Europe’s never been a priority travel destination for me, despite its history and culture and vastly overrated beaches. I’d only visited Russia, Greece and spent four hours in Italy, prior to Covid, when a 2020 Balkans & Beyond trip got locked-down.
When that trip finally happened in 2022- Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia-there was good bits in amongst a lot of repetitive stuff. Kosovo stood out.
The Caucasus was a lot more to my liking, although I could easily have skipped most of Azerbaijan.
You Euros have to seriously do something about the durries.
GEORGIA: Wine, food, mountains, cheese, and churches.
ARMENIA: Apricots and monasteries
KOSOVO: Super-friendly country that splintered off from the splinters of Yugoslavia.
MONTENEGRO: Spectacular coasts with spectacular over-development, history, hearty meals, and beautiful mountains to the east.
ALBANIA: Communism threw out some weird countries, and this is one of the best. The 20th century was unkind to Albania, but there is plenty to like about it now.
NORTH MACEDONIA: Lots of history, good views and good food, and those peculiar Yugoslav-era monuments.
GREECE: Like most Melbourne kids of the 1970s, I have a deep connection to Greece: my first foreign swear words were Greek. It’s also one of the first countries I was taught about in history and geography classes.
RUSSIA: A FORMER SUPERPOWER, stretching from the Baltic to Hokkaido, land of week long train rides, the greatest ballets and musicians of the world……
ITALY: Was I there four hours, or was it six?
Time enough for two meals, a Coliseum, a Forum, old churches, and those underwhelming steps. While my experience was limited to just Rome, one day maybe I can make it further.
AZERBAIJAN: A couple of nice places to see, but, yeah, nothing special.
BULGARIA: Not the one with Dracula