It’s been a rough few days. This is the part of the trip that didn’t quite work out, there’s always one section of every trip. I woke up with a pounding headache, muscle and joint pain, and the beginnings of a sore throat, but I managed to take down camp 13b, slowly, and headed towards my final destination, Murun. My symptoms got much worse over the next couple of days, but this first day I still had it in me,…
After finishing up in the Khogno Khan Uul area, I continued on to Kharkhorin. I made a quick detour to visit the Shankh Monastery, first, though. This is one of two monasteries in this area that were spared the Stalinist purges. It was founded by Mongolias first Buddhist leader, Zanabazar in 1648. There’s really not much going on inside the temples. They appear to be decorating or redecorating, but it was nice to walk into a dusty old wooden monastery…
I think I’m pretty well known for refusing to work on my birthday, but this year I took it a step further and took the whole week off to visit Yucatan, Mexico. Yucatan is a pretty small state and I know I can accomplish a lot on what is definitely the shortest international trip I’ve ever taken. I based myself in the Yucatan capitol of Mérida, dubbed the safest city in Mexico. Let’s hope so. Here’s a funny speculative story…
My drive from Vlore to Sarande was about eighty miles of just unbelievably scenic coastline. Mountains stretching up on one side, the Adriatic Sea extending out on the other, punctuated by the occasional beach resort village, and zipping around the twisting road like an Albanian racecar driver grinning all the way. Fantastic! On the way I stopped at Himare to visit what was described as a castle, but was more of an ancient hilltop village. I walked a lot of…
It was a very long travel day from Durres, but only because I made so many detours. I like having a car and being able to cram my “day trips” into my travel days. I covered Bashtove and Apollonia in the last post, but I made one other stop on my way south before reaching Vlore, Byllis. Byllis was another Illyrian city built in the 3rd or 4th century BC. It also fell into Roman hands and later Byzantines. There’s…
After all the hiking and jaw dropping scenery in the Albanian Alps, the last couple of days have seemed kind of sedate. I left Shkoder early on a bus bound for the capital city, Tirana. The bus pulled in and the bus right next to us was leaving for my destination in ten minutes. I don’t think my feet even had a chance to touch the pavement in Tirana it was so fast. Anyway, I’m now in the port town…
I said goodbye to Macedonia early and hopped on a bus for one of the only fully open countries on earth, Albania. My bus took me as far as the capital, Tirana, then I immediately jumped on another bus to Shkoder. Tirana is where I’ll end my adventure, so we’ll get to that later. Shkoder is a really pleasant city in the northwest of the country and the jumping off point for one of the premier outdoor excursions in the…
There was really only one reason why I came to Bitola and that was to see Heraclea Lyncestis, the ancient city founded by the Macedon king Philip II. It just happens to be on the outskirts of Bitola, so that’s why I stayed the night. When I said in an earlier post that Stobi was the only archeology site mentioned in the guidebooks, I forgot about this place, there are two. Heraclea Lyncestis is a pretty small site, but holy…
Well, another anxious border crossing turned out to be no big deal. All I needed was my passport, no test results were asked for. I got stamped out of Kosovo and then into North Macedonia and thirty minutes later I arrived in Skopje. Done and done! Aside from knowing there was an ancient kingdom named Macedonia, I really knew nothing about this country, but they have quite a history! The heyday was in the fourth century BC with king Philip…
Greetings and salutations from planet earth’s newest country, Kosovo. As it turned out, my stress about this border crossing was unwarranted. Back in Nis, I turned in my rental car at noon and then was looking forward to finding a place to keep cool in the 100 degree temps because my bus didn’t leave until 6pm. But, the owner of the hotel I stayed at said he didn’t have any reservations for that night and I could use the room…