments, ranging from the room furnishings, kind service to the meals. The view, if your room is located on the side of the Sea, is beautiful, it covers a major part of the whole town with its attractions. Looking out from the balcony at night, you may really feel the life pulse of this place. Then, the town wakes up, full of lights, neons, glittering torches, the last sun beams at the horizon, singing, music, rumble of thousands of tourists. It makes an amazing impression. The rooms have large balconies. In architectural terms, the hotel makes an impression, as if it would be prepared for any military attacks from the land, sea or air. Although the balcony is 2.5 meter wide, a half of its area is occupied by a flowerbed, where flowers and shrubs of various sizes grow. It is very interesting – we saw a similar architectural phenomenon in Croatian Topusko, with the one difference- the ground barrier was not as big as here. The only one justified explanation is an attraction in a form of properly kept flora at the balcony, but is it the only reason? It may seems, that the balconies with the flowerbeds are designed in such way in order to protect the hotel rooms against the firing – even quite large bullets would not break through them. It may seems funny, but as we look back into the history, we would find that this hotel was the main resort of the Soviet dignitaries and high officials from the friendly countries. Safety at first. The second use of such type of balconies is the possibility of moving throughout the whole hotel complex, without being noticed. Each morning, a man with a posture of a warrior with a snake was walking through balconies and watering the flowerbeds. Sometimes the lady appeared, who was cultivating the plants growing in the flowerbeds. Disadvantages of such balconies are little animals living in the ground, which may sometimes go out of their places in order to ‘walk’ through the hotel rooms and lack of 100% of privacy.

    In the hotel restaurant aged and gallant waiters, who have command of almost all Slavonic and other languages, are always helpful. They know everything about everyone, sometimes they even ask discretely about details of your stay, how was your day or how it began. It is not interfering, it is rather the way these people are – at least we did not mind at all.

    Usually you don’t need to present your passport in Neum in order to cross the border, the foreigners are welcomed kindly there. We will remember our visit there very pleasantly; it is worth to stay here for one or two days to feel the climate of this place.