Greece & Macedonia

I'm writing today on a beautiful sunny, Autumnal day at Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. A few days ago we decided to take a detour into Greece from Albania. We left our much loved home from home in Gjirokaster and got an early bus across the border. The border crossing took at least two hours with one Albanian man outrightly advising us to "avoid the Greeks"! Not best friends as countries then...

We finally got through and made it to Meteora. We just happened across this place as we heard another traveller talking about it. When we looked it up in our book, it claimed it should be the 8th wonder of the world, so we thought it must be worth a visit! When we arrived, however, we couldn't see anything as Kalambaka, the town you stay in to visit Meteora, was covered in a huge grey rain cloud. We were a little pessimistic about the weather outlook for the next day but we lucked out massively and got a cold but sunny day.

Meteora is a series of monasteries suspended on bizarre rock formations, dating back as far as 9th century. The rocks are like huge thin columns into the air and when you look up you can just see these beautiful buildings teetering on the top. We were amazed that we had never heard about this or seen pictures before because it was just staggering. How they built these sophisticated complexes on top of these rocks is beyond me.

We took the bus up to the starting point, the largest of the monasteries and felt a little queasy as we climbed the staircase carved into the rock, winding all the way round the rock face up to the monastery. Ladies have to wear long skirts, no trousers, but I was grateful for the extra warmth of adding a skirt over my jeans. We bumped into a few quintessential Greek Orthodox priest-types in their long black dresses, whilst wandering around the old workshop, museum and church. The highlight was the view from the terrace- as usual only the photos will do this justice. As we were descending the staircase something caught my eye- a priest travelling in what was like an open top cable car, suspended high above the ground, to get to the road! They have a pulley system to bring the priests and supplies up to the monasteries- saves the holy men some tiring steps....

We walked down through the other peaks and visited another monastery and a nunnery with equally spectacular views. After seeing this incredible place, looking at the dire weather forecast, eating our fill of Tzatziki and souvlaki and massively breaking the budget in over-priced Greece, we decided to skip Mount Olympus and get back into the Balkans! The easiest crossing was from Thessaloniki into Macedonia so we took a bus and spent a night there. I imagine that this place was hugely important in ancient times and would be very interesting to modern tourists....had the ruins not been built around, graffitied and basically left 'to go to ruin' (ha) by the locals. It's a real shame this has happened and we were ready to leave after one night.

We took a bus all the way up to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. We had read in the guidebook that the city had a lot of statues but nothing could prepare us for what we saw! Basically, as far as we could gather, Macedonia has had a huge cash injection from the EU. They desperately want to join the  Union but Greece keep blocking their bid due to the name they adopted after the fall of Yugoslavia. Macedonia is an area in Greece apparently and even though the country agreed to change their name to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece still weren't happy. However, it does not seem to be holding the country back at all- helped by the fact they were the only country to declare independence from Yugoslavia 100% peacefully, the investment has helped develop brilliant infrastructure of roads and public transport. However, it's as if the government had some cash left over and are trying to build a modern Rome...I am not kidding, there must be at least 200 brand new statues within a square mile in Skopje! And they are the biggest statues I have ever seen- huge rearing horses, writers, politicians, family depictions- it is nuts and has to be seen to be believed.

We spent the first day meandering around the statues and new government buildings as well as the old Muslim area of the city. The next day, on the advice of our brilliant hostel owner, we took a bus to the top of the hill above Skopje to visit the cable car and 4th century church. Unfortunately the cable car was closed that one day in the month for servicing, so we started to walk to the church, a good 5km away. After a long walk we reached the church only to be told it was closed as the lead monk chap had been rushed to hospital....it was not our day, or his I suppose. So we had some lunch in a very cool traditional wood house and started the long walk back down to the city.

Yesterday we arrived in Lake Ohrid, a huge tectonic lake shared with Albania. We headed straight out to explore and saw the amphitheatre and fortress. Then we came to a very old church surrounded by ruins which is meant to be archaeologically very important to the area. However, there was a huge construction site around it as they build a university of archaeology, which seems a little counter-intuitive to me but nevermind. The lake is very beautiful and we wound down the cliffs and reached a lovely little church on a cliff face. We sat for some time and watched the sun set and the Kingfishers darting over the water's surface trying to grab some of the hundreds of fish beneath us. We've lucked out with the weather again today and it has been crisp but sunny. We have spent the day walking around part of the lake and visiting a handmade paper shop that has an original Gutenberg print.  

Tomorrow we change countries again and head for Sofia, Bulgaria. We are getting pretty excited for the switch up in cultures as we move closer and closer to Istanbul in a few days!

Albania

This blog is coming from Gjirokaster in Southern Albania. We are staying in a traditional, authentic Ottoman house with the loveliest lady owner. We are coming to the end of our Albania stint and will be sad to leave the country and especially the friendly, hospitable people.

We spent longer than we'd planned up the mountains of Valbonne. We stayed at a brilliant place which is run by an American lady and her Albanian husband. Katherine came to visit Valbone 5 years ago and fell in love with the place and her husband to be, Alfred. She sold her bookshop in Brooklyn and moved to Albania permanently. The two of them have created a brilliant set up in the mountains of a hostel, alpine lodge and more expensive chalet hotel. The electricity was hit and miss and the wifi non-existent but it really made it all the better. Every morning Katherine made breakfast for us including homemade bread, local cheese and butter, homemade jams, fresh eggs and sausage- brilliant. We met a really nice crowd of like minded travellers up there so passed the electricity blackouts with chats and chess.

On our second day Yon and I ventured out for a hike. The scenery was absolutely beautiful- probably the best Autumnal colours I have ever seen. However, I confirmed what I suspected to be true, having hiked Kota Kinabalu in Borneo, I am not a hiker! It was 3 hours pretty much continuous steep hill hiking- the only things that made it bearable for me were the scenery, a singing local man with a donkey and the welcoming family at the top of the hike who took us in for coffee. I spent the next day reading at the lodge in front of a gorgeous warm wood burner whilst Yonna went off with some of the other avid hikers :-) We were sad to leave this place but had to get an early bus to the capital city, Tirana.

Again, because of the roads, we had to travel into Kosovo from the mountains and back out to Albania to reach the capital. After a long day we arrived in Tirana and went out for some dinner. There isn't too much to see in the city but it has a really cool vibe- lots of hustle and bustle and night life. We ate a great Albanian mixed tasting plate which was delicious. The next day we went to the museum (unfortunately mostly in Albanian) and visited a pyramid shaped Communist building. That night we ventured out for a mixed grill on which the chef had piped 'Welcome & Thank you' in mustard!

Our next stop was Berat- named the 'town of thousand windows' due to all the Ottoman houses built into the hills. We stayed in another great hostel and spent our full day there climbing up to the UNESCO protected castle and enclosed town on the top of the hill. There is a nice promenade that the locals ritualistically walk up and down every night and always men fishing in the river. After a couple of chilled days here, and a small celebration for my CELTA result coming in, we moved on to Gjirokaster, where we are now.

Gjirokaster is another town built into the mountains and is one of my favourite places so far. Being on top of a hill, the locals must be incredibly fit as they climb up and down the very steep, cobbled roads every day. We even walked with a lady who must have been in her late 80s trying to make sure she didn't slip- pretty sure she knew how to scale these hills better than us! Yesterday we climbed up to the castle, one of the best preserved in the Balkans. It was impressively big and included an American 'Spy Plane' which accidentally landed here during Communist times. The info stressed that the pilot made it home alive. We also visited an intact Ottoman era house and were guided around by the 9th generation of the family that owned the house which gave us a great insight. It was really beautiful and pretty luxurious.

The only drawback has been the rain here- last night was a torrential storm with banging thunder and lightning. Despite the dark clouds this morning, we set off on a day trip to Butrint, a little further South near the Greek border. It is a settlement on an island surrounded by a beautiful lake. They have found evidence of inhabitants as early as 12th century BC. There are ruins from the Hellenistic inhabitants and later the Romans, including an amphitheatre and public baths. There is also a Christian basilica and the most intact and elaborate mosaic in the world (apparently) dating from the 6th century AD (which unfortunately they keep covered for protection). People who are interested in Greek and Roman history (Ellie G!) would really love it there I am sure. After a great day wondering around the ruins we are back in Gjirokaster, where it's stopped raining, and are going to grab some dinner. Tomorrow we head for Kalambaka to start our unplanned detour into Greece and would totally recommend anyone to take a trip to Albania.

Kosovo & Montenegro

I think this blogging location might just be the best yet- I am sat on the balcony of a little alpine lodge in the beautiful mountains of Albania. We're in a small town called Valbonne (Valbona) for a few nights and there is no internet up here so I will be posting this a few days after writing.

The last time I left off in my very lengthy blog, we had just entered Kosovo. We spent a couple of nights in the capital, Pristina. On our full day there we took a walk around the city. It is very small and the newer part has a very European feel to it, as it has essentially been funded by the EU and some UN backed NGOs as far as I can tell. We tried to learn more about what happened in Kosovo, however the main museum was in Albanian. Anyway, from what I can tell Kosovo was a part of Serbia during Yugoslavian times but the ethnic Serbs did not mix well with the Kosovar-Albanians. After the split of Yugoslavia, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia and freedom fighters tried to take on the Yugoslav army (who from my last blog were mostly Serbs anyway). Milosevic entered Kosovo and started systematically killing and expelling ethnic Kosovar-Albanians, again mostly Muslims. The area was something like 90% Albanian people but Milosevic's grand plan was to cleanse the area of these people and take the land back into Serbia. Having learnt from the inaction seen in Bosnia, NATO stepped in and started bombing Serbia, particularly Belgrade, until Milosevic pulled out and Kosovo was declared the newest country in Europe.

We moved on by bus into Montenegro, however we did have to go via Albania first, which if you look at a map makes no sense. This is because Montenegro backed Serbia during the war and was very perturbed by the NATO bombings. Serbia doesn't even recognise Kosovo as a country and so the roads between Montenegro and Kosovo are not really developed. However, being ethnically aligned with the people, the highway to Albania is brilliant. This meant we entered Montenegro from the South- opposite to what we planned. We took a night's rest in Ulcinje which is a seaside town- we took full advantage of the long empty beach outside our seaview hostel room, however there was really nothing there and open because it's now off-season. The next day we moved on to Budva.

The coastline of Montenegro is absolutely stunning and the sea is beautifully clear again. Budva is another small town enclosed by walls (a very mini Split/Dubrovnik) so after having a quick look around, we headed straight to the beach for the afternoon and I swam in the gorgeous sea. The next morning we got up and went back to the beach again for a swim before we had to catch another bus. It was some nice chill time, only interrupted by the Russians and their very strange sun-tanning habits (I can't say sunbathing as it mostly involved standing up with their arms in the air!).

Next we moved on to Kotor, seeing more of the lovely coast as we went. Now I have to say if you're considering going to Croatia, take a look at Montenegro first! Kotor is the prettiest port town we have been to so far. It is a bay surrounded by mountains and again the main area is the walled old town. As soon as we arrived and checked into our really nice hostel, we started the hike up the ancient fortress for a view over the old town and bay. It was a very difficult hike and was very hot but the views were breathtaking (Yon's photos will do it better justice). We'd been told about a family who had a small farm in the mountains at the back of the fortress so we went in search of them. We located a stone window in the walls and stepped through to see beautiful mountains and the very best view of the bay. We got some homemade sheep's cheese and Rakija (the white spirit we've had everywhere now) and watched the sun going down on their little terrace- amazing.

On the walk we'd made friends with an Irish and American guy who were staying at the same hostel and said there were going to be drinks in the common area that night. We hadn't really had a big night yet so ventured down, just in time for the shots.....big mistake! The hostel called them 'dumb-dumb' shots because that's what they make you. A mixture of an obscene helping of vodka plus a dash of bitter lemon, slammed on a table to take the fizz out and then downed. Two of them plus half a bottle of wine (which come in litre bottles) and I was in trouble. Not that I noticed apparently- Yon said I was having a great time as we went out to some local bars with the hostel stayers. I remember bits and bobs, like making some real life lovely Jewish friends that live in Haifa, Israel so hopefully we'll meet up there. What I don't remember particularly well was shouting at an American guy about politics (apparently everyone backed me up so that was ok :-)), stopping a fight between an Aussie and the Israeli guy and then having some cross words with another Aussie guy....oh dear. Of course I then had to live with my now customary 2 day hangover but we saw most of the people again and all agreed we were as drunk as each other. NEVER AGAIN.....

On our last day in Kotor we grabbed some breakfast from the local market (delicious ham, cheese, olives and fruit) and took a short bus to Perast. It's a really tiny town of less than 300 people but they say it has 16 churches (I counted 6). We took a boat out to a little island with a church and had a pretty chilled out day- it was a really lovely spot. The next day was a bit of a hellish journey to get to Shkoder, northern Albania, comprising of 2 buses and a taxi ride over the Albanian border. I don't really know what I was expecting from Albania but it is nothing like I imagined. Like many of the other Balkan states it has that mixture of Turkish and European cultures and religions but is different again in some way that I can't yet put my finger on. We spent some time wandering around Shkoder, which was OK but nothing amazing, before getting up really early to catch the passenger ferry up Lake Koman.

The ferry, which is really just a small chug-chug boat, takes 3 hours to wind through the lake in the canyon. On either side were the most dramatic, huge mountains, called the 'accursed mountains', I suppose because they are so looming and ominous looking. It was very beautiful as the leaves have just started to turn in Autumn. Once at the other end of the lake, we took another bus to Valbonne which sits in an 11km valley between more beautiful mountains and this is where we will spent a few days to hike before moving on to southern Albania.

Yonna's 30th (oh and Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia)

I am writing from a cafe in the newest capital of the newest country in Europe- Pristina, Kosovo. It has been an amazing and interesting journey to get here and this blog is going to be long and history heavy! (Might want to skip this one Sands :-)).

After Dubrovnik we were quite happy to get the bus over the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina where we were sure there would be fewer tourists. We wanted to stop over in a small town near the border called Trebinje but we couldn't really find any hostels there. So we took our first foray into the world of AirBnB- people advertise their spare room or their second home etc. for people to stay in. We arranged to stay with a family whose son was working in China. He said his parents would be waiting for us at the bus. When we got there we were greeted by the huge smiles of a Cher look-a-like and her husband. We quickly realised they didn't have a word of English between them so the drive home comprised of the lady getting very excited about the farm animals and me telling her the English words. It was such a warm welcome we knew we were in for a great experience.

We arrived at their home in the countryside outside of the town which had a large garden growing potatoes, onions, tomatoes, limes, oranges, kiwis, grapes, courgettes.......They also had two cats and two very cute kittens who were to become our very close friends over the next couple of days. Through Google translate and a call to their son in China, we arranged from them to take us to the town and pick us up later so we could look around. The town is very small with a tiny walled centre that was the original settlement. It was nice weather so we trundled round and sat by the river before grabbing some dinner. When we got back to the house the lovely lady ushered us into their kitchen and poured us shots- luckily I got a coffee flavoured one from a labelled bottle- Yonna however got some home made rocket fuel! The next day they took us to the Orthodox monastery, a church overlooking the city and their famous bridge, taking constant photos of us for their facebook collection, before dropping us off at a winery for drinks and dinner. The winery offered a tasting price for each wine so we tried 6 between us and had some great food.

The next morning it was time to say goodbye and head to Mostar. The lady wrote a long message in Google Translate that basically came out as that they had loved having us, they didn't want us to leave and that they love us! They were lovely people and, as we were to find out, just one example of the hospitality we could expect from the rest of Bosnia. Mostar was a short drive away and we found our hostel very easily to be greeted by another lovely man speaking fluent German. Lots of people there can speak German and most assume that's where we're from anywhere. We got the gist of what he was saying and headed out to explore. The Ottoman empire really left its stamp on Mostar so it is a beautiful mixture of Eastern and European architecture and cultures. Unfortunately the other thing that has left its stamp is the war in the 90's- you can see skeletons of huge buildings that once were and scars left by bombs on many buildings. Perhaps that's a good intersection to talk about the war.....

It is hugely complex and I am 100% sure I won't have everything correct or in the right order but I will give it a go. Before Tito died, the apparently much loved leader of the Socialist state of Yugoslavia, he amended the constitution to say that if one state within Yugoslavia wanted independence and their people agreed through a vote, they could have it. When he died the separate nations were represented in a kind of parliament. It seems that the wealthier states in Yugoslavia could see the way it was crumbling and wanted their independence before it was too late. Another factor appears to be that Milosevic, the leader of Serbia, was gaining more and more power which the other states didn't like either. Slovenia was the first to breakaway and sparked a 10 day war between them and the Yugoslav People's Army (YPA). The army, by this point was dominated by ethnic Serbs (part of Milosevic's grand plan which I will come on to) and as there weren't many Serbs in Slovenia, they let that go relatively easily. The next was Croatia- it's difficult to learn much about war there as modern tourism seems to have covered over the cracks. Bosnia and Herzegovina came next but Croatia had signed an agreement with Milosevic to split the country and the West part would become part of Croatia. Bosnia wasn't going to retain its newly declared and globally recognised independence, without a fight. This is where Mostar's fate unfolded.....

We sat having lunch on our first day in Mostar, overlooking the river on a terrace with the very beautiful, famous Stari Most (old bridge) in our sights. We watched as a tourist paid a young guy to jump off the top into the water- a very scary drop of 22m but a local tradition! The fact is that the bridge he jumped off isn't really 'old' at all. In 1992 the YPA started shelling the town from one side of the bridge, backed by the Croats. By 1993 they had totally destroyed the town's symbol, the old bridge- a needless act of spite and an attempt to break the will of the resistance fighters defending their town and independence. We watched a video of the gradual destruction of the town and the bridge and the eventual rebuilding of the bridge once the war was over. So what stands now is a modern symbol of triumph and resistance- it would be nice to think it represented peace and forgiveness but there are signs that say 'never forget '93' everywhere and we were to learn later that things aren't quite as unified as they might appear.

The rest of our day was spent wandering the little cobbled streets with covered bazaars and we climbed a minaret to get a panoramic view of the town. It is a really lovely place. The next day, the hostel owner's son took us on a tour of some nearby sights. We visited an original Dervish house dating from the Ottoman times set in a gorge, a hill town with a 16th century fort at the top and beautiful waterfalls. After a great couple of days there we moved on to Sarajevo- a name we recognised as being troubled but really knew nothing about it.

The hostel in Sarajevo was great and they immediately gave us loads of tips to do in the city- even before we left the hostel we'd booked an extra night! Sarajevo is an even more striking mix of East and West. There is one street in the centre that in one direction echoes their Austro-Hungarian past and if you turn 180 degrees you are looking at the low, wooden framed buildings of Turkish bazaars. It is proud of its history as a multi-cultural place where Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox and Jewish people have lived happily shoulder to shoulder for centuries. We took another free walking tour and saw the very spot that Franz Ferdinand and his wife were shot by an ethnic Serb, who disagreed with the empire-expanding Austro-Hungarians, sparking WW1. It was on this tour that we got our first bits of information about the recent and very sad history of the city. Shamefully, I knew nothing of what happened in Sarajevo.

As I wrote earlier, Milosevic was the most powerful Yugoslav leader as it was breaking up, and controlled the army. However, he wasn't deploying troops to fight multiple wars to keep the nation together; he had a much more sinister plan. He wanted to build a Great Nation of Serbia that would combine much of the land of former Yugoslavia under it, however his plan didn't include anyone but ethnic Serbs making up its population. Having promised the West part of Bosnia to Croatia, he wanted to ingest the East. Sarajevo, being the capital, was obviously then an important city for him to have but first he needed to carry out 'ethnic cleansing' (a term coined by himself) of the Bosniaks.

Unfortunately for the city it is situated in a valley, flanked by hills at all sides. In the months leading up to the outbreak of war, the Yugoslav army had confiscated all the weapons in Bosnia under the guise of cleaning them and maintenance- the Bosnian government believed them. The YPA started occupying the flanking hills around the city and when asked why, they said they were practising military maneuvers- the Bosnian government believed them. After a YPA sniper shot and killed two young girls crossing a bridge in Sarajevo in 1992, it slowly transpired that they were infact aggressors. The people of Sarajevo took to the streets to protest against war and declared that they would not fight their brothers, they wanted peace. The city was still a mixture of all the above religions which went hand in hand with the ethnic groups of Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks. They were convinced they would stand together against war. Unfortunately, they underestimated the aggressor who started to fire on the peaceful demonstration; the city was surrounded under siege by Milosevic's army, with no army and no weapons to defend itself.

We took a brilliant tour that lasted almost all day which explained what it was like during the 4 years of the siege. The lucky ones with money managed to get out of the city and fled to countries offering asylum. Many people weren't so lucky. Bombs fell on the city every 15 minutes for 1425 days, 70% of buildings were totally destroyed and 90% were damaged. The most remarkable thing is the way people survived, their resilience was the most moving thing. The enemy cut off all water supplies, all electricity, all exits and entrances into the city- they were trying to starve them of everything you need to survive. The local brewery was the only place you could get water as they had a natural spring so women, men and children- old and young- took missions to collect water for their family. The enemy lined the routes with snipers who shot at them. They shot to injure, only to draw more people into their sights trying to help the injured and then would shoot to kill as many people as possible. The YPA lined the now famous 'snipers alley', a long wide boulevard in Sarajevo and a vital link between neighbourhoods, friends and families. We watched footage of people sprinting across the alley, risking their life, just to visit a friend. After a while it all became normal, no-one in the international community had come to help, the people thought this would be their reality forever- they adjusted and tried to carry on their lives. Schools kept running in cellars, nightclubs existed, the symphony orchestra put shows on, the now famous Sarajevo international film festival was started during war time, there was even a Miss Sarajevo beauty pageant!

Some hope was restored when a Serbian commander who was from Sarajevo defected and started to build an army within the city. This army dug a tunnel of 800 metres long, by hand, which gave a vital lifeline leading to the Bosnian held area just 10km from Sarajevo. They were able to smuggle soldiers, arms and food through the tunnel, bringing the black market costs down for the people. Eventually UN troops entered the area but their presence brought very little consolation to the people. As peace- keeping troops only they are mandated to not use force however the stories we heard about their crimes were sickening. If people did try and escape the city and make a run for it across the airport landing strip, some UN forces used a massive spotlight to follow them for just long enough for the YPA snipers to shoot them from the hills, instead of assisting young girls at the mercy of sex traffickers some UN soldiers took a cut of the proceeds in return for warning the traffickers about raids, there is also evidence that they assisted in moving girls around for the sex trade.....there is much more which I won't continue about.

The resistance army managed to push the YPA troops back enough and eventually a peace treaty was signed. Over 11,000 people were killed and over 1000 of them were children. The main generals are currently being tried for war crimes but of course Milosevic died of (what we've been told was a suspicious) heart attack during his trial.

Sadly the heartbreaking history didn't stop there. We went on to the Srebrenica exhibition where 8000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Serb forces. Again the stories of survivors and images of mass graves and grieving mothers was horrific enough without the abhorrent actions of the UN soldiers being revealed as well. Dutch forces evicted families seeking refuge in the safe area and delivered them directly into the hands of the Serb forces. In the buildings of the safe areas the UN soldiers left evidence of their real thoughts about those they were sent there to protect.

Despite all of this, the Bosnian people are the happiest most welcoming people we have come across yet. Their country is beautiful and we loved Sarajevo- it has taken the spot as our favourite place so far on the trip and I highly recommend people to go and check it out. The country is just about to go through Presidential and Parliamentary elections- they have 3 Presidents to represent all the ethnicities and in fact there is an area of Bosnia which is called the Republic of Srpska, a Serb dominated area and I suppose an offering to Serbia during the peace negotiations. So it is not quite a united nation but one of the most interesting places I've ever been.

It was hard to then enter Serbia without feeling a little bit biased although I am certain both sides did bad things. We took the bus to Belgrade, a huge busy city in direct contrast to where we'd come from. We took another free walking tour and very little mention was made of the war. They were bombed in 1999 by NATO forces for their actions in Kosovo but this was brushed over too. And then, the most important day of this trip, it was Yonna's big 3 0 birthday!! We had found out about something called the 'Escape Game' which had peaked Yonna's interest. We rocked up to a grey, high tower block and took a rickety elevator up to the 6th floor. I was a little wary to say the least....we found the apartment in the instructions and  a nice smiley, young girl answered the door which put me more at ease. Basically we were locked in a room for one hour and had to find our way out through solving clues and finding keys to unlock padlocks.....we failed, we were close, but we failed! It was good fun and afterwards we headed to the Bohemian area to have dinner at a traditional Kavana where a band of an accordion, double bass and acoustic guitars go round the tables and play to the diners. It was a great experience and an unforgettable birthday :-)

So after all that we are finally in Kosovo, which I will write about next time, where we spend a couple of days before crossing to Montenegro.