From ‘The Balkan Odyssey. Travels around the former Yugoslavia …oh, and Albania too!’ by Jason Smart

Interesting fact: Serbia is the world’s largest exporter of raspberries

Serbia has one of the largest Roma populations in Europe, with unofficial estimates putting the number at half a million. Mostly the Roma live in slum conditions at the edges of Serbian cities, but in Belgrade, they live in the centre too. With no running water or electricity, the Roma people are forced to scavenge for water, and must burn rubbish for warmth. Often life is so hard for them that many end up begging on the streets for money.

Nikola Tesla was born in Serbia in 1856.

Interesting fact: There are still unexploded mines in the hills of Sarajevo.

….by the late eighties, Yugoslavia was in economic trouble. A fifth of its workforce was unemployed, mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia itself.

“Croatia and Slovenia weren’t as badly affected. They were doing okay, and even reckoned they were propping up the poorer republics ….Eventually , both of them decided they wanted looser ties with Serbia. That’s what kick-started the war. Belgrade didn’t want to give them any freedom.”

Slovenia, lying between the Alps and the Mediterranean, is a small country dominated by mountains and rivers. Forest covers half its area. …Republic of Yugoslavia, where it was the most productive member. Its industrial output eclipsed Serbia fourfold and compared to struggling Macedonia, Slovenia was twenty times better off. …..By the time of Tito’s death in 1980, dissension began brewing. Many Slovenians thought it unfair that they were propping up the economies of the weaker Yugoslav states. ….by June 1991, Slovenia decided enough was enough, and declared itself an independent country. ….is now one of the most peaceful countries in the world.

Dubrovnik is Croatia’s jewel in the crown, a UNESCO heritage site that once rivalled Venice as an Adriatic city-state.

Everybody in the Balkans seemed to smoke, and could do it where they liked.

Interesting fact: There are still over 700,000 concrete bunkers littering Albania.

…Albania is actually one of Europe’s poorest countries, with only Ukraine and Moldova coming out in worse shape.

“Most accidents in Albania are caused by stupid driving……. But I blame the Italians and Greeks. They were the ones who taught us how to drive, and they were not the best teachers.”

Apparently, there was one concrete bunker for every four citizens of Albania……..cost of producing……them had been staggering, causing a massive drain on the country’s resources.

Such was Hoxha’s paranoia about an invasion that he trained a quarter of Albania’s population to use the bunkers as defensive structures. At school, from the age of three, teachers taught children to be ‘vigilant for the enemy’.

……Lake Ohrid, the star attraction….Stretching for miles, lush green mountains flanked the three million-year-old lake: one of Europe’s deepest…

Interesting fact: Macedonia produces the best quality opium in the world. It is twice as potent as Pakistan’s

If ever there was a city where old communist cars could go to die, then Skopje was it. Many were abandoned on paths and pavements, often with plants and weeds growing over them…..

Apart from farms and rolling hills, Kosovo appeared to be a land of scrapyards. They were everywhere, some even catering purely for mangled trucks