Olive harvesting in Albania, John Paul II monuments in Poland, a Soviet military hardware “cemetery” in Moscow, and more: Central and Eastern Europe-based bloggers share their recent travel observations and photos. Albania - Stepping Stones has posted photos of two elderly Albanian village women: the first one is harvesting olives in “the old-fashioned way”; the second one has her black apron filled with “tiny daisies,” which she is picking for a local company and gets paid less than $1 per kilo. Also, Stepping Stones has spent some time at the ancient city of Apollonia and visited the Ardenice Orthodox Christian monastery: […] Ardenice is an old Orthodox monastery which was saved from destruction during the times of totalitarianism. 4 monks still live and work there but they were away at the seminary today so we didn't get to see them. The site has been ‘reclaimed’ in recent years and is being well maintained and lovingly restored after being used for everything from a restaurant to a small hotel. […] - Kolin of Living in Shkodër has been jogging around the city lately “seeing ‘normal’ Albanian life,” getting “LOTS of really strange looks” and taking pictures of the old doors to private houses: […] There are many of these and one street could have about 20 different kinds of doors. It is the old wooden doors that I really like. I think to myself, what kind of story could these doors tell us if only they could speak. […] Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia - Balkanology Blog has posted some photos of Croatia and, following a tip from a fellow blogger (Stuart Pinfold), wrote about “the eccentricities of Google Maps in giving driving directions between certain points in Southeast Europe.” First, there is Google's Dubrovnik-Mostar route: […] Instead of the conventional 150-kilometre drive that less creative mapping software might recommend, Google suggests a more adventurous approach: a ferry to Italy, some driving, another ferry to Greece, and more driving through Greece, the entire length of Albania, Montenegro, and finally Bosnia. At 1541 kilometres it's a mere 10 times longer than the usual route – and so much more interesting. […] Then, there is the Split-Dubrovnik route: […] Sure enough, Google's answer does involve a drive along the Adriatic Coast – unfortunately it is on the other side of the Adriatic, between Bari and Pescara [in Italy]. […] And there is also the Split-Zagreb route: […] The result was even more surprising: “We could not calculate directions between split, croatia and zagreb, croatia.” […] And the Belgrade-Podgorica route: […] Closer inspection of the driving directions reveals the problem: Google wants us to head southeast for 150km, turn around, and drive back to the outskirts of Belgrade on the same road before finally taking the correct road towards Montenegro. […] The author of Balkanology Blog gave up at this point, but Stuart Pinfold – the blogger who first discovered the confusion – shared some more results of Google Maps destination searches in the comment section to this post. The Czech Republic - The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks writes about the town of Svitavy – which, among other things, is the birthplace of Oscar Schindler, the man “credited with saving the lives of over 1000 Jewish people towards the end of World War II”: […] The Schindler home is at Poličská Ul. 24 but is still a family residence and therefore inaccessible to the public. It’s marked only by a small stone memorial in the park across the street. […] One block south of the main square, the Svitavy city museum dedicates an entire wing to the story of Schindler and his Jews. Most of the displays take the form of documents and photographs and are neatly displayed in white on black panels. There are also several items exhibited in glass cases – prisoners’ uniforms, identity cards, food stamps and so on […]. In another post, Captain Oddsocks writes about his “love/hate relationship” with “tourist information offices in the Czech Republic” and offers some tips on how “to make sure their visitors, however few or many, have such a wonderful stay that they want to go away and spread the word without being asked”: […] I say that because I think, even though foreign tourists have been coming here freely for almost 20 years, the Czech Republic remains drastically underrated and underappreciated. Most people only go to Prague. […] Latvia - Latvian photographer Arnis Balcus posts photos of Latvia's oldest movie theater, Rīga, founded in 1923: […] It is probably also the only cinema in the country that still hires an artist to paint film ads.