Category Balkans
The Volatile History Of The Balkan Peninsular
The Balkans region is a wonderful place to visit, being so full of history and contrasts. You can read about my travels there in my book available on Amazon. A brief history of the region appears in the book and is also shown below, giving you a flavour as to why this is such a […]
Train Travel In The Balkans – A Reflection
Travelling By Train Across The Balkans It is now over 18 months since I published my book featuring train travel in every Balkan country. With train journeys anywhere off my agenda since February, it is with even greater fondness that I look back on past trips. Some of my most memorable Balkan journeys (all featured […]
Friday Photo – Leaving Istanbul
In May 2009 I left Istanbul to embark on a journey overland to Syria. First up I needed to get out of Europe and into Asia. In Istanbul this is as simple as catching a ferry across the Bosphorus (or under it nowadays through the Marmara Tunnel, by train). You can read about my visits […]
Monday Morning Blues – Kotor, Montenegro
I visited Kotor in 2007, arriving by bus from the capital Podgorica. Situated on the biggest fjord in the Balkans, the small city has a wonderful walled old town and has become quite a tourist hotspot.
Balkan Tour 2017 – Romanian Holiday?
Continuing the recap of my 2017 Balkan holiday……. Train to Romania? You will remember from my previous post that we had arrived at Belgrade Dunav Train Station to a hand-scrawled notice saying “No Trains Romania” with zero assistance on offer to ease our predicament. So would we make it to Romania after all? In true […]
Balkans Tour 2017 – Night Train to Belgrade
Continuing my recollections of my 2017 Bankan Tour….. Skopje to Belgrade Overnight Train No trip around Eastern Europe would be complete without an overnight train journey. One day there will probably be high speed routes and super modern trains in the region, making slow progress through the night a rarer experience – a huge loss […]
Sunday Photo – Hats For Sale, Sarande, Albania
The Albanian town of Sarande is just a 30-minute hope across the Ionian Sea from Corfu.
Balkans Tour 2017 – The Environs of Skopje
Continuing the recap of my 2017 Balkans tour….. Skopje, North Macedonia You may have gathered that I do not like the ‘new’ Skopje, the €500 million vanity project that looks like it was dreamed up by Liberace on acid. Thankfully we arrived armed with a couple of decent things to take in if, as was […]
Skopje Then & Now (2006 v 2017)
The ‘new’ Skopje is not my cup of tea. I first visited in 2006 and loved the vibe of the place. Authentic, a little run down but an earthy energy to the city. Fast-forward a decade and what I found was massively different, a horrendous beautification project akin to a woman having plastic surgery to […]
Balkans Tour 2017 – Tirana
Continuing my look back of my 2017 Balkans Tour – how did Tirana 2017 compare with Tirana 2007? We had just arrived by marathon bus journey from Sarande in Southern Albania and dilapidated taxi to our hotel from Tirana’s run down bus station…….. Tirana We found our hotel to be delightful and soon forgot our […]
