New photos of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Earlier this month I paid a quick return visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although my original plans were hampered somewhat by the unexpected arrival of winter in the first week of September, I did manage to visit a few places I hadn't seen before, including the highland village of Lukomir near Sarajevo, and the Radimlja Necropolis near Stolac. I also spent some time exploring the lovely (and very accessible) Bukovik Mountain area north of Sarajevo, walking from Skakavac Waterfall over Bukovik summit and right down to the centre of the city in one day.

Photos of all of these places, as well as some fresh pictures of old favourites Sarajevo and Mostar, are now in the Bosnia Galleries.

In the next few weeks I will be updating the Bosnia section of Balkanology to reflect the changes I noticed in my most recent visit.

Palin's New Europe: series begins this Sunday

I've already mentioned in this blog that Michael Palin's latest travel series will visit some of my favourite places in the Balkans, and in the wider Eastern Europe. The seven-part series will air on BBC1 on Sundays at 9pm, starting this Sunday.

According to the BBC's detailed guide to the series, the first episode will be a fast-paced trip through the Western Balkans, taking in Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. The second program will also have a Balkan feel, covering Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Turkey, while Romania is included in episode 3.

With only 7 hours in total to cover 20 countries, we obviously can't expect much in-depth coverage. Even so the series will hopefully achieve the aim of introducing viewers, in Palin's words, to "the vigour and vitality of that half of Europe which has, for most of my lifetime been seen as grey, secretive and unwelcoming". On Palin's own site he comments that "I'm just sorry, that even in seven episodes, we haven't had time to do justice to every one of the twenty countries we passed through, but those that don't get much on-screen time are in the book and on the DVD".