8 countries in 3 three weeks: Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Spain. We did it. My biggest souvenir was the 5 lb beer belly I brought back with me. It’s hard not to drink beer in eastern Europe. Not only is it cheaper than water (bottled or tap), it tastes so much better than it does in the States.

We were excited to find a bar in Prague that had separate taps at each table. This particular bar was linked up with other bars, also with taps at each table, so that you could see how you much you drank compared to others. A dangerous/brilliant idea, no doubt.

Another dangerous/brilliant idea is fried cheese. Some places served it with a blueberry or pomegranate relish, thus making it even more awesome.

We made our way from the Czech Republic into Hungary. Again, lots of beer. I’m not going to lie, I have no idea exactly what this is a picture of. I just call it a pile of yum. I had some heartburn after inhaling it, but I seemingly survived.

Burek is my newest obsession. This is a phyllo dough-like shell stuffed with with a variety of fillings (cheese, meat, potato, or spinach). We ate this particular spinach burek in Sarajevo for breakfast. It is often topped with yogurt. Of course, we tried every kind so to be most accurate, I should say that I brought back a beer/burek belly.

No trip to Spain is complete without eating pimientos del padron or jamon iberico.

I hope we will be back to this part of the world again soon. Besides the food, the rich and interesting histories of these places will pull me back. It is scary to think that the strife in the former Yugoslavia was so recent and you can still see the remnants of war. Nonetheless, it did not detract from the beauty of each of these countries.