New photos of Montenegro

I have been busy expanding my Montenegro Galleries with photos taken on my most recent visit in September.

Most of the new photos are from Durmitor National Park in the mountains of northern Montenegro. This is one of the most impressive places I have seen on my travels. The wonderful hiking trails were almost deserted in early September, apart from a few Czech and Polish visitors. Although the mountains appear rather jagged and forbidding at first glance, many of them have relatively smooth slopes on one side. Combined with the high altitude of the resort of Žabljak, this means that it is possible to get to many of the higher peaks in a few hours of surprisingly easy walking. Of course this was in September when there is no snow cover. I had 5 days of clear weather, which apparently is freakishly lucky. (I paid for this luck when I visited Bohinj in Slovenia later in my trip - it rained for three days).

As well as Durmitor, there are also some new photos of Kotor, Ulcinj, and Stari Bar. It was nice to be actually able to get into Stari Bar - on a previous off-season visit I found the place locked.

Michael Palin follows in my footsteps

A fellow blogger has alerted me to the fact that TV traveller Michael Palin is currently working on a series about the "New Europe". Palin and his camera crew have been spotted in various locations in the Balkans and Eastern Europe over the last few months. Most of his previous series have been about places that are unfamiliar to me - I'm looking forward to see what he makes of countries that I have already visited. Hopefully his high profile will help to improve the rather low level of knowledge of many of these countries in the English-speaking world.

Find out more at the Michael Palin's New Europe Unofficial Fan Center.

At last... photos of Albania

The absence of any photos from Albania has been a gaping hole in my Balkan photo collection for quite a while now. But today that gap has been filled: pictures from my visit to Albania in August are now online.

It was extremely hot in August, often too hot walk around carrying my favourite SLR camera, which was a little frustrating - and sometimes too hot to walk around at all. But the photos I did get will have to do for now.

Next in line is Montenegro - I'll soon have a gallery from the awe-inspiring Durmitor National Park, as well as new pictures from Stari Bar and the Bay of Kotor.

Back from the Balkans

It's been a long time since my last post, but normal service is about to be resumed. I have just returned from another extended trip to the Balkans. Over the next few months there will be extensive changes to Balkanology to reflect my experiences on this trip. At the moment I am working on my first gallery of photos from Albania.