Drive through the Balkans

Our month-long road trip through Montenegro, Bosnia, Slovenia, and Croatia

What will you remember?

Over dinner last night, Tim asked “Ten or twenty years from now, what do you think you will remember about this trip?”

Many great moments came to mind…

Hunting down the best coffee shop in new cities...Barcelona, Porto, and Ljubljana had shops that made it into the top three
Watching awe inspiring sunsets with a picnic...ones in Porto and Dubrovnik were particularly memorable
Eating the local food...favourites included pasteis de nata and bifana in Portugal, clementines and tagine in Morocco, and burek and cevapi in Bosnia
Running and walking new routes...there is something exhilarating about exploring new territory on your own two feet
Experiencing unexpected kindness from strangers...especially from Francesco who rescued us from being locked outside our apartment, and Clementina who treated us to gelato and a tour of Ljubljana
Sharing all these day-to-day moments with Tim (and with Grace in Morocco and Bill and Jan in Lagos!)...sharing them with someone close makes them all the more special

Tim doesn’t have much confidence in his memory of the specifics...“Other than what you remind me about, I don’t think I’ll remember many specific events 20 years from now.”

What he thinks will stick with him though is how we both felt on the trip - totally care-free, open-minded, present in the here and now, and sharing and enjoying the experience together.

What he said reminded me of a quote I had read:

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou

Tim’s probably right that, except for where pictures, journals and blog posts exist, many specifics may fade (or become embellished!) over time. But, in the vein of Maya Angelou’s quote, we may never forget the feelings.

Strong opinions, loosely held

We love how this trip evolves as we experience new things, moving with the ebbs and flows of how we are feeling in the here and now, and keeping our mind open to changing plans and new experiences.

At the start of our trip we felt like travelling slowly and “living” in new cities instead of visiting them briefly. We enjoyed Porto so much that we extended our stay by another week. As February came around, we craved a little more adventure, so organized a four-day hiking trip. In March it felt like it was time to leave Europe and the comforts of the western world, so embarked on a two week trip through Morocco with Grace. We loved Spain and could have spent longer there, but we were running short on days with our visa, so we flew to Croatia.

We landed in Dubrovnik, and, while we enjoyed a peaceful few days as we recovered from the flu, we eventually felt restless in the small, over-touristy town. We had also become accustomed to a faster pace travelling Morocco, and with the end of our trip in sight, wanted to see a little more.

So, we thought, "What if we rent a car and head a little more off the beaten path?" Two days later, we were speeding off in our little white Citroen, on a one-month road trip through the Balkans!