Sometimes I have photos and topics that aren’t big enough for a blog post, but I’d like to share with interested readers. It can be tough figuring out how to connect random images.  

That’s the case with this blog post. I’ve pulled together  a bunch of random tidbits from my Photography Tour of five Balkan countries in September of 2024. It was a great time and I loved seeing the countryside.  

So, what is appealing. 

Firstly, BRIDGES. This part of the world seems to be fascinated with interesting bridges. Nothing straight and ordinary. 

Here’s one in Konice, Bosnia, that seemed to draw people to meander across, take pictures and have a coffee near by. Looks peaceful, doesn’t it? 

This one caught our attention because of lovely reflections. We stopped for lunch in this small town (can’t recall the name)  and a chance to capture pretty views. 

The bridge in Mostar is probably the most impressive. We spent the night in this town so we could photograph it from different angles and in different light.  We climbed to the top of a minaret to get the first image shown here.  Later we moved to the other side for a blue hour image.  

I got a kick out of all the shops and touristy attractions set up there just because people visit this bridge.  

This house made me think of the bomb shelters you’ll see later in this blog post.  

Here’s another bridge, no longer in use. It has been replaced with a highway, but what lovely angles and texture. 

Splashes of Color

On a different note, I really loved the way this utility shed was painted in Prizren, Kosovo. I was attracted even more with the reflections of the shed in the vehicle nearby.  

This made me laugh.  When we visited a Mosque in Kosovo, I noticed a drying rack in the window of a main part of this worship center. Pretty practical. 

These ladies were fun. We visited a ruins of an old fort and discovered them playing around with instagram shots.  We asked to pose for us liking the bright splashes of color against the gray stone.  They seemed to be very happy doing that.

Isn’t this church beautiful?  We were traveling along remote road in Albania when our Photo tour leader had the driver stop the bus so we could explore.  My husband thinks this looks like an Andrew Wyeth painting.  I hardly did any editing. This is what it looked like.  

Hmmmm. What is this? Turns out it is a private resort Island along the coast of Montenegro. Celebrities stay here. For really big bucks you can too. I’ll bet it is a special experience. 

Bomb Shelters

And lastly the bomb shelters in Albania.  Estimates that there are more than 700 left over from the cold war days.  According to Google, “Albania has so many bunkers because of the Cold War paranoia of its former dictator, Enver Hoxha. Hoxha built hundreds of thousands of bunkers across the country to shelter the people in case of an invasion.”

They are randomly located in farm yards, by the side of the road, everywhere. 

We stopped a couple of times to take pictures from lots of different angles.