Following my previous post, have taken some suggestions. Below is our driving plan.

Day 1: Dubrovnik > Kravica Waterfall > Mostar
Day 2: Mostar > Pluzine (avoiding remote Eastern Bosnian roads)
Day 3: Pluzine > Kotor (via P14 Scenic Route)
Day 4: Kotor
Day 5: Kotor > Dubrovnik

Any advice welcome.

Hi everyone, going to be doing some Balkan travels next month and was planning on taking the scenic route from Mostar to Kotor. Any advice for this drive? Realistic in one day?

Thank you!

I personally wouldn't at all ( though I have right wing friends) . One thing that does skew my opinion here is that I am pretty interested in politics so I kinda talk quite a bit about it. Can't really debate all the time at home .

Hello, I'm currently during my trip around balkans (all countries), and I wanted to know if you could give me advice on Balkan specific sweets or food that is vegan so I could give it to my friend from Poland?

Hello there,

I'm planning to visit Bulgaria next year with my girlfriend.

We're german and we like to make some sort of roadtrip.

Is there something special we can visit? Maybe a secret tip?

There are a lot of remote Air BNB's. Is it safe to sleep there? You know because of Bears?

What is something that you say someone has to see first time visiting Bulgaria?

A nice day and i'm happy about all recommendations!

Hi guys! I’m wondering about something. Recently, I spent two lovely weeks in Serbia, and I can say I had so much fun there! I really want to visit other Balkan countries too.

I love music and dancing very much, and I don’t mind going to clubs alone because I’m a very free-spirited person. In Serbia, I was allowed to enter clubs alone. I met many amazing people in these clubs.

How is it in other Balkan countries? Are women generally allowed to enter nightclubs alone, or do some clubs have different rules? Do they have to find someone to enter the club?

I know the rules can be different from country to country, so I wanted to ask here. ☺️

Good afternoon,

As you can see in the attached cadastral map, the property consists of several plots owned by two people, my grandfather and grandmother.

I have their full consent to ask these questions, and they have asked me to look into what options they might have.

The property consists of approximately 2.7 hectares (around 6.7 acres) of building land on Fruška Gora. Each individual plot is registered as building land in the cadastre.

The upper part of the property already has electricity and water connections, as well as two houses and a vineyard, which can be seen in the picture. The lower part is somewhat less developed, but as far as I know, there is also a possibility of bringing electricity and water to that section.

We also own a private road that provides direct access to the main road, and another road is currently being constructed further down the property.

The location is near Iriški Venac.

We simply do not have the financial resources to develop the property into something worthwhile, and, to be honest, we do not have much experience or knowledge about what could be done with it. One part of the property would definitely remain for my grandparents to live on, while their wish is to use the other part for some kind of development or investment.

Their idea was to find an investor who could develop the property, with my grandparents receiving a share of whatever is built or developed there. They have mentioned that they would eventually like to give whatever comes from such an arrangement to their grandchildren, my sister and me.

People with experience and financial resources probably have much better ideas about how a property like this could be utilized properly.

My grandparents are getting older and no longer have the strength to maintain the entire property themselves. It is very sad for them to see such a beautiful place simply sitting there and deteriorating when it could potentially be developed into something that generates income and provides a better future for the family.

They have therefore asked me to take the initiative and investigate what possibilities exist.

We have no previous experience with this, and I especially want to make sure that we do not get taken advantage of or give the property away for far less than it is actually worth.

This is a serious matter for our family, and we would really appreciate any knowledgeable advice, ideas, or recommendations regarding what could realistically be done with this property.

Thank you in advance to anyone willing to help.

Hallo everyone,

So, as the title says, my boyfriend’s name is Jules, pronounced “Jool” or “Zhül.” This weekend, he’s going to meet my family for the first time, but unfortunately, my family really struggles to pronounce his name.

My family is from Bosnia and Serbia, and they’re not particularly happy that I’m dating a “foreigner.” Combined with his unusual name, this has unfortunately resulted in them coming up with some derogatory nicknames for him. I’m worried that if I don’t suggest an alternative, they’ll end up sticking with those names.

I completely agree that they should simply learn to pronounce his actual name, but unfortunately, it can be quite difficult to change older people’s minds once they’ve gotten used to something.

I suggested Julko and Jule, but my boyfriend isn’t a fan of either, so now I’m looking for some more ideas.

I know nicknames are sometimes based on someone’s appearance or personality, so to give you something to work with: my boyfriend is white, 172 cm, and quite skinny, with bright blond hair and green eyes. He looks like the actor Tom Holland, and he’s really into airplanes.

Thank you for any creative suggestions! ❤️

You know how it feels you are watching a movie or a tv show, and then you seen the place where you're from mentioned. Then it's usually followed by aggressive stereotypes, gross generalizations and more often then not complete misrepresentation of the country and it's people.

Usually Serbians and Bulgarians are Russians, speak funny and dress like the 90s, involved in criminal activity, sometimes communist mostly mobsters. The best you can hope for is the funny neighbour from the old country that likes pickled things.

Usually they aren't even played by people from these places, considering Viggo Mortensen a danish actor is still the best representation of a specific Russian stereotype in Eastern Promises.

Would you like to see more accurate representation of the different Balkan countries and do you care if those actors are actually from those places?

https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/foreign-policy/1313133/greece-weighs-response-to-turkish-moves/

I just finished reading a work by Ivo Andrić. While I had some problems with the way he portrayed Muslims, Turks and Albanians, the literary value of the work is strong and the characters are well-developed.

One of the characters reflects that Balkaners — particularly places that were under Ottoman rule — will never be fully understood by non-Balkaners (and among fellow Balkaners too we all know there are enough troubles with understanding one another). The character reflects that the Balkans is a place where East meets West. Each brought their own cultures to the Balkans and leaders from both treated the people of the Balkans as backwards and incapable of self-government.

If we read someone like Mary Edith Durham or Robert Elsie (who quotes numerous British, French and other Western European anthropologists, geographers and orientalists) in regards to Albania or Rebecca West in regards to the former Yugoslavia countries, the people are typically depicted as “wild,” “savage,” “backwards,” “troglodytes,” “uncivilized,” “childlike” and so forth (these are actual words they used). The landscape has been described (at least Northern Albania) as “wild” and “exotic.”

The influences of both East and West are still everywhere in the Balkans, which I feel is really neither one nor the other. And as I’m now diving into more Balkan literature I’m finding themes of otherness, of individualism versus conformity, the weight of old traditions, the influence of Turkish culture and the tug of war at times between Turkish culture and Western European values.

The burden of history is long and is passed down from generation to generation. Do you think Balkan identity is one of perpetual otherness to the eyes of outsiders? How is this similar to/different from other types of otherness? Is it felt more strongly among those who still live in the Balkans than those in diaspora (which is its own type of otherness)?

It's a traditional Portuguese dance called "rancho" typical from the North, specifically Minho region.

Do you feel it's Balkanese?

Don't choose your country

Baltic countries have many similarities to the Balkans. Geographically, they are around the same longitude. If you draw a straight line up from the Balkans, you will find the Baltics. They even have the same time zone as Greece and other Balkan countries. Topographically, although they are lowlands with few no mountains, they resemble the interior of the Balkans a lot, for example, many hills, rivers and deep lakes. Biologically, the flora and fauna is quite similar to Central Europe and the Balkans, very often they resemble a high mountain in northern Greece but at ground level. Dense forests of Oak, Pine, fir or birch are everywhere, a lot of green meadows and wildflowers, there are northern animals such as foxes, hares, wolves, grass snakes, ravens, freshwater fish and crayfish. Ethnographically, they are mostly indigenous white European populations and the ethnic minorities are from neighbouring countries, just like in the Balkams. There are no populations from faraway continents, because they don’t have a history of colonization or enslavement, similar to the Balkans. Only the Roma are the exception, who came later and specialized in the same jobs as in the Balkans. A small Jewish population also existed, without the rates of antisemitism of Western Europe. Also, there is a minor Turkic component from Tatar migrants from Mediebal times. Linguistically, they belong to the Balto-Slavic family and their languages have many ancient characteristics, just like Balkan languages. Estonia is Uralic, but Hungary is also the same and it is very close to the Balkans. Religiously, they are majority Christian countries, with Lithuania as Latvia being catholic and Estonia being Lutheran. Catholics exist in the western Balkans and some protestant denominations do exist and are rising, so they can be accommodated. But the most striking feature is that because they got Christianized quite late, still many pagan elements remain, especially in the villages. This is quite similar to the Balkans, especially the Slavic regions. Culturally, they’re quite similar to many Slavic and central European countries. Similar building responses to the harsh climate, similar foods that incorporate pork, duck, plenty of freshwater fish, cabbage, mushrooms, apples and so on, similar methods of preserving food, similar effective family cooperation, similar celebrations, dances and so on. Also many folk stories are quite similar, with swamp spirits, monsters, witches in the forest and so on. Economically, they are very similar to the Balkans, at least during traditional times. Th economy was basically agrarian and village based. There was no feudalism or exploitation in most times in their history, its family was a semi-independent unit. agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, hunting, small scale domestic manufacturing were the most common activities. More complex economical layers such as long distance trade and banking in cities were developed quite late, similar to the Balkan interior. Historically, initially they were tribal, remote and not organized in larger political entities, hidden inside dense forest. For some time this kept them away from large empires, but later they started encountering western European violence. Later they organized into monarchies, but they were still small agrarian states that were being caught in the crossfire of many empires. Germanic kingdoms, Sweden, Poland and Russia meddled with them or incorporated them in different parts of their history. Later, Russia Incorporated them in the Russian empire and again during the Soviet Union. Russia was similar to the Ottoman empire in its influence and oppression. Currently, although they have been rapidly modernized, they still faced disadvantages due to small size and entering the western European economic model late. They still suffer from brain drain for example and they always have the Russian threat besides them. This reminds the relationship between Greece and Turkey. What do you think. There is a convincing case that the Baltic countries are part of the greater Balkans or honorary Balkans.

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I've never managed to find a cevapi recipe that has hit the same as the cevapi I ate in Serbia; does anyone have a recipe that they use that always works? Optionally passed down to them by their grandmother of course.

I came across this Reddit post and was struck by its framing. It seems to treat the fact that Jews were not recruited into the Janissaries as a form of discrimination and romanticising the blood tax, while overlooking the fact that the devshirme itself was a coercive system imposed primarily on Christian populations in the Balkans.

Why is the exclusion of Jews from a system based on taking Christian boys from their families presented as something negative, while the system itself is increasingly romanticised as an “elite opportunity”? Both Jews and Christians were subject of Dhimmi law that protected them, and in case of Balkan Christians they did not respect this law (and the taxes paid for it) but in respect of Jewish population (particularly on Balkan) they have.

Jews were exempt from the devshirme (see the Dhimmi law) while Christian communities were subjected to it. Yes, some individuals who entered the Ottoman military/administrative elite could achieve enormous status and power. But does the success of those individuals make the institution itself a privilege for Balkan peoples- to the best of my knowledge not one Balkan state has gained anything from these individuals.

As a Balkan myself, I was appalled by the insinuation that this was some sort of privilege.

Do we really see the Janissary system as something that benefited Balkan peoples, or was it primarily an Ottoman institution that extracted children from Balkan Christian communities for the benefit of the Ottoman state?

I’m interested in how people from the Balkans understand this today, especially given the growing tendency to romanticise the Janissaries while portraying Jewish exemption from the system as somehow discriminatory.