Wrong way to Montenegro
I went to Montenegro today. It was really lovely. But I went the wrong way, and it turned out to be the biggest disappointment of my entire trip.
-
-
Balkan Arts
There’s only one artist from the countries I’ll be visiting that I’ve ever heard of: Ivan Meštrović. But I only just figured out why I’ve heard of him. For a while Meštrović taught at Syracuse University, where I (much later) went to college. And a number of his sculptures are displayed on the SU campus.…
-
Balkan Food
Just as two years ago I struggled for the right term to describe Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, and Iceland (I settled on “Nordic,” but that wasn’t really right), there isn’t a good term that describes the places I’m visiting on this trip. I use “Balkan” reluctantly, and I acknowledge that it’s not technically accurate, but…
-
A Balkan History Lesson
Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going. Paul Theroux I started this post writing about my enthusiasm for seeing Sarajevo because of the extraordinary history that city has experienced. This is the centennial year of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, the touchstone for…
-
Planning what I can
One of the things I am missing out on as I get close to my Balkan adventure is the planning. It’s liberating in a way, but I also feel like I’m missing out on part of the experience by leaving the planning in the hands of JayWay Travel. So I’m really digging into the few…
-
My Final Balkan Itinerary
So here’s the thing: three weeks, which seems like a lot of time to travel in a geographically compact area, is not nearly enough time. But I have accepted that truth. I have settled on an itinerary I not only can live with, but am excited about.
-
Second guessing myself
In preparation for my upcoming trip, I bought the Kindle edition of Rick Steves’ Croatia & Slovenia guide book today. It’s coauthored by Cameron Hewitt, who led the travel session I attended in Edmonds last spring, and I suspect it’s more authored than coauthored by Hewitt.
-
More Balkan dreaming
Two days until I leave on my Oregon road trip. I’m planning to blog daily while I’m gone, posting experiences and photos. Meanwhile, I’m continuing to think ahead to next May and my trip to the Balkans. I requested a private tour itinerary from JayWay, and I’m now seriously thinking of doing that instead of the Rick…
-
Itinerary Tweaking
I love planning my vacation nearly as much as going on it. (Nothing unusual about that, I think.) So once I start narrowing down the plan, I am constantly tweaking it until I’ve locked everything down. So here’s my revised itinerary for the Balkans:
-
Next spring? Really?
With less than two weeks until I leave for my Oregon road trip, I find that I’m already on the verge of putting down a deposit on my next vacation. I was thinking the Balkans in the fall, but now I’m thinking I won’t wait that long. I’m looking at Rick Steves’ first tour next spring,…
