I’m back travelling—yay! 🎉 After a week’s "travel break" in London, whilst mighty Ludwig VAN waited for me patiently at Podgorica airport, we are finally reunited! 🚐💨 After a whirlwind week of teaching in person and celebrating the release of my album, With Apfelstrudel & Turkish Coffee 🎻☕🍎, it seems the real party is only just starting. Already at the airport, I struck up a conversation with a wonderful Hungarian lady working at the duty-free shop. She was so fascinated

Next, I thought I would spend a night in Budva, another slightly larger town along the coast. It promised to host local town festivals featuring performances by KUD ensembles – traditional folk music and dance organisations (Kulturno-Umetničko Društvo), a wonderful cultural legacy from Yugoslavian times that remains vibrant and thriving in many towns and cities today. 💃🎶 Now, if you think London is full of cars and heavy traffic, think again and double it! 🚘 Whilst Kotor w

For today, I planned to climb up to the ancient fortress 🏰, which sits dramatically high on the mountain ⛰️. From below, it looks like a wild piece of architecture, with heavy stone walls clinging to the steep slope all the way up to the summit. Whilst the first few stages were well-paved and therefore frequented by far too many tourists, the crowds thinned out as the path grew steeper and more rugged. With every new section and viewpoint 🌅, the scenery became even more stu

I was thrilled to cross into Montenegro, the second unfamiliar country on my Great Eurasian Roam 🇲🇪. A former Yugoslav nation in the Balkans, it is known in the West by its Italian name—a reminder of Venetian rule during the Middle Ages. In its own language, it is called Crna Gora (Црна Гора), which translates to "Black Mountain" after the dense, dark pine forests cloaking Mount Lovćen 🌲. I was quite surprised to learn that while the country sits firmly in the Balkans, its

Whilst crossing from Austria into Slovenia felt like practically nothing, crossing the border into Croatia was a whole different story! Although still within the EU - so no passport controls, hooray! 🙌 - everything shifted immediately: suddenly the motorways got proper bumpy, and there was rubbish scattered everywhere, especially in beautiful nature places... 🗑️🚯 On the bright side, the music here is so much more to my liking! ❤️🎶 I was super lucky to find a gorgeous lit

Those two days were dedicated to enjoying the magic of this country: nature, stunning scenery, mountains, and crystal-clear lakes. The day started off with some seemingly characteristic public transport chaos. I missed the bus because it didn’t depart from where it was scheduled—they have three different bus stops in Bistrica, but they are all called the same! However, when I managed to be by chance at the right stop around an hour later and entered the vehicle, the mood inst

For me, one of the most thrilling objectives of Gundula’s Great Eurasian Roam was the prospect of discovering exciting new local music 🎻. Although tempted, I had not done any YouTube research beforehand, and was rather curious to listen to traditional Slovenian music from this former Yugoslavian nation 🗺️. In every other Yugoslav region I had travelled through before, I could always hear traces of the old Tito-era folk style and Balkan Romani influences. 🎶 I had found an o

I’m starting a big venture! 🤩🗺🔜 I’m traveling through Europe and beyond to places I’ve never been. I'll be in my van, Ludwig Van Beethoven (you might remember him — the one that came back to me with your help after being stolen!). I’ll have an easy start visiting family and friends in Bavaria and climbing some mountains with a friend. My first new countries will be Slovenia and Montenegro; then I’ll head down to Turkey. After completing some musical projects with my collea

I have great news!!! 🤩 After much fiddling and faffing, the PDF of my book Balkan Music from the Danube is ready to download. And for...