"Why are you going to Moldova?" asked the Romanian border officer. "Why are you going where?" you might ask. The average European may have heard of this country wedged between Romania and the Ukraine, but the average person from outside of Europe very likely has not. Certainly before I set out travelling, I had only heard of Moldova because the country's football team occasionally popped up on fixture list for European qualification campaigns - I believe England played them home and away in qualification for the 2014 World Cup - and because I saw it on a map. It is very much Europe's final frontier of sorts - its last unknown state. So to answer the Romanian border officer's question, I was going to Moldova because no-one has heard of it and therefore I was intrigued. ... read more

"Always catch a bus if you can", said the guy at the hostel in Veliko Tarnovo. Shame there no buses to Bucharest then. Only trains. Thus, I was on my first train journey for first time in a month, when I was in Italy/San Marino. And it was nice crossing a border with company, especially a long, 7-hour journey with so many stops. With me were three others from the hostel in Veliko Tarnovo; American Maura and fellow Kiwis Tom and Louis, who despite their rather contrasting appearances, are quite astonishingly, brothers. It was nice to hang out with some Kiwis again for a longer period of time - I haven't met too many on my travels to be honest and many of those meetings were rather fleeting. Only Andy in Havana springs to mind in ... read more

It seems that all roads lead through Skopje and I made my way back there for a third time to get a bus to Sofia. Thanks to the political situation around borders, there is no direct bus from Pristina to Sofia as you would have to go through Serbia. At the bus station in Pristina, I met Eric, an American going the same way. Once we got to Skopje, we then met Frenchman Pierre, who was at the same hostel as me in Pristinaand was also making his way to Sofia. So suddenly I had a crew which to be honest, is nice to have on long journeys. The Bulgarian countryside is actually pretty nice. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was impressed by the pretty plains, rolling hills and green forests, which ... read more

I've often been able to gauge the general mood of a nation's people when travelling, just through observation. Here in Macedonia, it seems that they're not exactly super-happy with their lot. Though when reading about the wasteful urban regeneration programme in Skopje, you tend to understand why. Driving through rural Macedonia and through the outskirts of the bigger towns, it definitely appears to be a poorer country - more so than Albania for sure, although both countries have many an unfinished building lying around. And I don't know if its just the way they express themselves, but Macedonians always seem to be a bit annoyed with you when you're talking to them. It was also interesting seeing the amount of Albanian flags that were flying in Western Macedonia. Albanians and Macedonians haven't really got on with ... read more

As I left Corfu, I did something I've rarely done on this trip, which was not booking anywhere to stay at my next destination. This was because I had no idea whether I'd even make it to my next destination that day; Meteora. Basically I had no idea what the bus connections were and therefore how far I could get; but the hostels in the towns around Meteora seemed to have plenty of room so if I managed to get there, then I knew I'd probably be alright. With the ferry dropping me off in Igoumenitsa, I knew that I'd be able to then get to Ioannina but with only two daily buses onwards from Ioannina to Meteora, I wasn't sure if I'd make the last connecting bus and end up being stuck in Ioannina. In ... read more