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…
It wasn’t a very long drive to Gjirokaster, but actually being allowed into the city was quite a challenge. The roads are all cobblestoned and narrow and steep. I took the most logical route to my hotel, but got turned around by the police. So I tried another way up, but all the roads were pedestrian only, so no dice. Between the pedestrian only sections and a bunch of construction going on, I just parked down the hill in a…
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…
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…
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…
Way down south in Kosovo is beautiful Prizren. I had originally planned to spend more time here using it as a base for day trips, but it turned out to be much easier venturing out from Peja, so I decided instead to just spend a full day exploring the city. I still didn’t want to miss seeing Prizrens famous fortress or it’s historic old town. After the short bus ride from Peja, I checked into my hostel right in the…
I left Uzice and headed off to explore the southwest corner of Serbia. I drove through some really amazing mountains on some really fun, twisty and turning roads. My tiny little booger car has turned out to be a fun ride. I also have to say that Serbia has turned out to be a lot prettier than I expected. This place is downright beautiful! For this portion of my trip, I chose Novi Pazar as my base. Serbia is somewhat…
I left Donji Milanovac fairly early and drove through the beautiful Serbian countryside south. It seems that most of the big highways in Serbia are toll roads, so I’ve been sticking more to the back roads and passing through lots of smaller one road towns. Now that I’m out of the big cities I see a lot more Yugos on the roads and parked around. I thought briefly about stopping to take a pic of each one, but I wouldn’t…
It was a fairly long travel day leaving Novi Sad. First, a mile and a half walk to the bus station followed by an hour or so bus ride back to Belgrade. Then a half mile walk to a bus stop where I rolled the dice and took a free ride across town (shhh!). And then I did something I always swore I wouldn’t do, I rented a car. Most of the places I want to go visit these next…
Just a quick one hour bus ride northwest of Belgrade is lovely Novi Sad, the capitol of Vojvodina, the autonomous province in the northern part of Serbia. It has all the beautiful architecture and cobblestone streets, but without the loud hustle and bustle of Belgrade. I arrived in the early afternoon, checked into my hotel and started exploring. Shortly after setting off it started raining, a lot! I was pretty soaked by the time I stopped for dinner, but at…