Our trips around the world…
Having had quite a lot of down time in Stara Zagora, we got to Veliko Tarnovo feeling somewhat revived, and hit the ground running. Our accommodation was in a local area as opposed to the old town, which turned out to be perfect, as we weren't subjected to the eye-wateringly high tourist prices for things.... Continue Reading →
After the heat and health issues of Plovdiv, we were looking forward to moving on—especially in a nice, relaxed, cool train. But guess what? The train’s air conditioning was broken. Oh joy! It got so hot that staff started handing out bottles of water to passengers, and more than a few people ended up taking... Continue Reading →
Koprivshtitsa—or as we started calling it, just “Kop”—never happened.We had planned to visit the town in hopes of escaping the brutal heat of Plovdiv and finding a bit of cooler mountain air. Unfortunately, a perfect storm of issues meant that Kop just wasn’t going to happen.First and foremost, Will came down with a bad case... Continue Reading →
If there's one thing we'll remember about Plovdiv, it's the heat. Extreme heat. All the heat.After arriving on a sumptuously cool, fast, efficient, and punctual train—a refreshing contrast to its Macedonian equivalent—we made our way to our accommodation. It was a strangely assembled apartment featuring the longest couch in history, a bed with a single... Continue Reading →
We were perhaps even more excited about entering Bulgaria than we had been for either Macedonia or Kosovo. That’s not a reflection on the countries themselves—more that by this point, we felt fully in the travel groove. Any lingering anxieties or worries about travelling had completely vanished, and in their place was a skyrocketing excitement... Continue Reading →
This may sound like a bitching and moaning session. Primarily because that's exactly what it is. We decided to take the train from Bitola to Skopje. We adore trains, and the prospect of doing this leg by train instead of bus was really exciting for us. We were aware that the train would take longer... Continue Reading →
Our lasting impression of Bitola? LOUD. Like, really loud. Sure, our apartment’s prime location next to a construction site didn’t help, but even without that, this city seemed determined to make its presence heard. Cafés blasted music at nightclub volumes, every second vehicle was a motorbike or ATV at max RPM, and we’re fairly certain... Continue Reading →
After a very short bus trip and a comically fast border crossing, we arrived in Pristina, Kosovo. Two things excited us the most: the weather forecast and our accommodation. After weeks of relentless heat, a break in the heatwave was finally forecast, with temperatures predicted to dip into the high teens and low twenties. As... Continue Reading →
It’s a bit odd how this trip came about, at least in terms of where we chose to go. When we landed in Athens back in 2019, one of the first things we saw was a protest. After a bit of digging, we discovered it was about the proposed name change from the Former Yugoslav... Continue Reading →
2 Travelling Kiwis 