Country 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 - Balkans Tour

6th - 17th April 2019

After a quick stress free flight from Manchester we arrived into Sofia early afternoon and prepared ourselves for the next 6 weeks of back to back touring. The Balkans tour was a last minute change to our itinerary as unfortunately we had a 6* Scenic cruise cancel on us as their boat hadn't been built on time. Fitting with the dates we now had free, this tour not only fit perfectly it also gave us an opportunity to tick a few more countries off our list. Not having heard of this tour company before, and considering it is a UK based company, we were expecting a majority of British or Europeans on the bus. Well to our surprise the majority were Aussies living in London on a work visa working as teachers. I kid you not, we couldn't believe it. Well at least we knew it should be a fun tour.

Sofia, Bulgaria
On arrival we were met at the airport and whisked off to our downtown hotel in central Sofia. There we were met with our guide Bojan, a local Serbian who would be a source of information and laughs in the days to come. We all gathered in a meeting room at our hotel to meet our guide, discuss the itinerary and hopefully do a quick meet and greet to start to break the ice with some of the strangers in the room. A group dinner was optional and had in the main city area before calling it a night before the real fun began.

Belgrade, Serbia
With a nice and early start we hopped aboard the bus and headed to Belgrade. Now our guide, being from Serbia, was our local guide for the day and shared with us a little history of the city and showed us around the main spots. We visited the permanently under construction Temple of Saint Sava, the 2nd biggest Orthodox cathedral in the world, outside of Helsinki. Our next stop was the Belgrade Fortress that sits on a major hilltop overlooking the whole city. We also drove past remnants from the NATO bombing campaign at the end of the Balkans war in the 1990s. The Serbians refuse to repair the damage from the strikes on the military buildings as a reminder to it's people and visitors.

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Wow this city is gorgeous and what we expected Eastern Europe to be like. I can't explain just how special this place is or what it has been through. WWI was started here and by proxy WWII due to the fallout. Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in front of the pink building in this picture. In the 1990s, when the Serbs attacked, the city was completely surrounded and remained under siege for 3 years & 10 months. The longest siege in the history of modern warfare. In spite of all this, Muslim, Christian and Jewish people still live side by side in peace as they have done for centuries. The old town has been rebuilt and outside of that still bears the scars of the 500+ daily mortar strikes they suffered. And to top it off they have a Nikola Tesla themed pub, who is a Serbian national hero, which we went to for an afternoon drink of course. Just shows how the country continues to move forward.

Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Another incredible old city made into a major trading gateway by the Ottomans. The 24m high stone bridge was one of the few river crossings available to traders in the Balkans during those times. Today it is a popular jump site the locals use for fun or if they are paid by the tourists. The bridge and surrounding city were destroyed during the war, so while Old Town has been completely rebuilt, the surrounding streets still show a few scars.

Dubrovnik, Croatia
Today was a big day. We drove in and out of Dubrovnik in one day as its one of the most expensive cities in the Balkans to stay in. So with a 12+ hour day ahead of us we set off for 'King's Landing' to see what all the hype was about. The weather gods were not kind to us today and let the heavens open for most of the day. We wouldn't let that stop us from exploring the old walled city of Dubrovnik and its sea front. Made even more famous by the TV show Game of Thrones, we took part in a GOT city tour at the end of the day and visited film sites such as the Red Keep, Blackwater Bay and the Walk of Shame. We even got to sit on 1 of only 6 Iron Thrones around the globe and I must admit it was scary to see how at home Caleb was on the throne.

Kotor, Montenegro
Best city (rivals Sarajevo) of the entire trip. Built on the end of a 60km fiord in from the Adriatic Sea, the old town is 800 years old with a fortress wall built strategically up into the hillside. Monasteries were also built into the cliff face giving the city an awe inspiring sky line that seems to go on forever. Some in the group dared climb the city walls but we opted to explore the nooks and crannies each cobblestone walkway presented. In the summer this place is a cruiseship haven so we were very thankful we missed the crowds and could enjoy this slice of heaven relatively by ourselves.

Tirana, Albania
We both agree Albania is a weird country. It felt like it had been left behind in the 80s more than the other Balkan countries we've visited except for maybe Bulgaria. We had a local guide show us around the main areas which included the main square complete with a marble floor and large erected murals and statues to celebrate their history. Where we were in the city centre was nice, but overall it has a strange feeling to it. As we drove in and out of town, seeing poverty and the state of disrepair the city is in not 2 minutes from downtown was pretty confronting.

Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia
Our first stop was the St. Nahum monastery high on the mountain next to Lake Ohrid which shares the Albania/North Macedonia border. A very well preserved monastery which has resident peacocks roaming the grounds has beautiful views of the lake and well manicured grounds. We then ventured into the township of Ohrid which is the birthplace of the Cyrillic alphabet and Europe's first University, 20 years before Bologna. Another masterfully maintained medieval town that most people have never heard of that is definitely worth a visit.

Skopje, North Macedonia
This city surprised us the most on this trip. The government is spending an absolute fortune transforming the city with brand new statues, fountains, monuments and museums. Due to the long standing disagreements with Greece, the statues that are very obviously of Alexander the Great and his family, are officially referred to simply as General or Warrior, but our local guide was kind enough to unofficially call them what they were. The locals are friendly and the beer is cheap so this city is worth a visit. It would be interesting to visit in 5-10 years time once the city has been completed to witness the opulence on show some of which we could see while we were there.

Meteora, Greece
This morning we said goodbye to our happy go lucky guide Bojan and said hello to our guide for the last few days of our tour in Greece. His name was George and he was from Australia. No joke. A dual national, George has lived in Athens since he was 21 but still has his strong Aussie accent which was a delight to the bus. For the remainder of our tour the weather gods weren't kind and we constantly flipped between heavy fog and rain. But that wouldn't stop us from our first stop on Greek soil. The famous cliff top monasteries of Meteora have well over 20 catholic monasteries on these cliffs, 6 of which are still in operation. The first monasteries were built in the 1300s and access used to only be via rope bridges and ladders that would break in bad weather. Thankfully 100 years ago they built roads, bridges and carved stairs into the mountains for much easier access.

Delphi, Greece
The Oracle of Delphi housed the Oracle from 700BC onwards which saw the Kings of Greece travel from all over to consult. This site was also the first site for the Panhellenic games which would eventually become the Ancient Olympics. It's status as a religious home made it a target for many invading armies with many Greek city states warring over control of the Oracle before the Romans took over, then the Ottomans, before Greece gained it's independence. Considering it's age, the site is in good condition with restoration works really helping keep the 'town' in tact.

Athens, Greece

With a stop in the seaside town of Thessaloniki, our city tour was cut short due to a down pour of rain so our poor bus driver and guide had to try and navigate the old town with the big bus to show us around. It couldn't be helped but as a result we have no photos of the town. We arrived in Athens that afternoon and enjoyed an authentic Greek dinner with live music and dancing as a group before saying our goodbyes to each other. The next day we caught up with our friends from Manchester who just so happen to be in Athens the same time as us. Having just seen them a week before in England it was so much fun having lunch and hearing about their Greek experiences so far. After many laughs and lots of great food we ventured out on our own to visit the world famous Acropolis. Sadly the building is covered in scaffolding which I swear was there when I last visited back in 2011. We got some amazing photos of the city of Athens as we had a birds eye view from the top. Before long the heavens opened again so we called it a wrap of our Balkans adventure and headed back to our hotel before flying to Turkey for our next adventure.

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