Having been off the road about six weeks now and with the focus on re-adjusting to the rigors of the real world it seems past time to wrap up the last 17 days on our tour of the former Yugoslavia (aka, the Baklans). After visiting Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia, we spent a wet but enjoyable week traversing the truly unique landscape of Montenegro; ticking the box on visiting the region’s largest city and the former Yugoslav capital, Belgrade; and taking in the strangely engrossing oddity that is Macedonia.
Our journey took us from BiH into the tiny country of Montenegro which is slightly smaller than Connecticut and has a population of less than 650,000. Despite its size the country has a ton to offer visitors from a beautiful coastline along the Adriatic to a mountainous interior that looks unlike anywhere else we’ve visited (but, as we learned, probably most closely resembles Romania, as they have the same type of forest there). It really is one of those places that must be visited, although do it quickly because it is starting to appear on the radar of western travelers.
 |
| Bay of Kotor - beautiful here, incredible on a clear day |
 |
Sveti Stefan just down the coast from Kotor & Budva |
When we visited the Montenegrin coast during our previous trip to the region nearly two years ago, we took one look at the Crna Gora / Monte Negro / Black Mountains behind us and decided we must return to explore the interior. We picked up a car in the capital city of Podgorica, put our hiking shoes back on, and spent the next week driving around the country at an extremely slow pace as the speed limit rarely tops 40 mph and there are police everywhere. We spent two evenings in the south east in former capital city of Cetinje, another two nights in the north eastern skiing / hiking village of Kolašin and our final three nights in the small northern town of Žabljak in Dormitor National Park. Some of the highlights included visiting the Njegoš Mausoleum perched on a 1650m peak in Lovćen National Park ...
 |
| Njegoš mausoleum |
 |
| The mausoleum is perched on Jezerski Vrh, second highest peak in Lovćen NP |
 |
| "Am I in paradise, or on the moon?" - George Bernard Shaw, on seeing this view |
... exploring Biogradska Gora National Park virtually on our own ...
 |
| Lake Biogradska |
 |
| Foggy forest in Biogradska NP |
 |
| Up in the hills, resting for lunch before the rain |
and taking in the enormous Tara Canyon from ground level and the peaks above (and having our attempt at a hike of some altitude being thwarted by unmelted snow – yes, this was the end of May!).
 |
| The Tara Canyon (deepest in Europe) from Ćurevac |
 |
| Hiking in Durmitor NP - the final trail marker we could find... |
 |
| Rainy lunch at Lake Jezero in Durmitor NP - and our faithful hiking companion |
Despite a consistent and surprisingly accurate weather forecast predicting “variable cloudy with rain” we really enjoyed the time outside and our three unique guesthouses which allowed for a lot of creative home cooking (our own) and enjoying of the local wine and beer. Our time in Montenegro also provided one of the more memorable (i.e. stressful) moments of the trip as experienced the joys of being pulled over in developing foreign country where we don’t speak the language. Thankfully our tactic of shrugging a lot and the police determining we were tourists and not here on business (what difference this makes is beyond us) ended in a dismissal with no ticket issued and more surprisingly no greasing of palms.
From Montenegro we flew to Belgrade. While the flight was only 45 minutes long, flying over mountains through an electrical storm made it the bumpiest flight of the trip. You know it’s bad when the big burly looking guy across the aisle starts crossing himself. We arrived in one piece and spent three uneventful days in the capital of Serbia (save for the few minutes we spent running from the mob attending a pro-Mladić demonstration – the fugitive chief of staff from the 1990’s conflict had been captured a few days prior to our arrival). The city doesn’t offer much to distinguish itself in terms of sights or architecture and its renowned bar/club scene isn’t exactly up our alley. With the highlight of the stay being a visit to Tito’s mausoleum it is fair to say Belgrade wins the prize of the least interesting place we visited on our travels.
 |
| Comrade Tito's final resting place - not nearly as creepy as Ho Chi Minh's |
 |
| We saw some really bad 'art'. I call this composition "Where's Jason?". |
 |
This nude Meštrović creation was not allowed in the center of the old town.
So, he stands on a hill and shows off to the new town across the river. |
Macedonia, officially the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia due to a fight over the name with Greece, was our last stop in the Balkans. We bussed from Belgrade to Skopje, rented a car and set out to explore some of the more off-the-beaten-path parts of a country which is, on the whole, off the beaten path. (For the curious, the beaten path in Macedonia is basically the capital Skopje in the north and Lake Ohrid in the south west.) We spent three nights in the southern city of Bitola, the second largest in the country, partaking in a little hiking near Prilep, checking out the roman ruins of Heraclea Lyncestis, and enjoying our evening beers along the city’s surprisingly vibrant pedestrian-only main street.
 |
| In the hills above Prilep |
 |
| Bitola - a very happening little town |
We then made a trip to the wine region, visiting Bovin and Popova Kula wineries near Negotino, staying the night at Popova Kula’s onsite hotel. While Macedonia is producing some flavorful, quality wines at great value, the business aspect falls a little short. This was especially evident at Popova Kula, where they have a hotel and restaurant but no tastings or tours. Needless to say we found a way to sample a good amount of wine and even managed to take in a little culture visiting the impressive Roman ruins at nearby Stobi.
 |
| We shared a huge lunch and several glasses of wine with one of the winemakers at Bovin |
 |
| Beautiful Popova Kula winery |
 |
| A pre-dinner bottle: delicious chilled Muscat Ottonel |
 |
| Roman ruins at Stobi |
After some uncertainty of how to spend the rest of our time in Macedonia we decided on the path of least resistance and drove to Lake Ohrid, which we had visited previously. We stayed three nights in a great guesthouse up in the hills of Elašin on the lake’s eastern shore. Our charming yet chatty host, Anita, filled us in entirely and then some on the details of the Macedonian government, as the parliamentary elections were going on during our stay. It was some how appalling yet unsurprising to learn how corrupt the government is, mainly shown through power plays like the fact that the incumbent government arrested the opposition party leader on some sketchy charges the day after winning the election – just to show who’s still in charge.
 |
| View from our balcony in Elašin |
Having explored the city of Ohrid on a previous trip, we spent one day hiking the hills above the lake and another day visiting Sveti Naum monastery near the Albanian border and checking out a newly-opened reconstruction of an Iron Age village.
 |
| At the top of the 2 lakes hike - a view of Ohrid and Prespa |
 |
| Lake Ohrid, one of the oldest lakes in the world |
 |
| 16th century Sveti Naum monastery |
 |
| "Bay of Bones" - a reconstruction of the 1200-700BC lake town of Plocha Michov |
We spent our final evening in Skopje, resting up for our multi-leg trip to Athens the next day. The nice thing about Ohrid and Skopje is you don’t get stared down by locals at every turn, as you seem to in the rest of the country. Of everywhere we’ve been, Macedonia continues to top the list of most ‘interesting’ places… which we mean in the most English of ways.
 |
| Last Balkan lunch: burek & yoghurt drink |
 |
| The rapidly evolving city of Skopje |
