Sitting in the Atlanta Airport waiting for our delayed flight to Amsterdam and then on to Bucharest. I've been thinking about the region we will be visiting. The Balkans are the former Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia split into a collection of small countries after Tito died. The new countries are based primarily on 3 ethnicitries: Catholic South Slavs called Croats, Orthodox South Slavs called Serbs, and Muslim Slavs called Bosniaks. Tito could hold them all together but when he died a series of ethnic wars broke out that lasted until 1995. Right now they are enjoying a kind of fragile peace. A couple of the countries are in the EU, a couple are trying to get in and a couple seem to be leaning towards Putin's Russia. Currencies and languages are a mixed bag.
Sooz bought me a book for Christmas titled Where Fools Rush In written by Bill Carter. He wrote it about his time spent as an American civilian in Sarajevo during the wars. It is a first hand report and pretty dark at times but he gives a good description of the insanity of the war. He worked as a volunteer with a low budget nonprofit organization delivering food to residents of Sarajevo.
I'm currently reading a book by Rick Steves called Travel as a Political Act. I know Rick Steves has a kind of goofy, nerdish reputation but I like his approach towards traveling. He likes to interact with regular people, ask questions and learn about the areas he visits. He generally stays away from the real touristy areas and roam around less traveled areas. He tries to be the opposite of the loud, obnoxious American tourist. Not that all Americans are loud and obnoxious, but a lot of people in other countries have that opinion of us and he likes to show that not all of us are like that.
Still waiting ...
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