retiredmartin

October 2023. Tuzla. Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Our triumphant entry into Bosnia, via a smoking shelter at Raca Bridge, saw Mrs RM increase her number of European country ticks to 38 out of 45. A spreadsheet is well overdue, as is her blog.

We need to visit Albania (booked), Bulgaria (oddly, not), Moldova (who ?), Belarus (perhaps not now) and the micro nations of Andorra, Liechtenstein and San Marino. I’ve never been to Switzerland, and Mrs RM is determined I never will.

You’ll have heard of Sarajevo, Bono wrote a song about it, but Tuzla ? Bosnia’s third city, about the size of Stockport, but can it compete with Stocky for pubs and architecture.

Yes, possibly.

Our first job was to find a cash point to get some marks out as we couldn’t buy them in advance. This is the main bank;

Worth coming just for that.

It’s hard to get a handle on the place, emerging from the brewery tap to a long run of banks and tower blocks and cemeteries strung on the hillside.

If you’ve been to Bracknell you’ll know what to expect.

I like a bit of a mystery, but I also like to dump our (minimalist) rucksacks at a hotel before exploring, and So i Sol kindly let us dump them early AND made us that “Bosnian” coffee that threatens to put hairs on the inside of your chest.

All the rooms Mrs RM booked in Serbia and Bosnia/Herz were clean and well-equipped and about £50. This one had a balcony where I tried, unsuccessfully to launder my underwear having only brought three pairs in an attempt to pack less than my wife.

The Jala river running through town is a little underwhelming,

but Tuzla’s reputation rests on water,

in fact the only city with a salt lake in its central park in Europe.

We turned up in off-season, in the unseasonable heat of early October; the lakes looked warm enough to swim in but Mrs RM would have got shouted in if she’d had a dip.

This isn’t her, before you ask.

Those lakes gets 5,000 visitors a day, and feels a bit like Matlock Bath except that the visitors come from Croatia rather than Chesterfield.

Back in the park, you gradually uncover the statues,

and churches.

The snappily named Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God looks a classic (NCSS 4), but we get scared off my a matronly warden and this is as close as we get.

Pleasant, but as dusk approaches it feels like a Spa town, lacking in youthful vigour.

So we stop admiring the statues,

and type “pub” into Google Maps.