what has been your experience in this region?
I'm South Asian, and this place is paradise compared to India.
>>2916754Poor safe cheap homogeneous depopulated shitholes As opposed to Western Europe semi poor crime ridden expensive diverse shitholes
>>2916754What characterises the region for me is the shift in travel priorities when you go there, urban tourism is something that I would not recommend as larger cities tend to be strictly industrial and lacking in both things to do and aesthetics, smaller scenic cities too can often be a bore. Nature tourism takes a greater priority and there are many lovely lakes and hiking trails within the region. There's also plenty of old scenic Orthodox churches and monasteries which give insight into the old Byzantine world, but these are dotted around seemingly at random. Cuisine is fairly homogenous, everyone there loves a grille and hearty stews, there's a lot of thick pastries to be had.People consistently dress trashy, like they're in the UK, but in a way its part of the charm. I will strongly caveat that you can tell any region which has been a part of the Austrian/ Austro-Hungarian Empire, the architectural influence is obvious and the towns generally look more 'German'.Public transport is far weaker than in west and central Europe. There are rail lines and roads being built but even internal bus trips through countries like Albania and Macedonia can take far longer times than you would expect given the area of those countries. Cross-border rail lines are dicey, to what I understand a lot were left to ruin after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Pic is an example of the more German-style towns of Romania, this is Sibiu, which used to have a large Transylvanian Saxon population.
