The New Europe

This evening, I watched the first programme in a series of seven called “Michael Palin’s New Europe”. The series is being shown on Sunday evenings on BBC1 and they will cover 20 countries in Eastern Europe.
I have an intense interest in this part of the world, mainly because my wife is half Czech and I’ve visited the Czech Republic 20 times (I’ll be making my 21st trip there later this month to attend a graudation). I’ve been to Slovakia several times and I’ve also visited Poland (twice), Hungary (twice), Bulgaria and Russia.
I’ve not yet been to former Yugoslavia, but I’ll be going to Bosnia later this week – a visit to Sarajevo which featured in this evening’s programme – and to Croatia next month – a seminar in Zagreb. During his time in Sarajevo, Palin met and heard a Bosnian singer called Amira and, as part of my preparation for my trip there, I’ve been listening to her CD “Rosa” which is hauntingly beautiful sevdah music.