In case you missed it, this was my January.
U slučaju da ste propustili, ovo je bio moj januar
Hello, I’m David and I write about my life and adventures in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Subscribe for FREE to enjoy occasional posts, podcasts and vlogs from this much misunderstood heart shaped country in the western Balkans.
This post is too long for regular email. So if you read this in your inbox and want the full monty, you can check it out on the web here.
I’m sitting here reflecting back on this first month of the year. It’s been a busy one thats for sure. Well busy for me. I have intentionally started breaking my relationship with Instagram. My wife Tamara handles that platform well. Recently, I thought that I could keep the account for research only, but, to be honest, as soon as the app opens, I fall down the rabbit hole. My IG account will stay open, but with a holding post, so those that want to know where I have migrated to, will have a link to follow to me on Substack. To be honest, having looked at referral traffic to this Substack, hardly any comes from Instagram, so …… Tamara will become the researcher and forward links to cool Balkan Stories for me.
Talking of Balkan Stories.
My good friend Christoph Baumgarten is a journalist based in Vienna. His blog, “Balkan Stories”, is a German language resource (he does have posts in English as well), of great articles about the wider western balkan region
His passion for all things “Balkan” could eclipse mine! Is that at all possible? Discuss?
I really would recommend checking his blog out. If you are interested in the Balkans it is a great read. Christoph isn’t on Substack yet, but maybe if you sent him a mail he might, anyway, click on the image below ⬇️ to get to see/read his amazing content.
A few years ago, during a visit to Banja Luka, Christoph and I sat down to catch up, as fellow Balkan Content creators do 😀, and recorded a podcast.
Christoph Baumgarten and Balkan Stories Dot Net
As a Blogger/Vlogger it can sometimes be a bit lonely, trying to come up with topics and ideas for future content, either as Blog Posts or Vlogs for my youtube channel. Over the past 2 years I have become increasingly more in contact with a Blogger, also keenly interested in the Balkans, but from Vienna in Austria. His name is Christoph Baumgarten and he runs Balkan Stories, a blog in German.
I have been using the Notes option that comes as part of the Substack platform. To read my notes you can click on the tab in the navigation bar. Also, you can follow me on notes without Subscribing to Coffee and Rakija (although it would be great if you would), it’s FREE so why not?
Here are a selection of some of our posts we published in January on Notes here on Substack ⬇️
Čardačani
Hello, I’m David and I write about my life and adventures in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Subscribe for free to enjoy occasional posts, podcasts and vlogs from this much misunderstood heart shaped country in the western Balkans.
Walk With Me #1
Hello, I’m David and I write about my life and adventures in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Subscribe for free to enjoy occasional posts, podcasts and vlogs from this much misunderstood heart shaped country in the western Balkans.
"Burek"
Hello, I’m David and I write about my life and adventures in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Subscribe for free to enjoy occasional posts, podcasts and vlogs from this much misunderstood heart shaped country in the western Balkans.
Literally "Chilling" in the Garden
I feel amazingly blessed that this is a place I can walk around whenever I want. Wearing house pants are not a problem. It is really a micro park for me. And as you can see the dogs can go wild and crazy and be totally safe.
Making Sarma
In today's video I'm going to show you how to make Sarma. Sarma is a traditional meal that we are making for Serbian Christmas or for New Year's Eve. So if you want to learn how to make Sarma, you follow me on this video.
Sretan Badnji Dan
Hello, I’m David and I write about my life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Subscribe for free to enjoy my occasional posts, or maybe consider upgrading to a paid subscription to access my Vlogs and Podcasts, as well as supporting "Coffee and Rakija". The Badnjak comes down the hill from the church here in Čardačani, on Serbian Christmas Eve 2024.
And Finally
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Until our next post.
THANKS SO MUCH ❤️














