Kosovo to Distinguish International Figures Who Supported its Independence
Balkan Travellers
When the constitution comes into force, which is expected to take place on June 15, important international figures will be invited to an official commemorative ceremony, Priština’s newspaper Koha Ditore reported today.
The government in Priština intends to distinguish Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright – the former US President and Secretary of State respectively, as well as Wesley Clark, the ex-Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO, and other figures who supported Kosovo in its strife for independence.
As BalkanTravellers.com wrote, many factors accompany Kosovo’s on-going nation-building project. Some of them, such as the adoption of a new constitution, the choice of a new flag and the declaration of national holidays have already taken place.
However, in its struggle to find new symbols that are acceptable to both the ethnic Albanians and the Serbs that populate its territory, which BalkanTravellers.com wrote about, Kosovo has found some new heroes – such as Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Wesley Clark. For example, one of the main boulevards in the capital Priština is named after Clinton, though the plan to crown it with a three-metre tall statue of the former US President has been put on hold for the time being.
Read more about Kosovo on BalkanTravellers.com
Epicure
Turkey
Balkan Culinary Wars III: Other People’s Meatballs
Ćevapčići from Leskovac, köfte from İzmir or Bulgarian kebapche? Greek keftedes too, please!
Full Story
Curiosity Chest
Balkans
In Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, Traces of War Crimes and Criminals Attract Tourists
7 October 2008 | Several countries in the Western Balkans, including Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, are banking on their recent conflict-torn past and offering foreign visitors the chance to retrace the steps of war criminals and see the traces left by the wars that shook the region in the 1990s.
Full Story
-
Photogalleries
-
A Perfect Shot
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs
Annoyances in the Balkans
Kosovo
The Balkans: Natural Born Historians
The obsession with history is so commonplace on the Balkans that local people do not even notice it. For outsiders, however, it quickly becomes a part of the experience of being precisely in the Balkans and nowhere else. Raymond Detrez, a Belgian scholar of Bulgarian and Balkan Studies, describes this sometimes entertaining and other times annoying, and even dangerous, social phenomenon. Full Story
Insiders' Advice
If the relentless homophobia is already that bad, what's the attitude in general towards HIV/AIDS, given the rather worrying HIV-prevalence in Eastern Europe and Russia?
Full Story
Is it easy to drive in the Balkans? Depends. If you are looking for adrenalin, this is a cheap way to get it. Expats say the best tactics is not to get annoyed.
Full Story
How to pick the right time to go? Winter is beautiful in the high mountains, the problem is, it can be so cold! Then again, who cares how cold it is - the locals have a cheap cure: heavy red wine. Sometimes warmed up.
Full Story
You can't trust local maps. Nor some international travel guides. One of them, for instance, says, that Neretva River in Bosnia and Herzegovina flows FROM the Adriatic towards the inland of the Balkans, never reaching the sea. OK, how about the Neretva delta and channel in Croatia?
Full Story
The Big Book of Travelling
United States
The Rise of Burlesque in New York: Tassels and the City
Burlesque – the more audacious relative of commedia dell'arte, is in revival. A reality in “upside down style”, this creative, witty and softer version of striptease is back on stage, following an absence of nearly 80 years. In New York, Anjeza Bojku scoped out several burlesqee venues for BalkanTravellers.com. Full Story
Thailand
A Short Guide to the Peculiarities of Thai Food
Travel News
11 September 2008 | Macedonia and Kosovo have the highest percentages of poor people among their populations compared to the other countries in the region, Macedonian media reported today.
Full Story
