After spending 4 months in Spain in early 2022, we headed to the Balkans!

The Balkans are a group of countries in southeastern Europe. They are: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. The westernmost part of Turkey is also included.

Here are the countries we’ve visited in the Balkans and some of our favorite things about them;

• Albania - people spoke the best English! When we would go up to someone, they would start speaking Albanian, realize that we didn’t speak it, and immediately transition to English. Also, the singer Ava Max (real name is Amanda Koci) was born to Albanian parents!

• Bulgaria - the sunflowers! In Bulgaria, sunflowers were most definitely abundant. When we were driving from place to place, we would pass acres and acres of sunflowers covering everything; the bright yellow petals and the green stalks. They were gorgeous! Walking among them was excellent as well because you could eat the dried sunflower seeds! Another one of our favorite things we did was visit the Shipka Memorial Church, located outside of Shipka. This church (shown below) is so gorgeous in so many different aspects. With its tall golden domes and colorful green and yellow spires, I loved this church!

• Bosnia & Herzegovina - This was an amazing country! The people were very friendly, the scenery was pretty (though while we were in Sarajevo it was very rainy, unfortunately), the food was good, and in general Bosnia and Herzegovina gave us a good feeling! One thing that was very heart-wrenching and shocking was the number of bullet holes in buildings and the general history of the war. From 1992 to 1995 (crazy that it's not even forty years ago), Bosnia and Herzegovina was pulling away from Yugoslavia. The result was so many missiles, bombs, bullets shed, and innocent lives lost. Walking down a street in Mostar or Sarajevo, you walk past so many buildings with multiple bullet holes peppering the facade. The war left shadows everywhere in this country. We went to the Sarajevo Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide museum and it was incredibly depressing and mind-blowing. So many people were killed and tortured just because Bosnia & Herzegovina wanted to break away from Yugoslavia. After spending a bit in BH, we were happy (but at the same time sad with all the war shadows)!

• Kosovo - This is one of the youngest countries in the world and is not recognized as a country by several other nations. We didn't spend very long here, only about a week in Pristina (the capital) but we enjoyed our time. Though I definitely wouldn't say it was my favorite Balkan country (probably either Bosnia & Herzegovina or Romania), it was a cool city with lots of modern flairs. One of my favorite thing about Kosovo was that Dua Lipa is from here (born in London to Kosovan parents)! In fact, we only just missed a concert of her by a couple of weeks. We also went to Gadima Caves (also known as Marble Caves), which is shown in the upper left. This cave complex was absolutely impressive and stunning! Beautiful stalactites and stalagmites (I still don’t remember which is which) grow from the floor and ceiling and create this complex intricacy that makes the cave look very much like a mouth, it’s gaping hole covered in little (and big) ‘teeth’. Definitely worth a visit!

• North Macedonia - in our opinion, people here were the nicest in the Balkans. We spend 10 days in Skopje, the capital. One of the examples of kind locals was a local bakery near our Airbnb. On one of the first days we bought bread and some burek (a savory filled phyllo pastry treat very popular in the Balkans) when asking her what fillings they were, she tried to explain but had forgotten what ‘chicken’ was in English and the next time we bought from her, it seemed as if she had actually practiced the words for us! One of the big negatives is that, just like in Bosnia & Herzegovina, it is allowed to smoke in restaurants and cafes, making it very unpleasant to eat a meal inside.

• Montenegro - a beautiful country! We started our stay with a farm stay near Cetinje. This was a fun, off-the-beaten-path stay with amazing hosts and fun farm activities for everyone. We then headed to Kotor, a town right on the bay with the same name. The bay was surrounded by high rock faces that went practically straight up! It was so pretty with the strict contrast between the dark green trees and the white rock faces, along with the beautiful bay. I love the views here! It is a very popular stop for cruise ships and we stayed at an Airbnb with gorgeous views, allowing us to see the giant ships come and go! We also spent a week in Herceg Novi, near the border with Croatia.

• Romania - the architecture was for sure our favorite thing about this country. From beautiful homes to orthodox churches and other buildings. They used a lot of wood carving but also stone and colorful accents. This country makes it up to the top 5 in the world for me!

We spent 2 1/2 months in the Balkans and were very pleasantly surprised by the beauty and how underrated these countries are. The countries we visited in the Balkans were amazing and unique in their own way! I definitely recommend these countries to visit if you're anywhere near them!