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…
Tag: culture
Searching for the best beaches and old towns along the Montenegro coast
Locals describe the coastal town of Budva as an absolute disaster. What was once a quaint village has now expanded into an overdeveloped seaside resort. While it still has the beautiful old town, everywhere else is built up with high-rise apartments ready to be rented out in the high season. We weren’t sure whether it…
Backpacking Montenegro | Our first national park and a traditional train ride
Now that the world is opening up again after covid it’s time for us to explore some new countries. With heavy hearts we decided to sell Helga our campervan after a year long roadtrip around the UK, Ireland and Spain so we could travel further afield and embrace backpacker life again. Helga sold in less…
Chateaus, crepes and cliffs in northern France
We tried to stop at the Loir Valley to see some chateaus but the rain was making it miserable with a grey haze blocking the views. But after four days in France we finally had some sunshine so we headed to Château de Saint-Germain-de-Livet, said to be one of the finest chateaus in the Normandy…
Driving through France and a strange encounter with the police
We’ve given ourselves 6 day’s to drive through France to catch our ferry back to England. We’d of liked to of spent longer in Spain but alas the rules after Brexit mean we’re limited to 90 day’s. The border crossing was a breeze and we just drove straight though to the French side. We had…
Exploring the Baztan Valley | Spain
The Baztan valley is a stunning region in northern Spain with rolling hills, lush pastures, livestock and quaint villages. It’s an area we’ve driven through before but we didn’t stop to explore so this time I planned some hikes. We’re in the midst of a cold snap, it’s unseasonably cold for April but the good…
Vanlife and snowstorms in the Spanish Pyrenees
We left the high mountains of the Pyrenees and followed a hilly route through the countryside past tiny villages. We wanted to spend longer in the mountains but the temperatures due to drastically drop over the next couple of days down to -10° so we reluctantly drove south west with the big snowy peaks becoming…
Blue rivers, boat trips and mountain shrines | Aragon, Spain
The village of Ainsa is known as being the gateway to the Pyrenees and it was quickly added to my list of places I wanted to explore. The Rio Cinca has been dammed south of Ainsa which has created a series of beautiful lakes which is where we were heading. As we drove through the…
Cave dwellings and the Spanish desert
A lot of people don’t realise that southern Spain has some huge mountains and ski resorts. You can spend the morning sunbathing at the beach, drive an hour and then go snowboarding in the mountains. We would normally aim for these places to go hiking but the roads into the Sierra Nevada mountains all looked…
Wild west towns, sunsets and flamingoes | Andalucia, Spain
We ended up spending a lot longer than expected in northern Spain. The weather was treating us well with crisp blue skies but frigidly cold nights so after four weeks we decided it was time for us to bask in the warmer south. We had about a week travelling through inland Spain before we finally…