Backpacking the Balkans 2019

02/08/2019 Hi! It's Eleanor again. Today was our last full day in the Balkans - we can't believe it's nearly time to go home! Before all of that though, we had booked a full day tour of Rila Monastery, Boyana church and the Cave of St. Ivan, Bulgaria's most important religious sites. We went to Billa early in the morning to buy breakfast and lunch for the day. I bought a delicious pain au chocolat and ate it in front of the church where we were meeting the Rila Monastery tour group. Our group was made up of 2 Americans and 3 Bulgarian-Canadians, as well as us. It was an hour and a half trip to the monastery, and when we got there we had the unsettling realisation that it was quite cold up there and none of us had brought a jumper! We had a tour around the monastery for about an hour, which involved the tour guide telling us to look at some Saint "figures" in a glass case which turned out to be severed fingers. After the tour we had some free time, so we t

01/08/2019 Hi it’s Emma G here! In the morning, we woke up boiling hot, and a bit startled to be 5 feet off the ground in our beds. After having some cereal bars and fruit for breakfast, we trekked down the hill to the museum. The museum was about the history of the neolithic village and the people who lived in them before them. While everyone was looking around the museum, Gaby, Eleanor and I sat down (finally) around a table and made some pretty patterns out of some tiles. However, after Eleanor and I had finished our pattern that we had put our heart and soul into, Gaby insisted on taking some of our tiles so she could use them for her own ‘masterpiece’. When she finished her box of tiles masterpiece, she posed quite proudly for a photo while Eleanor and I laughed at it. When we had finished in the museum, we had to conquer the dreaded hill climb. To cope through the heat and the never ending walking, we sang Disney songs, well attempted to anyway. Also, we made some

31/07/2019 Hi, it’s Higgy again. Today we spent the morning in Sofia, which was amazing, I loved all the different architecture and the gardens were incredible. I thought the cathedral (the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) was absolutely stunning! The paintings within the cathedral were extraordinary, although we weren’t allowed to take any photographs inside. In my opinion it is some of the best work I’ve seen on the trip. We had some fun around the fountain outside the National Theatre too, which consisted of me, Elenor and Ellie imitating the stature in the centre. We later returned to the hostel to collect our bags for the night ahead: camping in a Neolithic hut which I wasn’t too excited for if I’m being completely honest (although it was agreed between all of us as they definitely completed the challenge to sleep in an unusual place). We were travelling to Chavdar by train, another mode of transport to add to our ever-increasing list - we are definitely past the four mo

30/07/2019 Hi, it’s Annie again! The morning began being woken up on an overnight bus going through border control into Serbia. Not all was bad as one of the border controllers looked a lot like a younger Jeremy Renner! However, more bad luck struck again as I began to panic that I would loose control of my bladder whilst still on the overnight bus with 1 hour left till our stop. The panic rose as I had to take a stopper as I feared I would - in no delicate manner - poo myself! Once I had taken the stopper I thought the troubles had past... I was wrong! I then became worried that I would loose control of my bladder and the driver did not seem to posses the key for the toilet! This was when me and Emma P decided to strengthen our friendship by her quick thinking resulting in me peeing in a sour cream and chive Pringles tube whilst she held a towel over me, blocking me from any innocent eyes. Definitely a backpacking experience I had not planned in having! Nevertheless, Tory and E

29/07/2029 Hi, it’s Gaby here again! We are currently on a bus from Tivat in Montenegro to Niš in Serbia, where we will arrive at 5:30am (editor’s note: after being an hour and a half delayed leaving the bus station, and with further delays on the road, we didn’t actually arrive until 8:30am!). After leaving the hostel this morning, our dreams of relaxing on the beach with plenty of sunshine were spoilt with overcast weather and rain. Nevertheless, we put on our raincoats and headed into Tivat anyway, where we managed to complete our two-minute beach clean-up (following the idea of the #2minutebeachclean in the UK) on one of the stretches of beach just outside Porto Montenegro. Ticking off another challenge spurred us on despite the miserable weather and we headed to the Buca Palace in central Tivat, exploring the adjoining art gallery and chapel too. Lunchtime came just in time to make the most of the dry weather, and we were able to sit in a restaurant overlooking the harbour

28/07/2019 Hi, it’s Emma G here! The day started off with a freezing cold shower followed by some cereal and crispy bread for breakfast at the hostel. After that we headed off to Kotor. However there were no buses as it was a Sunday so we had to get a taxi, splitting into three groups for the drive to Kotor. Our first view of the Old Town of Kotor was beautiful, living up to its UNESCO World Heritage Site status. A local arts festival was being held at the time so we were greeted with crowds of people and lots of colourful banners lining the streets. After admiring the clock tower and castle (from afar - we weren’t brave enough to face the 900+ steps), we explored the shops within the old town. We then went to a local supermarket and bought our lunch, which we ate by the marina. At 3 o’clock, we headed down to the docks for a speed boat tour of Kotor and climbed on the boat with the help of our helpful Captain. I was very happy with the seating arrangements as I got to sit in the spinn