retiredmartin

March 2023.

Blimey. I’m going to have to say something nice about Mrs RM. She’ll think I’m being sarcastic.

Here goes; Mrs RM takes better photos than me.

Sadly she’s still struggling with the title/format/copywrite for her imminent blog relaunch so I’ve had to nick her photo of Soma Book Station off Facebook, where she also writes;

“Let me tell you about the coffee shops in Pristina, Kosovo. Here’s one. Perfect machiatos…clean tables…, books…great value. No place for Starbucks and Costa in this city !“.

Coffee shops and bars blur into one in Pristina. In the stretch of a dozen or so modern looking places just south of what’s left of the old bazaar macchiato interchanges with Pils, a fatal combination for the bladder in my experience.

Soma sits top of Rate Beer’s ratings* on a compact list. We determined to Do the List. but sadly/happily never got to the Strip Depot.

For a city that’s apparently 97% Muslim,

there’s a lot of secularism about in Pristina.

That’s the entrance to Soma, the trendiest looking place in Pristina.

Mrs RM and I had a deep conversation about how best to describe these trendy cafes, eschewing “cool” in favour of “independent“, “youthful” and “quirky“.

Somo is all of those, reminding me of Falmouth c.2015. Specifically Beerwolf Books and Mono.

Inside, a book and second-hand record shop.

with glamorous bar and fluorescent toilets.

You can borrow “FDR” or alternate American literature of your choice for a euro, but we already had the History of the United States in our apartment so didn’t bother.

EVERYONE at Somo was better-dressed than us, and the plants in the outside seating imbued a gorgeous smell; you could have been in a pub in Kew.

But I guess you won’t get a half litre in SW London for £3.50, though frankly that’s expensive by Kosovan standards.

You’ll know my views on home-brew; anything not brewed in a giant beer factory in Wolverhampton is doomed to failure. The IPA and Pils were both rather decent,

and the (English” menu with its item labelled “chicken” and “risotto” a joy.

Great food, but an hour later we were still hungry, and splashed a fiver in the supermarket.

This is what we got for a fiver.

DON’T ask what’s in the Eco Produkt.

*OK, there’s actually a bar in the White Tree Hostel with a lone rating on Rate Beer but that didn’t seem to actually exist.