Boundary Lakes
A whistle-stop tour of some of Europe's trans-boundary water bodies, from Lake Peipus to Lake Prespa and ...
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Boundary Lakes
A whistle-stop tour of some of Europe's trans-boundary water bodies, from Lake Peipus to Lake Prespa and ...
Peaks of the Balkans: Discovering the Lhasa of Europe
The Peaks of the Balkans trail is a long-distance hiking route, in the shape of a figure-of-eight, which takes in some of the finest mountain terrain in northern Albania and adjacent parts of Kosovo and Montenegro. Rudolf Abraham describes how the ...
The Place by the Bay: the Butrint Story
One of the least frequented great classical sites in the entire Mediterranean basin is at Butrint in south-west Albania. Its roll call of illustrious visitors includes Lord Byron and Nikita Krushchev. Take care to avoid the snakes as we explore ...
Exploring the Butrint Region
Take the back-door route from Sarandë in Albania to Igoumenitsa in Greece to discover a little-visited region of the southern ...
Albania: A Tale of Two Valleys
It is unlikely that great streams of tourists will be arriving in the mountains of northern Albania anytime soon. But this part of the southern Balkans now benefits from better access roads. Guest contributor Laurence Mitchell reports from two ...
Kosovo travel notes
It's perfectly sensible to travel from Budapest to Thessaloniki through Kosovo. But it's unwise to attempt the journey in the reverse direction. Find out why in our notes on travelling through ...
Sharing sacred space
The clean lines that we think divide religions often become very blurred in the Balkan region. Thus shrines may be claimed as sacred by adherents of more than one religion. We look at the phenomenon of syncretic ...
Out of place, but not out of mind
So why does a statue of Rocky Balboa stand in a small town in northern Serbia? And why did citizens of Mostar (in Herzegovina) decide that a statue of Bruce Lee could unite their troubled town? We take a look at statues that seem improbably out of ...
By train through Albania
The railway platform at Tirana was as full as it ever gets. That meant all of half a dozen people waiting for the dawn train to Pogradec, among them an English gricer and a Polish twitcher. The latter had travelled across Europe to catch a glimpse ...
A matter of Principalities
A pot-pourri of railway-related facts that you would never have guessed could ever be so interesting. We leap from Wales to Monaco, from Liechtenstein to Vatican City in search of a few railway records. Not just for ...
Levoca (Slovakia)
Levoca is picture perfect, a community that deserves to be far better known. As it surely will, for this summer Levoca secured inclusion on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. The historic centre of Levoca reflects late medieval Saxon ...
A road that disappeared
in search of the road over Cakor Pass that leaves Montenegro's Lim valley and heads east to Péc in ...
Albania: the conversation hour
guest contributor Christopher Portway experiences Albanian hospitality in the village of Lin on the shores of Lake ...
People's palaces
Many central and eastern European capitals boast 'palaces' that were constructed in the socialist period. While Berlin's Palace of the Republic is being demolished, other capitals are finding more creative ways of rehabilitating their 'people's ...
Extraordinary airports
hidden europe celebrates the merits of some of Europe's more obscure airports, from Akureyri to West Balaton via Kuressaare and ...
Peace parks
International peace parks that seek to promote conservation across national boundaries while also encouraging cooperation across borders, are becoming increasingly common. Bringing projects like the current plan for a Balkans Peace Park to fruition ...
Border zone: around Lake Prespa
At the point in the southwest Balkans where Macedonia, Albania and Greece converge lies Lake Prespa. It is an extraordinary place - brackish waters, fill of bulbous weeds that pull at your feet. In the middle of the lake is Golem Grad, an island ...
Women's lives in High Albania
Under the kanun code, which governs life in the mountains of northern Albania, women do not inherit. They barely even have a name. Yet, under certain circumstances, it is possible for women to break free from this patriarchal strait-jacket. Join us ...
The streets with no names
a navigational dilemma in the Albanian capital ...
Europe: a Balkan view
hidden europe argues that the European Union needs the Balkans just as much as the Balkans need the ...
Montenegro: accursed mountains
The mountainous country where Montenegro abuts onto Albania is one of Europe's true wilderness areas. Guest contributor Rudolf Abraham describes the Prokletije region. The name means "accursed". Read ...
Edith Durham in Prokletije
It was one hundred years ago this year that Edith Durham made the Albanian journeys that were to feature in her book "High Albania". We look at Edith Durham's adventures in the Albania-Montenegro border ...
One summer of fame: Kukes in Albania
Remember Kukes? There was a time when the Albanian town was in the news every day. hidden europe visits the community that was once nominated for the Nobel Peace ...
Gracanica (Kosovo)
When the celebrated English travel writer Edith Durham arrived at the monastery at Gracanica one hundred years ago, she came to a place that had virtually no experience of the twentieth century. It is an episode that Durham recalls in her book High ...
Designing identity
Albanians have not lost their way with clothes, as anyone walking the streets of Tirana's business district at lunchtime will quickly notice. Forget notions of an obscure Balkan nation, and look more for the same stylish chic that you might see ...