Geographically, The Balkan Peninsula Is Considered As Southeastern Europe – The Landmass South Of Austria And Hungary And East Of Italy, It’s Famous For Craggy And Remote Mountains, Impressive Shore And Aggressively Partisan Populations.
Puzzled? It’s actually a bit of a trick question. Geographically, the Balkan Peninsula is regarded as Southeastern Europe – the landmass south of Austria and Hungary and east of Italy. It’s known for rugged and remote mountains, impressive coastline and fiercely partisan populations. The Adriatic is to the west, the Black Sea to the east, Greece at the southernmost tip.
But politically, the answer is dependent upon the year. Five centuries of war, oppression and ethnic conflict have dissolved and made states on the Balkan Cape several times over. If you answered Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania or Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) – A-plus! All of them have shore on the Adriatic Sea. If you thought Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, or Kosovo – C-plus. Balkans, but not Western Balkans. Yugoslavia? No go. It collapsed over 10 years ago.
The good news for travelers? An increasingly stable array of independent nations based rather on ethnic populations, but also on the industrial imperatives of newly found independence : capitalism, development and tourism!
Dubrovnik, Croatia, is now a top destination on Eastern Mediterranean cruises, like the one Bud and I did in 2003. Our Dubrovnik guide lived through the 1991-92 Serbian siege, and bullet holes were still everywhere. But Maria’s optimism was contagious. “Come back,” she encouraged. “After the roads are fixed and borders opened, you are going to love it.”
Seven years later we landed in Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia, on the first leg of a four-country Western Balkan trip. Customs and immigration were smooth and efficient and our rental automobile, a Czech Skoda Fabia, waited just steps from the terminal.
We might drive northeast through Slovenia’s Julian Alps, south along coastal Croatia and down to Montenegro’s beaches. We might finish over Montenegro’s mythical mountains and into BiH to end in Sarajevo. Perhaps best, we were flying solo – no package tours, no booking agent. Just us!
Euro-GPS
We brought a GPS with a preloaded Eastern European chip. First stop : iconic Lake Bled. Our GPS let us select : back roads or highway. We took the smallest roads and were straight away smitten. Each home sported lush window boxes. In the foothills of the Julian Alps, each town reached higher, with taller ancient pines, and roads narrowing to single lanes, frequently weaving thru steep pastures. Around one corner a pristine church sat atop a brilliantly green hill.
Lake Bled’s Grand Hotel Toplice was wonderful and historical. It housed Nazi Officials during World War II, and was so prestigious the officials had to pay for rooms, although they were the occupying forces. The Toplice was full of talkative Brits and sporty Germans, and life revolved around the lake – shaded walkways along the shoreline, swans paddling about, boats with brightly colored covers to ferry visitors around. Lovely!
Our next stop took us even higher, to a sporthotel in Kranjska Gora. Sporthotels are clearly Western european : spare decoration, few luxuries, but large rooms to hold skis and bikes. At the Toplice we were told that Northern Americans visit on occasion. In Kranjska Gora, USA citizens aren’t common. We were treated like stars and advised to go to the ski jump at close by Planica where the world record for ski-flying was set in 2005 : 717 feet “airborne” coming off the end of the jump.
We were warned about the drive over Slovenia’s 9,300-foot top, Mount Triglav, at the eastern end of the Alps. It was rainy and foggy. The route was very steep and narrow with fifty or more switchbacks. “Follow a bus,” they revealed. “It will lead you.”
Great guidance! We turned up at our next stop, Lipica, in fine shape and ready to go to the famous Lipizzaner Stud Farm in its 430th year of breeding and coaching the fascinating white stallions. We caught the dramatic “Airs Above the Ground” equestrian show and marveled at the elegant facility with dressage faculties, lodging, diners and marriage chapel as reported tagza.com.
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