I spent a month travelling from the south of france through to Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.
One of the BEST travel timnes i`ve had its easy to say.
Slovenia was an eye-opener.Its kind of a forgotten gem in a way!
Go and hang about the Lake Bled area for a bit - its amazing.I`m earger to go back there.
Croatia is cool, i was only in Zagreb(great place fora day or two, nut i found got boring pretty quickly), and Dubrovnik.
Bosnia is great, Mostar was really interesting and gritty - the realities of war start to kick in half way between dubrovnik and mostar when you start to pass bombed out houses and Kfor vans etc...see the mostar thread for accomadation details, Omer there can sort out a homestay for you in Sarajevo - the only way to go if you want good bosnian food and help out the locals a bit.
Sarajevo is really excellant - stayed there for 3 days(in said homestay), and could have stayed for 3 more!Great nightlife, friendly people - just don`t go wandering out towards the suburbs where the tower blocks are(past the holiday inn) - it can get rough...alot of desperate people living there.When we were driving into Sarajevo on the bus we were pretty freaked, the suburbs consist of tower blooks with massive holes in them from missiles and everything has bullet holes or is destroyed - this was the front line after all.But once you get into the city everything is cool and its just like any other normal city, except for the turkish/muslem influence in the old town which is special.
The journey by bus from Sarajevo to Belgrade is one of the best journeys i`ve taken - although other people find the 12 hours in a bus a bit much!Scenery is nothing short of amazing as you dip into valleys and scale mountain roads.Then you reach the flat lands of Serbia going through serbian towns, seeing the locals and mixing with them as they get on and off the bus, a freindly bunch with no english!Nice girls though!.Your not likely to meet many backpackers along this route!The visa requirements are no longer there, so you won`t have to worry about that - we held the bus up for 20 minutes while the locals muttered about how silly it was for Serbia to have a visa system during hard economic times - of course a few days later they abolished the visa!So much for our 50 euro each!
Belgrade is cool - felt safe, except when arriving and getting off the bus we were swamped by a bunch of grotty persistant taxi drivers!!Maniacs!
Spent a few days out and about in belgrade, checking out the bars and seeing the city - top place with a sometimes surreal feel to it!
This is all over 4 weeks - spending about 900euro - bear in mind we were out drinking quite often and stayed 2 night in Venice in a 4 star hotel!(Italy i thought was over-rated though..)
Go and Enjoy!!!
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