The end

This has got to be our busiest holiday yet and I still can't believe we got everything done that I'd had planned despite the whole police thing and numerous bus nightmares. The people across this region, almost without exception, were always friendly and helpful, despite what must be a painful abundance of demanding tourists. Probably for me the most pleasant surprise was the familiarity of the language even if I couldn't speak much at all. It just felt like home with the close affinity to Czech. We did four countries that each had very different identities and yet had such similar tongues. It's so sad that so much pain came to this region so recently and I so much hope EU membership (already true for some and waiting for others) brings peace and wealth to all. I had put off visiting the Balkans because of my anger over the wars of the 90s but certainly my prejudice has gone. This is not a warring backwater of Europe, but a collection of small but proud European nations with so much to offer the rest of us, not least a luxurious holiday destination.