Can you ever truly live like a local when you move to another country? And after nearly three decades in Bosnia and Herzegovina, am I still a foreigner?

I've been living in Bosnia since 1998. What began as a NATO posting gradually became something I never expected, a marriage, a family life, friendships, and a place I now call home.

But something I recently read about foreigners claiming to live like locals got me thinking.

Does belonging mean speaking the language perfectly, sharing the same financial circumstances as your neighbours, or abandoning the culture you came from? Or is it something much simpler?

In this rather personal episode, recorded outside in my village garden near Laktaši, I reflect on what almost three decades of living in Bosnia have taught me about identity, integration, community, and belonging.

I talk about the differences between living on a British pension and earning a local wage, my continuing struggles with the language, the friendships that have shaped my life here, and the Bosnian idea of ćejf, taking pleasure in life's simple moments.

And there's another question I've been considering: when you've made your life somewhere else, what does it actually mean to go back home?

I'm still British. I'm not trying to become Bosnian. But Bosnia and Herzegovina is home.

Perhaps belonging isn't about becoming a local at all. Perhaps it's simply about becoming part of a place.

I'd love to hear what you think. If you've moved abroad, do you still consider yourself a foreigner? And what makes someone a local in your eyes?

Thanks for listening, and vidimo se opet!

An Englishman in the Balkans is a weekly podcast about the people, places and everyday life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told by David Bailey, who has lived here for more than 25 years. New episodes arrive every Tuesday.

Thanks for listening. If this episode was worth your time, the best thing you can do is pass it on to someone who'd enjoy it.

Every episode, and more about my life here, is at anenglishmaninthebalkans.com.

I also write a short, free weekly newsletter, The Sunday Edition, a recap of my week in Bosnia. If you're not already receiving it, you can join here:

https://anenglishmaninthebalkanspodcast.substack.com

Already a subscriber?

If you don’t want to receive everything I publish, you don’t have to unsubscribe completely.

Use the unsubscribe or preferences link at the bottom of any email and you can choose which of my newsletters and sections you’d like to receive.

That way, you can keep the Sunday Edition, for example, while switching off emails from sections you’re less interested in.

I’d much rather you received only the things you enjoy than felt I was filling up your inbox.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has just been to the polls.

Simple enough, you might think. People vote, somebody wins, and a government gets formed.

Except, as I’ve discovered during more than 25 years of living here, very little about Bosnia and Herzegovina is quite that straightforward.

This isn't an episode about who won, who lost, or which political party I think people should support. I deliberately stay away from party politics here.

Instead, I wanted to try something much simpler: to explain how elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina actually work.

There are two entities, the Brčko District, ten cantons within the Federation, different parliaments and assemblies, and a country which, rather unusually, has three members of its Presidency rather than one president.

And depending on where you live, you don't necessarily vote for the same things as somebody living elsewhere in the country.

Much of this goes back to the Dayton Peace Agreement and the political system created at the end of the war in the 1990s.

So in this episode, I'm putting my own political opinions to one side and trying to make sense of it all from the perspective of an Englishman who has called Bosnia and Herzegovina home for more than a quarter of a century.

Because when somebody tells you that “Bosnia has just had an election”…

there's rather more to it than you might think.

An Englishman in the Balkans is a weekly podcast about the people, places and everyday life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told by David Bailey, who has lived here for more than 25 years. New episodes arrive every Tuesday.

Thanks for listening. If this episode was worth your time, the best thing you can do is pass it on to someone who'd enjoy it.

Every episode, and more about my life here, is at anenglishmaninthebalkans.com.

I also write a short, free weekly newsletter, The Sunday Edition, a recap of my week in Bosnia. If you're not already receiving it, you can join here:

https://anenglishmaninthebalkanspodcast.substack.com

Already a subscriber?

If you don’t want to receive everything I publish, you don’t have to unsubscribe completely.

Use the unsubscribe or preferences link at the bottom of any email and you can choose which of my newsletters and sections you’d like to receive.

That way, you can keep the Sunday Edition, for example, while switching off emails from sections you’re less interested in.

I’d much rather you received only the things you enjoy than felt I was filling up your inbox.

An Englishman in the Balkans is a weekly podcast about the people, places and everyday life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told by David Bailey, who has lived here for more than 25 years. New episodes arrive every Tuesday.

Some podcast conversations become more meaningful with the passing of time.

When I originally recorded this interview with Martin Gannon, it was simply a thoroughly enjoyable conversation with another Englishman who had fallen deeply in love with this part of the world.

Martin first arrived in Yugoslavia in 1980 after the holiday he had planned to Mallorca was fully booked. A travel agent suggested Yugoslavia instead, and that seemingly small change of destination altered the course of his life.

A chance encounter during the holiday led to a job with Saga. From there, Martin built a remarkable career in tourism, working in Poreč, Rovinj, Hvar, Zagreb, Belgrade, Mostar and many other places across the former Yugoslavia.

He led coach tours, worked with JAT Yugoslav Airlines and helped bring thousands of British visitors to the region, including pilgrims travelling through Mostar Airport to Međugorje.

Martin later became more than a podcast guest. He became my friend.

After recording this conversation, we eventually met for a long lunch in Zagreb. There was laughter, good food and an apparently endless supply of stories from Martin’s life and travels.

After Martin died, I found it difficult to listen to the recording again. When I eventually returned to it, I realised that his warmth, humour and memories deserved to be heard once more.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How a cancelled holiday to Mallorca led Martin to Yugoslavia
• British tourism on the Adriatic during the 1980s
• Working with Saga and JAT Yugoslav Airlines
• Bringing British pilgrims to Međugorje
• Life on Hvar and his family’s connection to the island
• The food, people and places Martin never stopped loving
• Bosnia and Herzegovina’s largely untapped tourism potential
• Why the Balkans can become part of you forever

This is more than an interview from the archive. It is my tribute to Martin Gannon: traveller, tourism professional, storyteller and friend.

Thanks for listening. If this episode was worth your time, the best thing you can do is pass it on to someone who'd enjoy it.

Every episode, and more about my life here, is at anenglishmaninthebalkans.com.

I also write a short, free weekly newsletter, The Sunday Edition, a recap of my week in Bosnia. If you're not already receiving it, you can join here:

https://anenglishmaninthebalkanspodcast.substack.com

Already a subscriber?

If you don’t want to receive everything I publish, you don’t have to unsubscribe completely.

Use the unsubscribe or preferences link at the bottom of any email and you can choose which of my newsletters and sections you’d like to receive.

That way, you can keep the Sunday Edition, for example, while switching off emails from sections you’re less interested in.

I’d much rather you received only the things you enjoy than felt I was filling up your inbox.

Today is International Podcast Day, so I’ve switched on the microphone for a slightly different episode.

The doors are open, the sun is coming in, and if the dogs bark — or Tamara reminds me about the dishwasher — you may well hear that too.

After more than half a century around microphones, I still don’t really think of myself as a podcaster. I think of myself as someone who makes radio.

And perhaps that’s why podcasting appeals to me so much.

In this short reflection, I talk about the magic I first found in radio as a child, listening to a transistor beneath the pillow, and why I’ve found myself moving away from screens, algorithms and chasing numbers and back towards something much simpler: a microphone, a story and somebody listening somewhere else.

I also talk about the kind of stories I now enjoy sharing from Bosnia and Herzegovina — walks through the village, conversations in cafés, journeys into the mountains, bits of history, and sometimes simply the sounds of everyday life.

Because perhaps podcasting doesn’t need to shout.

Perhaps it can simply be one person speaking, another person listening, and somewhere between the two, a connection.

A question for you:

What podcast genuinely means something to you?

Not necessarily the biggest or most famous one. Just the one you really look forward to hearing.

Happy International Podcast Day 2026 — and thank you, as always, for listening.

An Englishman in the Balkans

Stories of the people, places and everyday life of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

An Englishman in the Balkans is a weekly podcast about the people, places and everyday life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told by David Bailey, who has lived here for more than 25 years. New episodes arrive every Tuesday.

Before I go, I'd love to hear from you.

If this episode brought back a memory, made you curious about Bosnia and Herzegovina, or simply gave you something to think about, why not send me an Email or WhatsApp voice note?

Got a question, thought or story? Send me a WhatsApp voice note or message on +38766219417.

Voice messages may be included in a future episode.

The Email address is: david@anenglishmaninthebalkans.com

An Englishman in the Balkans is a weekly podcast about the people, places and everyday life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told by David Bailey, who has lived here for more than 25 years. New episodes arrive every Tuesday.

Bosnia and Herzegovina flag: you see it everywhere, a blue field, a yellow triangle and a line of white stars. But its story is anything but straightforward.

The flag wasn't chosen through a national competition or inherited from some distant moment in Bosnia's history. In fact, the flag Bosnia and Herzegovina flies today exists largely because, after the war, the country's political representatives couldn't agree on what should replace the previous fleur-de-lis flag.

In this episode of An Englishman in the Balkans, I go back to the years immediately after the Dayton Peace Agreement and tell the story of how Bosnia and Herzegovina got its present flag.

It's a story involving medieval Bosnian symbols, post-war politics, an international High Representative, three proposed designs, and an unexpected deadline created by the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

I also look at what the yellow triangle, blue background and white stars were intended to represent, why the original design used a different shade of blue, and why Carlos Westendorp ended up making the final decision.

There's a personal connection too.

I arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina later in 1998, just months after the new flag first appeared. For almost all the time I've known this country, this is the flag I've known.

Nearly three decades later, something originally created as a deliberately neutral symbol has acquired a history of its own.

This is the story of the flag nobody could agree on.

Before I go, I'd love to hear from you.

If this episode brought back a memory, made you curious about Bosnia and Herzegovina, or simply gave you something to think about, why not send me an Email or WhatsApp voice note?

Got a question, thought or story? Send me a WhatsApp voice note or message on +38766219417.

Voice messages may be included in a future episode.

The Email address is: david@anenglishmaninthebalkans.com

Send a message to the podcast

Got a question, thought or story? Send me a WhatsApp voice note or message on +38766219417.

Voice messages may be included in a future episode.

An Englishman in the Balkans is a personal podcast about life, travel, culture, and storytelling in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told from the perspective of a British-born creator who has made this country home.

Expect gentle reflections, real places, local voices, field recordings, and stories that go beyond the usual headlines.

After more than 25 years in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I ask whether I’ve truly integrated, and realise my experience may tell us very little about what it’s like to move here alone.

What is it actually like to move to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a foreigner?

It’s a question I’m being asked increasingly often. The problem is, after more than 25 years living here, I’ve realised I may be the wrong person to answer it.

I first arrived in Bosnia towards the end of 1998 with NATO. I had work, colleagues and a structure around me. Then, in 2002, I met Tamara and gradually found myself not simply living in Bosnia, but becoming part of a Bosnian family.

That brought something enormously important: a network.

Family, friends, neighbours, people who understood the language, knew how things worked and, very often, knew somebody who could help when things became complicated.

So what would happen if I arrived today knowing nobody at all?

In this episode of An Englishman in the Balkans, I think about the difference between living in Bosnia and actually building a life here from scratch.

We talk about:

• moving to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a foreigner
• the difference between residency and belonging
• making friends and building a support network
• dealing with language and bureaucracy
• becoming part of a Bosnian family
• whether integration means giving up your original identity
• why, after 25 years, Tamara still considers me “the same Englishman”
• the question I still cannot answer: could I have built this life here completely on my own?

Perhaps integration isn’t about eventually becoming indistinguishable from the people around you.

Perhaps it’s about learning how to live comfortably amongst them while still remaining yourself.

And if you moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina without a Bosnian partner, family connection or employer providing a ready-made network, I’d genuinely like to hear your story.

Why Bosnia? What surprised you? What was difficult? And when — if ever — did Bosnia stop being somewhere you moved to and become home?

Before I go, I'd love to hear from you.

If this episode brought back a memory, made you curious about Bosnia and Herzegovina, or simply gave you something to think about, why not send me an Email or WhatsApp voice note?

Got a question, thought or story? Send me a WhatsApp voice note or message on +38766219417.

Voice messages may be included in a future episode.

The Email address is: david@anenglishmaninthebalkans.com

Send a message to the podcast

Got a question, thought or story? Send me a WhatsApp voice note or message on +38766219417.

Voice messages may be included in a future episode.

An Englishman in the Balkans is a personal podcast about life, travel, culture, and storytelling in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told from the perspective of a British-born creator who has made this country home.

Expect gentle reflections, real places, local voices, field recordings, and stories that go beyond the usual headlines.

One of the things I have learned during more than 25 years of living in Bosnia and Herzegovina is that this is a country that cannot be understood quickly.

Its history is not confined to museums, memorials or political speeches. It continues to influence everyday life, including the way some children are educated.

In this episode, I explore the system known as “two schools under one roof.” Introduced after the war as a temporary solution in divided communities, it allowed children from different ethnic groups to attend the same school building while often remaining separated by entrances, classrooms, teachers, timetables and curricula.

Although the number of these schools has declined, the system still exists in parts of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I also look at the wider structure of education in the country. Bosnia and Herzegovina has no single national curriculum, which means that children may learn different versions of history, literature, language and identity depending on where they live.

This is not an attempt to tell people here how their schools should operate. I am not an education expert, and I do not pretend that there are simple answers.

Instead, I want to ask a quieter but important question: what kind of country are today’s children being prepared to inherit?

Because schools do more than teach mathematics, science and geography. They also influence how young people understand their neighbours, their history and their place within society.

After more than a quarter of a century in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I have learned that understanding rarely begins with certainty. It begins with curiosity.history is not confined to museums, memorials or political speeches. It continues to influence everyday life — including the way some children are educated.

In this episode, I explore the system known as “two schools under one roof.” Introduced after the war as a temporary solution in divided communities, it allowed children from different ethnic groups to attend the same school building while often remaining separated by entrances, classrooms, teachers, timetables and curricula.

Although the number of these schools has declined, the system still exists in parts of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I also look at the wider structure of education in the country. Bosnia and Herzegovina has no single national curriculum, which means that children may learn different versions of history, literature, language and identity depending on where they live.

This is not an attempt to tell people here how their schools should operate. I am not an education expert, and I do not pretend that there are simple answers.

Instead, I want to ask a quieter but important question: what kind of country are today’s children being prepared to inherit?

Because schools do more than teach mathematics, science and geography. They also influence how young people understand their neighbours, their history and their place within society.

After more than a quarter of a century in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I have learned that understanding rarely begins with certainty. It begins with curiosity.

Before I go, I'd love to hear from you.

If this episode brought back a memory, made you curious about Bosnia and Herzegovina, or simply gave you something to think about, why not send me an Email or WhatsApp voice note?

Got a question, thought or story? Send me a WhatsApp voice note or message on +38766219417.

Voice messages may be included in a future episode.

The Email address is: david@anenglishmaninthebalkans.com

Send a message to the podcast

Got a question, thought or story? Send me a WhatsApp voice note or message on +38766219417.

Voice messages may be included in a future episode.

An Englishman in the Balkans is a personal podcast about life, travel, culture, and storytelling in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told from the perspective of a British-born creator who has made this country home.

Expect gentle reflections, real places, local voices, field recordings, and stories that go beyond the usual headlines.

What do Western journalists still misunderstand about the Balkans?

Nine years after our first conversation, I sit down again in Banja Luka with Austrian journalist Christoph Baumgarten, creator of Balkan Stories.

Christoph has spent more than a decade travelling through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and the wider Western Balkans, looking beyond the familiar headlines and trying to tell the smaller, more complicated stories that are often missed.

This time, our conversation goes much deeper than his website.

We talk about why nationalism has not disappeared in the way he once hoped, whether an outsider can ever fully understand another culture, and why foreign reporting about the Balkans can sometimes bear surprisingly little resemblance to life on the ground.

Christoph also explains why he increasingly sees himself as a kind of translator — not simply of language, but of perspectives between neighbouring countries whose people can understand the same event in completely different ways.

We discuss the pressures facing foreign correspondents, the role of editors back home, and an extraordinary example from coverage of Serbia's student-led protests.

There is also a very personal conversation about the limits of journalism and the stories a journalist may decide are simply not theirs to tell.

And despite some pessimism, there are reasons for hope.

Christoph has watched living standards improve, infrastructure develop and people travel more freely across the region. But he also believes demographic decline and immigration could profoundly change Bosnia and the wider Balkans during the coming decade.

Nine years after we first met, neither of us claims to have finally understood the Balkans.

Perhaps the important thing is that we're still trying.

In this episode:

• What has changed for Balkan Stories since 2017
• Why nationalism remains such a powerful force
• Can outsiders ever truly understand the Balkans?
• What Western journalism gets wrong about the region
• Serbia's student protests and the danger of arriving with the story already written
• Journalism, subjectivity and nuance
• Why some stories are not yours to tell
• What has actually improved across the Balkans
• Emigration, immigration and Bosnia's demographic future

Christoph Baumgarten:

Balkan Stories — https://balkanstories.net

An Englishman in the Balkans explores Bosnia and Herzegovina through conversations, personal stories and everyday life beyond the familiar headlines.

Before I go, I'd love to hear from you.

If this episode brought back a memory, made you curious about Bosnia and Herzegovina, or simply gave you something to think about, why not send me an Email or WhatsApp voice note?

Got a question, thought or story? Send me a WhatsApp voice note or message on +38766219417.

Voice messages may be included in a future episode.

The Email address is: david@anenglishmaninthebalkans.com