The Balkans, Part Two - Travel 1980 - 2015

My first trip to the Balkan Peninsula was in 1980 before I headed off to graduate school. As a young wanna be architect I felt I needed to do a Grand Tour of France, Italy and Greece beforehand. While Greece is technically a Balkan country, it felt more like - well - classical Greece. It was not part of former Yugoslavia nor as culturally diverse. 

Me at 26 on the steps of the Parthenon.  You could still walk onto and around the ancient temple.

In Delphi Greece.  Two strangers ignore the other then pass and turn to check each other out.

Following Greece I booked a train from Athens to Bucharest, Romania. I had tickets only for general seating, not reserved, so I just sat down in the most convenient car. As the hours went by through the Greek countryside, I thought we should have crossed the customs into communist Bulgaria. I approached the conductor and, with hand signals, pointed the train’s direction and questioned “Sofia?”, suggesting the next stop.  He replied “No, Alexandroupolis”, a Greek city on the boarder with Turkey. I didn’t realize that I needed to board specific coaches because mid-trip cars would uncouple and some would travel east to Istanbul while others continued north to Sofia, Bulgaria.  This was only a few years after the movie “Midnight Express”, the true story of a young couple my age traveling on a bus in Turkey in the 70s. The young man was arrested for carrying hasheesh, convicted of drug possession, and jailed and tortured in a Turkish prison.  Eventually, his family helped him to escape by smuggling in money to bribe guards. This frantic imagining must have crossed my face as I insisted that I needed to go to Sofia, NOT Turkey!

The conductor motioned for me to calmly sit down in the space between cars and he’d come back.  When the conductor returned, he again motioned, pumping his palms down, for me to remain.  Then I felt the train slow in an open field in the middle of nowhere.  When it stopped, he opened the door and on the other track was another train stopped going in the opposite direction with their door open.  I understood to descend the train heading east and board the other heading west back to where I could resume my correct journey.  It would never happen today. 

The next day, after getting on the correct train and transiting through Balkan Bulgaria, I visited Romania to visit relatives my grandparents left behind when they immigrated to the United States in the early twentieth century.  Although a small part of Romania is considered in the Balkans, it is only the southeast corner on the Black Sea, where I didn't go.

Train through Bulgaria

R - L: Me with my father's second cousin Thresia and husband Andres and Girlinda, my third cousin by marriage.  

My next trip to a Balkan country was in 1994 to Turkey with Amy and friends Kate and Aaron. While most of the six week trip was on the Asiatic side of the Bosporous our last days were in Istanbul on the European side and the far eastern edge of the Balkans. This is where most of the attractions are located such as the Grand Bazaar (Souk), the Blue Mosque, Haigh Sophia Mosque and the Topkapi Palace.  

Me at 40, with old fisherman drinking Raki, on the Black Sea and Bosporous

I returned to Romania again in 2007, this time with my siblings, German cousin, and Robin.  

Sister Linda, Robin, me at 53, German half-second-cousin-once-removed Maria, and brother Paul

Robin and me in traditional Carpathian fur hats. 

In 2014 I went back to Istanbul with Teigan, Robin, and her ex-partner. Again, we stayed on the European side, and also crossed Golden Horn over the Galata bridge and ascended the namesake tower for a view down the Bosporus to Asia and the Black Sea.  

Beyoglu neighborhood, Galata bridge, Golden Horn, Old Istanbul, and Bosporous. Asia and Black Sea in hazy distance

Our first trip specifically to visit several central Balkan countries was a year later in 2015. Robin and I planned to visit Slovenia, then drive south through Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, and Montenegro.  

Former Yugoslavia.  Note the Dinaric Mountains that runs from

the Austrian boarder in the north to Albania is the south.

Slovenia has been part of multiple Kingdoms and Empires over the millennia: the Illyrian Provinces, Byzantine Empire, Carolingian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdong of Hungary, Republic of Venice, Napoleon's First French Empire, Habsburg Empire, and Yugoslavia in 1918. In June 1991, Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia. We found a constantly changing architecture from these previous empires.  

One of the reasons I wanted to visit this country was to hike the Julian Alps, part of the Dinaric Mountains, which forms the northern boundary between Austria and the Balkan Peninsula. A surprise to us was to discover intense WWI battles in severe weather along the Soca front that were fought in these mountains.  Very similar style of trench warfare found in Belgium and Flanders, but here at 6,500' and in trenches of snow, not earth and mud. Many casualties were frostbite, and deaths were hypothermia.  

High in the rugged Julian Alps

Me at 61. Still early in the seasons for high alpine hiking.  

Right of center, near top of slope, fierce winter battles were fought in snow trenches.

From the mountains we drove southeast to the Adriatic coast. The influence was clearly Venetian, whose city/state occupier was only a hundred miles further west.

Hill towns reminiscent of Tuscany

Coastal towns reminiscent of Portofino 

On returning to the capital Ljubljana and nearby Lake Bled, only 60 miles from the coast, one sees the urban planning and architecture from a century before reflects the Habsburg and Austrian occupiers to the north, rather than the Venetian to the west.

Church of the Assumption of Mary on island in center of Lake Bled and the Julian Alps beyond

Historic Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia and Baroque architecture of Austria

After taking the train from Ljubljana to the Croatian capital of Zagreb, we rented a car and returned to the coast.  

Central Plaza of Zagreb

En-route we visited Plitvica National Park with its series of sparkling waterfalls tumbling into streams and rivulets.  Boardwalks hovered inches above the cascading waterways draped with lush vegetation.  

Enroute to Split Plitvica National Park is a series of low waterfalls cascading into connecting streams

Several miles of hand hewn timber walkways meander along the streams and under the waterfall mist.

The cities of Split, Dubrovnik and the island of Hvar on the Dalmatian coast the urban influences were more ancient Roman and Italian. But we also saw the impact of the recent Balkan wars in the early 90s: The Croatian war of Independence and the Bosnian War. Trying to keep Yugoslavia together after the fall of the Soviet Union, Serbia's ultra-nationalist, Orthodox Christian, leaders raged ethnic cleansing war against its Latin Christians and Muslim neighbors. 

Split is a Roman city.  In the center is the remains of Emperor Diocletian's Palace from end of the third century.  

Peristyle (central square) within the palace and entry to the Emperor's quarters

The historic Fortress of St. John in Dubrovnik was bombarded from the mountains above by the Serbians

Dancing in the central square of Dubrovnik

After visiting Croatia we headed inland to Bosnia Herzegovina and the cities of Mostar and Sarajevo.   In this nearly land locked country, with only twelve miles of coast line on the Adriatic, we experienced the cultural and religious mixing the Balkans are known for.  It was also here we revisited the start of WWI with the assignation of Arch Duke Ferdinand, and some of the most horrific attempts at ethnic cleansing, in Sarajevo.  The muslim population was more tolerant than further east in Asia, no headscarves or dishdasha.  They had an attitude of "we must all get along", not revenge, recently experiencing the impact when not. 

At Mostar bridge, destroyed during Balkan war and rebuilt

Miljacka River running through Sarajevo

Corner where Arch Duke Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated starting WWI.

Artifacts remain of the Bosnian War with Serbia

More human atrocities

Road back to Croatia from Bosnia Herzegovina 

After returning to Dubrovnik, we took a day-trip to Kotor, in Montenegro.  We would like to have had more time in this small but beautiful mountainous country.  

Small city of Kotor on Bay of Kotor

Main street of Kotor

Dinaric Alps of the Balkans surround the fjord

On reflection during our turbulent time, the horror of the era and its return to semi-normalcy today, reminds me that the human condition is chaos, strife, and change. The US has been sheltered for the most part.  Our current situation is just a return to the mean (pun intended) and that this too shall pass.  It will not be the same, but it will pass.  

The Balkans, Part One - Crossroads

From ancient times through the Byzantine Empire starting in the 4th century, the Crusades in the 11th to the 13th century, the Ottoman Empire to today; the crossroads of Europe to the Orient, with their exotic tales of Arabian nights, Kama Sutra, silks and spices, has always been at Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istanbul today.  This is where the continents of Europe and Asia meet on the Bosporous which flows from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara through Dardanelles (Turkish Straights) to the Mediterranean.  

Europe and Asia from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea

I have always questioned the idea that Europe was a different continent than Asia, rather than a peninsula on the Eurasian continent.  It seemed that continuity of landmass should define a continent, but then North America is connected to South America at Panama, and Africa is connected to Asia at the Red Sea and Suez.  Though in both cases the connection is relatively small compared to the landmass.  Only Australia and Antarctic are truly separate land masses.  However, some geologist do refer to Eurasia as a single continent claiming it is a land mass on a single tectonic plate. But that doesn't hold up to scrutiny because parts of California would be a separate continent west of the San Andres fault, and Saudi Arabia and India would be separate from the Asia because they too are on separate tectonic plates.  

World Tectonic Plates

In the end, the definition appears not to be hard and fast but based the norms of cultural divisions separated by physical barriers.  Africa is separated from the similar cultures of Europe by the Mediterranean and from the cultures of Asia by the Red Sea. Historically, the division of Eurasia was along the Gulf of Ob and the Ob river in northern Russia, arbitrarily due west then down Volga and Don rivers to the Black Sea, the Bosporous and into the Mediterranean.  Today, in an attempt to add some rationality and alignment with more recent understanding of the physical and cultural barriers, the definition is from the Barents Sea in the arctic through Russia along the Ural mountains to the Caspian Sea, along the Caucasus mountains to the Black Sea and then the Bosporous and into the Mediterranean.  However, there is still controversy about the location of the dividing line where it crosses the Caucasus.  By some definitions Mt Elbus is the highest peak in Europe, and others Mt. Blanc is preeminent and Mt Elbus is in Asia dwarfed by the Himalayas. 

Historic and current (in red) dividing line between Europe and Asia

However, when I think of cultural crossroads, I think of the area of mixing, not a geographic line.  While the Bosporous in Turkey has been physical dividing line between continents for millennia, since the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 the region has maintained cultural continuity.  However, the Balkan Peninsula, was subsequently conquered by the Ottomans and up to the gates of Vienna.  It was then retaken by Christian Europe up to today's Turkish border with several enclaves of predominantly muslim territories remaining.  The peninsula remains a mix of religions, ethnic groups, and languages contributing to a distinct cultural identity separate from Western Europe and Asia.   

Ottoman Empire at its peak

But again we come to a problem of definitions.  Geographers define a peninsula as a long narrow land mass projecting into a body of water where the length of isthmus is less than any side of the land projecting into the water. Italy is a classic peninsula. The Balkan land mass is separated from central Europe by the Dinaric Alps and the Balkan Mountains creating a natural barrier.  The land mass projecting into the Mediterranean is bounded anti-clockwise by the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Ionian Sea to the southwest, the Aegean Sea to the southeast, and the Black Sea to the east. The boundary that defines the isthmus is longer than any side projecting into the individual seas or combination up to the southern point on the Peloponnese, and therefore is technically not a peninsula.   But norms and language prevail and peninsula it shall remain.    

Balkan Peninsula boundaries

In 1918 Yugoslavia was officially formed as a kingdom of slavs after the dissolution of the Hungarian Empire at the end of WWI incorporating Serbs, Bosniacs, Croats, and Slovenes.  This was not the entirety of the Balkan Peninsula, but a significant portion of its landmass.  Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece maintained their own separate nationality.  Yugoslavia, with multiple religions and cultures, went though significant political changes and conflicts though out its history.  Still used today "Balkanization", refers to the fragmentation of an area, state, or region into multiple smaller, and often hostile, independent states.  

Yugoslavia boundaries

The countries that today comprise the Balkans are: Albania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia with parts of Greece, Romania and Turkey on the perimeter.  In September and October of 2025 we visited our last of these countries: North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, and northern Greece.  

Balkan Peninsula countries (only parts of Romania, Greece and Turkey included)

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