Good News from Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦 This Week.
It is very easy, in this country, to be drawn towards the difficult stories.
Politics, division, bureaucracy and frustration are never very far away. But this week I found myself looking in the other direction, because there have been some genuinely encouraging moments worth celebrating.
One of those has been football.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national team, the Dragons, may have bowed out of the World Cup, but reaching the knockout stage was an achievement that few people here will forget in a hurry. For a country of just over three million people, competing with some of the world’s footballing giants and earning a place in the last 32 was something to be proud of.
I know football is never just football here.
It carries pride, identity, memory, frustration and hope. Results matter, of course, and there will be disappointment that the journey has come to an end. But for a few weeks, people across the country had something to cheer together. Cafés filled, conversations turned to team selections rather than politics, and the Dragons reminded everyone that Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs on the world stage.
For a country so often viewed through the lens of its past or its problems, moments like these matter. They don’t solve anything overnight, but they do remind people, both here and abroad, that there is another side to Bosnia and Herzegovina, resilient, passionate and capable of inspiring genuine pride.
This video (a remix of a song from a years back) became synonymous with the competition here. 👇
Top Tip - Switch on the Captions to get lyrics in YOUR language
There was encouraging news for tourism too. The Sarajevo Canton Tourism Board suggested that the national team’s World Cup success could help position Bosnia and Herzegovina as a more attractive destination for foreign visitors. That makes perfect sense to me. Every time Bosnia appears positively on the international stage, someone somewhere thinks, “Actually, I’d quite like to visit there.”
Away from football, there was a lovely mountain story as well. The 10th Vučko Trail took place on Bjelašnica and Visočica, bringing together more than 1,000 runners from 27 countries. The routes passed through mountain landscapes, traditional villages, historic sites and areas connected with stećci, the medieval tombstones that are such a special part of this country’s heritage.
For me, that is exactly the sort of Bosnia story that deserves more attention: nature, endurance, community, and people discovering the country by actually moving through it.
There was also practical good news for local producers, with the EU lifting its ban on chicken meat imports from Bosnia and Herzegovina after restrictions linked to bird flu. It might not sound glamorous, but it matters. These are real businesses, real jobs, and real families behind those headlines.
And then there was recognition for the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which received an international award for financial stability work. Again, not the kind of story that will stop people scrolling, perhaps, but still important. It is a reminder that behind the noise, there are professionals and institutions here doing serious work.
There was also something heartening from Sarajevo, where the long-running “BiH and Nippon” judo tournament was held again, bringing together young athletes and marking friendship between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Japan.
So yes, there are always problems here.
But there are also runners crossing mountains, young athletes learning discipline, producers getting back into export markets, footballers making history, and people around the world being reminded that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not just a place of old headlines.
🎧 The Podcast.
Across Bosnia and Herzegovina, temperatures are pushing towards 40°C, orange weather warnings have been issued, and daily life is being reshaped by heat, fire risk, water worries, and pressure on local services.
In this reflective episode, I look at how the current heatwave is affecting communities across the country, from the landfill fire near Mostar and forest fires in Blidinje, to the quieter but very real pressures felt in rural areas like Laktaši.
This is not just a story about weather. It is about village life, public services, Bosnia’s complicated administrative structure, rural vulnerability, neighbourly care, and the practical realities of living through extreme heat in a country where local connection still matters.
It is also a reminder that extreme weather shows us where the cracks are, but also what still holds.
📸 Seen This Week.
Tamara has been making Baklava this week.
There are some things here that are never just food, and Baklava is one of them. It carries family, memory, patience, and the quiet skill of making something properly.
Sometimes the real story of Bosnia is not found in speeches or statistics, but in the kitchen.
🎙️ The Sound of Bosnia.
The other night across northern Bosnia, the weather finally broke.
After days of heavy heat, the kind that seems to sit on the house, the garden, the dogs and your own shoulders, the thunderstorm arrived. I had hoped to capture it as a timelapse, but like so many creative plans, it didn’t quite come out as expected.
What I did manage to record, though, was something much more intimate: A 17-minute soundscape of rain, thunder, and the atmosphere changing over our little corner of rural Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Here’s a snippet:
Across the country, the heat had been building.
Weather reports had warned of high temperatures, unstable air, sudden storms, heavy showers, strong gusts of wind and even hail in some places. It was that familiar summer pattern here: days of fierce heat, then the sky begins to shift, the pressure changes, the air turns restless, and suddenly the storm arrives.
At home, our three dogs reacted in their own ways. Two of them were completely unbothered, as if thunder was just another background noise of village life. But the tiniest one, Fibi, does get worried when the storms come.
So while the rain fell and the thunder rolled, I cuddled up with her and kept her close.
And she was good as gold.
This soundscape is not dramatic in the polished sense. It is simply a real moment from a real night in Bosnia: the rain on and around the house, the rumble of thunder, the feeling of the heat finally lifting, and a small frightened dog finding comfort beside me.
To be honest, we enjoyed both the rain and the rapid drop in temperature.
Sometimes a recording does not capture what you planned.
Sometimes it captures something better.
🏡 From the Garden
This week, I managed to capture one of those small sounds of summer that can easily pass you by if you’re not listening carefully.
The Golden Oriole is here in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the warmer months, but it is a bird you are far more likely to hear than see. Even the male, with his bright yellow feathers, tends to stay hidden high in the trees.
For me, that makes the sound even more special. Somewhere above the garden, out of sight, there it was, that clear, liquid, almost tropical call drifting through the morning air.
I’ve added a short audio snippet below, so you can hear a little of what I heard.
🇬🇧 Another Brit in Bosnia
The Mayor of London is “round our manor”
🗺️ A Place Worth Knowing About.
This week, I’m taking you briefly to Lukomir.
It’s only a short introduction, but I wanted to share it because the drone footage really does speak for itself. From above, you get a sense of the scale of the mountains, the isolation of the village, and the quiet beauty of a place that feels very much part of old Bosnia.
Lukomir is not somewhere to rush through. It is stone houses, mountain air, wide skies, and a way of life shaped by altitude, weather and tradition.
I hope this short video gives you a little window into one of the most remarkable places in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
👇 Watch the Lukomir video here.
💬 A Question.
“What small moment made you stop and smile this week?”