I posted several suggestions for nonfiction and  nearly nonfiction books to read if you happen to be traveling to Sarajevo, but if you p...

Last summer we took a big trip to the Balkans, and during our journey we were constantly reminded of the war-torn history of the former Yug...

It has taken me seven months and 44 posts to cover our trip to the Balkans in May-June 2013, perhaps the most adventurous trip we have unde...

We spent our last day in the Balkans wandering around Zagreb, enjoying a visual feast. This rather strange statue of a man appearing to s...

Picture from here Before our trip to the Balkans, I had never even heard the name of Ivan Mestrovic, but by the time we had made our...

In the old town section of Zagreb is a very old Catholic parish church, St. Mark's Church, originally built in the 13th century and r...

There is nothing like a good outdoor market in Europe. Similar markets here are like comparing a kitten to a tiger. Ours are cute and frien...

The drive from Split to Zagreb is absolutely wonderful. There is a brand new autobahn-style freeway that had very little traffic the day we...

The northern Golden Gate of Diocletian's Palace was originally conceived as the main entrance, and the upper three niches were once fil...

Diocletian's Palace, the walled section of the city of Split, is an intricate maze of narrow alleys that can either be excessively cro...

Built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian in about 300 AD as his retirement home, what is known as "Diocletian's Palace" in Split...

From Mostar we head back to the coast of Croatia to the city of Split, the largest city on the Dalmatian coast (the eastern side of the Ad...

The Neretva River, one of the largest rivers in the eastern Adriatic Basin, runs through the center of Mostar like a ribbon of liquid ja...

Our original plan was to drive from Dubrovnik to Split, but when we learned that we could take a one-hour detour on good roads to Mostar, ...

While the walk along the undulating city walls and the pilgrimage through Old Town's churches certainly dominated our visit to Croatia,...

After our morning hike up to the Kotor Fortress, we set out for our next destination: Dubrovnik, Croatia. On the map it looked pretty strai...

If you've been to Italy, you know how every time you turn a corner, you are in a courtyard presided over by a church. About 100 miles ...

Montenegro was another one of the countries on our grand tour of the Balkans that I knew almost nothing about. Slightly smaller than Connec...

We left Berat late in the afternoon with the goal of getting to our hotel near Tirana, the capital city, before dark.  A distance of about ...