Kosovo is home to less than 100 bears and sadly some have been stolen from the wild and kept in tiny cages outside restaurants to entice guests in. The conditions were awful, the bears were fed bread and beer and were taunted by customers and staff through the cage. Luckily the Four Paws charity came…
Category: Europe
One of the scariest days of our lives | Via Ferrata in Kosovo
We’ve always liked the idea of trying out a Via Ferrata which is a climbing route fixed to a mountainside with metal steps, cables and ladders. You have to wear a harness with two carabiner clips which you use to clip onto the metal rope. We do a lot of hiking and rock scrambling so…
Our first impressions of Kosovo
Entering Kosovo wasn’t quite as simple as we’d hoped. We made our way through Serbia the day before, taking three buses and 9 hours of our time to reach the town of Novi Pazar. Just as we were going to bed we quickly checked the government website as we always do before entering a new…
Exploring the wild side of Serbia | Tara National Park
We crossed the border from Bosnia to Serbia and were immediately greeted by four lovely little stray dogs. It was interesting to see one act very nervously when a local went to stroke it but it came straight over to us for strokes so we were in heaven and really didn’t want to get back…
One week backpacking around Bosnia and Herzegovina
Our first taste of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the small town of Trebinje. It was a simple little place with a small old town and a church atop a hill. We stopped for cheap beer at €1 a pint and then made our way to the church which was so beautiful on the inside with…
Hiking to the impressive Accursed Mountains | Albania
We were in awe of the Albanian alps so I researched other hikes in the area and discovered a little village called Lepushe. Getting there was challenging as we discovered the one van heading there was cancelled due to a catholic holiday. The host of the guesthouse we were planning on staying at happened to…
Blue pools, waterfalls and meadows | Hiking around Theth, Albania
After yesterdays long hike from Valbona to Theth we checked into a delightful guesthouse. It was brand new, sparkling clean and super comfortable. The only downside was just as we were making the booking someone else beat us to it and we lost one of the nights. It still looked like the nicest option though…
Hiking from Valbona to Theth in May via the winter route
Snow lingers on the Albanian alps well into June and after doing lots of research I discovered the pass between Valbona and Theth was actually closed in early May when we planned to hike it. I spent a lot of time emailing guesthouses, tourist offices and Balkan Facebook groups trying to get information on when…
Hiking in Valbona | The Albanian Alps
Valbona wasn’t quite what we had in mind. There were mountains all around us with low lying cloud and a wet drizzle in the air. Some people had warned us not to bother coming here as the pass was too dangerous at this time of year and that we should just go directly to Theth…
Crossing the border into Albania and the Koman Lake ferry
It was about 28° as we set off with our backpacks to a random street corner in Ulcinj waiting for a shared car to take us to Shkoder in Albania. Our instructions were to wait beside an abandoned fire truck, which also happened to be where the neighbourhood bins were stored and overflowing, causing a…
NON STOP TRAVELLING 