We travelled most by bus. It was the cheapest, most direct, and most frequent form of transportation once out of the Western European countries.
We did get suckered before our trip into buying a Balkan Train Pass from Eurorail and it eneded up being a huge waste of money. We paid more for the pass then the tickets it covered were worth. Not to mention the trains we took were not nearly as fast, comfortable or efficient as the buses we could have taken to do the same route. For anywhere but Western Europe these rail passes are not worth it, but for Eastern Europe they are a complete scam. Jer had a great way of describing the state of some of the trains we were on:
'Its like Italy bought these new trains and they were really great for a while but then after a few years they decided to upgrade to something newer. They sold them to Slovenia and Slovenia used them on their tracks and they were okay for a while, but then not so good, so they sold to Croatia. Croatia said okay fine, maybe we'll use them of a back-up, but because they weren't good Croatia left them sitting for a while neglected and in disrepair. Finally they said eww these are gross, tossed them in the ocean and then a decade later Serbia fished them out, said, oh this looks fancy, and now they are used as the main way to get around.'
We did get suckered before our trip into buying a Balkan Train Pass from Eurorail and it eneded up being a huge waste of money. We paid more for the pass then the tickets it covered were worth. Not to mention the trains we took were not nearly as fast, comfortable or efficient as the buses we could have taken to do the same route. For anywhere but Western Europe these rail passes are not worth it, but for Eastern Europe they are a complete scam. Jer had a great way of describing the state of some of the trains we were on:
'Its like Italy bought these new trains and they were really great for a while but then after a few years they decided to upgrade to something newer. They sold them to Slovenia and Slovenia used them on their tracks and they were okay for a while, but then not so good, so they sold to Croatia. Croatia said okay fine, maybe we'll use them of a back-up, but because they weren't good Croatia left them sitting for a while neglected and in disrepair. Finally they said eww these are gross, tossed them in the ocean and then a decade later Serbia fished them out, said, oh this looks fancy, and now they are used as the main way to get around.'
In case that doesn't make it clear, our suggestion is to travel by bus :)