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, 

SERBIA

SLOVENIA

Slovenia - capital Ljubljana.

Places To See

Skocjan Caves

SLOVAKIA

Slovakia is East of the Czech Republic (capital Prague, notable personality, author Kafka). Slovakia used to be part of Czechoslovakia.

Useful Websites

ALBANIA

http://www.visit-tirana.com/things-to-do/museums-in-tirana/322/ismail-kadare-house-museum-tirana

https://www.azquotes.com/author/18556-Ismail_Kadare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanians

http://www.visit-tirana.com/eat-drink/desserts/79/yogurteri-tirana

https://www.tirana-airport.com/

BOSNIA

GREECE

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki

KOSOVO

MONTENEGRO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro

SERBIA

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Maps of Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, which is which and where to go

Slovenia's capital is Ljubljana. I remember the pronunciation by saying, "Lana loves Lyublyana. See my posts on I love Slovenia and speaking the language.

Triple arch bridge in Slovenia's capital, Ljublyana.

Slovenia also has an island in a lake, a castle against a cliff, and a cave tour by underground train. And poppyseed cake.

Photo by Angela Lansbury at the World Travel Market in London, England.

Novo Mesto - new town.

If you can recall the days of Czechoslovakia, you will easily remember that the Czech Republic is to the west and Slovakia is the south-west. 

The capital is Bratislava on the west. You can see from the map that it has an airport and you can fly in on Ryanair and other airlines. However, you have a second choice; Vienna, capital of Austria, to the west has more flights and a train to Bratislava. (Other borders are with Poland, Ukraine and Hungary - south to Budapest.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia split one January 1st in a velvet revolution. The Czechs who were under the Communist regime for several years are predominantly atheist. The Slovaks, like the Poles to the North are devoutly Catholic. This affects national holidays.

Places To visit

Bratislava

Bratislava Castle

Bratislava Castle. Entry is free. The restaurant is open after the castle closes.

Equestrian statue of Moravian King Svatopluk 1, in Bratislava Castle, Slovakia.

In the grounds (free to enter) is the statue of Moravian King Svatopluk 1, riding a horse and waving a sword. He spent most of his life fighting and nobody is sure where he died. 

Legend says that on his deathbed he divided his lands between his three sons, who he summoned to his bedside. He told them to stay united on good terms with each other. 

To demonstrate the point, he showed them three sticks, bound together, which he asked them to break. None of them could do it. 

King Svatopluk, showing his three sons the strength of sticking together. Photo by Michal Mañas in Wikipedia article.

He separated the three sticks giving one to each lad, and told them to break their stick. Each of them broke the single stick. (This story is illustrated over in the Czech Replubic.)

Castles

Bojnice Castle 19c (1800s!)

Photo by Civertan from Wikipedia.

Levice

Hiking Trails 

Copious, useful signposts show four levels of walking trails, easy to difficult and times to allow. 

Forest lodges with accommodation and toilets, busy in high season, must be booked.

Watch out for bears - make a noise. I've been in bear country in Canada and Romania. I'm not happy about big, potentially dangerous, animals. Anything larger than a rat alarms me. On the other hand, I'm that that keen on ticks, either.

Serbia's capital, Belgrade, has an airport. Another is at Nis.

Unlike Slovakia, with its velvet revolution, Serbs and Kosovan have experienced serious fighting as well as political differences. This will affect the conversation you have, or don't have!, as well as the direction of travel. This affects border. You might be allowed out at one crossing point to Kosova, but not be allowed back into Serbia. Check the latest conditions locally, as well as with your own government.

Novi Sad

As you might expect, this means a new or newly built city, usually over one which was destroyed.

So which countries do I want to visit? Slovenia first, Slovakia second, Serbia third.

Useful Websites

Slovenia

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/07/slovenia-love-slovenia-they-say.html

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Slovakia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratislava_Castle

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/serbia

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please follow me and share your favourite posts.

Slovenia - Love Slovenia they say, caves, castles and poppyseed

Love Slovenia, they said. What a clever pun. Of course I love Slovenia. I love travelling. I love everybody.

Problems
Just a minute. Where is it? East of Italy, near Italy's border town of Trieste which is to the west. North of Greece, part of the old Yugoslavia, the Communist country which broke away from Russia.

Memories of Yugoslavia
We had an au pair girl from Yugoslavia. She used to recite a saying with numbers, "Yugoslavia is a country with seven languages and five great lakes,' - or was it the other way round, five languages and seven great lakes?

She bought clothes in England.  But before she went home she cut out the labels.

I asked why. "Are the labels scratchy?"

She looked at me warily, disdainfully, surprised at my ignorance. "We are not allowed to take out money, more than a small amount, not enough to buy a lot of clothes. We are not allowed to buy and import items from other countries."

I was sorry when I first heard that the country had split up. I had been to Dubrovnik with my parents when I was a teenager, on a cruise. I remember my parents walking through the narrow cobbled streets, admiring the architecture, looking up. They paused to listen to somebody playing music overhead, beyond a balcony, through an open window. Now Dubrovnik, the well-known tourist stop, was cut off from the rest of the country.

Now in 2018 in the UK we have Brexit. Slovenia is independent, proud of it, glad of it. There are two sides to every story. Times change.

What is there to see and do?

In the middle of the country is the capital, Ljublijana - easier to say if you realise the j is pronounced like a y. Small capital city, pocket-size, or pint size they say.

 See all the usual museums on history and art. The main landmark is the triple arch bridge. At night the bridge is attractively lit and makes reflections in the water of the winding river.

Your next choice is a trip to the lake or a trip to the caves?

This is me at the World Travel Market at Excel in London last year. I am standing next to a delightful picture of a lake with an island reflected in the water. The lake is Lake Bled, famous for the island with the church. Bled's other attraction is a cliffside castle.

Poppyseed cake. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Slovenia Cake
In my hand is a pastry. The famous gibanica cake has poppyseeds. I love poppyseeds. The cake also contains walnuts, apple, raisins cheese and a cream topping.

The food features potato dumplings. Called Kraški pršut.

You could finished a meal with a Turkish coffee or a lemon tea. You can also take wine tours.

Take trips to two sets of caves, the giant Postoyna and the Unesco heritage Kkocjan.

Postyna Cave Complex
Take the train through the Postoyna cave. The cave contains a concert hall.

Railed walkways take you past stalagmites and stalagtites. Which is the mite and which is the tite? Stalagtites hang down like tights.

The place is busy. It even has an underground post office.

Admire the beauty - and learn about the history. In WWII the Nazis stored petrol (Americans say gas for gasoline) in the caves. Partisans set fire to the stores.

It's not hot now. Underground can get cool, even chilly. Wear a jacket and a hat.

The train in the cave. Photo by Donald Judge in Wikipedia.

Go to the nearby 13th century Predjama castle which is built into a cave. This castle has everything you'd want of a castle. History. A dungeon. A secret passage.

After the castles and caves, Slovenia has a gorgeous gorge.

Where next? West to Trieste or East to Zagreb? Look at the map again.

Slovenia used to be part of Yugoslavia. Instead of visiting one country, the old Yugoslavia, you can now cover the same distance and legitimately claim to have visited two countries. You are only two hours from Croatia whose capital, Zagreb, is to the East. Happy travelling!

More information from:
http://www.slovenia.si/visit/
https://wikitravel.org/en/File:Slovenia_in_its_region.svg
https://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page
https://www.skyscanner.net/flights-to/si/airlines-that-fly-to-slovenia.html
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenia

Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See my next post about countries splitting up, covering the USA and the Romans.