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…
I left Skopje for Mavrovo National Park on the western edge of Macedonia, but first I took a little detour to the ancient city of Stobi. Stobi is the only ruins I’ve visited in this country so far that is actually mentioned in the guidebooks and actually requires a ticket. It looks like they’re still excavating the site because there were people there working and photographing everything. The other fun part about visiting a site with some actual infrastructure is…
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…
Just a quick one hour bus ride from Prishtina and I find myself in Peja at the mouth of Rugova Valley. Thanks to a rapidly developing outdoor adventure industry, Peja is rapidly becoming Kosovo’s outdoor adventure capital. It also has a couple of very important Serbian monasteries nearby. After checking into my hostel, I had just enough time to visit the Patriarchate of Pec (the Serbian word for Peja), and then explore downtown. Just walking from the bus station to…
Greetings from the southeastern corner of Serbia! Nis is Serbia’s third largest city and is the birthplace of three Roman emperors, the most famous of which is Constantine the Great. In fact, the ruins of his 4th century palace are just at the east end of town. The site is completely closed to tourists, but there it is. For me, Nis is my final stop in Serbia and a good base for more exploration. It’s also considerably less hectic than…
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…
After a very loooong day of driving, clear back over to the western side of the country, I arrived in another not so exciting city, Uzice. I had planned an easier route through the country, but due to needing q-tips shoved down my nose before border crossings, I have to take this less than ideal route. Uzice is just the most convenient base I picked to visit nearby Tara National Park. They do have a national museum, though. Unfortunately, I…
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…
2020 pretty much sucked for everybody on Earth and my year certainly wasn’t without some hardship and heartbreak either. After spending the spring and early summer basically doing nothing due to being unable to find work anywhere, I finally got a gig in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I was keen to start exploring again and having never been to that part of the country before, I was pretty happy about it. Wilkes-Barre is not a super exciting town, but turned out to…
Ok, so this post is way overdue, but here goes. My nomadic, traveling job recently took me to Santa Fe, New Mexico. For those who have never been, New Mexico is a very underrated state. While the neighbors, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah are getting all the attention, the so called “Land of Enchantment” remains relatively quiet and largely ignored. Much of my time there was spent avoiding the snow and winter temperatures, but I was able to spend the warmer…