//Day 66 /16-05-22 /Doboj-Banja Luka

As I enjoyed cycling in Bosnia the last week I looked at the possibility to extend my path through Bosnia rather then to head to Croatia. The challenge that cycling the north of Bosnia or return to the coast would require some serious climbing. After some study work on Komoot I found a feasible route direction North allowing me to cycle two additional days in Bosnia. Today I would head to Banja Luka. Bosnia ( full name : Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)) also includes the Republika Srpska, which is home of the Serbs living in BiH, and established as part of the Dayton agreements of 1995. Although Sarajevo is the capital of BiH, Banja Luka is the defacto capital of the Republika Srpska and Bosnian Serbs.

The day after I will cycle to the city Dubica at the Croatian-BiH frontier through the National park Kozare. Both days will require  some climbing, today some 1600 meters, the day after 1200 with one climb to 800 meters, but all manageable… I plotted a route following small roads and passing only small villages. Today I would have to climb 17 small hills, short climbs often above 10%.

Before going to dinner I checked if Black Horse was in good order. Both tires were still perfectly inflated. I had breakfast, packed BH and started cycling, soon climbing number 1 of the 17 hills…as expected a short, steep ascent. Once I reached the top I was out of the city. Untill I reached Banja Luka I would cycle in an rural area. Small roads, often unpaved connecting small villages or a hamlet with a couple of houses. The only people I met farmers on the field or in their tractor riding between fields. Although regularly climbing it was great cycling. Often through a small forest, which was great as today temperatures rose to 31 degrees…..

My only concern was my puncture-anxiety when riding the unpaved roads, but most of the time the surface was soft soil rather then pebbles or stones. As mentioned the only minus point today was that it became really hot….

Most of the time I was cycling parallel to the highway to Banja Luka, 2 times I had to cross the highway, but the traffic on the higwway was so low and and mostly a significant distance away that there was no highway sound to spoil the fun. In the one bigger village/city I bought some lunch. On the road I sometimes passed a small shop to buy some ice cold sugared soft drinks. It was a great cycling day. Black Horse and I easily conquered the sometimes short but vicious climbs and around 15.00 I arrived at the outskirts of Banja Luka.  In the morning I had asked the hotel receptionist if Banja Luka was a nice city. The answer was that is was really beautiful….

Banja Luka has some 150.000 inhabitants. Most of them seem to be living i concrete flats. I followed the “center” sign for some time. Big streets, some traffic, some people,….At the place i saw the most people I asked someone if this was the center which he confirmed. I had expected some nice , busy city center,….although the man had confirmed that I was a the city center It didn’t had any city center feel ; no busy people, visible shops, busy terraces, public transport,….It had a park with some people, a pedestrian steet with some people and some some concrete buildings, one of them I discovered later was a shopping mall , the other stood empty…I found quite fast a hotel. Checked in, put the airco on max (it was really warm outside) and fell asleep to wake up around 17.30. I showered and visited the city….the streets by know where busier, a lot of young people fully dressed , girls heavily maid up, short skirt or skirts with long splits, high heals….boys in costume. All accompanied by people photographing them….The young people directing the photographers on how they wanted to be photographed. Later I learned it was a sort of prom night today…..

I strolled through the center. I could not feel / see any soul in this city. Most of it looked artificial to me. Although there were some terraces it was difficult to identify  a restaurant. The only icecream available was soft ice, which taste reflected perfectly the artificiality of the city…I had supossingly yogurt ice but it tasted as cardboard. I checked Tripadvisor which directed me to a restaurant on a first floor of a non-descript building. I had a dinner of pizza and wrote my post. 

I’m probably exaggerating but I do not think that Banja Luka will become any soon a major tourist destination…..But the ride to the city has been great. I’m sure that the ride away from the city tomorrow morning will be even greater. 

Lessons learned : 

• Doboj hotel receptionists should not be trusted on their tourist savvy. 
• Banja Luka ice cream does not even play in pub-team league. It should be banned.
• Bosnia should really start promoting it self as a cycle destination. 

Song of today : Sleeper in Metropolis - Anne Clark