There’s a whole lot more to the Slavs than tired stereotypes and chain-smoking, and ‘An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery’ is here to, well, illustrate that. The good and the great of Slavic history are celebrated in this funnier-than-a-history-book-should-be tome, as John Bills celebrates the revolutionaries of Bulgaria, the poets of Bosnia & Herzegovina, the inventors of Slovakia and more, including Europe’s first vampire and a guy that gets drunk and floats down rivers. Scientists, musicians, artists, diplomats, athletes, warriors and more are explored, as Bills attempts to answer the important questions in life – where did soft contact lenses come from? Who was the first woman to sail around the world on her own? Can a human being dead-lift cattle? An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery has the answers.
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This guidebook includes a range of day-walks and multi-day treks throughout the Dinar Alps of Montenegro. These mountains are some of the wildest, most spectacular, and least visited in Europe. Nevertheless, they are easily accessible, and many areas have well-marked trails. They present an opportunity to travel through outstandingly beautiful and remarkably unspoiled natural scenery, which sees few visitors. The guide covers the most spectacular mountain areas in Montenegro, with a selection of circular and linear routes, with variants and extensions.
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Lonely Planet Montenegro is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Enjoy the view of Sveti Stefan while laying on the beach, visit Njegos’ tomb on top of Black Mountain, or experience ancient history in Kotor; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Montenegro and begin your journey now! The book is a complete guide to Montenegro’s towns and attractions.
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The ultimate hiking book for the Bay of Kotor. With 240 images and GPS way points, this is the essential fortress-visiting companion, and also a fascinating source of information for Geocaching enthusiasts. Close to the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro’s favorite tourist area, hidden and almost unknown among the surrounding mountains and hills, lie a large number of wonderful old fortresses, relics from the last decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, built to defend their huge military harbor and protect the southernmost outpost of the empire. Using the combined skills of the author, an experienced day hiker and photographer, with the assistance of Volker Pachauer of Graz University in Austria, an acknowledged expert in the history of these old structures, and founding member of the Austrian Society for Fortress Research, it will enable anyone with hiking skills to discover and explore many of these hidden treasures for themselves, learning something of their history.
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Montenegro was admitted to the UN as its 192nd member in June 2006, thus recovering the independence it had lost nearly 90 years earlier at the Versailles Peace Conference. This is the first full-length history of the country in English for a century, traces the history of the tiny Balkan state from its earliest roots in the medieval empire of Zeta through the emergence of a priest/warrior ruler in the shape of the Vladika and its emergence from Ottoman suzerainty state at the Congress of Berlin. More recently, the book focuses on its troubled 20th century history, its prominent role in the Balkan wars, its unique deletion from world maps as an independent state despite being on the winning side in the Great War, its ignominious role in the wars leading to the disintegration of Yugoslavia and its final re-emergence as a member of the international community in 2006.
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A blend of Eastern traditions with European cultures provides a unique foundation for these Balkan countries. Narrative chapters examine every day contemporary life in Serbia and Montenegro, focusing on topics such as daily religious practices, gender roles, family life, cuisine, fashion, literature, art and architecture. Two kisses on the cheek or three? A handshake or a hug? Figuring out basic pleasantries in any new country can be plagued by awkwardness but this book helps you to over cover and adjust to them.
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The Mountain Wreath is a poem and a play written by the Vladika and poet Petar II Petrović-Njegoš. Njegoš wrote The Mountain Wreath during 1846 in Cetinje and published it the following year after the printing in an Armenian monastery in Vienna. The Mountain Wreath is his poem and play about the three distinct cultures prevalent in Montenegro at the time: traditional patriarchal Montenegrin culture, the Islamic Ottoman Turks and Western Venetian culture. Set in 18th-century Montenegro, the poem deals with attempts of Njegoš’s ancestor Metropolitan Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš to regulate relations among the region’s warring tribes. Written as a series of fictitious scenes in the form of dialogues and monologues, the poem opens with Metropolitan Danilo’s vision of the spread of Turkish power in Europe. Torn by inner conflict he sees that the struggle is inevitable, but dreads the issues.
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