When I tried to write about the Balkans, the memories would not stay in order. I moved from hitch-hiking with my future husband to bringing our daughters, from a road in Serbia to a birthday reunion in Belgrade.
That is the shape of this journal: several visits, with the family changing between them. The places belong to different countries and communities. What joins them here is our own history of returning.
First published on 5 February 2019. This retrospective brings together several journeys, including Serbia in 2011, Montenegro in 2015 and the four-country family trip in 2018. It is not one continuous itinerary or a present transport guide.
Serbia in 2011, before we travelled as parents
One strand begins with the journey through Serbia with my future husband. The original photographs identify hitch-hiking towards Golubac and a stop at Lepenski Vir in 2011.
Those images bring back a different way of moving through a place: two people travelling together, meeting others and collecting stories that would still matter when we later returned with children.
The photograph below records a notebook and coffee. Its date matters because the old article jumps quickly between years; it should not be read as a moment from the later trip with our daughters.
Montenegro with our first daughter
With our first daughter, we travelled through Croatia and Montenegro. In the 2015 Ostrog Monastery memory, the family visit centres on a Holy Trinity Day conversation and the grass wreaths we carried on in the car.
Our Budva journal has a different mood, by the coast. Neither story can represent a whole country, but together they show why the trip stayed close to us: the setting mattered, and so did the small interactions.
The 2018 journey, with two daughters
Our second daughter was almost four months old when we set out through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, eventually reaching Belgrade. The old account describes this as her first trip.
The memories include a surprise birthday for Dario in Belgrade and meeting friends again after roughly eight years. Our daughters were part of a reunion connected to the earlier years of travel.
Elsewhere, the Metelkova journal and the Mostar visit take time with individual places. Read them as their own experiences, rather than turning the route into a claim that every stop fits comfortably into one short holiday.
Make room for differences and difficult histories
The affection in the original post came with a concern about treating the region as one place. A shared geographical label does not erase differences between countries, histories, languages, religions or people within the same community.
Our memories also include Sarajevo and Srebrenica-Potočari. The separate Srebrenica memorial journal gives that visit its own space and historical sources. It should not be reduced to a passing contrast with attractive scenery.
It is possible to value the people you meet while refusing to minimise crimes committed by particular people or groups. The old post’s broad explanation of conflict through national differences was too simple; this family retrospective does not try to replace detailed history.
Keep returning, and keep the dates visible
The first journey and the later family trips are connected by friendship, curiosity and the pleasure of going back. They are also different experiences: a couple hitch-hiking, parents travelling with a first child, and a family with two daughters.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina road-trip journal and Belgrade with children continue those later memories. Giving each place room makes the collection more useful than compressing everything into one guide to the Balkans.
Good to know
A couple of useful questions
Was everything described part of the 2018 trip?
No. This retrospective also includes the Serbia journey in 2011 and Montenegro in 2015. The photographs are dated to keep those memories separate.
How old was your second daughter on her first trip?
The original says she was almost four months old when the family set out through Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina towards Belgrade.
Can this be used as a complete current road-trip itinerary?
No. It brings together personal memories from several journeys. Use the linked journals for individual experiences and check present travel arrangements separately.
