The Balkans’ coffee culture largely originated from Turkey and Turkey nowadays has the second highest number of Starbucks shops in Europe and its surroundings, second only to the UK. If Starbucks has been so successful in Turkey, why would the same coffee culture work against it in the rest of the Balkans?

Hello fellow Balkaners,

That's my first post here, my apologies if something is wrong.

I've heard that travelling through Albania as a Romanian with RO plates might be dangerous. I enjoy driving and I was thinking about going to the "Albanian Riviera" at the end of the summer, with my car. So far, I spent my summers on sea side of our Bulgarian brothers and had an amazing experience. Great service, very nice people, but I really like to visit Albania as well. It seems like a very beautiful country as well.

There might be some political tensions, but how the Albanian-Romanian relationship feels in real life, on the street? Is it dangerous to travel from Romania to Albania? Is there any region to avoid?

Hi! I am doing some research on how Balkan folk music tends to behave across borders. I've noticed, for example, that folk music & dance from the west of Bulgaria and the east of Serbia tends to follow similar musical measures and overall style or "vibe." I've noticed the same thing on either side of the Danube (Romania vs Bulgaria.)

I'm having a hard time finding nice/high-quality recordings of instrumental Romanian folk music that would be used for dance, does anyone have any links to YouTube or other online sources where I could search? Thank you!!

Built to glorify dictatorship, the Tirana Pyramid now reflects a very different Albania

This may be a really niche question for the Balkans but I had to share my story somewhere.

It was a very nice spring day. I went with some friends to a park nearby a church. It’s the kind of place that draws somewhat of a crowd, it’s never u believably packed but never empty. Now the weather was really beautiful. Warm, gentle wind, sunny but mild. And people were walking around and just taking it all in.

Then this old man came in a thong (like speedo swimsuit) with no shirt and laid a towel on the ground and just…laid down. Horizontal, in his thong, people walking around fully clothed.

No one said anything because we didn’t really clock it at the time but now that some time has passed and I came to myself I’m like wow… that was a lot. Like did that really happen

So yeah. Have you ever seen someone get too comfortable in public

Hello! I will be coming to Montenegro next week!
Im coming from Shkoder and planning to take a bus.
Should I get off at Bar or Petrovac?

I really want to spent most of my time at the beach, cafes, walking around nice streets. No need for nightlife and such.

I'm having the hardest time deciding which is the better option.

Also, considering I'm without a car, I need an OK bus system, (or taxi?) to get to the beaches.

Thank you very much, I'm excited!

From what I heard, they disappeared in cities after the wars once the ww2 generation were gone, now they’re mostly common to over 80 in villages.

So I guess once the silent generation is gone there will be no more headscarfs at all since I guess boomers are much more modernized once they’re the new very elderly people