Here's a destination you don't see too often. Flickr user Phojo11 captured this cool wall of Alice in Wonderland graffiti while traveling through Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It's heartening to see that tourism is returning to this formerly war-torn region, and also heartening to see that artistic output is thriving again as well.

I especially like the bright colors. The blue wall here almost seems ready to fade into the sky above if it wasn't for those few green trees poking over the top. Not to mention that fearsome-looking Cheshire Cat right in the middle of the image.

Have you taken any street art photos during your travels? Or perhaps just a beautiful cityscape? Add it to Gadling's photo pool on Flickr, and it just might end up as our Photo of the Day.

When I arrived in Montenegro three months ago, one of the things that struck me first was how safe things felt.

What was I expecting?

Well, not a lot of armed thugs or anything. But I'd traveled enough in the former communist corners of Europe -- including past trips into the Balkans -- to notice a slightly different atmosphere than you feel in more staid places like the Netherlands or Germany. There isn't the sense of order you find in those places, and that absence piques your alertness. It's not that you are in danger at all, but you are certainly a little more aware of your surroundings.

Before coming to Montenegro, I'd last been in the Balkans -- specifically Croatia and Bosnia -- four years before. These recent months of traveling in the region has had a decidedly different feel -- Albania being a noteworthy exception.

Turns out that the United Nations is feeling pretty bullish on the Balkans as well.

The UN released a surprising report yesterday that called the Balkans perhaps Europe's safest region, saying countries like Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia boast lower numbers of murders, rapes and petty crime than western Europe.

"The Balkans is departing from an era when demagogues, secret police and thugs profited from sanctions-busting and the smuggling of people, arms, cigarettes and drugs," the report said.

The report surveyed nine countries: Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania.

The report still notes the pervasiveness of corruption and organized crime activities, however.

Of course, a fair question to ask about this report in general is: Compared to what?

After all, the UN notes -- in a major nod to the obvious, it seems to me -- that regular crimes, including homicides and rapes, "across the region are by far lower than they used to be, particularly in the beginning of the 1990s." Well duh. At the beginning of the 1990s, didn't you have widespread instability and lawlessness in places like Romania, Bulgaria and Albania as they emerged out of communism? Didn't you have a regional war that engulfed Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro in an orgy of killing and destruction that lasted nearly five years?

To compare crime rates in some of these countries now to a time when crime was the only thing that counted doesn't seem to say much. It would have been more useful for the UN to note how things have changed in, say, the last five years.

This coming Monday Michael Palin's new seven-show travel series, "The New Europe" starts on The Travel Channel. He's taking the TV audience through "post communist" Europe to highlight the natural beauty, history and culture of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hungary, and Bosnia among several others in Eastern and Central Europe (20 in all), many that were behind the Iron Curtain when he was growing up in Great Britain.

There's an interview with Palin at World Hum about the series. David Farley's questions brought out an intriguing look into what thoughts go into a travel series in the first place--including the name of it.

"The New Europe" stuck for this series title, even though it's a term coined by Donald Rumsfeld, of all people. I wonder if Donald Rumsfeld has a travel series in his future.? Or if people are looking for a catchy title they could call him up for his wordsmith magic." To be clear, the name of the series and the fact that Donald Rumsfeld called this part of the world "the new Europe" while he was U.S. Secretary of Defense is purely coincidental. They have nothing to do with each other, but in the interview with Palin, Farley included the show's reaction to the sameness and the decision to keep the name anyway.

When deciding what to include and what not to include in an episode, the balance between what will make for an interesting show and what the country's reaction to its portrayal are taken into consideration. For example, the idea is to show the scope of the region so countries are not necessarily highlighted for the same reason. In summary, people from one country may look at the depiction of another country as having gorgeous scenery, but not that aspect of the their own and feel slighted. It's heck to be an editor. Someone is bound to feel slighted.

In the Farley's interview Palin also muses about the difference between Americans' and Europeans' ideas about travel and what draws him around the world. The series that airs at 8 p.m. looks like one that won't disappoint-- and I certainly recommend the interview.

Most people who visit Croatia stay close to the shore and enjoy the beautiful medieval cities that lace the coastline. If you spare a day or two, the Plitvice Lakes National Park is well worth the trip. Located in the north half of Croatia, about an hour from the coast stretching to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was here where the former Yugoslavia War officially started. The Serbian rebel forces held the park during the conflict from 1991-1995. Along the way, you can still see many of the residential buildings with bullet holes in their facades. It is hard to imagine the war started 15 years ago.

I finally went to the park this summer and loved it. Although the main drag is smothered with tourists in July and August, the park is quite large and when hiking, one can get away from people pretty easily. The waterfalls, combined with the turquoise color of the water, are unbelievable.

Having just returned from my own Balkan Odyssey, I was very pleased to discover another traveler who has also recently spent time in the region and has put together a wonderful webpage over at Yahoo Adventures.

Richard Bangs (this has got to be a porn name--and, I'm sure I'm not the first to make this dumb joke) explores the wonders of Bosnia & Herzegovina and takes us along with him via well-written articles, great photographs, and even video. It makes my effort chronicling my own adventures through the region a comparatively sophomoric attempt.

One of the more fascinating locations I learned about from Mr. Bangs was Lukomir, the "remotest village in Europe." The above photo of the village was downloaded from Bangs' Flickr site and gives a feeling for the wonders which Bosnia has to offer the adventurous traveler.

I've learned over the course of my travels that those "trouble spots" which make the news often stay lodged in the public consciousness far longer than such spots actually remain troubled.

With this in mind, I was a little concerned about talking my girlfriend into detouring our travel plans to include a visit to Bosnia. So, I broached the topic by showing her some photos of Mostar similar to the one above and touting its beauty and history. It wasn't until a couple of days later, after she decided it might be a cool place to visit, that I let her know it was actually in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Getting there proved quite easy. We grabbed the 3 p.m. Dubrovnik bus from Kotor, Montenegro and headed north along the fjord towards the Croatian border. The main bus line which connects the major coastal cities of Montenegro with Dubrovnik is a surprisingly comfortable, cheap, and convenient way to travel the region. We were a little concerned, however, because our connecting bus in Dubrovnik was schedule to leave at 5:15, just ten minutes after we were supposed to arrive. Unfortunately, we were 15 minutes late. As my girlfriend went running through the terminal to see if the bus was still there and I grabbed our stuff out of the baggage hold, I noticed our driver remove the Dubrovnik placard from the front of the bus and replace it with one that said Kotor. What luck; we were already on the bus!

So we jumped back on board and continued heading north along the beautiful Croatian coastline. Eventually we forked off and the bus headed inland through miles of fields and farmlands and across the Bosnia & Herzegovina border.

It was getting towards evening when the bus finally pulled into the dismal looking Mostar bus station. Since my girlfriend was still a little concerned about the whole Bosnia thing, and I felt a bit bad about dragging her here, I decided to check us into the nicest hotel in town, the four-star Hotel Bevanda.

It was all shiny and clean, but more than half a mile from the historic center. We ordered some food from the restaurant since we hadn't eaten all day and this is when I realized why I so often hate fancy hotels. Although the food was good, the hotel was soulless and without character; we could have been sitting in any hotel on this planet. We were insulated from the surrounding city and there was almost no way to tell where, in fact, we were.

After dinner we walked to the center and came across another hotel, one which had been highly recommended in Lonely Planet. Motel Kriva Cuprija was what a hotel should be like. It was built of stone, like the surrounding old town, and sat astride a narrow rushing river. The owner was a young, energetic local who had spent time in Germany working in the hotel industry (but apparently hadn't learned that "motel" doesn't have a very good connotation in English). His place was immaculate, centrally located, and charming--although the rooms were a little small. Fortunately there was a cancellation and we were able to move in the next morning.

Today begins a short series on a long trip from which I've just returned. As you can tell from the title, my journey took my through the former Yugoslavia. Fifteen years ago, the majority of my trip would have been a visit to a single country. But today, after far too many years of horrific civil war, Yugoslavia has split into five separate countries. I was fortunate on this trip to have visited three of them as well as some of their neighbors. In the following weeks, this column will take you through Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania. Straying slightly from the Balkan theme, I ended my journey passing through Hungary and Austria.

I would have liked to send dispatches from the road, but part of the allure of where I visited was that internet bars were not on every corner.

The aim of this column is to hopefully introduce the reader to a handful of countries, rarely visited, that have much to offer. The column will be part travelogue, sharing my experiences and adventures, as well as part guidebook, where I hope to offer enough practical advice to help future travelers through a region covered very poorly by guidebooks.

Lastly, this column will temporarily replace Red Corner, seeing as everywhere I visited was once part of the old communist empire-except, of course, Austria. So, jump on board and join me on the Balkan Express. The trip exceeded all of my expectations and this column will hopefully exceed yours.

Tomorrow's Post: Getting to Albania

Having just returned from the Balkans, I couldn't help but think of a certain Onion article every time I passed a street sign or, for that matter, anything written at all!

The article I reference is, of course, the legendary satirical, Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia: Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First Recipients.

I laughed like hell when I first ran across this article because it brought back bad memories of trying to pronounce my first vowel-less city in the mid-1990s: Krk, Croatia.

Take a moment to read how Operation Vowel Storm was to drop "75,000 vowels to the war-torn region of Bosnia" so that residents like Grg Hmphrs could lead a normal life as George Humphries.

Sarajevo is heating up as a tourist destination and for several reasons. For the moment I'll focus on culture and events. After glancing over the tourism website for the city and country it is quite obvious the visitor will not bore easily considering the amount of activity to soak up and in. May marked a month of theater and those with departures set for June can count on a month full of Rock sounds. If you can afford to stay a while longer or hold off until July there is what looks to be an incredible music plus culture find in Sarajevo's old Turkish quarter. Held during summer months the festival is titled Bascarsija Nights and offers folk dancing, opera, ballet, rock, poetry and love songs. Best thing about this particular festival is it is free of charge. So what's the hold up? Doesn't a summer in Sarajevo sound nice?

Today's word is a Bosnian word used in Bosnia-Herzegovina:

putovanje - travel

For Bosnia-Herzegovina there are three official languages which include: Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. All three are a lot alike where the language is referred to as Bosnian by Bosniaks in Bosnia-Herzegovina and referred to as Serbian and Croatian by Bosnian Serbs and Croats. (See Wikipedia.) There are a few cool places online to help get you started on the road to speaking like a Bosniak. If you're unfamiliar with spoken Bosnian and pronunciation start with the BBC Languages Quick Fix guide where audio downloads are available for the very basics. Languages of the World has great background information and history on the lang with a few words peppered in on their webpage. Lastly, check out this Bosnian for travelers page where you can score an large amount of words, phrases and the answers to questions you're bound to have for free and in one quick swoosh.

Ever dream of seeing the great pyramids?  You know, traveling to Central America?  Or Egypt?  Or ...

...Bosnia?

From MSNBC.com:  Experts in Bosnia have discovered solid evidence that what appeared to be an odd-shaped hill in the small village of Visoko in Bosnia, is actually a giant pyramid, a third larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza.  If correct, this will be the first pyramid ever found in Europe.

Semir Osmanagic, a Bosnian archaeologist, said the discovery significantly bolsters his theory that the 2,120-foot hill is actually a step pyramid.  "We can see the surface is perfectly flat," he said.  "This is the crucial material proof that we are talking pyramids."  In addition, satellite photographs and thermal imaging revealed two other, smaller pyramid-shaped hills in the Visoko Valley.

Cool.