We breathed a sigh of relief when we got to Serbia. No tour buses, no fanny packs, no tourist scams. Instead we found creative hipster vibes and nightlife in Belgrade, colorful Austro-Hungarian architecture in the northern Vojvodina province on the banks of the Danube, and a simply quaint city in the birthplace of Constantine the Great. Indeed, landlocked Serbia is…
Before we arrived, a few things came to mind when we thought of Sarajevo, etched in our brains from early history lessons and events. Mostly, involving war...the one during the Clinton years, a siege we knew pretty much nothing about, and the beginning of World War I kicking off thanks to the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. (An obligatory turning point…
Entering parts of Bosnia & Herzegovina (we’ll call it B&H for short) is like being transported to a land far, far away from Europe...more Turkish, more Middle Eastern, and more exotic. It is one of the most fascinating, hidden wonder-filled, yet complex countries we’ve been to in Eastern Europe. In fact, to be honest, it’s a little overwhelming to even…
After the summertime chaos of Montenegro’s coast we were more than ready for some serenity so we set out for the country’s namesake...the mountains, black mountains, to be precise. They’re mostly green though thanks to the verdant sheet of trees carpeting the landscape. We entered the mountains via a bus from Bosnia & Herzegovina, but of course we took the…
Fortunately years ago, we both did Croatia before it got all crazy crowded, crazy expensive and crazy Games of Throney. However, we were nearby so we couldn’t miss a day throwing ourselves into “the Pearl of the Adriatic” which undoubtedly is a jewel of a city and has one of the best preserved medieval old towns in the world. The…
As we bused our way north into the Bay of Kotor, or Boka for short, we held our breath a little knowing things were about to change. June was in full swing and it was high tourism season in what is now a... very touristy place. But we just had to go to Kotor! This fairytale medieval town has been…
We were sad to leave Albania, and head north after nearly four weeks there. The rawness of the land and people in Albania wooed our explorer genes in ways we didn’t know they could be wooed. Crossing the border into Montenegro from Albania was a quick transition into a new land that seemed, just a little... too polished at first.…
The Albanian state tourism slogan for 2019 is incredibly, “Be Taken by Albania.” It’s a peculiarly cheeky nod to the kidnapping-centered movie series “Taken.” A perplexing choice for a tourism slogan to be sure. But they went with it. And now, we have to agree, the slogan kind of… fits. On our final Albania post in this series, we do…
