Author: retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

DON’T GO CHASING WATERFALLS (OR WE’LL MISS MOSTAR)

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October 2023. Waterfalls, somewhere in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A reminder of the route for our day trip from Sarajevo. Seven of us; Mrs RM and me, a couple from Marseille, and three ladies from Haifa, Seattle and Cambridge (wherever that is) travelling alone. Quite a mixed crowd, and we got to learn quite a bit… Continue reading DON’T GO CHASING WATERFALLS (OR WE’LL MISS MOSTAR)

A BRIDGE TOO FAR – BOSNIA IN A DAY

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October 2023. Bosnia & Herzegovina. Despite this latest Balkan adventure being notionally a “holiday” every day started with a 7am alarm, and Saturday saw us standing outside the Balkan tourist office at 8 after a lightning breakfast; Good to know : those shredded wheat pastries are not a patch on the One True Way that… Continue reading A BRIDGE TOO FAR – BOSNIA IN A DAY

A PINT OF “MIXED” AT SARAJEVO’S PIVNICA

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October 2023. Sarajevo. Bosnia & Herzegovina. In truth there’s a limited number of different things you can do when exploring a new city. Aimless walking, rating churches, burnt out Olympic sites, arguments over Untappd ratings and huge lunches are obviously a key part of the visit, but it would be unusual if a pub didn’t… Continue reading A PINT OF “MIXED” AT SARAJEVO’S PIVNICA

A JOURNEY TO THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER BOSNA

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October 2023. Ilidža. Bosnia & Herzegovina Mrs RM had ambitions to get us round the whole of Bosnia in 4 days, but our Friday trip south to Mostar was cancelled due to the driver being tired; you could have been on Northern Rail again. So I spent Thursday evening scrambling around for something authentically Bosnian,… Continue reading A JOURNEY TO THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER BOSNA

CRAFT BEER AND BAKLAVA IN SARAJEVO’S OLD BAZAAR

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October 2023. Sarajevo. Bosnia & Herzegovina. Mrs RM had found us a modest hotel right in the heart of Baščaršija, Sarajevo’s old bazaar. I hadn’t really imagined Bosnia’s capital looking like a mini-Istanbul, which is what you get when you don’t read your history. A bit less frantic than a Turkish old town, but just… Continue reading CRAFT BEER AND BAKLAVA IN SARAJEVO’S OLD BAZAAR

In which we mistake a private residence in Tuzla for a pub, with disastrous consequences.

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October 2023. Tuzla. Bosnia Herzegovina. Only just gone 6pm, and we seemed to have exhausted the joys of Bosnia’s third biggest city, bar the mosques. But just beyond the central square lay one last chance at craft beer redemption for Tuzla. The Jazz Caffe (crazy name) promised local bottles in a cosy and charming outdoor… Continue reading In which we mistake a private residence in Tuzla for a pub, with disastrous consequences.

OH WELL, IT’LL BE CARLSBERG THEN. A NIGHT OF BOSNIAN CRAFT BEER DISAPPOINTMENT IN TUZLA

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October 2023. Tuzla. Bosnia & Herzegovina. It was only 17:28 on our only night in Tuzla before an early departure the next morning to Sarajevo. And Tuzla, a city of 110,000, the Newport (Gwent) of Bosnia, looked dead. Even the famed “free beer dispensers cunningly disguised as water fountains” weren’t operational. Tuzla is over 75%… Continue reading OH WELL, IT’LL BE CARLSBERG THEN. A NIGHT OF BOSNIAN CRAFT BEER DISAPPOINTMENT IN TUZLA