183 Political Parties. However, only eight are visible. People vote largely along ethnic lines, and politicians are constantly re-elected even amidst intense discontent.
1.95 Convertible Marks (KM) to the Euro. It’s a fixed exchange rate. This means the country has little to no power over monetary policy.
2 Entities: The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina & Republika Srpska. Each has its own parliamentary system. The entity system was created after the Bosnian War by the Dayton Agreement, signed on December 14, 1995. The Dayton Accords now serve as Bosnia’s constitution, with the dual parliamentary system dividing the country along ethnic lines.
800 KM: a standard bribe to ensure a doctor’s attention while giving birth.
3 Ethnic Groups: Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs, and Catholic Croats. They fought brutally in the Bosnian War from 1992-1995, and now live in what we observe to be a strained coexistence.
80 percent of young people would leave Bosnia the second they got the chance, according to polls by the National Democratic Institute.
1425 days of the siege of Sarajevo.
60 percent unemployment rate among youth.
1500 Bosnian Jews are barred from public office by the ethnic-based system of government.
0.8 KM: the price of Sarejevsko beer.
1984: the year Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics.
217 :the number of pictures we’ve taken of the Dinaric Alps surrounding the city.
20 years have passed since the Srebrenica genocide, when more than 7,000 Bosniaks were killed and 20,000 were expelled from the area. Serbian War criminals are now being tried at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
40 floors make up in the Avaz tower – the second-tallest building in the Balkans.
40 million euros: the amount of money that Balkan governments have spent defending war criminals at The Hague.
41 goals: The total tally scored by Edin Džeko, a world-class forward for Manchester City and the captain of the Bosnian National Soccer team.
3.8 million citizens make up Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the most fascinating and confusing countries we have ever visited.
