Dobry den “Hello” from the Balkans

To be honest, before we started planning, if someone had said find the Balkans on a map, I would have been lost. In 26 days we only scratched the surface of this diverse part of our planet. We traveled through 5 of the 7 countries that make up this area. We traveled by the Adriatic Sea and in the Albanian Alps and lots in between.

The Way: We rented a car and drove 1750 miles and crossed 8 borders (some repeated). For the most part, we were on two lane roads in good condition, often curvy. Since we went over several mountain passes, the roads occasionally became 1 lane with pull outs for passing. 😬

And on occasion we had to share the road

We stayed in apartments and guest houses mostly and this allowed us to get to talk with locals in the communities we visited. It was interesting to hear peoples stories. Most had grown up in their community and lived through the transition of Yugoslavia to what it is today. The pride and joy that people felt about their communities and shared with us was very special to witness. In many cases it came with a lot of pain and loss and we saw evidence of this especially in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina and also in northern Croatia.

We also witnessed a deep sense of community and family everywhere we went. It was not unusual to hear of 4 to 5 generations living on the same land and developing it- growing grapes, olive trees, farming sheep and cows, having a family restaurant and inn. Tourism is now the fastest growing industry but it appears locals are still holding strong to their culture and communities.

Stari Grad or old cities…

We visited many of these ancient cities, thousands of years old throughout our travels. These towns were built with a wall surrounding the city for protection.

The mountains were beautiful! We visited a few areas in the Albanian Alps also called the Accursed mountains which cross three countries: Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro.

We saw many waterfalls

And the coastlines were breathtaking

As we traveled the crowds of tourists were less and we saw signs of fall. Many places close at the end of October.

We loved our time exploring and we definitely want to return. Tourism is relatively new to many places we visited and the hospitality we received was incredible.

Thank you for your kindness!

Hvala-Croatian, Montenegrin and Bosnian

Faleminderit– Albania and in Kosovo

Love you and think of you often!

Jim and Michelle