Posts between 2018/01 and 2018/02 (25 out of 25)

Leipzig and 34c3

December in Leipzig is cold. The bus from Sarajevo was 20 hours, mostly overnight. The bus arrived at the airport an hour late, and I promptly got on an express train in the wrong direction. Eventually I made it into the city, and checked into the hostel which had entirely to myself for three days. I didn't even see any staff; I was given a door code to get in. Apparently people have other things to do around the 25th of December.

So do restaurant owners. None of the veg*n places I'd noted were open. I ended up spending the 25th in the central train station eating pretzels and drinking coffee, and enjoying the bubble of non-festive activities which managed to continue.

I'd thought about going to 34c3 buildup at the conference center, but never quite made it.

In between checking out of my hostel and checking in to a shared airbnb, I spent a few hours hiking around Clara-Zetkin park. It was cold but clear. Leipzig has a lot of green spaces, and I probably should have made time to explore more.

I went to the Congress Center on the evening of the 26th for the first time. Food options were not exceptional, but there was a vegan food truck on premises (Vegan Spirit). The food they served was really good, but as with everywhere else in the vicinity, overpriced. I alternated between this and supermarket supplies.

The Congress Center is huge. It has a rocket.

I signed up to be an Angel, went to some intro meetings, and registered for some Speaker Desk and Subtitling shifts. But when I went to pick up the first Speaker Desk shift I was told they were not and had never been recruiting (so the 30 minutes I spent there the day before being signed up to a thousand wikis and stuff were apparently a waste of time). When I went to do subtitling, they weren't expecting so many people and I waited around for a while before being assigned anything to do. I did one shift, but gave up with helping with anything after that. I got the impression you really have to be part of an in-crowd to actually do anything useful.

I went to some talks. Ones that stood out were BGP and the Rule of Custom by Caleb James DeLisle and The Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk.

But mostly I hung out in the Teahouse, chatting, drinking tea, meeting random lovely people from Mastodon (thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hi! This was great actually, I just occasionally tooted where I was and people just appeared. My favourite question of the week was "bist du rhiaro?") In between human interactions, I read Isaac Asimov's Second Foundation. I finished it as the teahouse was being torn down around me on the last day, reaching the last page in time to drop it in the top of the final box of books that had been packed up.

I'd been skeptical of the schedule before I went. I've developed a pretty normal sleep cycle over the last 6 months of having a Real Job. But I ended up giving in and staying until 2-5am in the morning every day. I sucessively had 6, 5 and then 4 hours sleep each night. Somehow, everything was fine. I did nap in the Teahouse. I love a conference where it's both acceptable and expected to find people napping all over the place.

34c3 did not have a Code of Conduct. I may have reconsidered going if I'd known that before, on principle. I just assumed.. I mean.. I thought everyone has a CoC these days. I thought it was common sense. I don't know what they're afraid of. At one point I heard a dude yelling at another dude "if you don't want a conference witout a code of conduct, don't come!" as if that solved everything. Wow. I hope the organisers get their shit together on that.

I got carried away the first time I went into a real (German not Bosnian) dm and bought a mountain of chocolate. I ate vegan currywurst (except with peanut sauce instead of curry), twice at Burgermeister (the kidneybean burger is 100x better than the seitan one) and had a fancy and very delicious not-quiche at vegan restaurant Symbiotica. And lots of pretzels. I spotted lots of kebab places which advertised seitan kebabs and vegan pizza, but didn't get around to trying any.

Leipzig's public transit is pretty good. The airport is small and pretty dead. Wouldn't recommend for long stopovers. The bus station is the side of a road, also no good for sleeping or hanging around. But it's near Hauptbahnhof, which is a wonderful place. A week tram/S-Bahn ticket is not particularly good value unless you're going to be using them three or four times per day. Otherwise you might as well buy the 1.90/4 stops or 2.80/1 zone tickets. I got a discounted 16EUR 4 day 34c3 ticket though, which was definitely worth it.

Anyway overall it was a good time.

I stayed at Congress past tear-down, then went into town for dinner. We ate mediocre Indian food at India Gate because I thought I'd read a recommendation of this place, but I think I got the wrong restaurant. Then I took a night bus to Munich, obviously went straight for a burger at Hans Im Gluck, and caught a plane (the last one I swear) to Malta.

All photos are here.

🏷 leipzig travel 34c3 mastodon event

Mon 1st of January 2018 at 9:30am (+01:00)

🗁Added 285 photos to album Malta, Dec 2017 - Jan 2018.

Some days in Malta with Liz. We stayed in Valetta, but visited as many hotspots as we could manage.

Post about the trip.

Thu 4th of January 2018 at 9:52pm (+01:00)

Malta

Liz and I spent four days in Malta, without much of a plan. We stayed in Sliema and mostly took public transport around.

The bus system appears good outwardly, but actually is kind of a joke. They don't run to schedule, often sail by without stopping, come in clusters and then there are no more for an hour or more. Most stops have electronic signs which show the next bus due, but the bus may not show up at all and the sign will quietly move on. Anyway my point is, don't plan anything based on the bus schedule. It's cheap though; a ticket valid for 2 hours is 1.50EUR and more than once we accidentally or on purpose presented expired tickets to the driver and it was fine. The on purpose time was when my ticket expired whilst I was waiting 30+ minutes for a bus that should have come twice in that time, and I was all ready to argue about it, but I didn't have to.

When the Sliema to Valetta ferry isn't running, the best chance of getting a bus to Valetta is to walk to the start of the line in San Giljan. The bus was packed, and not even high season..

The night we arrived was New Year's Eve. We took the ferry across the bay to Valetta and wandered around. There were lots of street stalls, crowds, and a party atmosphere. In the central square was a stage and lightshow.

One one day we paid 10EUR for a harbour cruise. It lasted a little over an hour, and was pleasantly relaxing. The boat was small and sometimes the waves were big.

Another day, we paid 20EUR each of the hop-on-hop-off bus. We took the south route, and visited quite a few sights. Except at our last stop, we were the victims of an unexpected schedule change and ended up waiting for over an hour and a half outside the Ghar Dalam cave (where there is nothing) and eventually gave up and got on a regular bus back to Valetta. Of course, 5 minutes later the sightseeing bus went past. I was disappointed to miss the rest of the route, as it went around the coast, to the Blue Grotto and something else. We should probably have got up earlier, and not taken so long to have lunch, though.

We visited the ancient Tarxien temples, which are very old heaps of rocks. We saw lots of old fortifications, and Liz wanted to go in every church. I liked the Ghar Dalam cave, it has thousands of ancient animal bones.

We took a ferry to Gozo. The return crossing is 4.65EUR. Ir-Rabat aka Victoria, the captial, is about a 20 minute bus ride from where the ferry drops. I had plotted an alternative bus path around the island but we had learnt by this point to just take a bus when we saw it so our first stop was Victoria. By then we were ready for lunch, and we wiled away a little to long in Green Mood.

We went to the oldest temple remains in Malta, Ggantija. We didn't stop in the museum, and charged around the ruins in time to get the next bus. The ticket also covered entrance to a windmill, but we skipped it. We stopped at Marsalforn, and hiked around the coast to find salt pans. It took a long time to get there because Liz was distracted by everything. Awesome sea views. We debated a two hour hike to the Azure Window, but then a lady selling salt impressed upon us an urgency to visit the Citadel in Victoria. We missed the bus back by moments (thanks to mislabeled bus stops) and the next was in an hour, so we hiked for 1 hour 15 minutes intead. Through fields and around hills, it was nice to get away from the population centers for a while. We got to Victoria just before sunset and caught some views from the Citadel. We ate at the first restaurant we came across, before [an ice cream and] returning to the port for the ferry, and another bus, back to Sliema.

For our final day, I figured out we could fit in Mdina, the ancient walled city, Clapham Junction (ancient cart grooves) and the Blue Grotto, and get Liz to the airport on time. However the ferries to Valetta weren't running so the buses were overloaded. We ended up walking to San Giljan (the start of the bus line) and enjoying a leisurely brunch on the seafront instead. Then we bussed to Mdina and checked out the ancient city and St Paul's Catacombs, before returning to Sliema. I like a good catacomb. Mdina is pretty cool, with windy streets and no cars, though as it is actually still occupied it didn't feel quite as ancient as I hoped.

We didn't make it to Clapham Junction or the Blue Grotto, or the Hagar Qim temples in the end. I thought about trying to get out there after Liz left for the airport, but it would've been dark by the time I made it. I wandered around Valetta and ate good food instead.

All photos are here. I wrote in more depth about food in Vegan in Malta.

I left via the night ferry from Valetta to Catania, commencing a 3-day land and sea journey back to Bosnia.

🏷 boats travel malta

Thu 4th of January 2018 at 10:00pm (+01:00)

Vegan in Malta

My airbnb host in Malta expressed alarm and concern when she found out I am vegan. I hadn't gone there with particularly high hopes, but there were a few places on Happycow. So without further ado...

Valetta

Our first night in Malta was NYE and we wandered into Valetta to find it packed and bustling. We stumbled upon Soul Foods, who were able to squeeze us in at 1900 but were otherwise full. Soul Foods is really wholesome homemade food for omnivores. The vegan main was an ayurvedic dish of lentils and grains. It was really delicious and flavoursome. Liz and I split two raw desserts; chocolate 'salami' and carrot cake. I loved them both, but they were 'too healthy' / not sweet enough for Liz. More for me. Not cheap, but justifiably so.

Every time I tried to stop at Grassy Hopper, a veggie place, it was closed.

We found Theobroma, a rawvegan dessert stand. I had a spectacular chilli hot chocolate with homemade almond milk (cashew is also an option; and hot chocolates come in plain, orange or white too). We picked up a peanut butter cup and a hemp seed chocolate bar ('too healthy') to enjoy later. Everything is also gluten free.

Next to Theobroma is Pastahaus. We went in on Liz's instinct, and this was probably both of our favourite meals. They have a huge array of homemade pasta, and at least four without eggs. They understand and are happy to explain what's vegan, and persistently offered a vegan wine. I chose a pasta made from semolina and hemp, accompanied by an avocado and almond sauce. They have a vegetable curry sauce too, as well as basic chilli oil and tomato and basil ones which I suspect are amazing. We shared bruschetta to start.

On the way to the ferry on my final evening, I stopped by Gurag. This place was somehow just what I needed; it seemed attuned to my mood. It's an all-veggie 'hangout and bar'. The space is small and was busy and loud, but they have seats downstairs. Nobody else was down there, so I had sofas and a generally peaceful laid back space all to myself. The wifi doesn't reach there, so I read for a couple of hours. They have a lot of vegan options, but upcharge (50c) for almond or soya milk in the smoothies. I chose a traditional Maltese sandwich, which at a mere 3.50EUR was a whole and hearty meal, along with a peanut butter chocolate milkshake. I took two energy balls and an orange fig brownie to go.

Sliema and San Giljan

There are quite a few Indian and Asian restaurants along the Sliema waterfront. We didn't try any, but it's good to know they're always an option.

On a wander around the coast at Sliema, we stopped at a random waterfront place called Il Gabana, which had a falafel burger. The location was good but the burger was pretty bad.

We ate twice in San Giljan. I found Naar and Two Buoys Bistro on Happycow. The first time we went, Naar was closed, and the options in Gululu (a traditional Maltese one) were more appealing than Two Buoys, so we ate there. We shared an antipasti plate of white beans, sundried tomatoes and olives. Liz followed up with risotto, and I had another anitpasti option of a small aubergine and artichoke salad thing. And lots of Maltese bread. The restaurant is nice, and everything is very clearly labelled with allergens on the menu, but the food I ate in the end wasn't super inspiring.

We made it to Naar for brunch eventually, and I had an all vegan breakfast. Nothing I can't make at home, except past months in Bosnia make most of the ingredients unavailable to me so I actually haven't indulged in this for a while. Apart from everything tasting slightly sweet for some reason, it was great. Naar also have a vegan burger, salads, and various sides, all labelled. Good smoothie options. The location on the water is pretty fantastic too.

Marsaxlokk

This is a fishing village, so obviously most places specialise in fish. A few have veggie pastas, risottos, and most places have pizzas that can be de-cheesed. All of the restaurants are on the shore, and it's small enough that we could take 10 minutes to walk up and back checking all the menus before picking one. We ate at Matthew's; Liz had fish which came with an overabundence of sides (chips, salad, cooked vegetables, bread) which all appeared to be vegan and I helped with. They were pretty good. I also ate vegetable soup, which was really good. We sat outside, and it was windy, and eventually everything was covered in sand and grit.

Gozo

It took two buses and a ferry to get to the only fully vegan restaurant in Malta, and it was totally worth it. Green Mood in Ir-Rabat aka Victoria on Gozo (the north island) is a lovely space, serving customisable grain bowls, soup, juices and smoothies. It's comfy and there's wifi. Liz and I spent a little too long there when we arrived to Gozo. We also left with energy balls. Prices are really good; bowls between 5 and 7 EUR.

We ate dinner near the Citadel at It-Tokk; I had penne arrabiata with sundried tomatoes; simple but delicious. On the way back to the bus, I grabbed a dark chocolate ice cream from Vanilla because.. how could I not. They also have a range of vegan sorbets.

The post about the rest of the trip is here.

🏷 travel vegan food malta

Thu 4th of January 2018 at 10:30pm (+01:00)

Week in review: 1 - 7 January

🏷 week in review travel

Sun 7th of January 2018 at 11:59pm (+01:00)

🗁Added 90 photos to album Transit, Jan 2018.

A three day voyage over sea and land from Malta to Bosnia, with stops in Catania (Siciliy), Naples (Italy), and Zagreb (Croatia). Blog post here.

Mon 8th of January 2018 at 10:48am (+01:00)

Malta to Bosnia, by land and sea

Travelling from Malta to Bosnia without flying seemed like a good idea at the time. Well, overall it was a good idea. I'm just really tired right now, the morning after.

Ferry 1: Valetta (Malta) to Catania (Sicily)

I took a 9 hour night ferry from Valetta to Catania. The ferry was called Barbara. Hi Mum.

There are two ports at Valetta. Forni was all closed up, and the one I wanted was Pinto (deduced from the office address on the Tirrenia website, not through any helpful where-to-checkin instructions). Pinta is at the very far end of the Valetta Waterfront, after all the shops and restaurants. The point that is labelled on the big wall maps as Pinta was dark when I reached it, and panic started to rise. I checked my GPS and backed up a bit in case I'd missed it. I hadn't. I charged forward again to look for signs or secret doors I might have missed. Aha! Tirrenia was at the far end of this particular structure, opposite to where it is labelled. A small printed sign directed passengers around a corner, through a waiting room and up some stairs. I entered a small office, where a smiling old man said 'Hello! We've been waiting for you!'. I'm not kidding. I was a good hour early at this point. He directed me to take a seat, and took my ticket and passport, and scribbled some things and typed some things, then printed a sticker with a barcode on it which went on the back of my ticket. Then another gentleman said 'come, I will escort you to the ship.' I felt quite important. We picked up another guy from the waiting room, and we were shown across the carpark to the ferry.

Turns out we were the only two passengers. The other was a pleasant Ukrainian man named Vlad. We had our pick of sofas in a very small room next to the cafeteria, where a few ferry staff were eating and the TV was blaring.

I went up on deck until we had cleared Valetta port. The stone walls and forts around the town were lit up and made an impressive sight. The sky was mostly clear, the moon almost full, and the stars on display. The further we got from land, the windier it got until I almost couldn't breathe. I leaned my head over the side, and felt like a dog sticking its head out of a car window, cheeks flapping. I felt as though if I relaxed enough, the wind could just take me. When I was thoroughly chilled through three layers of clothing, I returned to the sofa. All things considered, a whole sofa to myself was pretty luxurious. The boat rocked substantially for a while, but I think I slept well.

Catania

We arrived in Catania, Sicily, at 7am, about 30 minutes late. Mount Etna was looming, the sky was blue and pink, and the sun was already warm. Vlad seemed to know where he was going, so I followed him into town. I left him in MacDonalds, and continued down Via Etnea, taking in statues, piazzi, churches, columns, and dodging crazy drivers. I strolled through some gorgeous gardens, quiet in the early morning. I eventually found my way into Parco Gioeni, which over looks Via Etnea and the port and beach in the very distance.

I found some eduroam wifi, and discovered that I was already too late for the public bus to Mount Etna, as well as any more expensive guided tours; they all seemed to want to leave at 0830, and I finally got around to trying to plan my day at 0835.

Interlude: Open Street Maps app refused to open. I sat at a bus stop where there was eduroam for about half an hour trying to fix it, or find an alternative map of Catania. Eventually three reinstalls, plus booting it through happycow rather than directly brought it back to life. Panic over.

I charged on to the only vegan restaurant in the vicinity, Haiku. It appeared to be closed, though I arrived 20 minutes after the listed opening time. I sat down on the step and pulled out my phone to see if I could find some wifi, or decide where to go next. Then a lady arrived and rang the bell and was let in, so I followed. They were open after all, but no lunch until 12.

I settled in the back with power, espresso and a vegan tiramisu to start the day. The wifi didn't reach to the back, but I drafted plenty of blog posts and rested my feet, which were already starting to complain.

When lunchtime arrived, one of the waitresses described every dish on the menu to me in English, and was very proud of herself for doing so. They were all really friendly in there, and all the food sounded great. I had a carrot and pumpkin miso soup, with a pasty stuffed with vegetables and seitan. It was all wholesome and delicious. Two items from the lunch menu was 10EUR.

They have a really great looking pizza menu for dinner time, too.

It started to get really busy, so I packed up and left not longer after I'd finished eating.

To the beach!

There's a great expanse of sand called La Playa. It's protected from non-wheeled invaders by an enormous and hideous motorway however. I pressed on, hoping to hit upon a pleasant seaside or something soon. Instead, a lady pulled over her car and offered me a ride to the nearest accessible bit of the beach, fearing for my safety.

I paddled, and soaked my aching feet in sand and sea.

Soon it was time to head back in search of food again. I had three veggie restaurants shortlisted. They were all closed. I trekked the loop a few times to see if they'd open as 5pm approached. But this is far too early for Italians to eat; I came across some wifi and found they all opened at 7.30pm or later. Instead, I made my way to an Indian restaurant near the Vincenzo Bellini monument I'd spotted earlier. The signs and the outside looked kind of sketchy, but inside was quiet and clean.

I ordered way too much food. It was suspiciously cheap. Two pakora (1.50EUR), a samosa (1), aloo paratha (1.50), mung dahl (3), mixed vegetable curry (3.50), and cardamom tea (1). I took most of the dahl and paratha to go. I had a second cardamom tea; it was thick and dark and so so good. As I was coming to terms with moving my legs again, a friendly guy from Milton Keynes came in, picked up on my accent, and made conversation about travel while he was waiting for his to-go order. Then he insisted on paying for my food. I will pay it forward.

Stomach full and legs still jelly, I headed back port-wards, with two hours to go and expecting to have to quest hard to find the ferry. Because...

Ferry 2: Catania to Napoli

Italian ports. Are. A. Nightmare.

From prior experience I already knew they are a nightmare though, so I was mentally prepared. But it's still a nightmare even when you are expecting one. Catania makes Ancona look like a well-signposted walk in the park. I couldn't find a hint anywhere on the TTTLines or Carrenta websites about where to check in for the ferry. There is a small box by the port on Open Street Maps labelled 'TTTLines' so I headed there. This is absolutely not accessible to anything that isn't a car. I looped around, went back and forth, under train tracks, over train tracks, across duel carriageways and back, under and over some chain fences, through carparks, over a wall. Eventually I broke through and got myself on a road that led to the box on the map. The footpath quickly dwindled, and I pretended to be a car as I approached an automatic barrier. Fortunately a fellow human was supervising it; we failed to communicate for a few sentences until I waved my hands and said 'Napoli!' and he pointed me through: 'TTLines! Bus!'. In the distance I could see the box on the map, materialised as a real building labelled 'TTTLines'. I went inside. Mumble mumble.. 'Napoli?'. A lady told me this is the wrong office, and pointed at her blinded window: 'bus'.. When? I wondered. But then a white minibus pulled up. 'Bus! Bus!' said the lady. I ran outside. 'Napoli?!' got an affirming sound from the driver and he loaded me in. First we stopped at another TTTLines office, where I presented my ticket and passport, and got another piece of paper in return. Then a few more minutes, across the length of the sizeable port, and I was dropped at the ferry itself. Inside was an escalator and a reception! High tech.

The place was already buzzing, with a lot of very young children and old people. Also quite a few dogs. All of the sofas were occupied, though mostly by coats and luggage. I took over a table, two chairs and a powersocket as the next best thing. There was even wifi on this ferry, although I wasn't able to get any of my devices to connect to it. When it was time to sleep I relocated to slightly comfier looking chairs. I'd had my eye on a sofa occupied by a young couple with a small child who seemed likely to be heading to a cabin eventually.. but so did someone else, and he was sitting closer, so when they got up to leave he got there first.

Napoli

12 hours later, I arrived in Napoli.

In hindsight I should have made the effort to get out to Pompeii and Mt Vesuvious, but in the moment I thought this might turn out to be expensive, and stressful to get back in time. Probably would have been better than what I did do though.

Which was to wander around searching for vegan food. Everything on happycow was closed despite the listed hours. I ate leftover food from the night before in a park. The scenery was all nice, but every human I encountered was loud and abrupt. All restaurant staff looked like they were standing outside to scare people off rather than offer them a seat. They were often smoking and/or yelling at someone. I wandered in the sun for hours. I found myself in a horribly crammed touristy street. I got catcalled or approached by gross old men several times. Eventually made my way in the direction of the bus station, and collapsed at a table for a pizza marinara and an espresso, before the bus at 1530.

Bus 1: Napoli to Roma

This didn't really need its own section. It's three hours from Naples to Rome, and was uneventful and, in fact, quite on time.

Naples bus station is all outside except for a ticket office, which is presumably closed during hours one might want to sleep. It's near a large train station and shopping mall complex though. There are no signs to indicate which bay your bus will turn up to, so I positioned myself to see all buses that entered so I could then chase them down. There were enough passing Flixbuses for intermittent wifi.

Italian buses are strict about luggage and seatbelts. I usually cram my big backpack at my feet; because I have tiny legs it doesn't even get in anyone else's way. But they wouldn't let me on with it this time, I had to put it in the storage compartment.

Bus 2: Rome to Zagreb

I had two hours to wait at Rome Tiburtina bus station. I bought vegan supplies and downed an orange juice in the cafe there, and sat around for a while. This is another one where you have to keep an eye on entering buses to spot yours and follow it to the bay. There's an electronic screen, but it says nothing helpful (except the time). This time I repacked my laptop and food into my small backpack before storing the bigger one in the luggage compartment.

The drivers and many passengers were ~Croatian. I was already feeling more comfortable.

The drive was 12 hours and came in a little early I think. I had a double seat to myself, and slept almost the whole time. The first border crossing was at 5am, into Croatia; there was no stop at the Slovenian border.

Bus 3: Zagreb to Sarajevo

I had four hours to pass in Zagreb. According to the hours listed on HappyCow, the only place with vegan food open on a Sunday was Bio&Bio, a supermarket. I wandered through the center of Zagreb, enjoying a beautiful sunny morning. Market stalls were opening, and there were lots of people around. I'd been here before; it was familiar, but not intimately so.

At Bio&Bio I contemplated the hot drinks and smoothies menu, then wandered around the shelves to grab a few things for the journey. Some staff and photographers were doing a product photo shoot. I helped out by holding things for five minutes, and got a free matcha latte. Score.

Zagreb bus station is pretty huge (not like, Munich huge, but huge for a Balkan country). It has indoor bits and outdoor bits. Despite its size (too big and awkwardly shaped to keep an eye on all entering buses) there is nowhere to read which bay to expect your bus to turn up in. I eventually asked a human at the information desk. Fortunately it wasn't too busy.

There are loads of places to eat and drink coffee, or just slouch around. The toilets are 3kn (less than 0.50eur), and there's a note-to-change machine right by the entrance. There are plenty of money changers (and ATMs) inside the bus station, so I changed 20EUR to kn when I arrived. Open wifi networks are abundant, and all of the coffeeshops offer passworded ones too.

My bus ticket from getbybus.com said it would be serviced by Globtour or Centrotrans. I was a little nervous about this uncertainty. A bus labelled 'Croatia Bus' showed up and accepted my ticket, anyway. Since I was repacked into two bags, I put my big one in the luggage compartment, forgetting that we're now out of Italy and Flixbus jurisdiction, and not only would I have had no problem taking it to my seat, it also cost 8kn to stow it. Oh well.

This leg was 'only' 8 hours, but felt like the longest stretch of all. I thought I might get my laptop out since it was day time, but I immediately fell asleep, and slept on and off for the whole journey. It was a different route to the one I know between Sarajevo and Munich. Lots of mountains. We passed through Jajce just before it got dark, which has a fort on a hill and a giant waterfall. At the Croatian side of the Croatia-Bosnian border I was double-quizzed about whether I had drugs. I've been asked before a couple of times what I'm doing in Bosnia, and if I like Sarajevo.. but mostly nobody says anything at all. So this was new.

The absolute surge of joy I felt upon entering Sarajevo... I wanted to hug the Avaz Tower. I almost promised the city I will never leave again.. but stopped myself just in time. I'm probably outta here for good in two weeks or so. In any case, right now this is home.

All photos from ferries, buses, Catania, Naples and Zagreb.

🏷 sicily naples ferry bus travel malta transit italy catania

Mon 8th of January 2018 at 12:30pm (+01:00)

🗁Added 11 photos to album Sarajevo, 2017-18.

A walk to Goat's Bridge, east of Sarajevo. Lost half the photos cos my SD card went kaputt en route.

Sat 13th of January 2018 at 7:30pm (+01:00)

🗁Added 6 photos to album Sarajevo, 2017-18.

To the Bobsled track in the snow with Elizabeth and Marybeth.

Sun 14th of January 2018 at 6:31pm (+01:00)

Week in review: 8 - 14 January

Made an RDF exporter for aleph. Blog post coming soon. And some data modelling.
Went to yoga thrice.
Went to Karuzo \o/ it had been so long.
Wrote 1800 words of fiction.
Went on Sarajevo mini-adventures, to Kozija ćuprija (Goat's Bridge) and up Trebevic to the bobsled track in the snow.
My SD card suddenly ceased to function :o lost a week of photos. Mostly mundane, but 2/3 of the Goat's Bridge walk. (It stopped in the middle of taking photos on that walk).
Chilled and cooked and ate with Elizabeth and Marybeth.
Wrote a short storie about Evie Blue's first day at school.

🏷 yoga Sarajevo, Bosnia week in review writing travel https://github.com/alephdata/aleph

Sun 14th of January 2018 at 11:59pm (+01:00)

Do any of the Python JSON-LD libraries make it easy to serialize a @context rather than just the data? All examples I can see which don't use external contexts just write it in as a string.

🏷 jsonld question rdf

Mon 15th of January 2018 at 12:52pm (+01:00)

I'm going to have to listen to the new Morrissey album at some point, aren't I.

🏷 life music

Mon 15th of January 2018 at 11:04pm (+01:00)

Sarajevo is having a bad air day.

Badum tchsh.

*cough*

🏷 Sarajevo, Bosnia life

Tue 16th of January 2018 at 9:46am (+01:00)

"I'm a doctor not an escalator!"

That's my favourite one so far.

I'm on Season 2 of ToS. It's still a chore, but there are little things that make it bearable. The way Spock and Kirk look at each other, for one. Also every time Sulu does a countdown, and Chekov constantly claiming everything was invented in Russia.

🏷 tos star trek

Tue 16th of January 2018 at 10:41pm (+01:00)

2017 in review

tl;dr

Turns out I packed a lot into last year. Seemed worth writing up. Highlights include:

Travelled a bunch, Asia, Australia, Europe.
Became Dr Amy Guy: finished my PhD thesis, defended it, did corrections, graduated.
Went to a bunch of conferences, won an award, got an article published in a magazine.
Got a job at OCCRP, moved to Bosnia.
Drafted a novel.
Published some W3C specs.

Goals for 2018: travel more, write more, work less.

Words
Travel
Work
Code
Stuff
January: adventures
February: food and procrastination
March: instability, productivity
April: the pit
May: a mental shift, and closure on many fronts
June: hard work rewarded, and a new start
July: an interlude, and resettling
August: summer in Sarajevo
September: anxiety and relief
October: time with friends new and old
November: rediscovery and creation
December: ending as I mean to go on
2018

Words

I posted to my site 4,656 times.

I wrote 275 things on here. 173 were short notes, 102 were longer articles, and they comprise approximately 59,492 words in total. That's a mean of 162.99 words and 0.75 posts per day.

I wrote about 237 different topics, with the most common being travel (105), life (63), food (36), phd (34), thesis (29), hacking (27), Bali, Indonesia (25), week in review (24), vegan (24), linked research (23), nanowrimo (20), and sloph (19).

I also wrote (or contributed to) 3 academic papers:

Observing the decentralised social web (one telescope at a time) (Web Observatories Workshop, WWW2017)
Linked Data Notifications: a resource-centric communication protocol (ESWC2017, Best Student Paper Award)
Decentralised Authoring, Annotations and Notifications for a Read-Write Web with dokieli (ICWE2017)

And:

a W3C Recommendation: Linked Data Notifications (May);
a W3C Working Group Note: Social Web Protocols (December);
an article in a print magazine, NetMag: Web Standards Column: Linked Data Notifications (July);
an unfinished draft of 30k word novel: Of the Moon (November);
and a 70k word PhD thesis: The Presentation of Self on a Decentralised Web (April).

Travel

I checked in 1,819 times. I spent the most time at home, which was 5 months, 13 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes, and 36 seconds, followed by 2 months, 10 days, 8 hours, 46 minutes, and 5 seconds on an adventure. I also spent 1 month, 13 days, 23 hours, 15 minutes, and 45 seconds in transit; 1 month, 17 hours, 31 minutes, and 56 seconds in my office; 17 days, 2 hours, 37 minutes, and 3 seconds out getting food; 14 days, 2 hours, 32 minutes, and 45 seconds at an event; 4 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes, and 5 seconds out helping with something; 4 days, 9 hours, 26 minutes, and 58 seconds out exercising; and was in a meeting for 3 days, 1 hour, and 28 minutes.

I visited 13 different countries and 25 different cities (/islands/regions), and travelled by plane, train, tram, bus, car, ferry, boat, scooter and foot.

Work

I worked remotely for W3C one day per week all year, in-person for OCCRP ~3.5 days per week for six months, and spent two months in a vegan kitchen for a cafe in Malaysia. I did two hours of remote consulting.

Code

This is my Github commit log:

Github counted 1,362 'contributions'. This includes 1,198 commits over 40 repositories, 17 of which I created (in 2017), and I opened 85 issues. I closed some too but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to count those.

My favourite part is the end of April when my thesis was due, and then I immediately went offgrid for a silent meditation retreat. Most other grey patches coincide with bursts of travel. November is full because of Nanowrimo. It sort of almost looks like I maybe sometimes had weekends though.

Here is the list of repos. I'm too lazy to link them. Some of these are private.

alephdata/aleph
alephdata/exactitude
alephdata/fingerprints
alephdata/followthemoney
alephdata/ingestors
alephdata/memorious
alephdata/xref
csarven/articles
csarven/dokieli-rww
csarven/ldn-tests
csarven/mayktso
Devcember/devcember.github.io
hreeder/botbot
linkeddata/dokieli
linkedresearch/linkedresearch.org
occrp/data.occrp.org
rhiaro/alephbox
rhiaro/as-ns
rhiaro/as2-reports
rhiaro/bookmarks-to-as2
rhiaro/dkdata
rhiaro/homeiswherethehammockis.com
rhiaro/indieweb-identity
rhiaro/ldp-ns
rhiaro/ldprints
rhiaro/observing-decentralised-web
rhiaro/occrpscripts
rhiaro/ofthemoon
rhiaro/olmparser
rhiaro/probe
rhiaro/profiles
rhiaro/sloph
rhiaro/tachyon-scanner
rhiaro/thesis
rhiaro/tmp-dokieli
w3c-social/social-web-protocols
w3c/activitystreams
w3c/ldn
w3c/Micropub
w3c/websub

Stuff

I acquired things on 855 occasions, and used 10 different currencies (EUR, BAM, GBP, USD, DKK, HRK, JPY, MYR, AUD, IDR). 492 of these occasions were food.

I logged 1,446 meals or snacks, an average of 4 per day. The thing I consumed most was coffee (471), followed by bread (363), vegetables (327), fruit (313), and tea (183). I consumed coffee on average 1.3 times per day.

January: adventures

I accidentally got a job in a vegan cafe, Wholey Wonder. It was delicious. What with CSers, the Wholey Wonder crew and my Malaysian Mum, I quickly accumulated a Penang family.

Chinese New Year is loud and on fire and constant and lasts for two weeks. I needed a break. I took the ferry to Langkawi, beachbummed, couchsurfed and slept on beaches. I finally got to put my hammock up between palm trees. I met GJ who came back to Penang with me. Various vegans came and went and on Mondays when Wholey Wonder was closed we tried to hike and go to further flung beaches.

On one such excursion I got stung by a jellyfish. My leg was on fire, I got a migraine, and threw up in the car. The Wholey Wonder crew rehydrated me and saw me safely home. I slept for 24 hours and was okay again. The itching lasted for weeks, and I still have a scar.

I met Isaac, who tried almost everything on the Wholey Wonder menu, and told me about Vipassana.

I finshed Voyager and started Deep Space Nine.

34 January posts. Weeks in review:

February: food and procrastination

Wholey Wonder and the Penang vegan food quest continued to persistently distract me. bengo showed up and we did the Penang Hill Forest Challenge. I had some cooking and baking successes and failures.

February is full of celebrations in Penang. After Chinese New Year finale was Thaipusam and the balloon festival, and Kek Lok Si Temple light shows.

I met Dani and we found old men in a treehouse hidden in plain sight in the middle of George Town.

I put a call out for a ride to KL, and Krishen took Dani and I as far as Ipoh, and generously hosted us in his Mum's house for one night, and took us to visit some temples. On the way we had a flat tyre on the highway and had to wait for resuce. I took the bus the rest of the way to KL, and flew to Bali.

20 February posts. Weeks in review:

March: instability, productivity

I promised myself I wouldn't make any friends or let myself get distracted in Bali. At the airport, I met Ninni, who was also writing her thesis. Hers was about vegan food, and motivations for diet change. We agreed to be thesis buddies when she got to Canggu.

The hostel I had booked for the whole month had bedbugs. They were very nice, and let me leave after a few agonising days. They fumigated the dorm and cleaned my stuff for me. I moved into a twin room at an eco yoga guesthouse with Ninni for a week. We cafe-hopped and ate fancy vegan food. Ninni's sister came, and I moved back into the hostel.

There were still bedbugs.

I moved into the dorm of the eco yoga guesthouse. I had pool access and a discount at their mostly-raw-vegan restaurant. Score.

I did yoga every single day. I learnt to do yoga sweating, in heat. I was almost making headstands unsupported by the end of the month. I learnt from a variety of different teachers.

I spent the last couple of days in the south of the island. This hostel also had bedbugs, but I noticed before getting into bed. The staff were awful. Four of us from the dorm moved to twin rooms in a hotel down the road. Instant new friends, English, German and Brazilian. Bad review for the hostel, who wouldn't refund us and accused us of lying.

I flew to Perth.

37 March posts. Weeks in review:

April: the pit

I spent a few days getting a handle on Perth, before WWW2018. Good workshops, good chat, good vegan junk food. Constant gnawing in the pit of my stomach about the thesis. Wendy and the SOCIAM crew conspired to bring Sarven and I to Southampton in the summer.

I moved in with distantish relatives in the suburbs. There was not much to do but sunset runs by the beach and write. Also hiding in my room and crying for days. There was no way I was going to finish this on time. I asked Ewan for an extension. He said I could do it. I didn't do it. I did a bit. I cried some more. I watched Star Trek. I wanted to be sick. I tried going to different suburbs to work from libraries and cafes. I tried to hide my stress. I got to know my interesting and unusual second cousin Tim when I needed a break from crying alone.

No yoga, but ran every other evening by the sea.

Got baaaad RSI.

Mastodon became a thing.

I had expected to send my thesis off, then jet back to Malaysia. I managed the latter, but not the former. Ewan helped me concoct excuses for the graduate office.

27 April posts. Weeks in review:

May: a mental shift, and closure on many fronts

Argh! The drama continues. I found myself homeless in Penang, before the Whole Wonders Tammy and Jon put me up in their tiny apartment and supplied me with a constant stream of hearty vegan food for a couple of days while I frantically alternated a few hours sleep with finishing my thesis. I handed it in two days late, and jumped in the pool.

I met Malaysian Mum for breakfast, then embarked on a ten day silent Vipassana meditation retreat on the side of Penang Hill. I didn't want it to end.

It did though, and when I found my voice again I took several fellow meditators back to Wholey Wonder with me afterwards. I made a few dreads, ate everything on the menu, then bussed to Kuala Lumpur. A few hours sleep, a few new bedbug bites, some Indian food and an interesting late night chat with a Syrian guy later, and I flew to Tokyo.

When I got to Dave's house it was late, and Dave and J were both dead to the world. Fortunately all his doors were unlocked. They awoke to find me asleep in the closet. Surprise! Dave and J looked after me in shifts. I made lunch ready for when Dave got home, so we could eat together before he dashed off again. I hung out with Mike, Nao and Zen for a little while. I returned to Dave's to find Juri making up errands to keep me out of the house. Eventually she let me in, and she had prepared a romantic, candlelit vegan dinner. We spent a lovely evening girl-talking, and the next day they both accompanied me back to the main station.

I flew from Tokyo to Venice. Venice was too expensive, so I met KitB and we took the bus to Trieste. We spent a pleasant week eating and wandering in the sun.

27 May posts. Weeks in review:

June: hard work rewarded, and a new start

I took a minibus from Trieste to Piran, for ESWC. Sarven and I ran a workshop and won a best paper award for our LDN article.

I went on the train to Rome for ICWE. I did Rome touristing, and discovered a surprising amount of vegan bakeries. I took the bus from Rome to Ancona, then the ferry from Ancona to Split. I spent a day and a night in Split.

I took the bus from Split to Sarajevo, started at OCCRP, moved into my little cheap flat, and fell in slightly love with the city the more I roamed.

I became pretty quickly overwhelmed with working 5 days a week. I didn't have energy, social or otherwise, to do anything but hide in my flat at weekends. And I wanted to see things.

I explored and ate and started yoga at Prana; I dug into learning some new tech, and about investigative journalism.

32 June posts. Weeks in review:

July: an interlude, and resettling

As arranged in April, I went to Southampton and Oxford to visit SOCIAM. No flights; it took three days to get there, via an afternoon and a night in Brussels to see my PhD bro Michael. I also got four hours to race around the sights in Frankfurt. Everything was late, but I made it in the end.

Sarven and I worked with bblfish and others to reimagine scholarly communication with a Solid-like architecture. I drafted ldprints. On the Friday we went to Oxford, joined forces with Timbl, Wendy, Nigel, Max, Jun and all manner of other cool people to discuss what we'd done over the week.

Net Magazine printed an article Sarven and I wrote about LDN; it came out that week, so I went out of my way to buy it from WHSmiths to show to Timbl. Ended on a high.

I spent the week carefully not tweeting about being in the UK. Then I surprise-visited Mum. We watched movies, and cooked lots of things. My wisdom teeth got infected again and I went to a dentist. I saw Grandma, and Polly, and met Dad for chips on the beach.

I returned to Sarajevo by bus, this time with four hours in Brussels across midnight. Not recommended. I managed to see quite a few London peeps, and eat quite a lot of London food.

I recommenced OCCRP (part time), and met Ishka the cat, who comes in when I leave my windows open.

Finished DS9.

17 July posts. Weeks in review:

August: summer in Sarajevo

At the last minute, I wizzed (get it? Wizz Air) back to the UK for a weekend to surprise Dave and J who were visiting Mum. It was wonderful. I took them for a day in London, then flew back.

I went with Edin and friends to Skakavac waterfall, and for a long drive to Sutjeska Valley and for a swim in an artificial lake. I tried krompirusa for the first time; my world changed.

Boudicca came to Sarajevo, I met Renee, and had the opportunity to put my hammock up between trees on Trebevic.

I applied for my Bosnian residency permit. I went to some of the Film Festival, parts of which were rained off.

I made some great food. I started hanging out with Elizabeth a lot.

Started Star Trek: ToS.

10 August posts. Weeks in review:

September: anxiety and relief

Having spent the entire summer not thinking about my thesis, I thought briefly about preparing for the defense, but instead went to a weekend yoga retreat with Aida and others from Prana Yoga, on Jahorina. It was exactly what I needed.

I flew from Tuzla to Luton, and took a night bus to Edinburgh. I arrived bright and early in time for my viva. It went really well. I passed with minor corrections. I cried in Ewan's office. I ate a lot of Edinburgh, saw the Edinburgh crew, and returned by the same route. I brought my dinosaur onesie back to Sarajevo, tied around my waist for the flight as I had no baggage allowance.

I climbed to the peak of Trebevic with bengo. We had a few almost-failures, but made it after far too long. The view was worth it.

13 September posts. Weeks in review:

October: time with friends new and old

I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with Elizabeth and friends and pancakes.

I panicked about my thesis corrections. I pulled an all-nighter. I got a 24 hour bug, vomited my way through the last of them, and got most of them to my examiner before he got on a plane to Australia. They were approved. I filled in forms, finally wrote my acknowledgements, and got the thing printed in time to register for November graduation.

I spread my work days out so I could take a long weekend in Copenhagen. By long weekend, I mean I took a bus from Wednesday evening to Friday evening (via Berlin, including a ferry); stayed with Ninni from Friday night to Monday evening, walking and eating; then returned by the same route from Monday evening to Wednesday morning. Ninni had a party with like 100 people to celebrate her Master's thesis. It felt like a party for my thesis too, even though I didn't know anybody there. The bus to Berlin (and back) didn't have a working toilet, and most of the service stations in between cost 50-70c. This was particularly inconvenient as I was travelling between two non-Euro countries, and wasn't carrying any Euros.

I got my Bosnian residence permit.

My Mum and Julian graced me with their presence in Sarajevo. They tolerated sofabeds and spiderfriends in my small flat, and we raced around the flea market, Trebevic, forts, the old town and the War Tunnel in a few drizzly days.

I bought winter clothes.

I went to a potluck at Prana yoga studio, and met Nick who introduced me to a Sarajevo running group. I managed to join them once.

Started Star Trek Discovery.

18 October posts. Weeks in review:

November: rediscovery and creation

I stayed in Sarajevo for almost the whole month. Nanowrimo is why! I wrote over 30,000 words of a new novel draft, Of the Moon. I'm pretty proud of that.

The Social Web WG took ActivityPub to PR. At last.

My database was broken for two weeks. Nobody noticed but me. I kept logs on paper.

November was also marked by people leaving Sarjavo; Renee and Jason moved on for pastures new, though I more than expect to bump into them again.

I wrapped up the month by heading to Edinburgh (bus to Munich, flight to Edinburgh), meeting my parents, putting my hair up high and a funny robe on, and finally receiving my doctorate.

23 November posts. Weeks in review:

December: ending as I mean to go on

I spent the first few days of December in Edinburgh, eating my way around the new vegan food scene. And seeing friends I hadn't seen for a while, and may not see again for another.

I boxed up the tigobird, and took him on the train to my Mum's house. There I spent another couple of days, saw my Grandma and Naomi and Tizzy.

After a brief jaunt to London, I took a bus to Ghent, where I spent the day, then on to Cologne, then finally back to Sarajevo.

The Social Web WG had its last meeting, and I published Social Web Protocols as a Note.

A cold, snowy, static two weeks later, I took the bus to Leipzig for 34c3.

After that, a bus to Munich and a flight to Malta, to ring in the new year with Liz. By 'ring in the new year' I mean we watched a movie in bed til we fell asleep, then distant fireworks woke me and I woke Liz so we could run to the balcony, see some brief flashes across the bay, then went straight back to sleep. Perfect, really.

14 December posts. Weeks in review:

2018

In 2018, I will live out of a 45L backpack. Anything that doesn't fit, doesn't come.

My goals are to visit the following countries, and spend at least two weeks in each:

Albania
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Estonia
Greece
Hungary
Lithuania
Latvia
Macedonia
Montenegro
Poland
Romania
Serbia
Slovakia
Turkey

I'll probably pass through or make a shorter visit to:

Austria
Croatia
Finland
Slovenia

And I might make it to (or these might wait til 2019):

Georgia
Moldova
Ukraine

I aim to take zero flights, except in emergencies. Hopefully there will be no emergencies.

I will do at least one more Vipassana meditation course.

I will make my travel blog function as a travel blog, and include pretty route mapping, and an interface for certain people to be able to figure out where I might be next, and when I'm free to work.

I'm going to eat more consciously. This means eating things that make me particularly happy, or are good for me (these two often overlap, but not always). I'm not going to stress about spending money on healthy/happy food, but I'm also not going to spend money on non-healthy/happy food. I'll err towards going without rather than eating crap. I'll eat slower, and not overeat. I'll reduce waste associated with food, so I'll eat in rather than takeaway, where possible, and hold takeaway food in my hand rather than have it wrapped in a bag or a napkin if it makes sense. Eating or drinking coffee in rather than taking away also slows the process, heightens the importance of my surroundings, and increases the likelihood of new acquaintences.

I will write the endings to Milo's World and Of the Moon.

I will write one shorty story a month at least. These may or may not make it onto the blog.

I'll finish a draft of Quest for Brothers, my 2010 nanowrimo.

I expect my Fairphone One to give up the ghost this year. I'm going to try really hard not to replace it. That means if you communicate with me on WhatsApp and nothing else, you need to find something else (Signal, email and Twitter will work, in that order). If you have any decent pointandshoot camera recommendations, or a non-phone device that functions well as a map/GPS, let me know..

🏷 stats lifelogging 2017 year in review life travel week in review phd work

Wed 17th of January 2018 at 4:31pm (+01:00)

🗁Added 18 photos to album Sarajevo, 2017-18.

The Bosnian pyramids at Visocko. Plot twist: they're not really pyramids. Also on this trip I couldn't really see them, but it was still fun.

Sat 20th of January 2018 at 3:05pm (+01:00)

Week in review: 15 - 21 January

Made followthemoney into an RDF ontology and put docs up for the namespace.
Fiiiinally got /yyyy/ and /yyyy/mm collections up in sloph.
Went to Visoko to see the Bosnian Pyramids.

🏷 hacking sloph travel

Sun 21st of January 2018 at 11:59pm (+01:00)

ActivityPub is a W3C Recommendatiiiiooooonnnnnn.

🏷 Christopher Webber w3c activitypub socialwg

Tue 23rd of January 2018 at 3:10pm (+01:00)

ActivityPub and WebSub went to REC this week and the work of the Social Web WG in general has been getting a lot of attention, including AP making it to the top of hackernews. There are lots of good comments, but of course it's the negative ones that stick around when you release your babies into the harsh wilds of the Web for the last time.

There was a lot of conflict inside the SocialWG, and a lot of compromise. The comments that irk me the most are the ones that suggest we made decisions on a whim without thinking about things at length, or ignored prior art.

Sure we standardised multiple ways of doing similar things, but the decision to do that came only after much wailing and gnashing of teeth* and faced with the prospect of not standardising anything at all in this space. Or alternatively one- to two-thirds of the group meeting with suspicious accidents in lieu of consensus. It wasn't for funsies. We weren't trolling implementors. We were just trying to cope.

Anyway, what reassures me in the end is that, as we could never make everyone happy, at least we've somehow succeeded in making nobody at all happy.

The art of consensus™.

* and over a year of work, dozens of telecons and several face-to-face meetings around the world often at participants' own expense, and not a little yelling.

🏷 standards websub social web protocols socialwg activitypub w3c

Thu 25th of January 2018 at 6:15pm (+01:00)

BY THE WAY anonymous internet strangers, if you are upset and confused about decentralised social networks but (and this part is important) don't want to be confused any more, and maybe even are implementing some things or at the very least skimming the specs a bit, do come on over to #social channel on irc.w3.org where we're all still hanging out and willing to help.

This stuff is complicated and distressing... trust us... and we (the Working Group and proximate communities) went through a lot of shiz so hopefully you don't have to.

If IRC isn't your thing, most of the editors and implementors are willing to help out to some degree, and you can track down contact details starting in the metadata at the tops of specs.

We do have lives though and most of us aren't being paid to work on this stuff, but we stick around because it's important to us, so please be patient and considerate too.

🏷 social web decentralisation socialwg

Thu 25th of January 2018 at 6:37pm (+01:00)

🗁Added 124 photos to album Mostar, Feb 2018.

A weekend in Mostar, Bosnia. Blog post here.

Sun 28th of January 2018 at 10:57pm (+01:00)

A weekend in Mostar

This weekend I went to Mostar with Elizabeth and MB. We took the 0707 train from Sarajevo on Saturday morning. The pinky sunrise was softened by the already accumulated smog, which obscured our view from the train for at least thirty minutes before we finally crawled out of it in the mountains. The smog was still waiting on Sunday evening to greet us on our return. So.. it was a good idea to go away this weekend. Mostar was bright, clear, and less cold throughout. And the colour of that water!

Officially the train arrives into Mostar at 9am, but it was after 0930 when we got there. Between three of us we paid 46km (23EUR) for an apartment a hop and a skip away from the old town. Our hosts picked us up from the train station.

Mostar is small, and at least as battered by the war as Sarajevo if not more so. Abandoned buildings are striking.

We went to see the famous bridge of course, and had coffee looking over the river. We went to the Hammam museum (15 mins, 4km) and inside a mosque beside the river and up the minaret (12km), which was super cool. The Bridge Museum was closed. Old town is nice to wander around, but packed up pretty early. It's not tourist season I guess.

After a nap, we hiked up to the controversial cross on Hum Hill. Instead of taking a path or road around the back of the hill, we charged straight up the Mostar-side, which was rocky and steep and probably there weren't landmines but also it was a sniper stronghold so you know. Good views of town. We returned via the road, which took longer but was less perilous.

Veggie food was not easy to find. Nowhere even had krompirusa. It was on the menus (but spelled krompirača??), but nobody had it. One place managed to dredge up some vegetable mush and rice for me. I ate the apple part of a tufahija (baked apple) and the others ate the cream. Turkish delight and halva were abundant. This was a high sugar weekend. We also drank a lot of Bosnian coffee.

Except the next day! We headed to Teco, since it's listed on HappyCow (two other places are listed on HappyCow for Mostar; one we couldn't find and the other was clearly under new management and only had pizza). Teco is further out and by the university campus, so it was a bit of a walk. They had a vegan burger (ask for yoghurt to be excluded), three vegan cakes and a wide selection of smoothies, plus soya milk for coffee drinks. The have a glass-surround front which heated up like a greenhouse. We stayed for five hours soaking up the sun and reading. The music was also good.

Then we caught the train back to Sarajevo.

All photos here.

🏷 mostar travel bosnia vegan

Sun 28th of January 2018 at 11:00pm (+01:00)

Week in review: 22 - 28 January

Data modelling.
ActivityPub and WebSub went to REC.
Learnt how to crocodile stitch.
Went to Mostar for a weekend.

🏷 mbaking travel week in review socialwg

Sun 28th of January 2018 at 11:59pm (+01:00)

I left a script running overnight and to start with the sound of my laptop fan was annoying, but then I reshaped it to feel like I was falling asleep to the sound of the sea.

🏷 life hacking

Wed 31st of January 2018 at 8:10am (+01:00)

Nurse Chapel is the real hero of the piece.

🏷 star trek tos

Wed 31st of January 2018 at 10:46pm (+01:00)