I'm officially done traveling for the next fourteen or so months. I barely readjusted to East Coast time before heading to California for the holidays. My body still doesn't know what time zone it's in, but it did pack on a few pounds of See's candies, chocolate-covered macadamia nuts and my brother's cooking. Good thing I'm starting school in a week. I still have Montenegro to write about, but I wanted to use this space to wish everybody a happy and healthy new year. I hope it's packed with new adventures that you can write to me about, because I will [View Full Entry]

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Merhaba! After finding that my first choice for a hostel was now the Grand Palace Hotel I found success at the Mavi Guesthouse. Out of the dorm window is the Aya Sofya-and the Four Seasons. Can't beat that. It can get chilly at night, but the common area is warm and it's a great place for meeting fellow travelers. Turns out several arrived the same day as myself and were staying for a while. Four are Australian and were at the tail end of a grand adventure driving through Russia, several of the 'Stans, Georgia and Turkey. They strongly advise that [View Full Entry]

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Yasa! Back in the land of the almighty euro. A bank in town showed the euro at 1.47 to one US dollar. Go Bush! You are successfully sinking the US dollar! On a brighter note, I got to see one of my top ten 'places I have to visit before I die'-Meteora. And, it was everything I thought it would be and more. I wish I could go back for another visit before leaving for Rome. The best way to see Meteora is to walk it. A car is handy, but to really appreciate the views and take it all in [View Full Entry]

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Mire! Albania is a hard country to peg having only been there four nights. The people are friendly, but an ex-pat Englishman I met in Sarande gave me his take on the people: friendly, but always looking to see how they can benefit from your friendship; difficult to really know with a hard inner core. I suppose 500 years under the thumb of the Ottomans is bound to make you tough. The country itself is in dire need of strong leadership. Sounds like another country I know. The infrastructure is pretty much none existent in most places. Garbage is chucked willy-nilly, [View Full Entry]

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From very European Croatia I headed into Bosnia and Hercegovina. The border guards check passports, but they never stamp them. I crossed their border six times and not one stamp! It's absolutely nuts how obvious it is that you've crossed a frontier. One second you're in modern Croatia. The next you see bombed- ut buildings and a mosque. Even the trees and hillsides look battered. Weeds grow up through cracks in sidewalks. The roads looks old. The buildings look tired. It's like time has frozen in the '90's. The drive to Mostar from the border doesn't take too long- 30 minutes? [View Full Entry]

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I spent less than 24-hours in Serbia. Took the night bus from Sarajevo to Belgrade, and arrived around six AM groggy and cramped. We came to our senses in the train station cafe with some tea and Turkish coffee a remnant of Ottoman occupation. One of the benefits of being awake that early is that you get first dibs on the fresh pastries. Had one of the best chocolate croissants of the trip at the train station cafe. We tried getting info for the night train to Bar, Montenegro, but the ticket agent's English only confused Rob. We figured we'd try [View Full Entry]

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Dober Dan! The Slovene and Croatian languages are similar enough that I can used my few words here, too. Love it. I am a legal visitor to Croatia. I took the train from Ljubljana to Zagreb. When it was time for passport check I played it cool and didn't say a thing. I started sweating a little when the policewoman asked for another photo ID and whipped out her gem lens. Yikes! She peered at my passport picture, then walked down the hall to a colleague. I could hear them talking and flipping through the pages. I figured it had to [View Full Entry]

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Dober Dan! I can now lay claim to having been an illegal immigrant. I got to the Italy-Slovenia border around noon. I took the local bus to the crossing, but immediately realized this couldn't be it: no fence, no border guards, no razor wire, no German Shepherds on short leashes. What to do? I walked across the street to the train station to find someone who could tell me where the real crossing was. The clerk basically said 'You're in Slovenia now. You can't go back. If the police catch you going back you'll be in hotter water. Just tell the [View Full Entry]

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I thought it would be a nice way to ease into traveling. It was nice visiting some of the hill towns, but it would have been better if I'd just jumped into an entirely new country feet first, instead of warming my toes in panini and gelato. I went immediately to Orvieto, which is not a backpackers' haven. Translated that means there's no hostel or anything resembling my level of cheap accomodations. I'd basically spent 24 hrs getting to Orvieto, so when Hotel Paradiso quoted me 40€ ($60) a night after Hotel Piccio told me I wouldn't find anything cheaper than [View Full Entry]

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Hey Gang~ I'm trying this site in hopes that it will make it easier for me to post, and for you all to read at your leisure. Thanks to SkyMiles I've been saving since before the millennium, I'm flying into Rome, Italy. Visiting cities in the Umbria I'll head north around the Adriatic into Slovenia. (One of the cons of traveling in the off season is that transport evaporates once the crowds, too, have vanished. But, I've found that my detours inevitably lead to serendipity.) Wending south through Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, newly independent Montenegro and Albania I'll circle Greece and [View Full Entry]

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