No problem. It’s luck of the draw sometimes. This pack looks pretty sleek and doesn’t appear as bulky and unwieldy as some backpacks, so maybe it can fly under the radar.

Thanks! I would say it will be fine for the major airlines like Lufthansa, etc. You might run into trouble if airlines like Ryanair and Wizz Air are actually looking. My only experience there is once taking a different 35L pack on Ryanair and luckily no one made me put it in a sizer.

Check out a BBC documentary called The Fall of Milosevic. It’s about as comprehensive as can be on the subject and there are interviews with a lot of the major players in the conflict. If you want to go super in-depth, watch The Death of Yugoslavia first.

Here being Kosovo, but 95% of Kosovars are Albanian.

Played a major role in helping them become independent from Serbia. NATO intervention when essentially Bosnia 2.0 was beginning to happen here.

Pretty much my feelings. I’m impressed by the amount of live music at bars here.

I was lucky enough to do both. If you only had a spare day, Rila is the right choice. I think a minimum of 2 nights, maybe even 3 is needed for Plovdiv, especially if you want to see Asen’s Fortress nearby.

I would certainly ask. After living in China 7 years it’s muscle memory. Pretty common in the Balkans as well. It’s just kind of disrespectful to not at least offer or make a move to do it, at least how I feel now.

And really, if you see some of the stuff you’re walking around, kinda gross not to.

Could very well be. I will probably know for sure sometime February 👍

Looks like the only Balkan country I’ll probably miss is Slovenia 🇸🇮 which will annoy me, but flights aren’t necessarily cheap to be so close, and train links there from other Balkan countries, well if you know you know…

And if the Balkan memes are to be believed, it’s the least Balkan anyhow…

The most prominent landmark now is the medieval Church of the Holy Mother of God, which some scholars put its original construction back to the 11th century.

The ruins of Asen’s Fortress sit perched above it on a higher cliff. They are also cool, but not quite as photogenic.

I don’t dislike it, the center is beautiful and it’s nice to finally be somewhere in the Balkans with a metro system for a change. It’s not a very service-oriented place in my experience, unless you go to some of the higher-end places to eat. Just not as friendly as other places I’ve been.

Yeah I just try to be as friendly as I can, and usually people can’t maintain a scowl for too long if you maintain a positive attitude.

In Bulgaria for sure so far for me. For the entire Balkans, it will be hard to top the Bosnians.

Never gotten a single solitary response when I try to chase it up with them. If anyone has advice, I’m all ears.

Things that helped in the past: switching from a business account to a personal account and making it private. But this crap suddenly started up again anyway…