Interesting places in the Balkans

[Montmorency]

You teach pre-teens, right? Wow, the furthest I ever went on a school trip as a pre-teen was Philadelphia, never mind the other side of the continent...

The financing of this trip interests me; I know Norway is pretty rich, but six grand per kid? What if parents just don't want to pay that kind of money for a school trip?

How long is it anyway, that you need that much? One day-one night at least from what I read, and surely no longer with a band of small children...

How many children are in your class? Will there be any parent chaperones coming along?

[HoreTore]

It's 6000 NOK, which is around 1000 USD. That's the limit, and nobody would mind it if we make it cheaper. The kids are aged 14-15, ie. the last two classes of secondary school.

Two classes are going on trips, which is 40 students in total. These 40 will then be divided into groups of 10 according to their wishes, and each group goes on a different trip. One will go to the ISTA festival(theater thing) in Copenhagen, one will launch a rocket at Andøya space center in Norway, one will go to South Korea and play engineers, and the last one will do whatever I can come up with.

We're aiming for about a week, but there is some flexibility, ie. it could be 6 days or it could be 9 days. Ideally we'd want to get out of Europe, but due to tight deadlines we won't be able to organize that this year, so that's a focus for next year.

The group will be 10 kids, 2 teachers and no parents.

[Sarmatian]

It's 6000 NOK, which is around 1000 USD. That's the limit, and nobody would mind it if we make it cheaper. The kids are aged 14-15, ie. the last two classes of secondary school.

Two classes are going on trips, which is 40 students in total. These 40 will then be divided into groups of 10 according to their wishes, and each group goes on a different trip. One will go to the ISTA festival(theater thing) in Copenhagen, one will launch a rocket at Andøya space center in Norway, one will go to South Korea and play engineers, and the last one will do whatever I can come up with.

We're aiming for about a week, but there is some flexibility, ie. it could be 6 days or it could be 9 days. Ideally we'd want to get out of Europe, but due to tight deadlines we won't be able to organize that this year, so that's a focus for next year.

The group will be 10 kids, 2 teachers and no parents.

Do you want an educational or a fun trip, or something in between?

[Fragony]

I thought it out for you Horetore, you can get away with this. You point out that conflicts in the past are the trigger of modern events, Turks invaded Balkans and kinda stayed in some parts, voila. There you have your conflict and you can stay in Romania because that is where expansion stopped for a while. Romenia is cheap and Bukarest is awesome. Say you want to give it more depth and expand on the long-term history and they will slip of their chairs.

[Sarmatian]

Maybe something like this.

Start in Montenegro. There are beautiful cities on the coastline, especially Kotor and Budva somewhat. The entire Montenegro coastline is less than 200km long so you can see what you need in one day. Kotor has one the best preserved medieval cities in the Adriatic. It's relatively cheap so you can sleep there for a night or two.
Next day, move to Croatia, Dubrovnik is less than an hour drive from Montenegro border, so you can see the city without paying insane prices for accommodation. If you sleep in Herceg Novi, you'll have two hours drive tops to Dubrovnik. Spend a few hours there to see the old fortified town, and if you finish by two, you can continue to Split, which has some great Roman stuff, especially Diocletian's Palace. You can spend the night there or if you don't mind kids sleeping on the bus, you can take a night ride to Sarajevo, which will be probably very interesting for them, due to recent conflicts and earlier conflicts. Some great examples of a melting pot of cultures and religions with catholic, orthodox and muslim influences. Spend the whole day there, and take a bus to Nis in Sebia. The distance could be a problem, Nis is about 450km from Sarajevo which means night ride is the best or you can make a stop along the way. Nis is the city where Constantine the Great was born, also has some medieval monuments and especially Cele Kula (the Skull Tower) which is bound to impress them and get them interested in the conflict of Balkan people with the Ottomans.

From Nis, it's not far to Felix Romuliana, a Roman palace-fortress. After a day or two in that area, you go to Belgrade and spend a few days there, to give the kids a chance to rest and have fun you can organize a trip to Novi Sad (an hour drive) for an afternoon, to see one of the coolest 17-18th century fortresses in Europe and to Sremska Mitrovica (also an hour drive), which has some well preserved Roman monuments as it was a regional capital and also one of the capitals of the Roman empire during the tetrarchy. After that, you get on a plane in Belgrade and fly wherever you want.

This whole trip may be too hard on the kids, but I believe you get what you want. They'll see some great stuff from Roman period to modern day, see how many cultures overlap on a relatively small area and hear a lot of lore about the conflict in the region, both modern and ancient. Your trip would look something like this.

[Ser Clegane]

If you are looking for "whacky" stuff - a while ago I came across this photo series:
Spomeniks

[HoreTore]

Do you want an educational or a fun trip, or something in between?

Educational. It's not supposed to be a vacation.

Your suggestions are great, but do you have anything more on the recent conflicts? I hear Srebrenica has guided tours and all that, so that's a definite must, but anything else?

And since you're affiliated with the university: Do you know of any interesting people who could be willing to tell some stories/general information of how things are/were to the students? When I was on a study trip to Berlin, we got one lecture from a west-german who had been imprisoned by STASI for smugling people across the border and one from an american who had defected to east germany, would something like that be possible in Yugoslavia? Ie. a serb, a croat and a bosnian with interesting backgrounds willing to hold a "lecture" or something like that?

[Sarmatian]

Educational. It's not supposed to be a vacation.

Your suggestions are great, but do you have anything more on the recent conflicts? I hear Srebrenica has guided tours and all that, so that's a definite must, but anything else?

And since you're affiliated with the university: Do you know of any interesting people who could be willing to tell some stories/general information of how things are/were to the students? When I was on a study trip to Berlin, we got one lecture from a west-german who had been imprisoned by STASI for smugling people across the border and one from an american who had defected to east germany, would something like that be possible in Yugoslavia? Ie. a serb, a croat and a bosnian with interesting backgrounds willing to hold a "lecture" or something like that?

You'll hear a lot from the local guides. Croatian and Bosnian are especially keen on emphasizing 90's conflict. It was almost silly when I visited Dubrovnik - guides were going on and on about Serbo-Montenegrin aggression on Dubrovnik. I'm in this fantastic city with such a rich history, and you're spending half the time telling me in detail which houses got hit by a shrapnel...

Just tell the kids to keep an open mind, cause more than half of everything they hear won't be facts but propaganda. In Srebrenica you'll hear about this peaceful village where everyone was living happily and going to work singing, like in a Disney cartoon, when forces of darkness descended upon them.

As for personal stories, I'm not really sure. I can ask around, I know a few refugees from Bosnia and Croatia that may or may not be willing to share their personal experiences but that's pretty much restricted if you decide to take them to visit Novi Sad. For other places, your best bet would be to ask local guides...

[Brenus]

Srebrenica: Quite lost in the mountain, so depending on what you want, for the same purpose Sarajevo is good to show the result of civil war based on prejudices. And as we approach the 100 years of the start of WW1, you can show them where all started, where Gavrilo Princip, by pure luck (for his point of view, not the Archduke’s one) succeeded THE terrorist act that changed the World.
Bosnia is a beautiful country.

Zagreb is a small town, with a little to visit. Vukovar was nice, but now, deserted by the Serbs (well, there were pushed to be fair), they try to repair, but…
The Montenegrin Coast and its Pirates harbours is fun, but by buses and with children, take bags. The country is between Mountains and Sea. Lot of climbing to visit the castles, but good see food. Hotels were not that great, but they may have improved.

My Favourite City: Novi Sad, along the Danube and not far from the Fruska Gora, crossed by the Road of the unity that is in the same state that Yugoslav’s Unity. Nice ice cream, and fabulous people. Not much to do except the Strem. If the trees are back, I mean (Samartian, what did they did to the beach I loved!!!!).

I didn’t like much Macedonia, and if the Lake of Ohrid is a great view, I am not sure it is worth of the trip.

[Sarmatian]

My Favourite City: Novi Sad, along the Danube and not far from the Fruska Gora, crossed by the Road of the unity that is in the same state that Yugoslav’s Unity. Nice ice cream, and fabulous people. Not much to do except the Strem. If the trees are back, I mean (Samartian, what did they did to the beach I loved!!!!).

Well, not much to do when you're coming from London or Paris, but for a bunch of Viking teenagers, there's plenty to see :).

And I'll be more than happy to answer your question as soon as you tell me what Strem is