Part of the reason for my Balkans trip was to fill some gaps in my travels. I had previously visited Belgrade, but nowhere else in Serbia, while Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina were entirely new countries for me.
The map shows the route we followed and the locations where my photographs were taken. But as something of a reminder for those who haven’t bothered reading any of my previous blog posts, after two preliminary nights in Luton, which remained stubbornly outside the Balkans despite the title of the series, I flew to Belgrade in Serbia. I spent several days exploring the city, including Belgrade Fortress, the Church of Saint Sava, the National Museum of Serbia, the River Sava waterfront and a growing number of restaurants and craft beer bars. I had a final KFC before Jonathan joined me there before we continued south by rail into my first new country, namely Montenegro.
Our journey into Montenegro followed the spectacular Belgrade to Bar railway as far as Podgorica, changing trains at Bijelo Polje. We spent one night in Podgorica before travelling by bus to Žabljak, our base for two days of walking in Durmitor National Park and its beautiful scenery. I’m pleased to note that we didn’t encounter any bears, snakes or lions, so that was a result. The highlights there included Black Lake, the forests and mountain scenery around the town, and the walk to the Ćurevac viewpoint above the Tara River Canyon. From Žabljak we continued to Nikšić, where we explored Bedem Fortress, the Cathedral Church of Saint Basil of Ostrog and several reminders of the city’s Roman, Ottoman and Yugoslav history.
We left Montenegro aboard an impressively dilapidated minibus and crossed into Bosnia and Herzegovina near Hum. The exciting journey passed through Foča before depositing us at East Sarajevo Bus Station, rather farther from central Sarajevo than its name had encouraged us to expect. In Sarajevo we visited the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, travelled by cable car to Mount Trebević, walked along the former Olympic bobsleigh and luge track and spent an extensive amount of time in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina being inspired by their unusually expressive stuffed lion.
The next coach journey was no less beautiful and followed the River Neretva through Konjic and Jablanica to Mostar. We crossed the reconstructed Stari Most, saw buildings still carrying damage from the Bosnian War and visited the Sniper Tower, the Partisan Memorial Cemetery and the city’s unexpectedly prominent statue of Bruce Lee. Mostar combined beautiful Ottoman architecture with much more visible evidence of recent conflict than anywhere else on the trip and I certainly learned a great deal of history during the trip.
From Mostar we travelled into Croatia, following the Adriatic coastline past the Baćina Lakes, Drvenik, Makarska and Omiš. We had one evening in Split, where we explored Diocletian’s Palace, including the Silver Gate and the Vestibule, before eating at Tunaholic. Jonathan and I parted company the following morning and I continued alone to Zadar, where I walked through the historic centre, ate pizza and eventually reached the airport after discovering that the airport buses had collectively abandoned card payments. Not that I’m going to dwell on that, nor on the rather unimpressive airport itself.
Looking back, Durmitor provided the finest scenery, Sarajevo the most thought-provoking history and the journey from Mostar to Split the best views from a coach. Mostar made the strongest visual impression, while Belgrade remained the city where I could most easily have spent longer. Jonathan was notionally responsible for transport, while I managed snacks, complaints and the ongoing classification of arrangements as sub-optimal. It was an effective division of labour.
The trip covered four Balkan countries and eight principal destinations using aircraft, trains, coaches, buses, one questionable minibus and a cable car. There were beautiful railways, mountains, historic cities, excellent museums and some memorable food, accompanied by extreme heat, collapsing seats and occasional uncertainty over whether the transport arrangements existed in quite the form advertised. I then flew from Zadar to Warsaw before continuing towards Georgia, because returning directly home would apparently have represented an unacceptable outbreak of simplicity.
All of this means that my remaining European unvisited destinations are Iceland, Kosovo, Moldova and several city-states that I have somehow managed to miss so far. I’m hopeful that in 2027 I can visit all of those and maybe start travelling more long-haul again, something I haven’t done for a few years.