Three of James Bond's Top Destinations: Greece, Serbia and Croatia
BalkanTravellers.com
The list, compiled by the flight and travel industry website Skyscanner.net, includes about half a dozen spots visited by the fictional MI6 agent, who “despite carrying more than 100ml of poisonous liquids and gels, not to mention various sharp objects and even explosives in his hand luggage, […] rarely seems to have any problems at security.”
Corfu is featured in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only, starring Roger Moore as Bond. “In an early sequence set in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Corfu, we witness the sinking of a British spy trawler by a mysterious mine,” according to the publication.
“Corfu is well known to British tourists for its beaches and warm blue green seas, as well as its vibrant night life, offering visitors the opportunity to carry out some of Bond’s favourite pastimes: diving, yachting and fraternising with members of the opposite sex,” Skyscanner.net reports.
The other two destinations in the region of the Balkans included in the selection of places visited by the agent while undertaking missions on behalf of Her Majesty’s Secret Service are Belgrade and Zagreb. In the 1963 film From Russia with Love, only the second in the series, Bond – played by Sean Connery, travels by train to the two former Yugoslav cities.
According to other sources, most of the film was set in Istanbul and parts of it were filmed on location at the Basilica Cistern, Hagia Sophia, and the Sirkeci Station which was also used for the Sofia and Zagreb stations. Although the film’s train journey is set in Eastern Europe, it was in fact filmed in Argyll, Scotland, Venice and Switzerland.
Either way, both Serbia’s and Croatia’s capitals “have now become popular tourist destinations; Belgrade is renowned for its busy nightlife and 24 hour party people, and Zagreb is a historic capital blessed with museums and galleries set in cobbled streets lit by gas lamps, not to mention high fashion, high-end culture and a buzzing café society,” according to skyscanner.net.
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