The stars peeked out from behind the soft clouds, just a few of the brightest overcoming the lights of the city. The wind was soft and refreshing in a perfect temperature for sitting on the…
Kosovo is newly emerging as a country, the latest from the former Yugoslavia to be independent - barely so with the ongoing help of NATO and the US since the 1990s. There’s a lot of…
Mountains are in the name of the country, as Crna Gora, or black mountain, from the Venetian title, monte negro. They dominate the landscape, from the very edge of the sea to the innumerable limestone…
In our post about Albanian history (click here to read), we noted all the cross-currents of culture affecting the country – from its Illyrian origins, through Greek and Roman control, the influence of Byzantine and…
So many people we meet, interested in going to Albania, are both curious and somewhat fearful about it. They imagine a third world country or extreme deprivation or some such horror because of Albania’s 40…
Albania’s history can read like a tale out of Tolkien’s Ring trilogy. It starts before the 4th century BC with the sophisticated tribes loosely known as the Illyrians. The land since then has been at…
During our first five days in Slovenia, we time traveled through 50 Million years - from the karst caves still being shaped by their rivers, to a Neanderthal era musical instrument, to the remains of…
In prior years, we had circled around Ljubljana a few times on the highway while heading to other places, with only its hilltop castle visible from far off. When we finally headed into the city…
We planned on six months in the Baltic countries – Latvia, Lithuania and our home base of Estonia – though we weren’t completely sure how we would fill up those months. What we found were…
During our six month stay in the Baltic countries, we found charms aplenty. But the three capitals of these countries are the jewels in the northern European crown. Though beset with war and destruction for…