We Do Adventure

Having reminded myself earlier this week that today would mark the 5th anniversary of our first trip to Sarajevo I thought I'd be only right to dig out an old video to commemorate. This video was filmed the four days of that visit. In the last 5 years over sixteen thousand people on YouTube have watched me talk about my first impressions of the city; many have left comments saying things like "I  am thinking of going there, your video helped me in my decision, thanks"  or "I  have also been to Sarajevo. I  love it."   As videos go this is not the most professional looking or sounding I ever produced but it is an honest record of our first visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Today I did a quick 'there and back again' to Sarajevo. This was made all the quicker by the completion of another section of motorway since the last time I made the trip; that was mid-May, if my memory serves me right. It's strange to think that the six-and-a-month gap between that trip and today's represents my longest absence from the city in the last five years. We arrived to wintery-cold in the country's capital on Thursday 29 th November 2007, on a now discontinued BA flight from London, at the start of our first trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since then large parts of the city have become familiar stomping grounds. But while we can look forward to faster journeys to Sarajevo in the future we are unlikely to see any change to times to Mostar. Geography dictates the winding mountain roads are unlikely to ever be widened. We are taking some of the young people who attend Novi Most activities in Jajce to Mostar this weekend. The temptation is to try to ...

Yesterday was, as you probably noticed, the 1st May. Prvi Maj is a big deal here in Bosnia and Herzegovina and cracking out the barbecue seems to be the appropriate response. That's what Rowan did with some friends while I and a another friend took a trip to Sarajevo to indulge in some holiday weekend cinema. Don't you love it when you're driving somewhere and all the traffic is going in the other direction? We had that - both ways. So I'm putting this out there as a top tourist tip: visit Sarajevo on 1st May. The weather's great and the crowds are out of town! Enjoying the sun (and cheesecake) in a favourite roof-top cafe. Rolling with the punches (punctures?!) on the long drive home.

This post is a hotel recommendation for visitors to Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia Herzegovina. What follows can be read as an honest endorsement or a shameless plug. Should you choose to think the latter know that we paid our bill in full and only the tiniest box of chocolates changed hands. My wife’s family have been visiting us is Mostar this week and wanting to take them to Sarajevo she was hunting online for a suitable hotel. Anyone who been will know parking in Sarajevo can be a real headache, and, anyway, most sights are easily reached on foot. We once stayed in Guesthouse Halvat , which came well recommended. However, they were already fully booked on the dates of this trip. With a bit of hunting around online she turned up Hotel Konak – a competitively priced and conveniently placed establishment. I’ll gloss over the small incident that left the staff profusely apologetic and say instead it was a pleasure to encounter staff who seemed genuine in their desire to provide efficient...

On the day that the Queen visited Google's London office I thought it appropriate to come clean about our use of the 'royal we'! Those who know us well will doubtless have deduced that it is the Matt part of Matt & Rowan that keeps bashing in entries to this blog. As almost everything we've done here we've done together I (Matt) feel comfortable speaking for us. However, today Rowan took a trip I didn't so I have persuaded her to say a few words that are genuinely her own about it. "We went to play games with Roma kids who live behind a supermarket on a rubbish dump. They were very friendly and affectionate and wanted to ask me lots of questions. It was a bit frustrating cos I couldn't understand everything they were saying and even when I could understand I didn't always know how to reply. They were very dirty - especially their hands and feet. One girl decided she was hot and wanted to swim in the river so she found a piece of glass on the gro...