Quickest
Part II?! I think so J
~
for those of you just checking in with this weird blog thing you keep getting
notifications for, I went on a three week tour through the Balkans on my Easter
vacation. Started in Bosnia and Herzegovina and made it all the way to
Santorini! This is Part II of the three installments of the journey… ~
So,
where were we on our nice little tour of the Balkans…?
Montenegro
– April 17-20
The
journey from Croatia to Montenegro wasn’t as smooth as our last country switch.
Not only was this a night bus but when this bus pulled up we laughed at how
that couldn’t possibly be our bus because it was a van, a full van. It was
against every major fire code in a hilarious concerning way. We barely had room
for our baggage and not everyone waiting could even get on! I’m in this like
makeshift seat in front of the sliding door – where my seat wasn’t even
attached to anything. To make this situation worse – I start to get nauseous.
We are in the pitch dark zooming along the coast in a very sketch van and I
just can’t hang. I have a bag in my hand and I’m freaking out that I’m going to
be that one girl vomiting! It was horrid. We make it to the border pretty
quickly and I beg the driver for me to get out to go vomit through incorrect
sign language. Getting out of the vehicle is not allowed when crossing the
border, everyone must pass over their passports to a man who then takes them
all to the box and they all get stamped and given back. It’s extremely sketch, but that is what we did every time. So, I think he
has given me the pass to get out when the door opens and I hop out and run.
Yep, I start frantically running at the border of Croatia and Montenegro with
my hand over my mouth. I can’t tell you why I decided this would be a good time
to train for that half marathon but yaaaa…. I was followed by the police yelling
Croatian at me super confused as I’m doubled over behind the security building.
They not so kindly redirected me to the bathroom and I felt a little better in
there with my safety and health. This was one of the most hilarious
dysfunctional things that has ever happened to me. The ride was then continued
with more ridiculous behavior by the driver who seemed to make a lot of stops
to give his friends… packages at random places along the road. To say we were
happy to arrive in Budva would be an understatement! 
Oh,
Budva J (I was calling
it “Buddha Buddha Buddha” the whole trip as well) Budva is a coastal town in
Montenegro and is pretty small. The coastal area around Budva is called the
Budvanska rivijera and it is the main center of tourism in Montenegro since it
is famous for its sandy beaches (rare in this part) and unique Mediterranean
architecture. Budva is also one of the oldest settlements along the Adriatic
Sea coast! We pull into this town super late but it was all worth it once we
got to the Old Town with Ashley and I’s carry-on bags rolling along the cobble
stoned streets – letting everyone know the American girls who over packed were
in town!
The Old Town really reminded me of Venice
which makes sense because the Roman Empire took over the town and really
influenced the architecture in this area. Everything had such detail to it from
the doors, hinges, windows, balconies – everything had this hint of a Venetian
touch which was almost like a hidden gem that not the average tourist got to
appreciate. I loved it.
Our
hostel was in a great location but was interesting… it was not the best but it
might also be because it followed such an amazing hostel in Dubrovnik and just couldn’t
compete. It had nice facilities but just was not run by the nicest or most
professional of people. Besides this we spent our days roaming around the city,
seeing the three main churches in the old town, climbing the fortress, walking
the coast boardwalk, along with lunching with our toes in the sand and wine in
our hands. It was a lovely town. When planning, this was going to be more of
our relaxing town for beach time but that didn’t quite work out with the
rainfall really hitting us in Montenegro! But we were very resourceful and I don’t
think it kept anyone down long. I did get sick – again, ugh – one day here as
well. Thankfully, it was a rainier day so as the group went exploring on a hike
I was able to recover a bit from the stomach flu.
We
all took a day trip to a neighboring city called Kotor, just 30 minutes away.
Kotor is also a coastal town in Montenegro but it is located in a secluded part
of a bay off the Adriatic. It doesn’t have any beaches but it has one of the
most beautiful and unique landscapes we had seen on our journey so far. This
bay is called sometimes the southern-most fjord in Europe but it is a ria – a submerged
river canyon. If that isn’t cool, this place also had overhanging limestone
cliffs mixed into their medieval city walls and it was epic. Kotor has one of
the best preserved medieval Old Towns in the Adriatic and is a UNESCO world
heritage site. We meandered our way through the Venetian styled ambiance here
as well and found the ancient city walls tucked in an alley way and we climbed
all the way to the top! It’s about 3 miles long and directly above the city! When
we got off the bus and that was one of the first things we saw and obviously
had to do – since climbing walls was becoming quite the Balkan Tour theme! We
enjoyed some local cheese and wine at the top of our climb and just enjoyed the
view. We also decided to have lunch at this crazy local little butchery and the
owner loved that we would try anything so he served us everything he had (legit
everything!) on this huge platter and we feasted on local meats, breads,
roasted peppers, eggplant, potatoes, and more! The thought of that lunch makes
me drool! One of the best ideas to stop in there by chance – shout out to
Calvin. Loved Kotor and I’ll never forget just sitting on the dock and
realizing how lucky I am to have experienced this little city hidden away in
the Balkans.
Headed
back to Budva late that day. About halfway through our stay here Ash and I
realized we messed up one of our connecting buses. It actually left on Sunday
instead of Saturday so we made the decision to stay another night in Budva and
then leave for Ohrid (Macedonia) a day later and stay a longer than intended in
Ohrid, which led to us canceling one night in Skopje to just one night in order
to not mess up our schedule for Greece! Did that make sense? In the end, it all
worked out but we ended up spending Easter in Budva instead of in Ohrid as we
had imagined.
Our
hostel was very ill at making this holiday nice for us. We had to be checked
out by 11 on Sunday and we didn’t take the bus until 8pm that night. Unfortunately, our
Easter was spent getting kicked out of the hostel and spent in the most rainy
day we had experienced on our trip. Everything was closed as well! We decided
to go to the bakery next doors that we had been to maybe 10 times within 4 days
and the lovely man working gave us the sweetest hard boiled eggs! Ash and I
were so happy for hours it seemed with how kind this man was and it made up for
our hostel’s behavior earlier in the day. Overall it was a happy Easter spent
with Justin taking a dip in the Adriatic, wine sipping, rain dodging and café Wi-Fi
mooching at its finest! It was a beautiful stay in Montenegro and I would love
to return and bask in the glory of all it again J
Next
stop Macedonia -- April 21-24
We took another night bus to get to
Ohrid, Macedonia! For those unaware of the geography in this area, Macedonia is
inland and not on the coast and one must go through other countries to get to
it and one of these countries is Albania. It seemed that every hostel we ran
into somebody who was going to Albania or just got back and they all were
saying wonderful things about the country. For whatever reason, we did not plan
a stop there on our Balkan Tour and looking back we should have! It is a very
beautiful country with a great coast and capital city. We should have gone
there with our extra night instead of staying longer in Budva, but this didn’t even
cross our mind. I will return one day to Albania and apologize for not thinking
of going!! Promise J Even when we
were crossing the border of Albania we had 3 different Albanian police officers
come on the bus just to question why we were not stopping in Albania but just
driving through! We had no excuse and I felt bad! Besides this, the ride was crazy and in the middle of the night through back roads that weren’t even
paved!! We legitimately were falling out of our seats from the bumpiness and
when looking at the GPS as we went (we did this a lot!) we weren’t even on a
main road. It was funny to be knocked all around but I am actually surprised we
didn’t pop a tire on the rural back roads of Albania.
Our hostel was epic – Sunny Lake
Hostel. The man running it was this young guy who listened to 90’s hip hop and
called me Mallo – obviously I was a fan! The hostel was packed with cool kids,
an awesome kitchen, and a beautiful view of the lake from the patio while it was
all nestled into the Old Town. Our first day, after a nap, was spent hiking to
the fortress walls, visiting the crazy cool mosaic St Panteleimon monastery and
now a mosque (believed to be the site where the first students of the
Glagolitic alphabet, used to translate the Bible into Slavonic, were taught), having
coffee looking out at the lake, visiting the ruins of the old ancient theater
of Ohrid, and the famous St. John Church at Kaneo. This is a Macedonian
Orthodox church situated on a cliff over the Kaneo Beach overlooking Lake Ohrid
and the city – pretty much one of the prettiest things I’ve ever witnessed. The
date the church was built is unknown but they think before the 1450’s and they believe
it was constructed before the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 13th
century. It’s in an odd shape, apparently called a cruciform with a rectangular
base. It was beautiful and there was places to wander around on the property
with the sun shining down on us all as we got lost in the view of the lake with
the mountains in the background. I didn’t want to leave. We finally climbed
down the mountain to reach the water and enjoyed a boardwalk built all along
the water’s edge and found weeping willow filled grotto’s with huge cats
roaming the streets with us. It was perfection and once again I felt like I had
found another wonderful gem hidden away in the Balkans. 
Made lots of friends in the hostel
and we enjoyed late nights playing cards and drinking the local beer. We
finally were able to put our swimsuits on too! It was a beautiful second day
spent lying next to the water and finally having our beach day we had imagined
the trip to mostly be – it was perfect. It was slightly funny that while we
were all in swimsuits in this type of park by the water, the locals were in
boots and parkas! Our idea of a lovely day was still an early spring day to the
Macedonians. That night was spent sitting on the water having a beautiful meal and
drinks while the sun set over the lake – for an equivalent of maybe 5 euros
each! Macedonia was a traveling student’s dream when it came to money J Loved Ohrid too much and I hope
to return one day again to one of my favorite cities I’ve ever experienced.
Next stop in Macedonia was Skopje and
with one less person in our group! Justin left for Brussels and for our visits
in Skopje and Athens it was just Ash, Calvin and I.
Skopje
is the largest city in Macedonia, capital and only 3 hours from Ohrid. I think
calling this city’s architecture rather odd wouldn’t be offensive.
Skopje definitely has a rather loose town planning, perhaps a result of an earthquake that destroyed 80% of the city in 1963, post Yogoslavia break-up social planning, or from the “Skopje 2014” project that aims to give the city a more monumental appearance. Whatever the reason, this city has some unusual buildings and statues! The center consists of two municipalities separated by the Vardar River and the Old Town is also located along this river as well. I wouldn’t call Skopje a “theme park” but it did remind me of Las Vegas at times with its huge statues dedicated to Alexander the Great with giant lion statues spitting water in a fountain. It was very impressive, just a lot! We counted something like 14 giant statues in one of the main squares along the river. The Old Town was quite impressive – it was climbing a hill so you would see so many shops and restaurants with vibrant colors and the sun shining in every direction to make me just smile. Unfortunately, Ash and I were wearing shorts (because of it being a wonderful day) and we were met with a lot of nasty looks, points, and laughs. I don’t want to say this was the most unwelcome I’ve ever felt in a city but I was in a hurry to get back to the wonderful hostel. Have I spoken about our hostel?! The owner at this one was best friends with the guy running the one in Ohrid – so, obviously it was amazing and great (Shanti Hostel). He pointed us to this amazing place to have dinner our first night where we ate traditional Macedonian food and sipped on traditional sweet red wine that Macedonia boasts as the best – which it totally was. We actually ran into a friend we made in Sarajevo sharing a bunk with Calvin! It was such a small world J
Ah! I think I did worse this time in
cutting my words down! So sorry this was so long! We got through a lot of days
though spent in two countries and four cities!
Next
stop in the Balkan Tour is Greece – Athens and Santorini meeting every
screensaver expectation you’ve ever set on your computer J Can’t wait to share! Stay tuned!
with love
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