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Fabled Bled

Oh, how I tried to resist.

But to no avail. That tiny island in the middle of the lake with the quaint church is just so darned scenic! No matter the angle, it just begged to have its picture taken, and I succumbed. Over and over. But look, it’s so different from this angle. I swear!

Apart from being a giant gift to Slovenia’s tourism and postcard industry, Bled is a beautiful town in its own right, both the center of romantic lakeside walks and the ideal base for all sorts of adventure sports, from white water rafting to rock climbing.

My brother and I opted for the adventure sports, and went mountain biking. Did we know that this involved a crazy guide and biking straight up the mountain for starters? Then down. Then back UP. Then down. Then back…you get the point. And so did we: it took us a few days to walk normally afterward. Ah, but such beautiful mountain scenery.

Ljoveljy Ljubljana

Ljubljana?

I’ll be honest and admit that until this trip, I’d never heard of this city. And it’s the capital city of a country! (Can I hide behind the fact that back when I was studying geography in school this country didn’t exist yet and was still part of Yugoslavia?)

Then, after I’d heard of it, I couldn’t pronounce it (hint: ignore the J’s).

As it turns out, the small country of Slovenia (population: 2 million) is, for the region, an economic powerhouse (GDP per capita almost 5 times higher than neighboring Serbia, from whom they broke off in 1991 with the dissolution of Yugoslavia). And the capital city of Ljubljana is one of those hidden gems that’s a pure delight to discover.

Go there before the rest of the world catches on!

Classics in Croatia

Waiting for a ferry back from Brac to Split on the mainland, there was an impressive gathering of vintage cars parked right outside a restaurant in the port town.

My brother went out first to shoot while I ate my omelette (which was delivered before his pizza), so when he came back to eat and it was my turn to snap away I figured it’d be silly to have both of us take the same shots. Pascal got some great images of the whole cars, so for my set I decided to get really up close and personal. And voila: an intimate look at a few automobile classics.

Hvar and Brac

Yes, Croatia’s islands are all that. From the well developed tourist magnets that welcome millions of visitors every year to remote and pristine outposts of natural beauty.

Here are images from two of Croatia’s most popular island getaways, the islands of Hvar and Brac.

Hvar has been populated since pre-historic times and Hvar Town is one of the oldest towns in Europe, dating back to the Greek colony of Pharos in 384 B.C. With beautiful beaches, fruit orchards, pine forests, olive groves and lavender fields, Hvar also promotes itself as the “sunniest spot in Europe,” with 2,715 hours of sunlight in an average year.

Apart from providing a gift to Croatia’s postcard industry with the amazing beach at Bol, the island of Brac is also famous for its white stone, which has been used worldwide in the construction of luxury mansions and palaces…including the White House in Washington, D.C.

Time to Split

Split is Croatia’s second largest city and the main transport hub to the country’s popular islands in the Adriatic. Although overshadowed in popularity by its southern neighbor Dubrovnik, Split is a very beautiful city in its own right with a lovely old town.

During the war in the 90s it escaped any major fighting, although it does bear the odd distinction of being the only city in history to have been shelled by a military vessel bearing its own name (the Yugoslav light frigate Split). Thankfully, damage and casualties were light.

Delightful Dubrovnik

Croatia’s southern coastal city of Dubrovnik is perhaps the most famous and certainly one of the most touristed Adriatic destinations. With a history dating back to the Greek era and a truly impressive fortified old town that once rivaled the city state of Venice, Dubrovnik is unquestionably one of the jewels of the Balkans.

Briefly shelled during the war with Serbia in the early 90s despite being demilitarized precisely to avoid this (the general responsible got eight years in prison), the city has now repaired its war damage and is host to millions of tourists annually.

Destruction and Reconstruction

Frankly, I don’t fully understand the complexities of the war in Bosnia of the early 1990s. And perhaps it can’t ever be fully understood.

The country of Bosnia and Hercegovina is unique in that it sits on the meeting ground of three ethnicities and religions: the Muslim Bosnians (43%), Orthodox Christan Serbs (31%) and Catholic Croats (17%) all live intermingled. To make a long story short, all three groups fought each other from ‘91-’95 and changed alliances at various points, the neighboring warring countries of Serbia and Croatia of course played a large part, and various atrocities were committed on all sides.

In some areas, like the city of Mostar, the ethnic split ran right down the center of the city, with the front line directly through the center of town. Take a look at the first two images below. They’re of the same street. The first one was taken in the mid-90s. The second one I took (we actually stayed in that green building on the left). And the third image is of that street at night from the other direction. Tensions remain to this day, but you can see in further images how the buildings are slowly being renovated, the contrast between still in ruin and all fixed up often glaring.

Not even an hour away is the pilgrimage site of Medugorje, where in the early 80s a group of teenagers first saw an apparition of Mary. Millions of Catholics from around the world come here to pray every year.

Further below, the famous curved bridge of Mostar has been fully reconstructed after its destruction during the war, and at the end the last three pictures from the capital city of Sarajevo, which went from winter Olympics host in 1984 to bombed out city under siege, shelling and sniper fire less than 10 years later.

Bosnia has not resolved all of its tensions, but is a country on the mend. With beautiful scenery, pretty cities and welcoming people, one hopes they’ll successfully put a difficult past behind them to continue to embrace a more peaceful and hopeful future.

Magical Montenegro

Montenegro (Black Mountain) is Europe’s newest country: freshly minted in 2006 after a referendum to part ways with Serbia.

With the Adriatic to one side and imposing mountains to the other, historically Montenegro has seen more trade and affiliation with naval cities of the area (such as Venice) than with its other Balkan neighbors. Nevertheless, Montenegro was absorbed into Yugoslavia after the first World War and allied itself with its Serbian neighbor in the complex Balkan fighting that ensued in the 90s as Yugoslavia splintered off among ethnic and religious lines.

The country is small, and the population minimal (some 680,000 in the entire country), but Montenegro is a proud place with a rich history, stunning mountainous coastline, and prosperity that almost doubles its southern and eastern neighbors…not to mention a growing tourist industry that’s sure to be the next big hit for those seeking to escape Croatia’s crowds.

Images from the fortified coastal towns of Budva and Kotor:

Tirana’s Rainbow

Devoid of natural geographical beauty or of more than a handful ancient architectural gems, Albania’s capital city of Tirana also fell victim to the dreadful boxy, drab concrete architectural style prevalent throughout eastern Europe’s communist countries. So the natural foundation for a beautiful city are not entirely there in abundance.

But Tirana did something amazing. It painted.

Everywhere you turn, the dull and lifeless blocky architecture has been transformed into lively, dynamic and colorful visual eye candy with strokes of the paint brush. Walking down the cities main streets, the dazzling display of creative coloring left me beaming and inspired, proving to the world once again that even for a city, it’s not what you have, but what you do with it that counts.

Images from the colorful buildings of Tirana:

Renegade Albania

Tough little Albania.

One of the last holdouts to Ottoman conquest during medieval times and the only eastern European country to rid themselves of the Germans without Soviet help during WWII, this beautiful mountainous country on the southern Adriatic just above Greece is quite the frontier land.

Despite being one of the most Muslim countries in Europe (64%), it is one of the only countries that ended  WWII with more Jews than before, actively resisting deportation despite being under a succession of Italian and German rule (only 1 Albanian family was sent off to concentration camps) and actively welcoming and sheltering Jewish refugees from neighboring countries.

Although Communistic after the war until the early 90s, Albania aligned itself with China and to some extent the Soviet Union but was not subject to them, clearly evidenced by the fact that it is the only country in mainland Europe without international train access (an unthinkable development under train-loving Soviet rule).

Friendly, welcoming, but without the star tourist pull of its Adriatic neighbors, Albania is an honest slice of Balkan Europe off the beaten path and all the more appealing for it.

The pictures are primarily from the fortress of Butrint in the far south and the capital city, Tirana.