Journey to the Balkans: A Loring Award Reflection

By: Sarah Sklarsky P'31, '34, Upper School History Teacher

In the spring of 2023, I was thrilled to find that my long-standing Loring Award proposal had been selected and that I would get to travel to the Balkans to explore the region's unique history and culture first-hand.

Our seventh grade history curriculum, which I have taught for over a decade, focuses on European and Middle Eastern history, and the Balkan peninsula is at the crossroads of these two regions. Having traveled to a number of countries in Western Europe before and visited the Middle East once, Eastern Europe seemed like the next frontier for exploration. The Balkan peninsula has been controlled by many different empires that we study, including the Romans, the Greeks, the Byzantines, the Ottomans, and the Austro-Hungarians, among others, so I wanted to see how these influences could be felt in the present day, along with experiencing what is truly distinctive about the regions and its varied countries. In particular, I was curious to visit European Muslim countries and to see the unique blend of Muslim, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox tradition and culture that have clashed at times, but also often peacefully coexisted. I knew that the trip must include Istanbul, first the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and then the Ottoman capital after they took the city in 1453. I focused then on the heart of the peninsula, with an interest in areas that sometimes fly under the radar of Western travelers, and ultimately we decided to complete a road trip that would take us through five different Balkan countries in seventeen days.

So, in July of 2024, my husband and I packed bags for our family, including our children, then ages 8, 5, and 2, and flew to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to begin our travels. After nearly 20 hours of travel, when we finally arrived at our AirBnB, we went out onto a balcony overlooking the city below with the moon rising above the hills on the other side of the valley. As we took this in, the nighttime call to prayer began, and one by one, we saw the mosques of the city light up as the calls rang out - it was a magical moment that marked the beginning of an incredible, immersive experience.

In Sarajevo, we experienced a distinctly European city whose Ottoman Muslim roots were apparent at every turn, visited the street corner where World War I began, and learned about the Yugoslav Wars and the terrible Siege of Sarajevo that citizens endured from 1992-1996. Our children loved buying corn to feed the pigeons in “Pigeon Square” and walking the bobsled tracks from the 1984 Olympics, the only remaining Olympic infrastructure after years of War, and feeding apples to wild horses in the hills. From Sarajevo, we drove to Mostar, famous for its iconic Ottoman bridge that was destroyed in the Yugoslav Wars but later rebuilt as a symbol of reconciliation. We passed an afternoon speaking broken English with our Serbian host and his toddler grandson as he told us his stories and fed us fruit off the trees in his yard.

Our first border crossing took us into Croatia, where we visited the medieval Venetian walled city of Dubrovnik. Though thick with tourists in July, the city was breathtaking, and full of places to explore, from harbors to alleys to cathedrals and synagogues, all telling of a history very different from that of neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We then ventured South to the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, to see another walled city that had effectively resisted Ottoman rule, this one nestled deep into the bay and built into a mountainside. Again, we were able to see elements of ancient, medieval, and modern history on display alongside the local culture. Our children enjoyed a boat tour that included entering into the caves where submarines were hidden during World War II!

The last country of our road trip was Albania, and it had an immediately different feel as a less-developed tourist attraction, and we enjoyed getting slightly off the beaten path - many of the tourists we encountered were Albanian themselves, enjoying a holiday. Our first stop was the city of Shkoder, famous for Rosafa Castle, an abandoned hilltop fortress that served a variety of different purposes under various occupations going back beyond the Romans. From there, per recommendation of our youngest son’s Albanian teacher, we ventured into the Albanian Alps to the village of Theth, where we encountered some of the most breathtaking mountain scenery I have ever seen, along with some of the scariest driving as locals came bombing down narrow mountain roads! Our children became fast friends with Albanian travelers as we dined outside, playing happily for hours despite the language barriers. Our drive back to Sarajevo brought us back through Montenegran countryside and a farm-stay that gave us a taste of rural life in the Balkans.

Finally, we flew to Istanbul and spent the last few days of our trip in an apartment overlooking the Bosporus Strait. We visited the awe-inspiring Hagia Sofia mosque, built in the 500s by the early Byzantine emperors as a cathedral, as well as Topkapi Palace, the extensive grounds of the Ottoman sultans, and the enormous underground cisterns that provided water for the Byzantine royal family. A laid back afternoon on the Asian side of the city gave us a sense of what life might feel like for local families. 

When asked about the highlights, it is difficult to say - each of the places we visited was truly spectacular in its own way. When I asked Bosnians, in particular, what they loved about their homeland, they often said simply, “the people,” and we saw this, too - when the clerk at an ice cream shop picked up our toddler to show him the selection from behind the counter or wiped off his messy face, or when a traveler silently took my child’s hand as I carried suitcases down a flight of stairs. Despite the turmoil that the region has endured, people were friendly and helpful, and the land and the structures were extraordinary. And what I set out to see - the confluence of historical and cultural influences - was there in abundance, even in excess of my expectations. 

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to deepen my understanding of this region and its rich, impactful history, and to be able to speak with greater intrinsic knowledge when our curriculum touches on this part of the world repeatedly throughout the year, along with sharing stories and photos with students. It is always my hope that students see the connection between the past and the present, and the ability to show the street corner where World War I began right after studying it helps to bring that connection into sharp focus. I look forward to continuing to share my interest and love for the Balkans with students for many years to come!

The Board of Trustees established the Loring Award in honor of the late Caleb Loring, Jr., who served as President of the Board of Trustees from 1961 to 1964. Since then, Loring and his son, Caleb Loring III, augmented the Loring Fund to provide annual travel support for faculty professional development.