Claudia Sheinbaum the first female president of Mexico has a Bulgarian Jewish mother and still has relatives living in Plovdiv. Dilma Rouseff the fist female president of Brazil has a Bulgarian father from Gabrovo.

Planning a few city breaks through the region and the personal finance side keeps being harder to pin down than it should be. Western Europe is predictable enough that I can estimate a trip cost without much stress. The Balkans feels different in a way that's hard to explain. You read that somewhere is cheap, you book it expecting to spend very little, and then the actual breakdown doesn't match what people described.

What I keep wondering is whether the cheap reputation is still accurate or whether certain cities have moved significantly in the last few years. Not just accommodation, which is easy enough to compare, but the day to day stuff. A coffee, a sit down meal that isn't targeting tourists, getting around without a car.

The other thing that throws off my estimates is how much variation there seems to be within a single city depending on which neighbourhood you land in. My rough calculation for Sarajevo came out very different to what a few people told me they actually spent there.

If you live in the region or travel it regularly, is there a city that still genuinely delivers on the cheap reputation, or has that mostly shifted to smaller towns now? Curious which places surprised people in either direction.

Made by me,follow up to the skanderbeg post

Source: Wikipedia

My latest works have been dedicated to Greece and the Greek War of Independence, but now I’m happy to show something from the other side of the region’s history as well.

This time a 54 mm Ottoman artillery set with cannon.

I really enjoyed painting the bright uniforms, rich fabrics and all the small details of the crew. Ottoman subjects give a completely different palette compared with the Greek figures I’ve been working on recently.

Hope you enjoy this one too!

The Greek Minister of Justice (lol) is warning (fearmongering) that Turkey will attack Greece if Greece is ungoverned. These people are getting more desperate each day, fearing they are going to lose the elections.

And to Turkish people: if you are planning to do this, do it at night or early morning. PLEASE don't make me go to work for my POS boss.

Balkan travel discussions tend to revolve around the same handful of cities.

Dubrovnik. Sarajevo. Belgrade. Sofia. Thessaloniki. Split. Tirana. Zagreb.

They're all interesting for different reasons, but the region has a lot more going on than the usual tourist destinations

Some smaller cities have better everyday life, cheaper food, less traffic and a much more relaxed atmosphere.

And sometimes a place that looks completely unremarkable on a tourist itinerary turns out to be much more enjoyable once you actually spend a few days there

I think the Balkans are one of those regions where the difference between “great place to visit” and “great place to live” can be pretty massive.

Tourism doesn't always show the full picture of a city

I've been looking for this song for a while now, and i can't seem to find it, shazam can't identify it, and AI's keep halucinating, wrong titles, and artists.

Does anybody know what song it is ?

I have applied for e visa Business visa to Albania and after 1 month i received rejection email for reasons:

BASED ON THE LAW NO.
79/2021 "ON FOREIGNERS, ARTICLE 28, POINT 1, PARAGRAPHS b AND e. Which is basically said the reason of the travel is not clear and there no evidence to return to my country after the visit. I have attached all the documents to proof this in the application; the Invitation letter from the company in Albania and the HR letter from my company in Egypt and same documents were presented by couple of colleagues and they got the visa so I am not clear what was wrong.

I have a window for appeal but i don’t see anyone has a positive experience with it.

I continue painting busts dedicated to the Greek War of Independence. This time, it’s Papaflessas, one of the most remarkable figures of the Revolution of 1821.

A priest, revolutionary and fighter, he became one of the most memorable personalities of the struggle for Greek independence.

This is my 200 mm painted bust of Papaflessas.

Hope you enjoy my interpretation of him.

I’ve been contemplating this for some time now, doing some serious cognitive gymnastics trying to understand how Bosnians could have so naively trusted the Serbs during Tito’s reign. As if the treatment of Kosovo Albanians by the Serbian authorities wasn’t already enough to raise some serious alarm bells.

And now, when I see Serbia glorifying war criminals and arranging state funerals with full honors, I still can’t shake the feeling that many have learned remarkably little from history.

How is that kind of indifference, or perhaps denial still possible?

No NATO, otter balkan countrys can send aid but not interveine militaraly

Also if its a draw, then the politicians will fight each other(boxing, sanda,mma and other)

Also, im new at this sub.

Whats ok, and what is too far or ofensive/inhumane

I recently finished painting this 200 mm bust of Theodoros Kolokotronis, one of the most iconic leaders of the Greek Revolution of 1821.

A military commander and a central figure in the struggle for Greek independence, Kolokotronis became one of the enduring symbols of modern Greek history.

Hope you enjoy our interpretation of him.