It’s a good sign when you like a country in the winter AND the summer. We entered Bulgaria for the first time last November from Romania. Although they are neighboring countries, Romania and Bulgaria could not feel more different. Bulgaria has a distinct Mediterranean and Roman influence, the food is fresh and delicious (sorry Romania), and the language is unidentifiable…
You can buy an architecturally sound historic property in this region for $20-30k. A night’s stay in a place of your own averages $15-20. The average meal in a restaurant is around $4-8 and includes several courses and a drink. Street food is less than $1. A quality bottle of wine is $2-3. The average train ticket is between $2-4. A…
Our $50/day budget was a complete breeze in Bulgaria...truly a budget backpacker’s dream. We entered this penny-pinching utopia for the second time in late July. Last time...November...bitterly cold and snowing. This time... brilliantly sunny and warm. The language and swooping Cyrillic letters, once completely daunting, was significantly easier to read, the train system even more manageable to navigate and the…
There’s actually a country wedged between Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Kosovo and Serbia. Who knows it? Ah, it’s it the title. Sort of. The name of the country is a bit confusing, but we’ll glean over that little detail a bit later. (North) Macedonia is unfortunately often overlooked and although we didn’t overlook it, we’ll be the first to say we…
In a place that has had its fair share of conflict in the last 20 years, we really didn’t know what to expect. For starters, depending on who you ask, Kosovo is either the youngest country in Europe or not a country at all. It declared independence from Serbia in just 2008 and has only received partial recognition from the…
We breathed a sigh of relief when we got to Serbia. No tour buses, no fanny packs, no tourist scams. Instead we found creative hipster vibes and nightlife in Belgrade, colorful Austro-Hungarian architecture in the northern Vojvodina province on the banks of the Danube, and a simply quaint city in the birthplace of Constantine the Great. Indeed, landlocked Serbia is…
Before we arrived, a few things came to mind when we thought of Sarajevo, etched in our brains from early history lessons and events. Mostly, involving war...the one during the Clinton years, a siege we knew pretty much nothing about, and the beginning of World War I kicking off thanks to the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. (An obligatory turning point…
As we bused our way north into the Bay of Kotor, or Boka for short, we held our breath a little knowing things were about to change. June was in full swing and it was high tourism season in what is now a... very touristy place. But we just had to go to Kotor! This fairytale medieval town has been…
