Before my trip it's necessary to give a brief history of Central and South Eastern Europe to understand where and why I am going to so many towns nobody has ever heard of.

We are predominantly taught an Anglo-French version of European History with mention of the rise and decline of Germany during the 20th Century. Western schooling teaches us virtually nothing about what was going on in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe.

A major power that emerged in Central Europe was the Kingdom of Hungary in the late Middle Ages. This Kingdom was three times the size of modern day Hungary. Eventually an alliance was formed with neighbouring Austria and they formed the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This stretched from what is now the Czech Republic, across to parts of modern day Ukraine, south into Romania, northern Serbia, and Croatia.

After the defeat in the First World War the Western Allies dismembered Austria-Hungary into neighbouring countries forming boundaries and new states that never previously existed. One such was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which was an amalgamation of Austrian territories from the north and Ottoman territories from the south. Another major benefactor was Romania who doubled in size.

The other major presence in Europe was the Ottoman Turks who held all land south of Austria Hungary to the Mediterranean and Black Sea. The Ottomans did in fact hold territory further north and occupied Budapest for 150 years forcing the Hungarian Monarchy to relocate to nearby Bratislava.

The Turks were able to lay siege to Vienna twice before the a resurgent Austria allied with Hungary eventually pushed them back to what was called the 'military frontier'. This was a border that existed between the two Empires for almost three centuries.

In the south the Turks ruled over all of what is now Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia for almost 400 years and the start of WWI. They had diverse multi religious communities where Muslims, Christians, and Jews all lived together and were each subject to their own religious laws.

Istanbul which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire was in the centre of a vast empire that spread east and west in both directions like giant wings. This was a continuation of the Byzantine Empire that rose up after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire and traces a continued presence on the European continent going back 2000 years.

All that survives today is most of the eastern part in modern day Turkey, while the western has collapsed into individual European states. The Turks left behind their influence in Mosques, bath houses, old town quarters filled with artisans that feel more Arabian than European, as well as musical influence, and cuisine.

The western most edge of the Ottomans was Bosnia whose shape made a natural corner and sticks out like a wedge against the Austrians to the north. I had visited Bosnia twice in 2006 & 2007 and this time am travelling deeper into the Balkans.

Some claimed during the Bosnian war of the 90s that it was not worth defending as no such country every existed. However, this entity can be traced back to the middle ages before the arrival of the Ottomans and has had a continued presence until it was swallowed into the Austrian Empire in the 1870s and then amalgamated into Yugoslavia.

What was Yugoslavia encompasses much of what was the heart of the Balkan Ottoman Empire and is a treasure trove rich in architectural history and cultural diversity. The Turks had divided the region into separate provinces called Vilayets for administrative purposes. Some of the provincial capitals such as Pristina, and Skopje are today modern day capitals of their respective countries.

A typical Turkish town consisted of the
- Caravanserei (inns and stables for travellors and merchants)
- Hammam (bath houses)
- Bezistan (covered market to trade goods)
- Djami (Mosque)

These have survived in varying degrees in each town which I plan to visit, along with grand Orthodox Churches, and some Synagogues. The Turks added to existing Byzantine and Roman towns so even more layers of heritage to see

As the Ottomans began to lose territory with the rise of European nationalism an interesting land corridor continued linking Bosnia to what is now Kosovo and the bulk of Ottoman territories in the south.

This land corridor was known as the 'Sandzak' and today is split down the middle between Serbia to the north east and Montenegro to the south west. An interesting town along this corridor I've always wanted to visit is Novi Pazar which now falls inside Serbia which retains a very strong Turkish character.

From Budapest I will visit some of the outer Hungarian territories in Pecs, Eger, Gyor, as well as Timisoara which lies in Romania today, and Novi Sad which is in modern day Serbia now. Belgrade Serbia was the borderline between the Austrian and Ottoman Empires and also changed ownership several times.

Heading south from Belgrade I will goto the crossroad town of Nis. This was on the direct road from Istanbul into Europe from where you could continue north to Belgrade and Budapest or branch off in several directions towards Bosnia, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, or Bulgaria.

From Nis I will travel around modern day Kosovo to the 'Sandzak' town of Novi Pazar. From here I will cross into Kosovo and visit the capital Pristina and another town rich in Turkish heritage Prizren.

Next into modern day Macedonia I will visit the capital Skopje which is a historical and architectural melting pot of all the cultures of the region and the nearby Turkish influenced town Tetovo.

Then I will head back northeast to the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, before heading to Plovdiv, back on the road to Istanbul where my trip will end.

I've wanted to do this trip for the last five years, and had I not been working in Korea on their school vacation schedule I would have done it earlier