(T-2) So, where are we going, exactly?

As it says on the top of this page, we're going to Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro. These are three countries along the Adriatic Sea, an arm of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Across the Adriatic Sea is Italy.

When I was a kid, oh so long ago, these countries didn't exist. At least, they didn't exist as independent nations that we had ever heard of. They were about 1/3 of Yugoslavia, or more formally, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As the name suggests, Yugoslavia was part of the Communist bloc, and was ruled from shortly after World War II by Josip Tito, until his death in 1980. He was an old-school dictator, although perhaps less aligned to the Soviet Union than we were taught. During WWII, he lead one of the partisan groups that fought the German/Italian takeover of Yugoslavia, so he was a good guy then. Later, when he became a dictator and ran a Communist country, he was a bad guy. I suspect he was the same guy throughout. He was one of the starters of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, and was publicly critical of both the Soviets and NATO.

Yugoslavia after WWII, 1947

Yugoslavia itself was created after World War I out of the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the independent Kingdoms of Croatia and Montenegro. The name refers to the southern Slavs.

Yugoslavia fell apart along with Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in 1991-2. During this period and following the dissolution, there commenced the Yugoslav Wars, which were fought in and among the successor countries that came out of its ashes: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

Former Yugoslavia, 2014

We're starting our trip in the upper left portion of this map when we land in Ljubljana, Slovenia (you remember our pronounciation lessons from a few days ago, right?) and drive a bit to near Idrija. We leave at the end of the trip from Dubrovnik, after having spent a couple of days in Montenegro at the lower right of the map. You can check our Itinerary and Route in the links to the right of this post.

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans