I visited a few travel websites, and all of them say that Albanians and Serbians are unbelievably friendly towards visitors until the tourist starts talking politics.

If I were to travel around that region for the sole purpose of talking politics, would I be in danger? I mean, I wouldn't argue on a personal level, but would I cause offense if I had different views?

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"Prejudice is the child of ignorance." - Hazlitt

"Nationalism has brought nothing but terrible wars and genocide." - Ramadan Ilazi

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International Peace Association
http://www.ipa-forum.co.nr

Nope, that's not true. As long as you discuss on polite basis and do not insult anybody, the state, or its history, or its proud people, everybody will treat you very very nicely.

I believe the same thing is with the Albanians.

Ah ok, great. I was just worried that by disagreeing on a sensitive political issue, I would effectively be insulting people.

I'd be very interested to learn more about the cultures in the Balkans. Is Serbian culture similar to Russian culture? What are some cultural things unique to Serbia?

__________________
"Prejudice is the child of ignorance." - Hazlitt

"Nationalism has brought nothing but terrible wars and genocide." - Ramadan Ilazi

----------------------------
International Peace Association
http://www.ipa-forum.co.nr

I agree. People are entitled to their opinions/ views.

Serbs and Russians have two things in common that connect them strongly: belonging to the Slavic group of people and the Christian orthodox church. Beside that, Serbs and Russians have always had good relations throughout history. For instance, the Russian empire helped the rebels in the 1st and 2nd Serbian Uprisings against the Turks, and Russia joined WW1 after Austria attacked Serbia. Russia has always been the protector of Slavs in Europe, and therefore Serbs.

Considering the cultural uniqueness of Serbia, it is revolving around the Serbian orthodox church. Serbs are far from true believers, but they respect the church as an institution since the church was the one to preserve the Serbian national being throughout the 5 centuries long Turkish occupation.
After the creation of the modern Serbian state in the 19th century, every area of culture began to develop, and you can find plenty of achievements in arts, literature, music and other areas.

That aside, Serbia shares the common European values, since it is one very old European country with rich history (which proved not be a brilliant thing).

There is a saying: the more boring the history, the happier the people. Guess that's the problem with Balkans. Take a look at Switzerland: always neutral, no wars, nothing interesting in history. But happy people with excellent standard of living.

What makes you think swis are happy? Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark...All countries with good living standard but catastrophic social life.

Do you know when you walk the streets in Switzerland and say good day to somebody they look at you like you killed their family. People in north Europe are alienated from each other.

Well, at least they don't lose their loved ones in wars and get bombed by imperialists.

But they are Imperialist!

Swiss are not. They are just their bankers and loyal kholops.

hahahahahahahaha

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Jesus beat the devil with two sticks. Colossian 2:13,15

Proud American!

Communism/Socialism is similar to legalizing burglary and murder!