Jajce – a beautiful city in Bosnia and Herzegovina was our next travel point. But first we had to get there .. We were at Lake Balaton in Hungary.
Morning
In the morning after waking up, the children shouted to us that they necessarily want to play in the pool. We agreed. After bathing we ate breakfast, then we went shopping for groceries to Lidl in the town of Keszthely. And on the way!
Route to Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ahead of us, two and a half hours on the way to get to the Hungarian-Croatian border. The route led us through local roads, so we drove quite slowly due to speed limits. We crossed the border in Barcs city. The border crossing was a bridge on the Drawa River. The first passport control on our trip awaited us here because Croatia is not part of the Schengen zone and you cannot just travel from one country to another.
That day we planned to cross the border twice. The first crossing is behind us, and the next is the Croatian-Bosnian border. We crossed the second border in the town of Stara Gradiska, where the border crossing is on the bridge over the Sawa River. We entered Croatia smoothly, crossing the next border was a bit longer challenge. The bridge was in traffic jam, which discharged after crossing the border.
In Laktasi we stopped for a moment to get the local currency from the ATM and prepare for expenses in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The currency there is Bosnian Mark (convertible mark) with a rate of approximately 1 KM equal to 0.5 EUR. The first expense was the purchase of fresh fruits on a roadside stall – including a watermelon, which we remembered because of the unique sweetness. We also refueled the car because in Bosnia petrol is much cheaper than in neighboring countries.
The next town on the route was Banja Luka, and right behind it we entered the canyon of the Vrbas River. And the breathtaking views began.
The route led downhill, along the river, through a serpentine of bends, sections hollowed out in the rocks. It needed attention, but local drivers drove very bravely there. After a while we reached the town of Jajce – the destination of our route that day.
Jajce
There’s a beautiful waterfall on the Pliva River located in Jajce. This place is placed on postcards from Bosnia and Herzegovina very often, so it’s no wonder that it attracts crowds of tourists here. Admission to the terrace at the foot of the waterfall is ticketed, and parking lots are payable in parking meters. It is worth seeing with your own eyes how the water falls from a height of 22 meters.
After seeing the waterfall we went to the campsite in the same town – Autocamp Plivsko Jezero. The campsite is located next to the crystal-clear lake. We have probably never seen such clean water in a lake before.
We spent the evening at the campsite, where we tried Bosnian cuisine. We were surprised by the slow motion of everyone around us. They were in no hurry.
Jajce is also famous for the second attraction – for small wooden water mills. We got there the next morning, this time on foot as part of a walk. Visiting the open-air mills museum is free. The tiny houses that hide the mechanisms of the mills are set up on the river, and a bridge stretches between them. The children wanted to see the inside of each of them with curiosity.
The weather was unusually nice, so we decided to use the bathing spot recommended by the campsite owner. We are talking about a dam on the river, which is connected with the bathing beach. This place is called Kupaliste Brana. It’s amazing. We spent the whole morning in the bath. It’s fun to get something unplanned into your journey.
The route in numbers: 274 km, 5h