Although it's a hugely complex issue I'm certainly more informed about the former socialist republic of Yugoslavia, its eventual breakup, and how the distinct ethnic groups in the area have struggled and suffered throughout history. In addition, even if the complexity of the situation precluded a clear understanding of the politics for me, the emotional impact and horrific damage that was wrought by the conflict was entirely evident and almost unbearably affecting. While I found parts of our trip very upsetting, particularly travelling through Bosnia-Herzegovina and visiting a photojournalism exhibition in Dubrovnik called War Photo Limited (see their website here), the region itself is so beautiful and shows promising signs of recovery from the trauma of its past. There is a lively tourism scene and the landscape is stunning, from the scorchingly hot Mediterranean vineyards of southern and western Herzegovina to the awesome Bay of Kotor and the Adriatic coastline. We drove for hours through mountains and past waterfalls, singing along to Balkan folk music and Cher, and enjoyed some wonderful baklava washed down with the local rakija (for my sisters) or warm milk (for me). The whole trip was an absolute pleasure and I will never forget it...
I'm just back from a mini-tour of Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia with my sisters and I'm still processing everything we saw and heard during our time there. Of course I had known about the war that took place in that part of the world during the 1990s, but I'm ashamed to say that my knowledge of this was patchy and I had no real understanding of the underlying causes or the subsequent fallout. I'm still not confident that I have sufficient insight to give an in-depth analysis here, or even an overview, but I feel incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to discover more about the war. Everyone we met on our travels was open and kind and we were privileged to learn about what happened from individuals within the Serbian (Orthodox Christian), Croatian (Catholic), and Bosniak (Muslim) communities. Although it's a hugely complex issue I'm certainly more informed about the former socialist republic of Yugoslavia, its eventual breakup, and how the distinct ethnic groups in the area have struggled and suffered throughout history. In addition, even if the complexity of the situation precluded a clear understanding of the politics for me, the emotional impact and horrific damage that was wrought by the conflict was entirely evident and almost unbearably affecting. While I found parts of our trip very upsetting, particularly travelling through Bosnia-Herzegovina and visiting a photojournalism exhibition in Dubrovnik called War Photo Limited (see their website here), the region itself is so beautiful and shows promising signs of recovery from the trauma of its past. There is a lively tourism scene and the landscape is stunning, from the scorchingly hot Mediterranean vineyards of southern and western Herzegovina to the awesome Bay of Kotor and the Adriatic coastline. We drove for hours through mountains and past waterfalls, singing along to Balkan folk music and Cher, and enjoyed some wonderful baklava washed down with the local rakija (for my sisters) or warm milk (for me). The whole trip was an absolute pleasure and I will never forget it... While the temperature was between 20 and 30C it was also quite humid and somewhat overcast at times in both Kotor and Dubrovnik (this worked out well for me; I love heat but not being in the sun). Sadly, my complete lack of camera technical know-how meant I had no idea how to deal with the atmospheric 'haziness' so my photos don't really do the surrounds justice... hopefully, however, they should still give a nice flavour of the different countries (just click to enlarge and scroll through the galleries; captions are included underneath)! Bay of Kotor - Montenegro Mostar and around Bosnia-Herzegovina Dubrovnik - Croatia
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Really, it contains a little bit of everything, from a celebration of science and the English language to the joys of travel and the Shipping Forecast. The title ('Meanderings') is a fairly accurate description of its content: I write about different things as the mood takes me, but hopefully there's something in here for everyone... Categories
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