Back in August, Corinne and I used the remaining twenty-six days of our annual leave (fastidiously squirreled-away two days per month at a time). We visited a place that most people from our part of the world are, at best, only vaguely aware of. And few of those people would consider this an appropriate vacation destination. Even the Brits we met were pretty unclear on Balkan geography (they were clueless on Kazakhstan) which is sad, really, and not just because they share the continent but also because the Balkans as a region is an incredibly diverse and fascinating area with cultural influences from the Slavic and Turkish worlds as well as the cultures of the Mediterranean. It’s a remarkable place which is unfortunately best known for destruction and violence and yet contains some of the oldest and richest cultural history of the Western world.
I should say: yes, it is safe (fun, even!) to travel to all of these places. The only destination in the Balkans which could be considered questionable is the Kosovo-Serbia border which we did not approach (and, economically speaking, Greece isn’t a great choice right now). The violence of the 90′s is a bad memory for most people which persists only in some bombed-out architecture. The people we met were very matter-of-fact and open about it and certainly aren’t eager for its return. They like the same things we like – a weekend trip to the beach, seeing the kids off to school on the first day, reading the newspaper over coffee, a new pair of jeans, and enjoying a meal and a drink with friends. The drink might be rakia rather than Yuengling but the principle is the same.
I should also say: the first goal of Huber vacation is always to relax and enjoy being somewhere new. Corinne and I never rush ourselves to fit everything into a packed schedule. If we don’t make it to see everything, we take time to enjoy the things we are seeing that much more. I’ll follow the same rule here: I may not get to everything but, hey, that leaves more for your own discovery when you visit.
We begin our journey with a quick jaunt through Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport connecting to a BiH Airlines flight to…
