FOUR COUNTRIES IN ONE DAY II We headed across BiH to Banja Luka and then back into Croatia, Slovenia and onto Italy, with a visit to Trieste in mind. As we drove down the steep incline into the city we were hit by a storm - heavy rain, strong winds and some hail - then spend a bit of time trying to find a place to stop and get our bearings. A very white-knuckled Sam had her first introduction to Italian city traffic with success. Afterwards we were told that even our Italian relations don't drive in Trieste! We eventually got [View Full Entry]

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We decided to make a side trip to Bosnia. We took the crossing into the Serbian part of Bosnia. The bridge right after the border still shows thread marks from the tanks crossing it. It is the only way to cross and it shows the signs of wear and tear. You can see the language difference. There are J's added everywhere. Djeca prelaze ulicu, instead of Deca prelaze ulicu... After about an hour drive we arrived to Bijeljina We met up with 6 other guys from Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Canada and proceeded to a place that was build for [View Full Entry]

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Hello all! As I hope you can tell from the "subject" line I am writing to you from the city of Kozarac... it is absolutely lovely! We are staying at a peace center here run by an absolutely amazing woman. She is a muslim now living in the serbian republic... this area is very unique because it was entirely ethnically cleansed during the war. She was held in a concentration camp in the area... we will be going there tonight. It is certain to be an educational and difficult experience. Yesterday we held our first friendship camp! IT WAS AWESOME! I [View Full Entry]

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As we left Vienna it drizzled rain and during the train trip to Zagreb, through Slovenia, there were spotted showers. We had to change trains a Zudani Most - an interesting little out of the way place where not much happens. We overnighted in Zagreb - the architecture there has a very strong Austrian influence from its time under their rule. We got a bit wet walking to the train in the morning and again we travelled through rain showers on our way to Banja Luka in Bosnia Hercegovnia. Even though it was raining the scenery was spectacular, green lush, deep [View Full Entry]

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Today I finally made it to the Republika Srpska. We visited one of the five PfD buy-off stations and driers in Jezero near Jajce, home to arguably Bosnia's most beautiful lake as well as an ancient castle and Europe's 3rd largest natural waterfall. Time for history/politics lesson: The Dayton Accords, signed in 1995 to end the 3-year war in former Yugoslavia, divided BiH into two entities, the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (which is really two Bosniak-Croat ethnic/geographical regions, Bosnia and Herzegovina), and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska. You can see a map and encyclopedic [View Full Entry]

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Amongst the motivations for extending my tour in Bosnia was that while my TA Soldiers had been most impressed that I had volunteered to come here in the first place, by the end of the last training evening before my departure several of the Balkans veterans were muttering things about my being a “summer tour lightweight”. Having mentioned earlier that Bosnia in summer has lots of weather of the scorching one moment, drenched by rainstorms the next it bears reporting that the winter can be pretty special too. In fact while neither the hottest or coldest place on earth this part [View Full Entry]

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As part of the drawdown of NATO forces in the Balkans a programme of rationalisation of Locally Employed Civilian posts has been going on. Coupled to this the contract for managing facilities at BLMF has been changed leading to many civilian cleaners and laundry operators changing from direct employment by SFOR to working for a UK based contractor. This contractor has profit margins to consider unlike SFOR and so needed to shed further employees. In a nation like this where employment is difficult to find and wages very low working at an SFOR camp is almost like winning the lottery and [View Full Entry]

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Over the past weeks it appears that the Factory Moles have been trying to escape from the confines of BLMF. A random series of trenches emanating from the main building have now circled most of the south western quadrant of the compound. These holes wind about the camp regardless of obstructions before them and it is not uncommon to see decking and walkways that seemed perfectly solid and permanent at nightfall cast aside like matchwood the next day. Later on the holes are filled with sand, which of course is washed away the moment that we have a Bosnia special rainstorm. [View Full Entry]

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Occasionally as part of the job of showing the flag for SFOR and to remind the locals that we are British the UK command structure assigns a band to come out to theatre. As Bosnia has no coastline and there is not deemed to be a need for bunting the Royal Marines Band do not come and we get various Army musicians instead. After the success of the visit from the Royal Signals and Welsh Guards we were assigned a tour from the Band of the Royal Lancers. In a masterful demonstration of the art of shoulder-sloping and buck-passing the Band’s [View Full Entry]

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A gag runs here that those who work within the Factory are a rare species known as “Factory Moles”, because in summer they emerge from the Stygian gloom of the building itself into the incandescent sunlight (which reflects from all the (handily) white surfaces outside) blinking, unable to see for several minutes and a hazard to themselves and traffic. A similar effect happens to those of us from outside when going in as we can see nothing in the dark and walk around with arms outstretched like zombies feeling our way about until the eyes become accustomed. The only way to [View Full Entry]

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