Balkan Road Trip

Five weeks, fourteen countries, one very patient rental car. May 11 to June 6, 2023: we flew into Warsaw, drove into Ukraine and back, then flew to Sofia, picked up a rental, and traced a line through North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia — 3,200-plus kilometres and roughly 48 hours on the road, with fourteen border crossings along the way. We closed the loop on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express from Budapest to Bucharest, then flew on to Nairobi for a month in Africa.

The warm-up: Warsaw's rebuilt Old Town and a pierogi education, then the out-and-back drive to Lviv — full coffeehouses, tulips in the parks, a city insisting on being itself.

The south: Sofia stacked Roman streets under its metro and rakia over dinner; Skopje served the strangest square in Europe and kayaks up Matka Canyon; Lake Ohrid slowed everything down on water older than the species admiring it; and Tirana ambushed us with the Colour Day Festival — we left covered in half the visible spectrum.

The Adriatic: boat days on the Bay of Kotor — the Blue Cave, Our Lady of the Rocks off Perast, Budva down the coast — then three nights in Dubrovnik, the trip's unanimous do-it-again: walls at dawn, swims below the fortress, dinner at 360 inside the old port.

The interior: a Mostar day stop for the rebuilt Stari Most and cold beers at Kravice Falls; Sarajevo's layered history — Baščaršija, the Latin Bridge, the War Childhood Museum, the 1984 Olympic ruins above a city that survived a 1,425-day siege; then Belgrade for fortress sunsets where the Sava meets the Danube, Saint Sava's golden crypt, and a cocktail scene that goes deep.

The green north: Lake Bled's 6 km morning run, a pletna to the island church, and a two-star dinner at Milka; Bratislava for the victory lap — an alpine coaster at full send and a toast at Mirror Bar.

The finale: keys handed back, and the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express from Budapest to Bucharest — black-tie dinner through Transylvania and a stop at Sinaia for Peleș Castle.

Things we'd do again: Dubrovnik for as long as possible. Sarajevo for the layered history. Lake Bled for the morning run around it. Tirana during a Colour Day Festival. Things we'd add next time: more of Montenegro, more of Croatia, and the beaches of Albania.