I’m obsessed with mountains so when we realised we could reach the snow capped peaks of Georgia for my birthday we made it happen. We had to catch a shared taxi from Yerevan in Armenia to Tbilisi in Georgia, take the subway across the city and then a Marshrutka to Stepantsminda, taking a total of…
Tag: nature
A soviet jeep ride to the endless wildflowers | Armenia
Dilijan National Park was never high on my list of destinations to visit in Armenia as it’s heavily forested and I love an open view with jagged peaks. However we didn’t go to the far south of Armenia so instead we figured we best explore Dilijan and spend a few days in nature. We picked…
Hitchhiking to deserts, volcanoes and more in Armenia
We travelled from Georgia to Armenia in a shared taxi that drove like an absolute nutter. He was driving so fast that the police pulled him over and the first thing the driver asked was “skull ka?” which means how much? Who knows if it was a bribe or an official fine. We found a…
Exploring canyons and lakes in North Macedonia
We felt a little sad to leave Kosovo after meeting so many kind locals and we couldn’t of had more of a shock as we crossed the border into North Macedonia. To start with we had a rather rude welcome to the hostel in Skopje as I was midway through asking a question when the…
Bears and mountain hikes in Kosovo
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…
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…
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…