Pristina is all about its restaurants and bars – as, sadly to admit, there isn’t too much else to do in the city. Having lived in Pristina all summer I’ve got some new jems to share. Also things in this city are constantly closing and opening for this and that so an occasional update is completely necessary.
Oh Santorini, you beaute. I’ve been extremely fortunate to travel to some truly spectacular places and Santorini is definitely in my top three for a relaxing and lounging type of holiday (the variety of which I rarely do). We’ve all seen amazing photos of Santorini on the internet and it was everything I’d imagined and more. It was truly breathtaking. I spent countless hours researching which village to stay in and what accommodation to book, as where you stay is very much a part of the experience. I was very happy to find that my chosen village, Oia (pronounced ee-ya), was without a doubt the right choice. It was amazing just how silent and peaceful it was after 23:00 – I loved it.
This past weekend’s adventure…I barely know where to begin it was so intense, action-packed, and at times life threatening. Okay, I suppose I’ll start off by stating that Sarajevo is, without a doubt, my favourite Balkan city. It is absolutely beautiful and compared to Pristina…it’s an actual real city (though to be fair to Pristina, it was not originally built to be a capital city).
Continue reading “Sarajevo (& Mostar), Bosnia and Herzegovina”
Whilst living in Pristina, weekends away are nearly compulsory. Don’t get me wrong, Pristina is grand…there just isn’t a whole lot to do if you’re around at every weekend. Additionally, as someone hailing from a littoral zone, I need regular body-of-water fixes. So this weekend’s destination was Lake Ohrid in eastern Macedonia.
Since my last stream of posts (aside from the previous post which I realised I had ready and waiting in the drafts folder for months), I moved from California to Pristina, Kosovo. After being home for majority of the last year and a half, I was suffering from coastal withdrawals so for my second weekend living here my best friend, her colleague, and I went off on a weekend adventure to the Albanian coast for an eco camping experience and adding number 44 to my country count.
Continuing on from Kotor, Montenegro I hopped on a two-ish hour bus (just depends on how long the queue is across the border) to Dubrovnik. You’ll want to stay awake for this drive – the road hugs the curves of the hills and affords you a spanning view of the sea. From the bus station, you can take another quick bus that lets you off outside the city walls by the Pile Gate. Continue reading “Dubrovnik, Croatia”
As I previously said, official bus routes and schedules are difficult to find online in the Balkans, so prior to my journey to Kotor I popped over to the bus station in Pristina and secured my bus journey. I left on the 19:00 bus from Pristina, which got me into Podgorica at half 3…in the morning (I like the time saving aspect of overnight buses, but I can imagine the views during the day on this bus journey are spectacular as you drive up and over a massive mountain). The Kosova man sitting next to me who spoke English warned me that the last time he made this journey, he could swear the bus station wasn’t open. GREAT. So, I’m picturing myself sitting outside a bus station in the middle of the night, by myself, freezing my bum off, with rabid dogs running about. Continue reading “Kotor, Montenegro”
I recently returned from an absolutely lovely holiday. I did my obligatory visits to England, Italy, and Belgium, but the best part was finally exploring round the Balkans! As with most my trips to Europe, I used London as my home base – friends flats to store my bigger suitcase and dirt cheap intercontinental flights make it ideal. My main aim was to make it to Pristina to visit a dear friend of mine from my grad school and the cheapest I found was a flight from London to Skopje, Macedonia via Wizz Air (Tirana, Albania was also an option as there are buses from pretty much any point A to point B you might need). The flight cost me a whopping $35.
whistle+wander 
