We have been home for just over 24 hours.

Home from an amazing month-long trip that made time feel thick and rich with experiences and learning as we drove through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro.

Aside from our first and last few nights, we booked all of our accommodations as we went (using Booking.com). It didn’t take long for Kevin to be notified from the site that he was a booking genius! (needless to say, I heard about that quite a bit).

We had a loose idea of what we wanted to see, but wanted to be open to discovery and last-minute ideas of where we might stay.  It evolved into a trip of mostly two-night stays which worked really well for our pace of trip.

It never felt rushed and, after the usual dazed-and-confused feeling upon arrival in a new town, we found it was just enough time to really feel like we knew where things were (“We own this town!”).

Along the way (as anyone who follows me on Instagram can attest), I became slightly obsessed with taking photos of laundry. 

 

 

We both agree that the only place we could have spent less time in was Porec. It was a pretty enough seaside town, but it was overrun with ‘holidaymakers’ and felt a little soulless. I would gladly have spent those extra days in Sarajevo.

 

 

For anyone interested in doing a similar journey, our itinerary broke down like this:

It started with three nights in London, because, well…why not?

Then we got serious about the Balkan thing and flew to lovely Ljubljana for two nights. Ljbuljana is a compact city with a wonderful cafe-culture vibe and is a great introduction to friendly Slovenia. However, because we already knew that we were ending our trip in Dubrovnik, Croatia, we needed to start our car rental within the same country (otherwise, there would be a huge penalty for starting the rental in a different country).

We arranged for a great van shuttle service called Go-Opti, which delivered us to Porec, Croatia in a couple of hours.

Two nights in Porec, then a drive up to Trieste, Italy to visit some friends because, well, once we were in Porec we realized how close Trieste was, and so…why not?

 

 

Two nights in Trieste in a killer-huge apartment (“I’m so sorry,”  she said, when we arrived, “the studio you booked is not available so we changed you to this one-bedroom apartment at no extra cost.” “Uhm, okay,” says I, while the Genius grins). 

Then we drove back into Slovenia, through the most stunning twisty-tangly route up and down and sideways roads to stay two nights in Lake Bled.  Then, back down and around and through the rest of the twisty roads of the Julian Alps to the beautiful seaside city of Rovinj, Croatia where we stayed, you guessed it…two nights in another fabulous apartment (Genius Alert!).

 

 

I’ll spare you any extra details on the rest of our time. It broke down as follows;

Plitvitce Lakes National Park, Croatia for two nights.  Split, Croatia for two nights (Super Genius!).  Korčula, Croatia for two nights. Ferry back to Split, Croatia for one more night and then Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina for two nights.

 

 

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina for two nights, Sveti-Stefan, Montenegro for two nights, then, we dropped the car in Dubrovnik, Croatia and spent four nights going up and down a million stairs and cobbled alleys.

 

 

Flew to London for one last night and voila, here we are, back in Vancouver feeling slightly stunned by all that we absorbed and so much that we couldn’t.

 

 

If you have the tiniest inclination to head to this part of the world…do it.

Sit in a cafe in one of those grenade-pocked squares in Sarajevo, sip your wine and try to absorb it all.

I guarantee the Balkans will challenge and expand your view of the world.