SARAJEVO - In Your Pocket

6 BasiCs
Learn about the facts and figures, the habits and attitudes
of people and a little bit of Bosanski for a full filling time in
Sarajevo.
Disabled travellers
Bigger shopping centeres in the city offer disabled facilities,
including toilets and so does the main post office in the centre
of the city. Pedestrian crossings in the city have dropped
kerbs, and large intersections in the centre are equipped
with sound signalling systems. Most restaurants and cafés
are inaccessible to disabled patrons, and hardly any offer
toilet facilities for the disabled.
Money & Exchange
The Bosnian currency is the Convertible Mark (KM), which
was introduced in 1998. Coins come in the following
denominations: 0.05, 0.10 0.20, 0.50, 1, 2 and 5. Banknotes
come in denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200. Since
11 October 2001 the Convertible Mark has been tied to the
Euro at a rate of €0.51129 = KM1
You can change money at banks or any post office. The
differences in exchange rates are negligible. Most banks in
Sarajevo will change travellers cheques, American Express,
Thomas Cook, VISA and Eurocheques. Western Union money
transfers from abroad can be collected from the post office
and most banks.
You can find ATMs of the major banks present in the country
all over the city. Cards widely acceptable in Sarajevo are
VISA, VISA Electron, MasterCard, Maestro, Diners Club
and American Express. You can buy almost all goods and
services with credit cards. You will need cash for green
markets, some small shops and bars, kiosks, parking fees
and taxis.
Basic data
Country’s population: 4,590,310 (July 2008) (48 %
Bosniaks, 37.1 % Serbs, 14.3 % Croats and 0.6 % others)
Sarajevo’s population: 402,000
Surface: Total 51,209km2
Longest river: Drina, 346km
Highest mountain peak: Maglic, 2386m
Land boundaries: 1,459
Borders with adjoining country: Montenegro
- 225km, Croatia - 932km, Serbia - 302km
Politics:
Bosnia and Herzegovina is an emerging federal democratic
republic. The Council of Ministers of BiH is the
head of government.
Date of next local elections: General Elections in 2010.
Members of the Presidency: Haris Silajdzic, Zeljko Komsic
and Nebojsa Radmanovic
Chairman of the Council of Ministers: Nikola Spiric
Governing party: multi-party system
Local time:
Sarajevo is in the Central European Time Zone: GMT + 1
hours (in winter), GMT + 2 during daylight saving time.
sarajevo.inyourpocket.com
Price Level
McDonald’s Big Mac
(There is no McDonald’s restaurant in Sarajevo or BiH
for that matter)
Loaf of white bread 0.90 KM
Snickers bar 1 KM
Litre of vodka 15 KM
Bottle of local beer (1/2 liter) 1.15 KM
Pack of Marlboros 3.30 KM
Public transport ticket 1.80 KM
Roll of Kodak 200 speed film,
24 exposures 2 KM
Security
Touch wood, Sarajevo is a safe and secure city, a million
miles away from its wartime past. Bosnian people are
welcoming, friendly to and tolerant of foreigners - they’ve
had thousands of them in their country for fifteen years - and
it’s an engagingly safe place. Taxis are cheap, women walk
home, the city-centre and environs are friendly and largely
secure. Outside of some of its more deprived and isolated
suburbs and quarters, Sarajevo is one of the safest cities in
Europe. Obviously, normal, basic safety precautions should
be observed, but, for instance, any fights in or outside pubs,
bars and clubs are extremely rare.
The occasional presence on the streets of Roma exploiting
their children as begging accoutrements is an unavoidable
let-down common everywhere in the region - except in Kosovo
where they are still largely too afraid of violence to leave their
settlements. Best not to give them money - it goes not to
their well-being but their parents’ grubby pockets. And on the
other end of the spectrum, the vibrant organized crime scene
in Bosnia means that some real organized gang violence is
mostly confined to the occasional shooting and car-bombing
in the cities’ suburbs.
Smoking
In terms of smoking, it is safest, as with bars, to assume
that everywhere you will visit in Sarajevo is a smoking zone,
be it bars, restaurants, cafes, clubs or hotels, except where
very strictly classified otherwise. This reviewer, for instance,
once watched all three female staff at a health-club smoke
while on-duty. A very high percentage of Bosnians smoke,
both men and women, and a great deal of teenagers too.
Despite vague and inaudible efforts to adhere to forthcoming
EU policy once Bosnia eventually joins the Union, the idea of
not being able to smoke anywhere in Bosnia would, rather
nicely, be considered sacrilegious by much of its population.
It is perfectly common to see people smoking in restaurants
while others are eating at the same table, many people
smoke half-way through a course, and the whole country is
delightfully free of the smoking regulations so common in
much of the rest of Europe and North America.
National holidays
January 1 - New Year, (all offices closed)
March 1 - Independence day (all offices closed - only in
Federation of BiH)
May 1 - International Labor Day (all offices and majority
of businesses closed)
November 25 - National day (all offices closed)
Sarajevo In Your Pocket sarajevo.inyourpocket.com