Travel with Angela Lansbury: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, which is which, what is where?

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, which is which, what is where?

Countries of Europe

Map from Nations Online Project.

ALBANIA

You can arrive at Mother Teresa airport near the capital.

The capital is Tirana. The central, focal poing is Skandenbeg Square, named after the national hero shown in a statue on horseback. Like Trafalgar Square in London which has the national Gallery at the top or north, the main square has a main museum so you can do both together. The capital has museums on history, life under communism, and the home of a writer whose books are about those times.

The west coast is on the Adriatic, which has beaches.

(Greece is to the south. To look at it another way, Albania is north of Greece.)

Driving north to the mountains, in summer, you find hiking and wineries.

BOSNIA & Herzegovina

The name Bosnia probably, at least most memorably, comes from the river Bosna. The origin of the name Herzegovina is Herzog's land. Note the spelling. The letter e is repeated at the start of the name. Then o. The letter i separated the o and the a. Finally a. Both Bosnia and Herzegovina have the three vowels o,i,a.

I have abbreviated Wikipedia's entry.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosna i Hercegovina (Bosnian) Босна и Херцеговина (Serbian) Bosna i Hercegovina (Croatian)
Flag

Official languages	Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian
Writing system	Latin, Cyrillic
Ethnic groups (2013)^[2]	50.1% Bosniaks 30.8% Serbs 15.4% Croats 3.7% Others
Religion (2013 census)^[3]	51% Islam 46% Christianity —31% Serbian Orthodox Church —15% Roman Catholicism 3% No Religion / Others

Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serbo-Croatian: Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина, pronounced [bôsna i xěrtseɡoʋina]), abbreviated BiH (БиХ) or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans.

Bosnia and Herzegovina borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north and southwest.

In the south it has a narrow coast on the Adriatic Sea within the Mediterranean, which is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) long and surrounds the town of Neum.

Bosnia, which is the inland region of the country, has a moderate continental climate with hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In the central and eastern regions of the country, the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and in the northeast it is predominantly flat.

Herzegovina, which is the smaller, southern region of the country, has a Mediterranean climate and is mostly mountainous.

Sarajevo is the capital and the largest city of the country

CROATIA

KOSOVO

MONTENEGRO

Capital

Places to visit: Sventi Stefan 'island' hotel

Mount, cliffside monastery

NORTH MACEDONIA

GREECE

Capital Athens has the Acropolis and the hillside old city full of restaurants called La Plaka. Eat rice in vine leaves. Drink ouzo. Greek coffee and baklava.

Second city Thessalonika has the tomb of the family of Alexander the Great and a museum and amphitheatre.

This post is being compiled and saved as I write. Come back or stay logged on to read more.

MONTENEGRO

Map of Montenegro showing the capital Padgorica to the East of the central region.

Montenegro (/ˌmɒntɪˈniːɡroʊ, -ˈneɪɡroʊ, -ˈnɛɡroʊ/ (listen)^] Montenegrin: Crna Gora, Црна Гора, lit. 'Black Mountain') is a country in Southeastern Europe.^[11] It is a part of the Balkans and is bordered by Serbia to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, Croatia to the northwest, and the Adriatic Sea to the west with a coastline of 293.5 km. Podgorica, the capital and largest city,