Normally travel sites are keen to espouse the romantic qualities of various destinations – early February was so cringeworthy for top 10 lists of cuddling spots in the sun that cynics everywhere spent a good two weeks vomiting up their disgust, pausing only to open a new browser window that started the whole thing again.

Well, here's the glorious exception.

Taking permanent residency in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, in October 2010, the Museum of Broken Relationships started off as an installation in 2006, and then a travelling exhibition, collecting an odd array of found objects relating to break-ups, from the relatively benign and comedic, to the truly tragic, culminating in a visitors book which encourages contributions. Curated by Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić, the museum has stopped formally soliciting donations from the embittered or nostalgic, and the strength of its concept has seen it make the shortlist for European Museum of the Year 2011, alongside such prestigious institutions as London's Victoria & Albert Museum.

Why not make a romantic weekend of it? That way, even if it goes wrong you'll be enriching the experience.

The toe-tag was finally filled out May 22 2006, when Montenegro quietly excused itself from its union with Serbia, ending the pretence of a single Yugoslav nation that had largely become a myth once the cancer of extreme nationalism began to gnaw at the aging bones of brotherhood and unity in the late '80s, now, the cadaver of Yugoslavia is to be interred alongside its carer, fondly recalled autocrat Jozip Tito, in the House of Flowers in Belgrade.

Still the most visited museum in the country, the House of Flowers at the Museum of Yugoslav History has received 20 million visitors in the last 30 years (more than three million in 2005 alone!), and with no entry fee, remains high on the agenda for any budget traveller in the Serb capital. Mostly filled with Tito's assorted gifts and clutter, as well as his office and tomb, historians from Bosnia and Croatia met with local officials in early February 2011 to plan a comprehensive exhibit on the history of their late federation.

“The exhibitions will be organised thematically and they will present development of the Yugoslav idea, creation of the country and its fall,” said historian Predrag Markovic to Balkan Insight. “The disintegration of the country will probably be placed at the exit and the space for that period is small. This has nothing to do with politics, but with the fact that we want to present whole and complex history on the country and there is just not enough space.”

The museum will present the history of the country from 1918 to the '90s with focus on the composite nations and the statesmen who influenced it, from across the political spectrum from the royal family though to the partisan hero turned president for life.

“We can think what ever we want about Yugoslavia,” concluded Croatian historian Hrvoje Klasic to the Jutarnji news site, “but that state marked the lives of generations, in a good and in a bad way. Yugoslavia wasn’t just the idyllic picture from propaganda movies where young people were smiling or hugging Tito, nor just the ‘dungeon’ of this or that nation or the country of persecution and repression.”
The funeral is planned for May 2011.

As of June 20, 2011 booming Hungarian airline Wizzair will become the first low cost carrier to fly to the Macedonian capital, running three flights a week from the utilitarian low cost Mecca of London Luton. Wizz CEO, Josef Varadi, told Utrinski Vesnik newspaper that they're also considering runs between Skopje and Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona.

With fares starting at £26.99 (31.95 euros) and construction underway on another terminal at Skopje Alexander the Great Airport, as well as renovations at Ohrid's St. Paul the Apostle Airport, the often overlooked Balkan nation is set to explode onto tourist itineraries.

Skopje Alexander the Great, run by Turkish operator TAV Airport Holdings since the long, slow death of MAT Macedonian Airlines which was banned from airports for millions of euros of unpaid fees and finally spasm into bankruptcy last January, has had its runway extended by 500 metres to deal with long-haul flights – making the airport bigger than both Belgrade Nikola Tesla and Sofia. With the improvements completed by October 2011, TAV hopes the to turn Skopje into a hub for returning members of the Turkish expat community and entice Turkish Airlines into setting up a base there.

Alp Er Tunga Ersoy, the Deputy Manager of TAV in Macedonia, told Southeast European Times, "Our goal is to make Skopje a popular regional hub by using its advantageous geographical location. Thanks to this investment, Macedonia will have state of the art airport facilities and Skopje's Alexander the Great Airport will be one of the main drivers of economic growth in the region.”

Critics remain, er, critical, but whatever the end result, it certainly bodes well for regular travellers to Southeast Europe - at least until TAV goes bankrupt as well.

The films of Emir Kusturica are essential viewing for any would-be Balkan traveller, from his earlier, bittersweet tales of growing up in communist Yugoslavia ('Do You Remember Dolly Bell?' and 'When Father Was Away on Business' being highlights) to his more volcanic celebrations of regional absurdity (such as 'Underground', 'Black Cat, White Cat' and 'Life is a Miracle'), resplendent with frantic pacing and brass bands. Now Kusturica could be adding to Bosnia and Herzegovina's physical landscape, not just its cultural one.

Having announced his intention to adapt Bosnian author Ivo Andric's Nobel prize winning 'The Bridge on the Drina', he's chasing funding in order to reconstruct the town of Kamengrad, near the titular Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge at Višegrad in Bosnia's semi-autonomous Serb entity, the Republika Srpska. He hopes if constructed, it'll be allowed to remain standing as a tourist attraction once filming is completed.

“In order to fulfill this grandiose cultural project, the state has to back it up,” said Kusturica to Glas Srpske. “As it stands, Serbia is interested to help filming Andric’s tale and the president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, is willing and very eager to help [with the] construction.”

It won't be the first time Kusturica has build a town from scratch and Drvengrad, near Užice in the east of Serbia, was built specifically for 2004's sublimely beautiful 'Life is a Miracle', and remains not only his home, but home to art retreats, a ski resort and a film festival. If he recreates a similar feat for 'The Bridge on the Drina', it'll not only bring much needed tourism to the Republika Srpska which is often overlooked in favour of Mostar and Sarajevo, but provide a sorely needed celebration of Bosnia and Herzegovina's unique history and culture.

Still a widely read indictment of the brutal Ceausescu era, where the few danced on tables paid for by the backbreaking labour of the many, the continued appeal of 'Red Horizons', a tabloid-friendly tell all by former foreign intelligence chief Ion Mihai Pacepa, is almost indicative of its author's charmed life.

Defecting in July 1978 after six years as the dictator's chief security advisor and deputy head of his propaganda-spewing spy network, Ion Mihai Pacepa glossed over his own role at the top of one of the most repressive regime's in 20th Century Europe and instead wrote a populist exposé, recognised on its 1988 publication by the New York Times' David Binder as semi-fabrication by the “happy hooker of the spy trade.” A compelling read – one of the benefits of not letting facts get in the way of narrative – its recollections of Ceausescu's inner circle, their brutality and excess (of which Pacepa's role is never really acknowledged), are gripping, but its reading of international affairs, Cold War politics and Eastern Bloc intelligence gathering are absurd semi-fantasies, since discredited by US intelligence agencies who noted that Pacepa frequently changed his story to chime in with more recent reports.

The CIA no longer take him seriously, (saying of one of his texts, "Pacepa doesn’t connect the dots, he adds new ones."), but the ludicrous pomposity with regards to the role played by Romania in the career of Yassir Arafat (who apparently hadn't even considered the idea of American imperialism until the KGB suggested it!), amongst other delusions, remains core to 'Red Horizons' and its mouthwatering compilation of homophobic fascination, thinly veiled racism and outlandish conspiracy.

Fittingly for a man who once counted disinformation as his job description, Ceausescu's former spymaster has made it the heart of his career in the 'free world', having spent the last decade dancing like a circus bear for the American right – penning increasingly fantastical columns for various hawkish journals that seek to create an absurd, paranoid narrative of evil forces inspired by the Soviet Union and arrayed against the blameless United States. Highlights include his claims that Saddam Hussein's non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction were spirited away by Vladimir Putin, and bile spitting polemic about how John Kerry's rhetoric owed a debt to the Kremlin.

The fact to embellishment ratio has since grown so great that Pacepa is widely derided in Romania as a "snake oil salesman", spicing up the same old stories for the Western media. 'Red Horizons', a blend of sensationalist half-truths, is where it all began.

No stranger to architectural folly, Nicolae Ceausescu bulldozed the magic out of 'little Paris' to construct an egotistical, North Korea-style monument to hardline Stalinism. Now Bucharest is gearing up to add the region's largest cathedral to its overflowing CV, alongside the world's second largest public building (Ceausescu's Palace of the People, second to the Pentagon), the largest hotel and the largest shopping mall in South East Europe.

Construction of the Cathedral of the Redeemer is due to begin this year and wrap up in 2013, it'll cost 400 million euros, most of which comes from a much criticised government loan, and at 120 metres high, it'll dwarf the current tallest – Bosnia and Herzegovina's Church of St Peter and St Paul in Mostar – by just shy of thirteen metres.

Journalist Laurentiu Mihu complained to Balkan Insight, “This project is too much extravagant and a new cathedral is not a priority for Romania. Instead, the Church should do something real for the redemption and development of society by putting these enormous sums into a huge nationwide social project."

Bucharest passed the point of no return a considerable time ago and the sheer scale and crassness of the Communist-era reconstruction is undoubtedly part of its appeal, nevertheless with existing Orthodox churches and historic buildings crying out for a bit of love amid the smog and bustle, the Cathedral of the Redeemer is going to meet with little enthusiasm from travellers.

Skopje's plans to build a museum in the grounds of the Macedonian capital's Kale fortress has been halted mid-construction following complaints about its overt Christianity and demands of a Muslim equivalent.

The museum was to be built in the style of a medieval church over the foundations of a recently excavated 14th-century Orthodox church and although authorities claim it'll be entirely secular and devoted to architectural finds from the site, Macedonia's biggest Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, has cried foul and demanded a mosque built adjacent.

"Our message is that Albanians also contribute to and have responsibility for the creation of cultural traditions in Macedonia," protested Izet Mexhiti, the DUI mayor of the Skopje municipality of Cair, to Balkan Insight.

Originally built in the 6th Century and reconstructed in the reign of the Emperor Justinian I in 10th and 11th Centuries, Kale fortress has been the source of some of the Balkan's most impressive archaeological finds, from woodwind instruments believed to pre-date the construction of the fortress by an incredible 3,000 years, to more recent, though no less impressive, haul of Byzantine coins.

Would it have killed anyone to talk about this before they cracked on with the construction, and come to some sort of solution without the seemingly inevitable factitious arm wrestle?

As long as politics and lack of dialogue between communities keeps Macedonia's fantastic history in storage, the victims won't be either one group or the other, it'll be both. Not only does Macedonia need to strengthen the shared culture that binds it, it needs a culture of adoration for its ancient sites and cultural heritage to rival (and doubtless, irritate!) its Greek neighbour, and lures in tourists by the coachload.

It's an oft-repeated statistic (especially if you've stood in queue at a Post Office in Britain staring gormlessly at the monitors) that Istanbul, the ancient city once known as Constantinople, is the only city to straddle two continents – Asia and Europe. It's baffling then that so few remember about the other side to Turkey's European heritage, that small, nugget still clinging to the Balkans like a limpet.

Eastern Thrace, or Turkish Thrace, while making up only 3% of the total Turkish landmass, though apparently accounting for nearly half of its wine in vineyards on the foothills of Ganos Mountain, is nevertheless bigger than Belgium. Bordered by Bulgaria to the North and Greece to the West, it's a land of rolling green plains which turn a brilliant yellow when the sunflowers emerge in July, it's not a landscape that lends itself to an enthralling drive, compared to say the dramatic gorges of the Carpathians or the craggy coastline of the Adriatic Highway, but as diversion on a Balkan roadtrip, or the launchpad for exploring/exiting Turkey, it's a perfect introduction to the many faces of the country, from the First World War battlefields and monuments at Gallipoli, to the bustling, stately Edirne, once the second capital of the Ottoman Empire and scarred by the original Balkan Wars, the Byzantine citadel of Enez and the island of Gokceada with its hauntingly beautiful and tragically abandoned Greek villages.

Istanbul itself is versatile enough a transport hub to cater for whatever your needs, perhaps making it too easy to get out and get somewhere else, but travellers who neglect the European face of this great country in favour of the 'exotic' and 'oriental' allure of Anatolia, cheat themselves out fully understanding its place in the modern world, and why it was such a big deal to the ancient one.

Rejoice, house-proud Slavophiles keen to host, another vegan-friendly Lenten dish, Djuvec is a Serbian casserole of seasonal vegetables, and while admittedly it has similar ingredients and preparation to last week's Posna Sarma, it's nonetheless absolutely ruddy delicious, especially when served with some rather un-Balkan Linda McCarty sausages and ketchup.

Watch out for it on menus though, as it can just as easily contain lamb as it can leek, and beef stock is the standard. As a main, the magic word is Posna, denoting its status as Lenten (and even then it could contain seafood!), but it's often served as a side dish to accompany the usual meataggedon and you're on much safer ground there.

Vague ingredients (to serve about four!)

Mahala Rai Banda's self-titled 2004 debut album
A good splash of olive oil
A vegetable stock cube
Two large onions
Salt, pepper, mixed herbs and paprika
Four carrots
Four small potatoes
Two courgettes
One green pepper
Three sticks of ribbed celery
A tin of chopped tomatoes
A cup of long-grain rice


Preparation

1. Stick Mahala Rai Banda on the CD player to give your cooking style a bit of vim, don't slice your finger off to the pounding Gypsy trumpets though.
2. Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius.
3. Stick the oil in a big pan.
4. Slice onions finely and sauté them in the oil until they go translucent.
5. Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes.
6. Chop courgettes, green pepper and celery.
7. Throw them in the pan and cooking for 15 minutes, throw a good dash of mixed herbs in.
8. Boil the kettle and make a mug of vegetable stock
9. Rinse and drain the rice a couple of times until the water runs clear
10. Add the tinned tomatoes, stock, rice, salt, pepper and paprika, and stir. The liquid should be about level with the vegetables, it isn't feel free to add another dash of water.
11. Pour your brilliant-smelling mess into a casserole dish, and stick in the oven for 45 minutes.
12. Eat well!

Although rising star in his motherland and a recognised talent at Europe's film festivals, film director Nikola Vukčević might not be the most obvious ambassador for Montenegro's fledgeling tourist industry, generally campaigns favour the fixed grins and empty heads of people better known for their vacuous careers the other side of the camera.

Starting off in the Bay of Kotor and swinging by the historical heartland of Cetinje, and his own hometown, the current capital, Podgorica, this short film produced by Visit Montenegro is a splendid introduction to one of Europe's oldest new tourist destinations.

Britain's biggest low cost air carrier Easyjet has completely ruled out the possibility of flights to Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite earlier breathlessly reported claims to the contrary according to the Macedonian International News Agency. The airline currently flies to Slovenia, Croatia and, bizarrely, given their reluctance to fly to what might be lazily considered the 'shadier' Balkan counties, Pristina in Kosovo.

The beautiful coastal city of Dubrovnik, oozing as it does renaissance romance from its shiny tiles and rust red slates, has been a major tourist destination for at least three decades. Italian cruise ships can bump against each other like ducks to fight for entrance to the new harbour and you can barely move for Germans in sandals, it's undeniably beautiful and unsurprisingly it topped Visit Croatia's poll as the favourite destination in the country - a judgement backed up by the figures, boasting an increase of visitors of 13% in 2010, and the single largest group being Brits. Probably your parents.

But does it deserve this? Yes, and no, on the one hand this status as an Adriatic pearl is testament to its long history of tourism and long history full-stop, its enchanting narrow streets and gorgeous churches. Comparisons to its old overlords Venice are natural and in its criticisms the comparisons continue. As magical as Dubrovnik is, you can't help but feel the 'real' Croatia, with its easygoing charm and faint air of chaos, is somewhere else entirely. The lack of (genuinely!) low cost flights to Dubrovnik, whose airport has little chance of expansion (the flipside of such a stunning location, ironically) meaning high overheads for budget airlines which opt to fly only in the tightly packed tourist season, is evidence of just how much disposable income is being flashed around by your average visitor. Probably your parents.

There are other options, and why make things difficult for yourself? Wizz Air and Easyjet fly direct to Split, Croatia's second largest city, and Ryan Air flies to the stunning Zadar (which doubled up for Venice in a recent episode of 'Doctor Who'!), both further up along the Dalmatian coast. Both rich in history, architecture and pavement cafes, crooning the siren's song of a cold beer on a hot day.

Dubrovnik is on top for a reason, but with a bit of research, you can make a decision easier on the wallet and wealthier on experience. Let's give it a run for its money in the 2011 poll and wrestle a few points from Croatia's tourism Goliath.

When the wall fell, Albania was the skeleton of the missing wife bricked up on the other side. No nation has any (un)favoured status in any imagine hierarchy of oppression, but in the Balkans at least, Communist Albania was in a particularly sad way thanks to Stalinist nostalgia of dictator for life Enver Hoxha, a man determined to party like it was 1949.

At the centre of this bloc party was the National Historic Museum in the Albanian capital of Tirana, a gauche glorification of Hoxha and the Albanian Worker's Party, constructed 1981 in a style that can only be described as 'discount rack Soviet Realism', its contents were of even worse taste, so much so that in 1992 the country's first democratically elected government ordered it torn down.

For the penniless flyer, the map of Europe might as well have a big swirling space void where Serbia is – direct flights from the UK are few, and most indirect flights involve either Alitalia or Lufthansa. Trains can be problematic thanks to inconvenient mountains and the wheezing spectre of yesterday's politics, but a modest wind of change is blowing, one that'll potentially invite the Serbian capital into the warm, lager-sozzled embrace of the budget airline community.

Hungarian-based regional powerhouse Wizz Air started flying between London Luton and Belgrade twice a week last summer, but as of 2011 there's a pretty good chance that not only will their fares go down, but more carriers will start making the run as Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport lowers its service charges by 7% and expands its capacity in keeping with its epic 15% boost in passenger numbers in 2010 – no doubt the most air traffic they've seen since 1999 filled the sky with shrapnel. Though fares ultimately rest in the cold, damp hands of the airlines themselves, one estimate is that it could reduce ticket prices by a saliva-worthy 100 euros, pretty exciting stuff when Wizz's cheapest existing flight from London Luton is a reasonable £156 (including blahdiblah).

Belgrade has long been making noises about wanting to echo the tourist boom of its Westerly neighbours, and in 2011 it just might – provided of course airlines are prepared to pass their substantial savings onto their customers.