Bosnia and Herzegovina

After a 34 hour bus ride, and a walk across the border, I made it home safely, all the way from Bosnia. This mission wasn't an easy one. Even getting to the starting point was a big hassle. I wasn't allowed to leave the country, and the flights were expensive and not frequent. But when we arrived on the location, we encounterd a bigger issue. The lack of trains. 

There is no Google street view in Bosnia, nor are there videos from trains or recent pictures. The biggest part of my research and info came from the sattelite images of the yards. But when we arrived there, all the wagons were abandoned. Bosnia used to be part of a bigger nation called Yugoslavia. When Yugoslavia existed as one nation, the freight traffic flourished, but when it fell apart, everything changed. Trading partners became enemies, and war ensued. When the war was over in 1994, it was a very slow recovery for this country. And to this day, other countries just have no interest in trading with Bosnia via rail.

But fortunately, there was still one permanent connection. A domestic transport from an iron mine, to a steel mill. One train a day, across the country. A few times a week, there were a couple of other trains, too, but not at all on schedule and sometimes in the middle of the night. So we only had one chance each day.  I luckily knew this line, but left it as a final option because it was wasn't easy departing from that place. It had some dark history and the steel plant and the mine are a controversial issue in Bosnia because it is damaging to the health of the locals. They didn't like prying eyes there, and certainly not with cameras. 

But all in all it was a wonderful trip, where we saw and experienced a lot. You will see all of this, in the next video.