Balkan Odyssey: Or, What I Did on My Summer Vacation

by Neil Woodburn on

Today begins a short series on a long trip from which I’ve just returned. As you can tell from the title, my journey took my through the former Yugoslavia. Fifteen years ago, the majority of my trip would have been a visit to a single country. But today, after far too many years of horrific civil war, Yugoslavia has split into five separate countries. I was fortunate on this trip to have visited three of them as well as some of their neighbors. In the following weeks, this column will take you through Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania. Straying slightly from the Balkan theme, I ended my journey passing through Hungary and Austria.

I would have liked to send dispatches from the road, but part of the allure of where I visited was that internet bars were not on every corner.

The aim of this column is to hopefully introduce the reader to a handful of countries, rarely visited, that have much to offer. The column will be part travelogue, sharing my experiences and adventures, as well as part guidebook, where I hope to offer enough practical advice to help future travelers through a region covered very poorly by guidebooks.

Lastly, this column will temporarily replace Red Corner, seeing as everywhere I visited was once part of the old communist empire-except, of course, Austria. So, jump on board and join me on the Balkan Express. The trip exceeded all of my expectations and this column will hopefully exceed yours.

Tomorrow’s Post: Getting to Albania

Photo of the Day (7/13/06)

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve dug into my recent vacation photos and selfishly awarded myself today’s Photo of the Day. The shot was taken in Kotor, Montenegro just across from the city bus station. I was drawn to the bright colors and the contrast of satellite dish and clothes line.

If you’d like to contribute to our photo pool to prevent this section from become a slide show of my recent vacation, pop on over to our Gadling Flickr site and upload away.

Red Corner: Un-Touristy Montenegro

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve been running across a number of these articles recently in which some wooed-over travel writer predicts he’s discovered “the next Croatia.”

Croatia, as you might know, has moved from civil war battlefield to Europe’s hottest summer destination over the course of just a few years. This hip status will soon peak, however, and some other great locale will take over. Many believe this will be Montenegro.

Lying just south of Croatia, Montenegro shares the same weather and scenic coastline as its more popular neighbor to the north. But, as David Farley of The Washington Post reports, it has a whole lot more to offer than just a cheap substitute for Croatia.

Currently, one of the most attractive elements is that hardly anyone is there right now. Farley ran into very few tourists and, as a result, the country’s reasonably priced accommodations reflect a supply and demand philosophy when it comes to pricing.

Farley also appeared overjoyed with the medieval town of Kotor, located on Europe’s southernmost fjord and whose city walls boast longer ramparts than more popular Dubrovnik a few hours north. Budva, a town known affectionately as the “St. Tropez of the Adriatic,” also impressed Farley. Reading his description makes me think of, you guessed it, Croatia.

I don’t know about you, but I think there might just be something to the whole Montenegro-as-the-next-hot-spot rumor after all.

Red Corner: Real Estate in Montenegro

by Neil Woodburn on

With Montenegro having recently gained its independence from Serbia, you can expect to see a slew of press about this new, emerging country.

The Times (UK) has jumped on board with an article about buying vacation homes on Montenegro’s beautiful Adriatic Coast as well as various locations inland. As you might imagine with an emerging country struggling with its infrastructure, there are great deals to be had. Prices are rising quickly, however. Investors are anticipating that the real estate market in this region, which is just south of Croatia, will soon boom just as Croatia has done. Predictions that Montenegro will one day join the EU will further exasperate prices.

In the meantime, deals can be had for £30,000-£200,000. And the buying process, according to The Times, is rather easy-except for the part about mortgages not existing.

Red Corner: Balkan Location Scouts

by Neil Woodburn on

You can tell a lot about a country by the stand-in work it does for other countries. For example, my first exposure to Prague was when it stood in for Vienna in the movie Amadeus.

There is a lot of money to be made for lesser known countries to stand in for more expensive locations–or simply, for these countries to be the primary location for a Hollywood shoot. This is why a contingent of representatives from the Balkans are in Cannes pitching the natural beauty and inexpensive filming opportunities that abound in and around the former Yugoslavia.

Blessed with beautiful mountains, scenic coastline and numerous islands, the countries of Croatia, Serbia & Montenegro, and Slovenia all have something to offer Hollywood location scouts–and tourists, for that matter.

Robert Welkos from the LA Times article interviewed a few of the representatives in Cannes and left slightly amused at their honesty in speaking about the poor roads and distant film processing centers which would make filming a definite challenge in this part of the world. But as for the scenery, oh my!