Our adventure in Bosnia and Republika Srspka began with a train ride from Zagreb. We had boarded the one and only train that traveled to Banja Luka from Zagreb each day. The ticket per person for the four hour train trip (five hours, in our case, because of an 85 minute delay) was approximately 16 euros per person one way.

A partial view of the very long river that separated Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. I must say, the Croatian and Bosnian countryside was very green. The views became more rustic as soon as we left Croatia and entered Bosnia.

A house in the middle of nowhere. I often wonder how people can live in places like this. I later realized there really are people who prefer to live in such places far from the hustle and bustle of city life.

It was green valleys and mountains galore for our views soon as we approached the Croatian and Bosnian border.

The last Croatian town we hit before entering Bosnian territory was Volinja. It was here where all the Croatian railway crew got off and their Bosnian counterparts took over. The same procedure was repeated on our way back into Croatia a day later.

Volinja, Croatia. Here we see some of the railway crew (in blue shirts and pants) with a number of the station immigration and customs personnel.

Each time we left and entered a new country, the train's engine was replaced. Here, the train's engine installed and connected to the train cars in Zagreb was being replaced with a Bosnian one.

Here's a view of the Volinja Train Station as we left Croatia and officially entered Bosnian territory. Although we had officially touched Bosnian soil here, it was not until we reached the town of Dobrljin did the immigration officials boarded our train and took our passports.

Goodbye, Croatia! See you again soon. Little did we know we would see it again real soon after reaching Bosnia and staying there for just a little over a day.

An deserted train station on the Bosnian side of the border.

Formally entering Bosnian territory and approaching Dobryljin

A full frontal view of the Dobrljin Train Station, the first of the many stations we passed as we formally entered Bosnian territory.

We must have stopped at least 30 minutes here in Dobrljin. It was here where two Bosnian immigration officers boarded our train, checked each of the compartments, and asked for the passports of each and every non-Bosnian traveler. The two very serious looking men perused our passports and took them to this trailer where they got stamped. It was so different from the Slovenian and Croatian border officers who stamped our passports right in front of us on board the train.

The scenery in Bosnia was truly more rustic and country.

We must have passed three cities with mosques and minarets towering above them. Here was one of them. This just meant we had just left very Catholic Croatia and traveled into Muslim Bosnia Herezegovina.

This was another minaret we saw in another town as we traveled through Bosnia.

The river that we saw earlier on at the Croatian and Bosnian border continued far and wide beyond the border.

After five hours, we finally arrived in the autonomous region of Banka Luka, the capital city of Republika Srspka within the country of Bosnia Herzegovina.