Chapter One: travel dates and destinations
It took me few weeks to be able to decide exactly the route for the trip, the exact travel dates, to find and book the hotels and so on... But now i did it and i'm ready to leave. Only thing i still have to do is preparing some CD to listen at along the way in case radios suck 
(it happened in Greece and it's not funny 
). So, here's the plan:
- will go to Sarajevo on 3rd july. I should arrive there on the evening, and i'm staying at Hotel Hayat. Will stay in Sarajevo till 9th july. One of those days, likely i will take a daily tour to Mostar too;
- from Sarajevo, will go to Belgrade on 9th. Will spend the weekend in Belgrade (at the Hotel Moskva) and leave the 12th;
- on 12th will go to Zagreb, where i'll stay till 15th. Will sleep at Hotel Sheraton (yes, i know, a five stars hotel!
but there was an incredible offer 
).
I will be back home then on 15th july, after more than 2.000 km.
While i'll try to meet as many friends as possible, i'll also try to write during the trip (that's why i looked for hotels with wifi connection afterall 
) here on the blog as on twitter and on facebook. I'm not sure i'll be able to upload videos while i'm there, but i'll try to take as many as possible. Balkans Tour is the reason i bought a camcorder afterall
Western Balkans (Lonely Planet)
As i'm getting ready to leave for the Balkans, i started studying something about the places i'm going to visit. Knowing a bit of the history of a country let understand many things, about architecture, food, music, you name it. That's why i'm appreciating the guide Western Balkans by Lonely Planet (i bought the italian version here in Verona, but it was better if i bought it online on TheBookDepository: 50% cheaper 
): there is pretty much everything one may need.
On this first trip, i'm going to Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Belgrade (Serbia) and Zagreb (Croatia). Usually, visiting three countries means you need three different guides. But this guide covers western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), so one guide is all i need 
For every of these countries, the guide covers history, religion, arts, food, environment and, of course, all you expect from a touristic guide: places to sleep, to eat, to drink, to shop, and so on...
Clearly, it cannot cover every single thing, so it's not much surprising to me there aren't informations about the hotels i finally decided to book. Not a big deal however: these days we can find a lot of informations on websites like Tripadvisor, while a guide in your hand can help while visiting.
Balkans Tour’s Genesis
I can remember exactly when i first thought of this "Balkans Tour", though it's almost 2 years ago, now. It was september 2008, and i was in Macedonia for a lovely trip. I spent 10 days there, essentially in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. But few times i went to Veles to meet a friend. And it was while i was driving back to Skopje from Veles, one evening, that i thought "I'm loving it. I should do it again. I should do it better. I should do it longer! I should drive through the whole Balkans!". Since then, this intention (maybe it's better to call it "dream" ) never left my mind...
Soon, i started wondering which places i'd have to visit. So, i took a map and began to place pins on every place i'd liked to visit. Soon, i realized the map had so many pins on it, it would have took more than a month to visit them all. But you know, it's not easy to have a month free for a trip (not talking about the money needed for it ). This is essentially why it took almost 2 years before actually starting the tour. Only, it will be a bit different from what i was planning in the beginning.
In fact, instead of waiting for the day i'll be able to be around on a tour through the whole Balkans, i finally decided to make it in stages. It's definitely easier to plan (and make) a trip of one week or so. And it's only a detail i'll have to make many trips in the Balkans
So, soon i'll make the first trip. Not sure yet when, but it may be even by the end of june! Destinations for this first trip are: Zagreb, Belgrade and Sarajevo.
Honestly? I can't wait 
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