Between 2014 and 2017 I lived in the village of Isniq, Kosovo as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I have very fond memories of my time there; I lived with a wonderful host family and taught at the local school alongside three great counterparts. During school holidays, I traveled throughout the Balkans. I had hoped to go to ever former Yugoslav Republic, but didn’t get a chance to make it to Slovenia. Here are the places I was fortunate enough to visit:

Macedonia: it takes about an hour and a half to drive from Prishtina to Skopje, where you can see sites such as Kuršumli An (an old Ottoman caravanserai) and the Bridge of Civilizations. In Tetova is the Šarena Mosque.

Croatia and Montenegro: Dubrovnik is world famous as the filming location of King’s Landing in Game of Thrones, which was at its height when I visited in 2015. In Montenegro we visited Risan, which has the only known Roman mosaic to depict Hypnos, the god of sleep

Bosnia: Sarajevo was my favorite city I visited in the Balkans. A wonderful mix of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and modern communist structures, the Old Town is compact yet full of history and lively energy.

Serbia: I didn’t spend a lot of time in Serbia, but I did get a chance to briefly visit Belgrade and see the Golubac Fortress

Albania: living in Kosovo, volunteers had to learn the Gheg dialect of the Albanian language, so visiting Albania–where the formal Tosk is spoken–was a bit more challenging than expected. In Albania I was able to visit the capital Tirana as well as Dhërmi, Sarandë, and Gjirokaster

Bulgaria: Sofia is a lively city full of many beautiful historic churches (and one Ottoman mosque)

Turkey: as the Ottoman Empire controlled the Balkan region for hundreds of years, I decided to visit Turkey to learn a little bit more. I went to Istanbul, the Cappadocia Region, and Ephesus. I’ve since returned to Turkey several times, barely beginning to scratch off my “bucket list” items.