My last night in Tirana was pretty chill. Just a long walk looking for dinner. I ended up at an Italian place to fill a Carbonara craving. Albania’s proximity to Italy has rubbed off. Tons of Italian restaurants beyond the cheap pizzas that are available in even non Italian restaurants. I stuck to Pizza and Kebabs for most of my…
The main goal of this trip was to check off the last of the European countries that I am welcome too. It seems to be a shrinking list as of late so the timing is good. The last country being Moldova. I don’t really have any objectives for Europe other than to maybe add “countries I have slept in” asterisks…
Everyone loves Dubrovnik. Its a compact walled city filled with bars, restaurants and trinket shops. I was here in 2007 when it was more of a backpacker destination. Quirky bars, cheap food and old ladies crowding bus stops looking for renters of their extra rooms. The backpackers have moved on to cheaper and quirkier locals. Now its clogged with day…
I have been to Sarajevo before. The lady that ran the hotel knew someone (her son) that ran van tours. Nrpptism aside, It was a good tour. He was old enough to remember what it was like living under the 4 year siege in the 90’s. We visited the supply tunnel lifeline under the airport. The Latin Bridge where Archduke…
Belgrade was really just a stopover in my way to other places as yet undetermined. I was just happy I was able to figure out how to get there from Romania. I was in Belgrade a few years ago. I arrived after dark in poorly lit parking lot on a very quiet side of town. My first impression this time…
It’s a good thing that Bucharest is kind of boring. I needed to focus on figuring out how to get out. I still need a bunch of days outside of the Schengen zone and Romania was not going to help. I looked at the Rome2Rio.com website and got to work. It is an 8 hour bus ride to Sofia, Bulgaria.…
I have been to Bucarest before. It was a quick stop over in January of 2020. I had taken the all night bus from Bulgaria, arrived before sunrise walked around with my luggage til my room was ready. Went back out for dinner then back to the room early because I was exhausted. When I was younger, I would take…
Once the air raid sirens went quiet, it was just another normal travel day. Time to get out of Ukraine and move on down the highway. I was heading to Bucharest, Romania. It’s the next biggest city in the area. There are some more Black Sea Beach resort towns in approximately the same direction but definitely no reason to be…
Aa usual, forgive the results of the small.keyboard…….. Beginning with the military checkpoints at Odesa’s outskirts, it was obvious that things were a bit more serious down here on the banks of the Black Sea. So why go? I was up in Kiev back in 2017 and I overheard a couple older ladies sing its praises and it always bugged…
Based on the video of Chișinău that I was using as my reference point, I had pretty low expectations. And coming off of a 21 hour train ride, I was starting a bit grumpy to boot. Admittedly I was starting low but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Not super pleasantly but regularly pleasantly surprised and that…