Getting Cooler - Postaje sve hladnije
These past few days however have been cooler and last night, for the first time in a long tome I felt chilly. Good News for me!
Hello and welcome to another multi-media newsletter from the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
If you’d like to help the newsletter, you can Buy Me a Coffee.
I appreciate your faithful readership, your comments, and your generosity!
THANKS SO MUCH to you all who support us on Buy Me a Coffee❤️
Our Weather.
This Weeks Video.
We have a National Park almost on our doorstep, (OK its some 40 km away), and it really should be included in any visit itinerary for this part of the country.
Last year we made a video of a trip we took to see the famous memorial (spomenik) and the museum that’s close to it.
The park is stunning and so full of things to experience.
ARTISANS IN BANJA LUKA.
CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR OUR SHORT VIDEO.
If you use Instagram at all, you’ll be aware of what are, in the most cases, annoying recommendations for accounts to follow or sponsored posts from dubious products. Our account, “lifeinbosniaandherzegovina”, hasn’t got a huge following, and sometimes we get recommendations for accounts to follow that are interesting.
One such was “designed by hecim”, a recently launched leather goods brand.
Based in the town of Sanski Most with their sales outlet in Banja Luka, we were intrigued to drop by. Their brand says “A unique handmade kingdom”, and I suppose it is, especially when you enter their small outlet.
We plan to drop by for a longer visit and to find out more. We’ll keep you updated.
THIS WAS NOT SPONSORED. But if you do visit please drop by. Helping local businesses is a way to make a country a little better.
Normally!
The Week That Was.
The heat really has been unbearable this past week. All I have felt doing is hiding from it, either in my air conditioned office or in side the house.
Our house by the way doesn’t have AC, rather we close the windows and drop the shutters shortly after waking up, and that provides us with a ‘fridge like atmosphere during the day.
Some people crave roasting sun and beaches, but its simply not for me, someone with fair hair (well it was before it turned grey), blue eyes and light skin.
It drains me and I just feel so lethargic and exhausted.
These past few days however have been cooler and last night, for the first time in a long tome I felt chilly. Good News for me!
TALKING OF HEAT.
I have to say, that I have NEVER been so hot as I was in Kabul, Afghanistan. How I coped I’ll never know, but I did.
You’re most probably bored rigid or sick of hearing/reading/discussing the recent tragic events in Afghanistan.
We all have our opinions and that’s healthy.
I suppose we all went through similar feelings back, between 1991-95, when the area that I now live in, was in also in turmoil.
At this time I am thinking a lot about my time in Afghanistan and worried that all the painful progress and effort made for all those years will simply slide back to where misery is the order of the day. I really hope not.
What to do? That’s the question, and it seems that finally we are realising that even the most so called powerful countries in the world are clueless.
What do we say to people like those with me in that picture in happier times?
I SEEM TO BECOMING ADDICTED TO ROSE.
I have literally fallen in love with the taste of Rose:
Juice, Rose Jam and Rose flavoured sweets (candies).
Of course Rose Lokum (Turkish Delight) is another of my favourites. I squarely blame the Turks for this (kidding).
Who else likes Rose? Apart from the flowers of course 😀
I'd love to know.
LIFE BEFORE ONLINE.
Tamara and I recently discovered an out of the way coffee bar on the city bank of the River Vrbas in the suburb of Budzak.
We have a post about that coming soon here in the newsletter so watch out for that.
This old radio, a sinfonija, was on the shelf outside. As you can see it’s quite neglected, and would have been used to listen on AM (Medium Wave) SW (Short Wave) and what was then, the new invention of FM, which is now slowly dying out as we use Digital so much more now.
On the dial it has the names of stations long gone. Zagreb, Ljublijana, Titograd, Hilversum, Strasburg, Monte Carlo and many more.
Imagine families crowded around something like this, listening to crackly reception, to hear what was going on outside their own country.
Hard to imagine. Right?
A READERS CONTRIBUTION.
Christoph Baumgarten is one of our readers. He lives in Vienna. We have been online friends for a long time and have met in real life twice. Christoph says “It is always great to see I'm not the only madman who passionately cares about Bosnia”.
Christoph has a blog which focuses on the Balkans.
In a recent post Christoph caught up with writer and playwright Filip Grujić from Beograd, who had just spent a month in Sarajevo as part of a residency program for young writers from the Western Balkans region. He tells how he has experienced his stay in Bosnia’s capital, what Sarajevo, Beograd and his native city of Novi Sad have in common – or not – and what real challenges the young generation in former Yugoslavia faces.
And Finally.
That's our update from our village here in the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina for this week.
We hope you like our new way of creating our weekly newsletter.
We hope you'll continue to follow our adventures, and to engage with questions and comments.
We are always so excited when we receive them.
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every rose has a thorn, much unfortunate for Afghanistan and the photo looks much confusing in trying to understand the temperature at the time, from right to left, short sleeve summer clothing and sandals, progresses gradually to heavier and finally autumn/winter full on clothing with a jacket ,hat and even a scarf along with winter shoes, interesting and confusing :)
Loving rose wine (a dry one though) too which I never used to like - maybe it’s an age thing 🤔