SadikD

There are multiple ways to travel from Varadero to Havana. We could travel by bus which would cost 10 CUC per person, plus the taxi to the bus station. So in total an amount of 40 CUC, plus the transportation from Havana bus station to your accommodation. For a taxi one way you will pay average 100 CUC. Thanks to the guard of the hotel we found another option, using the collective taxi, which is a ‘friend’ of the guard who collects a number of persons and share the costs. With this option we paid 50 CUC door to door by taxi. We agreed to leave the next day around noon. The next morning, after breakfast and preparing a small bag to spend a night in Havana, we waited to the taxi. The other passengers were ... read more

Autumn of 2016. Our son had one week off from school, so an opportunity to hit the road again. Cigdem would like to see the medieval village of Yvoire at Lake Geneva. We used this spot as reference to explore the surroundings of Lake Geneva. Via AirBNB we found a reasonable room. We also decided to combined our trip with a visit to my cousin who is living in Switzerland. Saturday morning we left from Vlaardingen and arrived at Spreitenbach around dinner time. I did not saw my cousin and her family for almost 7/8 years so we had a long evening to talk about the last years. In combination of a nice wine and good food and off course the nice conversation time fled and it was time to go bed. The next morning after ... read more

Leaving Montenegro, entering Croatia means also entering the EU, so more intensive border checks. All with all it did not took more then one hour. Continuing the Adriatic coastal road we are heading to the city of Dubrovnik. In less then one hour we could see from a viewpoint the old harbor of Dubrovnik. Before we started to explore the city we took our lunch at the "new city" of Dubrovnik. According the locals the prices of the restaurants at the Old Town were triple and were advised to eat outside the old town. We also searched for some accommodation which was not easy at all. Due to the popularity of this town and the high season, all rooms and hotels were occupied. Also the surrounding villages were overbooked, so no chance to find any. After ... read more

Albania was not on my bucket list, it was more an extra now while traveling from Kosovo to Montenegro. At the customs the checks went smoothly. Albania was covered by the insurance of our car, so no additional insurance needed at the border. We continued toward the direction of Kukes. A place which was on the news during the Kosovo War in 1999. Those days many refugees fled to this city from Kosovo and because of the mountainous area and no proper infrastructure it was a huge operation to support these refugees. Luckily today there are no conflicts in this area and at least a motorway has been built across these mountains. To reach the west side of Albania took us 1 hour and 20 minutes driving with nice mountains view. (it used to be 9 ... read more

From Bucharest its a short drive towards the Romanian-Bulgarian border. Since Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU, the border formalities are quite improved. I can remember that in the past we were waiting for hours and had to pay for many unknown reasons. Now we only had to pay 6 Euros to cross the "Friendship Bridge", which is on one end at Romania and other hand in Bulgaria, crossing the Danube river. On the Bulgarian side after the passport check you need to buy a road vignette, which can be bought at the petrol stations on your way. from the border city Rousse we drove to the direction of Veliko Tarnovo. A Bulgarian colleague recommended us to visit a nice village, called "Arbanasi" which is close to Veliko Tarnovo. Arbanasi is one of the most famous ... read more