A month is not enough time to visit the Western Balkans, by my travel companion Michael and I worked our way through 14 cities in 7 countries in 25 days. It was a marathon journey- we saw a lot, ate a lot, and met a lot of cool people. Looking back a few days after it ended it amazes me how much ground we covered.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my last post, the first casualty of the trip was my Chromebook- I think I accidentally stepped on it and cracked the screen, which left it unusable until I got it repaired. I took it to several repair shops in Albania, but none had the screen I needed. After a lengthy email conversation with an eBay electronics seller and several visits to a computer shop in Prizren, Kosovo, I ordered the correct screen to have shipped from the UK to Ivan, my former CS host in Serbia, fingers crossed that it would arrive before I got there a week and a half later. A few hours later, on the bus to Pristina, Kosovo's capital, I realized I left the bag with all of my chargers (phone, computer, iPad) in the hostel room. Cue more anxiety to have that shipped from Kosovo to Serbia, the country that has the most reason to not recognize Kosovo's independence. Fortunately, thanks to two Peace Corps volunteers, Wendy in Prizren and the infallible Simon, whom I used to see at the Capitol, they were able to send it to Ivan.
Fortunately, both laptop screen and chargers were acquired the day after I arrived in Belgrade and before I left for Istanbul, so all is well on the electronics front.
Since I did not have my computer during the Balkans trip, I became too lazy to update my blog on my phone. I think what I'll do is give snippets of what happened over the course of several posts, so I'm not overwhelming you, dear reader, with everything that conspired in one foul swoop.
Michael and I traveled by bus the entire route of our adventure, trips ranging anywhere from 1.5 hours to the grueling 8 hours in a minibus from Sarajevo to Belgrade. The most interesting ride was the 6 hours it takes to get from Peja. Kosovo, to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. We couldn't believe it would take that long, but yes, snaking up and down the mountains does take a while. I was able to snap some beautiful photos though:
Overall, this trip was very insightful. It was cool to be able to compare cultures as we jumped from one country to the next. Hard to believe that every country we visited (except for Albania) was part of Yugoslavia. Of course, some cultural aspects of the Balkans remain constant between countries, but so many differences prove these regions can't possibly be lumped into one.
Furthermore, traveling with another person for this amount of time was a fascinating challenge. The longest I had traveled with someone prior was with my friend Marissa as we backpacked through Western and Central Europe for three weeks. What made it more difficult is that Michael and I were basically starting from scratch- we were not friends prior, so we had nothing to build off of-not to mention that we're both very stubborn, opinionated people. However, we both love to travel, see new cities, drink new types of beer, and experience different cultures. We survived 25 days together without killing each other, which in my opinion is a commendable feat.
Anyway, that's enough for now- more to come later. Just a heads up, I'm in Istanbul until Thursday, and then I'm working on a Turkish dairy farm for three weeks before jetting off to Prague to visit friends for a few days. After that, it's house sitting at a Romanian village until mid-March!
Until next time <3
Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my last post, the first casualty of the trip was my Chromebook- I think I accidentally stepped on it and cracked the screen, which left it unusable until I got it repaired. I took it to several repair shops in Albania, but none had the screen I needed. After a lengthy email conversation with an eBay electronics seller and several visits to a computer shop in Prizren, Kosovo, I ordered the correct screen to have shipped from the UK to Ivan, my former CS host in Serbia, fingers crossed that it would arrive before I got there a week and a half later. A few hours later, on the bus to Pristina, Kosovo's capital, I realized I left the bag with all of my chargers (phone, computer, iPad) in the hostel room. Cue more anxiety to have that shipped from Kosovo to Serbia, the country that has the most reason to not recognize Kosovo's independence. Fortunately, thanks to two Peace Corps volunteers, Wendy in Prizren and the infallible Simon, whom I used to see at the Capitol, they were able to send it to Ivan.
Fortunately, both laptop screen and chargers were acquired the day after I arrived in Belgrade and before I left for Istanbul, so all is well on the electronics front.
Since I did not have my computer during the Balkans trip, I became too lazy to update my blog on my phone. I think what I'll do is give snippets of what happened over the course of several posts, so I'm not overwhelming you, dear reader, with everything that conspired in one foul swoop.
Michael and I traveled by bus the entire route of our adventure, trips ranging anywhere from 1.5 hours to the grueling 8 hours in a minibus from Sarajevo to Belgrade. The most interesting ride was the 6 hours it takes to get from Peja. Kosovo, to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. We couldn't believe it would take that long, but yes, snaking up and down the mountains does take a while. I was able to snap some beautiful photos though:
Our accommodation was mainly through Airbnb, which is already fairly inexpensive in the Balkans but even cheaper in the off-season. I believe we rarely paid more than $10 apiece per night, the normal price of the cheapest hostel bed in most towns. We stayed in hostels twice, in Kosovo, where Airbnb hasn't really caught on yet.
We also Couchsurfed twice- I put up notices that we were looking for hosts in every city, but I think since this area already doesn't have a lot of hosts and that we were two people made it harder to find anyone to host us. But no worries. We had a great two nights in Berat, Albania with Artan and his wife and daughter. Artan works in tourism during the summer so has time off in the winter. He specializes in French tourists, and his wife teaches French at a University nearby. Artan spoke a little English, and I spoke a little French, so together we were able to have basic communication. It was the first time I stayed with a host who wasn't fluent in English, but we made it work. Berat itself was beautiful. The town was out of the way but definitely worth it:
Our other CS hosts were Ivana and Goran, a couple living in Podgorica. We only stopped for the night before continuing on to Kotor, so we didn't get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked. On top of that, I was feeling nauseous and sick the whole evening, I think a combination of the 6 hour bus ride and possibly the veggie soup I ate in the bus station restaurant- so needless to say, I wasn't feeling particularly sociable. Fortunately Ivana and Goran were understanding. The next morning Ivana made priganice, fried dough fritters eaten with yogurt, cheese, jam, and nutella. (If you're interested, Wikipedia has an entire list of fried dough foods in the world.)
The climate we passed through ranged anywhere from the Mediterranean warmth of Albania to the snowy, rainy days in Kosovo. It was kind of wild to pass through citrus groves on our way towards colder climates. Fortunately, we didn't have any travel delays due to weather, and the worst of it was trekking to a Serbian Orthodox monastery outside of Peja, Kosovo in snow and slush.
I soaked my sneakers straight through, and finally found reason to buy a pair of boots (15 euros, after much searching for the perfect pair of plain, flat, ankle length black boots).
Our Airbnb in Dubrovnik, Croatia had a mandarin orange tree out back. I think I ate 10 oranges picked off the tree in one sitting. I've never picked citrus fruit off a tree before! It was pretty awesome.
Furthermore, traveling with another person for this amount of time was a fascinating challenge. The longest I had traveled with someone prior was with my friend Marissa as we backpacked through Western and Central Europe for three weeks. What made it more difficult is that Michael and I were basically starting from scratch- we were not friends prior, so we had nothing to build off of-not to mention that we're both very stubborn, opinionated people. However, we both love to travel, see new cities, drink new types of beer, and experience different cultures. We survived 25 days together without killing each other, which in my opinion is a commendable feat.
Anyway, that's enough for now- more to come later. Just a heads up, I'm in Istanbul until Thursday, and then I'm working on a Turkish dairy farm for three weeks before jetting off to Prague to visit friends for a few days. After that, it's house sitting at a Romanian village until mid-March!
Until next time <3
Fabulous photos, Sophie.
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