What it means
When I was a kid I was looking my parents and grandparents how they prepare the house, meals, and rooms for the guests who are visiting. With an urgency like the ambassador is coming to our home and not a neighbour, friend, or even a random plumber.
As years passed I felt the same urgency and I as well as my parents started keeping the chocolate and sweets in least used drawer, far from my eyes so they can be brought in front of the announced or unannounced guest. I started identify myself with it, found a wife that has the same quality, and strengthen the relationships with the friends who are alike in this sense.
Realizing that Bosnian and Herzgovinian DNA must be filled with this code I looked for a warm human touch in form of conversation, smile, hospitality, sharing and all of those small detaisl which are what gostoprimstvo is.
Not a feature. The principle.
This is a postulate of the life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Everyone wants to feel as an ambassador because all of us are truly ambassador of ourselves, our family, village, city and country.
“Balkan hospitality is not a product we sell. It's a practice we live and honor. ”
The coffee you can't refuse
The smell of roasted coffee filled the air. Specific moments: sitting at a family's table, the unspoken rules of the exchange, the coffee that is never just coffee.
Ritual that opens the door to everything else.
Why it can't be subcontracted
Trust like this is built over years, not signed in a contract and faked. That is why a large operator can put it in a brochure but not at the table.
This is why we travel the way we do.
The places we choose, and why they are never interchangeable.