Hello traveling girls and guys! Its time to get down to brass tacks on my interest in visiting Bulgaria. I personally have never been but on the map its close to my current location in Tirana, so I’m going to do some research and see what I can find out. I start by first looking at the cost, but I discussed this in another blog post related to travel expenses here, so the next few things I look at are geography, crime, and transportation, then after that the fun stuff we can do while there.
Is it a safe place to visit? Too much violence esp. if anything is directed against tourists like over in Cancun this is a no go for me. Lets check Bulgaria. The homicide rate for Bulgaria on Wikipedia is listed at 1.9 and on Nationmaster, 2.3, whereas the US is at 5. This gives me some idea of the level of violence in a country. Next we take a look at total crimes per 1000, Bulgaria is at 18.93 whereas the USA is at 41.29. Research over, this is low enough for me….
See my note at the bottom related to crime against tourists…
Now on with the tour of Bulgaria, crime is good, next I took a look at local bus prices. I’m fine spending a few hours on a local bus without AC if gets me from A to B. Prices on these $15 to $33 as of June 2022. They just reinstated the international bus lines between Skopje, Macedonia and Sophia, Bulgaria. Check with en.kaleiatravel.com or makedonijasoobrakaj.com.
Geography, population, GDP of Bulgaria – In terms of area Bulgaria 42,500 square miles so we can assume something like 235 miles wide by 180 miles tall, basically shaped like a rectangle. That’s about the same size as Tennessee. From what I’m told Bulgaria is greener than the surrounding countries so that means many forests, its somewhat mountainous like other countries in the Balkans. The population is 7.15 million, so about twice as large as Albania and roughly the same size as Serbia. Now the GDP of Bulgaria is $21,800 versus $12,500 for Albania and $15,100. In my experience GDP per capita is roughly related to cost of living.
The fun stuff, tourist attractions in Bulgaria … I like to mix it up, so i might choose some architectural sites, a city marketplace, museums, beach relaxation, mountain hikes, or historic ruins, exercise or some of each, here’s the list for Bulgaria, but subject to change …
#1. Boyana Church, Sofia,
#2. Alexander Neevsky Cathedral, Sophia,, green and gold plated dome, most famous in Bulgaria,
#3. Veliko Tarnovo, city with old architecture,
#4. Nesebar, ancient ruins, along the coast near Varna,
#5. Sunny Beach, north of Bergas, beach town/resort area,
#6. Krushuna Waterfalls, town of Krushuna, 183 km east of Sophia
#7. Plovdiv, Ancient ruins, amphitheater
#8. Ruse, small town along the Danube, 19th century architecture,
#9. The stone desert, near Varna
#10. Belogradchik, near mountains, castles.
Crime against tourists… Here’s one thing I’ve learned as a traveler, petty crime like pickpocketing or stealing low priced items is something that can go on wherever, whenever; check out my tips for onebag travel safety in another post here.
Hello traveling guys and girls! Its time for me to plan the second part of my trip which is what I will bring. I am considering downsizing my current Pacsafe Exp 45 liter backpack and using instead a 30 liter personal item sized backpack for flights on either RyanAir or Wizzair throughout Europe. Now I haven’t decided which backpack I will take as it involves some changes.
If I do decide to take a personal item sized back on the discount airlines I will not have to pay the Priority Fee per flight which ranges from roughly $17 to $45. However, if I do decide to take the bus or train instead, then I wont have to pay the priority fee for those trips. In my previous blog post, I discussed the size of the bags for each category here…
Now on to the good part… In order to take the 30 liter backpack I will first need to downsize the tent from a 2 person to a 1 person. Now there aren’t too many 2 person tents that id be able to take, but I am still looking to see if there is an extremely light 2 person. The easier choice would be to simply purchase the 1 person tent in the range of 1 to 3 lbs in weight versus 3.6 lbs for the 2 person. I currently carry a 2 person Naturehike tent with the VentureSafe Exp 45 liter pack that weighs 3.6 lbs.
Another slight change and here’s the plan for flying… Ill just bring 1 less outfit. Now since I dont have the 30 liter pack yet I honestly am not sure what would fit inside, but here’s the plan. I’ll wear 2 to 3 outfits on the plane, then ill take these off and put them in the second carry bag… this one, the Decathlon 20 liter stuff sack. This will give me a little more space to unwind, a total of 50 liters of space, versus 65 with the 45 liter pack…. this is a great little bag that only costs $12 and its carriable (usually in my left hand). Down below you will see the item plan…
Decathlon Stuff Sack 20 liter, secondary bag
Here is the item list and weights, courtesy of my profile on lighterpack.compacking app. This is a useful app that a backpacker can use to estimate pack weight, and wearable weight: Notice that the luggage weight and clothing weight are down some. The base weight decreased to 16.29 lbs whereas I’m wearing 8.33 lbs worth of gear (this is for the flight only). This pack is lighter than my last trip because I’ll be carrying summer clothes, about 2 to 3 outfits total. Here is the break down by category from lighterpack.
Hey traveling guys and girls! For me and some of the other traveling backpackers out there, its time to start planning out our trips for summer of 2022, and let me tell you from the local news over here in Europe it looks like pandemonium and a little bit of chaos this travel season due to so many people wanting to travel now. Did you see the news about EasyJet, Ryanair and some of the other major European airlines canceling lots of flights per day? Check the link here from BBC.
So for starters if you dont know who I am, I am an American full-time traveler and you can read a bit more about my bio here. Now I just arrived back in Tirana, Albania, where I had my stuff in storage, and I plan on taking a break to rest in the same apartment that I rented back in the fall. So i was just thinking and looking at what other places and sites in Europe I would like to visit, how I might go about getting there, the expenses, and what ill take as well as my budget! In this blog post ill tell you how I go about doing it. If you are familiar with Myers Briggs personality types, I am an INTJ, and we are planners, for us or me specifically, I tend to make plans so that i can change them using new information, but at least I have one to start with, now I have several.
How do I plan?!?!?! I would like to visit somewhere I haven’t been before, this still includes most of Europe there are 44 total countries in Europe and 1000s of cities.. so for the past few days I’ve been visiting major airline sites, kiwi.com, wizzair.com, and ryanair.com, Kiwi is the most useful since its able to search multiple airlines to piece together routes as well as show me an entire list of fares from competing airlines, whereas Wizzair only has Wizzair’s fares. Now I’m not married to the idea of leaving Tirana on an airplane. I am also considering leaving by bus to make a few local stops at regional cities in the Balkans for example, Shkoder and Skopje, Macedonia.
Hotel & Hostel Prices in the summer of 2021 – one thing I just noticed is that hotel and hostel prices in western Europe are just going crazy! They are really moving up. In normal times of the year hostel prices tend to be well within my travel budget, over in Berlin we are talking $30 a night for a hostel, when I had previously searched I found most places to get one $20 or below perhaps $17. This is not good, but using my INTJ planning abilities, its not the end of the world, I’ll find a way to adapt. There is a reason I purchased a tent last year.
The good news… I found this hostel in Skopje, Macedonia BSV Hostel for $5 on booking.com. Yes that’s right only $5. So an entire week would set me back $35 or for the entire month if I wanna rough it, its $150 those are more like Thai prices, and this is a great deal for summer. Just for reference a private room in Skopje starts at $14 USD, not too expensive either.
So the bus from Tirana upto Skopje would run me about $20 to $22, then after I tour North Macedonia, the plan would be to jump over to Bulgaria more than likely also by bus, and the cost would be around $11 to $17 at the cheapest. North Macedonia is a small country with a population of 2 million that was also part of the former Yugoslavia sort of like Montenegro, so over there it wont take long to cover a few sites, namely the OLD BAZARR, a FORTRESS, or an old MONASTARY like the one below….
Skopje, North Macedonia
So using this example what I do is I try to average my cost of nights, keep in mind I’m a long term traveler so I’ll be traveling for the entire month of 30 days. if I then jump over to a place like Stockholm in Scandinavia, the cost of a hostel might jump upto $30 a night (oops i just checked its $20 but lets assume its $30), the same for Berlin at present time. So if I stay in the $5 a night place for 15 nights and the $30 a night for 15 nights the total comes out to a monthly price of $525, a touch more than my actual monthly budget for housing in the Balkans but still not bad. Id probably add 5 nights worth of camping instead of the Swede hostel and get it down to $375 which is just about the right price for me. Notice that the price of camping per night is $0 that’s quite a budget friendly #.
Slight correction… at present for July it looks like there are multiple hostels available in Stockholm for roughly $20 a night which is within my monthly price target so there you go, not as bad as Berlin. One other tip, if i were serious about going to Stockholm id book immediately instead of waiting, because those $30 nights might just jump upto $40 then id have to sleep in my tent.
Agoda... and a few other sites like Kayak… don’t overlook this site, sometimes they do have flash sales that offer you a lower price than Booking.com. Concerning the site Agoda there are a few differences. Agoda follows a model where they purchase rooms and then sell them at a discount, rather than a commissions based model, this is why the prices are sometimes different (even though they are both owned by the same parent company). One of my minor complaint about the Agoda site is that its kind of hard to tell how much the total cost of the stay is for example, they dont include taxes, the cost of sheets, something of this nature, so just make sure to read the fine print.
I haven’t been to Bulgaria, so this is a logical next step after Macedonia. Its not as cheap or as small as Macedonia, so might take a little more time to cover at a sightly higher cost. The question after this, do i want to take a bus to Hungary or Romania, or a flight to Sweden or Denmark!?!? Ill have to consider, and post in a future blog, thanks for reading….my map so far… and i never made it to my packing, ill do that next…
Which one is cheaper and how much will it cost to bring my large backpack as a carry on!?!?!?!?! Both Ryanair and Wizzair have very similar bag cost and size requirements! I have taken a flight with both a free personal item sized bag and a priority sized bag on both airlines, and sometimes the extra 45L Pacsafe bag can be a bit of an expense! How much? I’ll get into just that soon! I am also going to add Easyjet because it is a similar airline, although in most cases, more expensive!
Insider Tip: In my experience Ryanair tends to be cheaper for both fares and baggage costs… ill explain more in a bit…
First of all, bag sizes, how big are we talking Mr.?!?! A personal item on both airlines is free of charge, or example this is a 20L to 32L backpack or for example a purse or laptop bag (coats can also be carried). Personal item size on Ryanair is 85 linear CM, and on Wizzair its 90cm or something like 40cm x 30 cm x 20cm. What I’ve noticed is that if you go up in linear size, the volume increases exponentially, and ill show you what I mean at the end of the article!
Now for priority bag size, which is the size you need for a train-sized suitcase or in my case my 45L Pacsafe backpack, the limit is this… 55cm x 40cm x 20cm or 115cm total for Ryanair, and for Wizzair its 50cm x 40cm x 23cm or total 113cm so roughly the same. Now to get priority you will need to pay the fare plus in my experience between $15 and $50 extra dollars. Here’s an insider tip, you may be able to get away with NOT paying priority and taking a 45L backpack anyway. I did this once, and another time i was made to pay an additional $50 fee at the gate, almost made it, but i advise you pay up front just to avoid confusion or having to check your backpack in the hold.
Here is an example of fares plus priority on randomly selected routes of both RyanAir, Wizzair and the other airline, Easyjet from their chosen hubs… summertime as of 06/05/2022, within the next 45 days:
Here i looked at some randomly selected routes and chose the cheapest days within the next two months. These are mostly intracontinental European routes between countries, with air miles about equal between the 3 airlines. Easyjet was significantly more expensive than the other two even with my cherry picking the cheapest days. In these cases Wizzair was a bit cheaper than Ryanair but generally Ryanair tends to be cheaper than Wizzair, and also notice that Ryanair was the cheapest on all but 2 of 9 routes selected according to kiwi.com. Also note that Wizzair has hubs in eastern Europe whereas Ryanair focuses more on western Europe with its major hub in Dublin. For the summer of 2022 both airlines seemed to have hiked fares versus the spring time, and for some routes, quite a bit.
Conclusion: Note that the average of adding a full size backpack or trolley bag to all of these fares is $25.07, whereas the base fare is $32.99, that is a 75% increase in the fare. With the supercheap flights that I have personally chosen, the increase in terms of percents is significantly more! Which leads me to consider downsizing from a 45L bag to a 30L bag. We will see in time! ok see you later travelers, thanks for reading!
Hello traveling guys and girls! Ready to hear some more tips to save cash on your backpacking trip ahead of time?!?! Sometimes when I travel, its a constant push and pull with money. The locals know you have at least enough to take an international flight to their country and take a tour, if you aren’t working while they are, right? So sometimes they just want your money. Over in Morocco, even though its a cheap place, there were many beggars and salesman in the street who really wanted my cash. I can understand this to some extent because its a very poor country. Sorry Morocco, I’m going to give us travelers a few tips to extend our little journey, with all due respect your country’s poverty. We are a bit stingy here at SoloVagabond.
Tip #1 – take local buses in countries like Albania and the Balkans! This can be an experience. Over in Morrocco, they also have two classes of busses, one for local people which are much cheaper and ones that are considered to be tourist class buses. I’m going to separate this out into local CITY buses and local inter-city buses! two types of trips. Yesterday, i just popped over to what is called the North South bus station, over here, they have busses headed upto Shkoder, near the lake and the border with Montenegro. I wanted to make an inquiry as to the price of a bus ticket to Shkoder to see the lake. It was 400 lek, which is toughly $3.70 not much cash at all, thank you! The driver and the passengers could barely speak English! Now they also have some fancier busses around town with Wifi aboard and AC but im just fine riding with the locals. One of these would cost between $8 and $15. As long as the country isnt too dangerous im fine with riding local.
Tip #2, avoid scams! Get recommendations! If you are visiting Thailand there’s some scams over there. Although it is a beautiful country, and i witnessed this once or twice. Make sure to read reviews and recommendations for whatever tour, service, product, boat ride, elephant photos, jet ski ride, and so on! One scam that local young Thai guys pull over in Pattaya is the jet ski scam. A young guys comes up with a jet ski, i actually saw one of them riding around the bay, they then ask tourists to rent the jet ski, after the ride is over, they accuse the customer of causing damage to the ski, its usually already broken. Thats when about 10 or 20 other Thais show up in attempts to intimidate the tourists. Sometimes the police will intervene and sometimes not! Me? I road a jetski that belonged to some Irishman who i met on the beach, so lucky there! i am brought my own inflatable boat to avoid the scam! Yes so in Thailand just watch out and hopefully you’ll be fine. One of my strategies, might be a bit isolating, but if you dont want to be ripped off dont employ anyone! just enjoy a day at the beach free, tan or swim!
Tip #3, use local city buses for long trips in the city! Over in Madrid, I landed at the airport, then i went into the underground where all the subways and buses lead you into town. I asked a local Spanish guy which bus i should be taking, he directed me to 1 bus, then a subway (as we call them in NYC), then a regional rail line, a lot of transfers, oops! Now the city bus lines are way slower but they are also WAY cheaper. It was around 1.5 euros. Now what happened on my after dark ride down south to my hostel? I had to backtrack on the regional rail and that cost me a few extra euro. I actually ended up spending about 10 to 12 euro on transportation to get to my hostel, but thats ok, live and learn. The next day I took a local red line bus from my hostel about 1/2 mile near the center of town for only 1.5 euro. Now the Spanish guy probably didnt know that i was a backpacker with a really low budget, he was just trying to help, but in this case from the airport in madrid i could have taken 2 local buses 1 to city center, and one south to my hostel for 3 euro, i just happened to be at the wrong terminal to catch the red line local bus.
Google maps is a godsend in identifying which single line busses that you can take within Madrid and other Spanish cities, as well as our good friend, London’s double decker buses, now over in London you do get 1 transfer free for the same price as 1 ride on a red line Madrid bus (no free transfer there). Now one tip about the London busses, if you are getting off at Gatwick or any of the other airports, make sure to pick up an Oyster card for 5 GBP. you may get your deposit back before returning to the airport. For the transfers you must swipe into the second bus 1 hour or less time after you swipe the first. Now London red double deckers can get stuck in traffic sometimes, but its definitely a way cheaper option of transport as compared to the tube, and car services like the black car.
Tip #4 Can you ride a bicycle? This is something that might apply to a long term backpacker like me but i thought i would include it anyway. If you have a bike, you wont have to pay the above mentioned bus fare at all, right? and your leg power is free, right?
Hey traveling guys and gals! I have just returned back to Tirana, Albania this week and one of the calls to action before I leave again is to sort out which types of socks I want to travel with on my next backpacking adventure! I currently have a selection of both wool (which is an animal based fiber), polyester (a synthetic fiber), and cotton, (a plant based fiber). All 3 have their advantages but all 3 have disadvantages to use.
Polyester Socks – my experience. Most recently, my polyester socks have developed holes in the heels after only 1 month of usage, walking in boots. Now these are cheapie socks TBH! I bought these for only 10 dirham ($1) in Morocco, actually 6 pairs total. I had the same problem with two pairs of polyester socks that I bought in Tirana Albania 6 months ago, unfortunately! These I bought for a price of $3 if I’m not mistaken, also cheap. So I think its probably necessary to switch. The advantage of polyester as a fabric is that the fabric acts as a good insulator and also is quick drying! however I guess my hiking as well as my feet are just too tough for these socks! Next! Weight 2.5 oz per pair! Price $1 to $3 per pair!
Wool Socks – my experience. Now wool is a really tough indestructible material, and I do love these for my feet! But I am now going to discuss some of the disadvantages of this material. Over in Spain I tossed two pairs of wool socks because of the stink! oops yes a little bit embarrassing, but at the time I had no way to clean or disinfect the socks because I was on the road. All 3 types suffer from this problem so this may be a different issue, related to my usage or cleanliness as opposed to the material.
Now on to the advantages of wool, it is a really good insulator if you are hiking in winter! Very good, I will be taking my wool hat to Sweden. its also good at wicking away moisture as opposed to cotton. Now for the disadvantages. Its heavy heavy! You may have seen my lighterpack blog post related to attempting to DECREASE the weight of my backpack, not increase obviously! Wool socks come in at about 5 oz per pair as opposed to 2.5 oz for polyester. Here’s another problem with wool socks, they are really expensive!!! Not good for a lowly budget backpacker like me who sleeps in a tent! Cost is between $5 and $25 a pair. Weight 5oz per pair! Cost $5 to $25 per pair!
Cotton Socks – my experience. Now cotton is kind of an in between choice. Its cheap enough to be easy to replace often, also it doesnt wear out like the polyester socks that I have been having trouble with. Cotton isnt really super expensive like wool, perhaps $3 a pair for boot socks. They are not as good an insulator as wool, but a few advantages are that they are tougher than polyester. In the past ive had a few pairs of cotton socks that have lasted more or less foreever, even with tons of constant walking and usage. The weight is more or less in between wool and polyester. Weight: 3.0 oz per pair, Price $3 per pair!
Conclusion, for my choice id like to get some socks that last me awhile, so ill definitely be looking to replace my polyester socks with Wool or cotton. I may take some of both on my next trip. Stay tuned!!!
Hey traveling guys and girls! Looking for a few tips by a professional traveler on how to save money while traveling? You have come to the right travel blog! I’ve been traveling the world for 2.6 years, so I have quite a few tips. I am an American, who has traveled to about 15 countries. This blog is mostly focused on international travel for Americans. The good news here is that MOST countries that dont start with a U and end with an A are cheaper to visit and live inside of. For example, I was pleasantly surprised that England was not really very expensive and the same with Spain, and ill tell you why.
#1 Travel in a country that is technically a 3rd world country – my first tip! One of the first places that I visited was Thailand. First because its very popular and I saw some videos on Youtube about the super cheap cost of living, and this is definitely true! So avoid the developed world, because that is where people have high salaries and make a lot of money and therefore the rent and food prices are more. Even though special Thailand is a popular tourist destination, it is still firmly in the developing world, so prices are cheaper, there’s some poverty, and trash around, and the currency is still low compared to the almighty US Dollar.
There’s good things and bad here, but with regards to money its all good. You can find an apartment for $150 to $300 USD, and you can find a meal for less than $2. Over in Pattaya, Thailand i used to frequent a Thai ladies food cart that was so tasty, a full meal with rice and chicken for 40 baht which is roughly $1.20. Over in southeast Asia, most of the countries are around this price level, for example Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, with the last 3 being a bit cheaper than our friend Thailand.
Plan out your expenses, plan ahead! Tip #2.
The biggest expense for travel is going to be your housing of course, and the second might be your transportation and flight costs as well as food. One of the best ways to save on housing is to get started on looking at housing on the major travel sites like booking.com before you leave, of course. What I have noticed is that sometimes the cheapest or the best valued places get booked a few weeks in advance. If you are waiting until the last minute to book you may not be able to get the best, more affordable valued place in a particular city.
Staying in a hotel?
In my experience, hotels can be some of the worst rip-offs in terms of travel expenses. These are ok if you are looking for a quick vacation with some nice luxuries, but did I mention that I had been traveling for over 2.6 years as a backpacker? Hotels are not usually super economical, but if we go back to our southeast Asia example, sometimes I can find a hotel over in southeast Asia for a few $100 a month, an sometimes if you ask, the hotel may offer you a monthly stay for as much as 50% off the nightly rate!
More tips on housing as a long term traveler: I usually research all of the major ways of sleeping and lodging in a country, hotels, youth hostels like those listed on www.hostelworld.com, airbnb, which is a major long term apartment rental site that has been just great, couch surfing, couchers.org, and booking.com, and even Facebook.com for apartments listings. So for prices over in western Europe and the UK, you may be looking at 2 to 3 times the prices of a place in southeast Asia. Youth hostels are a good answer to this even though some of them can still be expensive.
Camping to save money… Tip #3. Don’t want to pay anything for housing?!?!?! Free housing? Yes I bought a tent and I decided to camp as a way to save money. I didn’t pay anything for 1 month straight of camping over on the Canary Islands. You can see details of what I did as a backpacker here in this blog post. if you are comfortable with sleeping outside or even in a van, you may want to consider this option instead of paying for accommodation.
Food costs. Tip #4. Find out where the locals shop for food! In each country, saving on food can be a bit different. Definitely dont go for the areas that cater strictly to tourists. After a few days inside a place I’m usually shoulder to shoulder with the locals buying my stuff at their price, to avoid what is called “the tourist price.”
Over here in Albania, there are a good selection of chain grocery stores that have sale prices like Spar and Big Market. Albania also many outdoor local food markets. Yesterday i bought potatoes and onions for only 30 cents and this is enough to create a filling meal. Over in Montenegro and Serbia you can find local fast food restaurants that sell burgers for $2, still pretty cheap as compared to the USA, and in Spain I found another local cafe that sold a burger meal for $3.5, not too bad as compared to the USAs $8.
What do you eat?Tip #5. What are you eating? Since potatoes are a cheapie food, i like to cook them about once or twice a week. Some other cheap foods are things like beans, which you can find over in the UK for about 30 to 40 pence a can. I was quite surprised to see that food is cheap compared to the USAs prices where you may find a can of whatever for 99 cents instead of 40. Another good one is pasta. Over here, i bought a big package of pasta for about 70 Lek which is a total of 60 us cents. This pasta lasted me a few nights, i put some spices on top and it was fine as a meal for one or two nights, and one night i added some cheese, although this was a bit more expensive. Find out what foods are cheapest in the country that you are visiting. Good luck.
Free tours Tip #6. What is free in your chosen city? In many cities they have what is called a free tour where you are expected to make a donation, but of course you dont have to make one. I usually make a small one of $1 or $2. Some of these tours are helpful and some are not, it really depends on the talent of the guide. Over in Belgrade i went on a cool tour with this guy who seemed to know every bit of rich history of the Belgrade, and all the wars too. Just enjoy and walk away. These tend to be much cheaper than guided tours that you pay for ahead of time. Self guided tours are also helpful if you can look on Google to find these. Happy travel. Good luck saving money while traveling!
Hey traveling guys and girls! If you are like me and you are a backpacker looking to cut corners and save money on your long term trip, i can give you some advice on my experience sleeping at the airport so you dont need to pay for a hotel room for the night. Now, it may not be the most comfortable place to sleep, but its free.
A little more about my present situation, over here in Tirana, Albania, I am renting a temporary apartment/studio from this local Albanian man who doesn’t mind to deal with tourists, students, and other people like myself who are travelers – my second time staying here. Unfortunately he already rented my room for two nights to a group of soccer fans over in Tirana for some European finals matches. I arrived here 5 days ago. So because of this i had to vacate my room to allow them to stay for two nights…then come back later – i thought my traveling fun was over….
Camping vs. Hostel vs Airport sleeping?!?!??!?! Which should I choose? Now for me its nice to take a comfy break inside a regular apartment with my own bed, kitchen and bathroom alone for a budget price, so i was happy to be back after 5 months on the road! For these two nights i had been looking for a spot to camp, and i was originally not impressed by the selection… heres a spot i droned in, but i felt it was a bit too dirty to camp near… plus some not so nice looking characters hanging around.
So off we go to the airport! Well not quite, the first night away from my room I chose to stay at a hostel, the Albania Hostel, it was a discount price, and honestly its a pretty decent place for hosteling. I asked them if i could pitch my tent on the roof but they declined! Lucky for me Tirana Airport is open 24 hours a day and another minor stroke of luck, the shuttle to and from Tirana is now free in celebration of the soccer match. It normally costs 400 lek or about 3.5 USD! Now this night wasn’t the typical night for Tirana, there are tons of soccer fans hanging around here and at the airport, but from my experience they were pretty well behaved most of them.
Sleeping at the airport – my little lie about FLYING! When I arrived at the airport I grabbed some snacks from the 24 hour CONAD grocery shop. I had my large backpack as well as my stuff sack with me as luggage (as if i was taking a flight). Of course i had checked the flight schedule and the desk agent asked as i was sleeping which plane i was getting onto. I told them London Luton at 6AM with Wizzair! Haha, the one i just got off of, it actually landed at 2:30AM 5 nights ago, and that was my first night sleeping at this very same airport.
Where to sleep? If you dont want too much attention, choose some place in a corner and perhaps face the wall. I personally dont mind being near other people so i just sat on some of the chairs the ones with the backs. They also have a clothe covered bench here at Tirana Airport. I leaned back and dozed off about 1030PM and there weren’t too many people around. For security I’ve got my Pacsafe backpack with the security zip, as well as the chain attached to my belt. I keep my wallet and cell inside the bag. You can read more about this bag and its security features here.
How was sleeping at Tirana airport? Well for this evening, I got away with it! I wasn’t told to leave. The security bothered me once as I mentioned about which flight I was taking, but otherwise there was no problem from them. About 2AM there were tons of people who showed up at Tirana airport for the next days flights. One German man woke me up by having a loud conversation on his cell right next to me. Around 5am, i woke up and instead of checking in for the fictitious flight to Luton I used the bathroom then switched to a seat near the airport exit. About 20 mins later i was on the bus back to the center of Tirana, and then in Grand Tirana park awaiting the return to my room.
this guy doesnt look like hes having fun at Tirana Airport
Hello traveling guys and girls! Thinking of taking your beloved bicycle on a plane? I can give you some advice on this subject. I decided to take my set of wheels to Thailand from New York City. it can be a bit unwieldly and expensive but i did get it done and it can be exhilarating if you enjoy cycling the streets in a new city or while you are on a beach vacation on your home set of wheels! Whether you are going for a week or like me going for 3 months. I’m a daily cyclist so for me it may be worth the stretch of moving it around. Here my bicycle sits with me in Albania and 30 months on the road!
A few tips, first of all, you will need to dissemble your bicycle if its NOT a foldable bicycle. Granted lets first get into the foldable types. These are those types with small little wheels that have foldable frames as well. These you can put into a regular sized case that looks similar to a full size airline suitcase, so 62 linear inches or less. You do not even need to inform the airline that you are bringing the bicycle as it will be just inside its own piece of luggage, so much easier. However if you are like me and you are a relatively serious cyclist, you want a pure real bicycle, then you need to keep reading!
A regular bicycle is too big to be taken as a normal piece of luggage especially if its fully assembled so be prepared to these following things… take off the front wheel. On my Trek FK 2 this is simple, just unclamp the front skewer and pull it out. in order to make it smaller you will also need to take off the rear wheel, chain, pedals, seat, seat post, handlebars and the front fork, a little of work ehh??!! Yes it is a bit of work. Now we need to discuss the case or the piece of luggage that you are going to put the bicycle inside of…
For me this was kinda hard to figure out, as I didn’t want to spent the money to pay for the expensive hard bicycle case that would surely be counted as an oversized luggage item. I bought a soft large storage bag for the bicycle, the kind that might only last a few trips, more on this in a bit. So the bag was about 50 inches wide, by 12 inches deep by 30 inches top to bottom that gives you an idea its a pretty big bag!
A budget carry case for a full sized bicycle looks something like this:
budget bicycle travel bag
On the outside of the bag, I attached 2 compression straps that brought down the size of the bag a bit. Here’s the good news about using a collapsible bag to move your bicycle in – the airline didn’t charge me an oversized luggage fee. Sometimes the airlines will charge you for sporting equipment, but some will charge you for having an extra piece of luggage as well as for the oversized fee. So this total for an intercontinental flight might be $200 for the extra bag and $200 for the oversized bag; in the next paragraph we can check EVAs prices. This is what a more expensive wheeled bicycle case might look like, for example EVOC:
Airline fees, bicycle as luggage: Fees vary, but for me as an international traveler, I was looking first at intercontinental fees on airlines like Singapore Airlines and EVA, as I was first going to be flying from NYC to southeast Asia. These vary from reasonable $100 to $200 to really ridiculous (check some of the Mideast airlines). Regarding EVA air, the airline divides the world up into different zones and because i personally flew from zone 6 to zone 2 (NYC to southeast Asia) this is a charge of $260 for the bicycle, which is not unreasonable, as I already had two pieces of hard-sided jumbo luggage. EVA offers a passenger 2 pieces of 50 lb luggage plus a carry on of 15 lb for free. Unfortunately it looks like EVA air is increasing prices this fall. Take a look at baggage charges here on EVAs site..
Hello traveling guys and girls! I can detail for you, some of my life living in Montenegro as an American expat in this blog post. I moved to Montenegro last summer after having spent a few months in Belgrade, Serbia which I loved. I came to visit Montenegro on a tourist visa from August for almost 3 months of time, so not your typical 1 week or weekend vacationer.
Now Montenegro does have its charms especially if you like the ocean. The primary industry here near the coast is tourism. First, a few things about Montenegro, it is a very small country, mountainous and located along the Adriatic sea across from Italy and within the former Yugoslavia. The population is about 620,000 people so it’s extremely small for a country. It borders on Albania which is the country I moved to afterwards. The capital Podgorica is a smallish big city that is located on a plain away from the ocean near the center of the country. It’s not even close to the size of Belgrade so it can barely be called a city at 156,000 vs. 1.37 million.
Getting to Ulcinj, Montenegro. I took an interesting bus ride from Belgrade to Podgorica to Ulcinj. It was memorable for several reasons. Namely because of the number of hills and mountains we passed in the night. It was an overnight bus and I was seriously afraid that the bus driver would drive off one of the 100s of cliffs we passed. It was a 12 hours long ride, more about driving here in Montenegro later. From Belgrade, many Serbians go to visit Ulcinj and many parts of Montenegro for summer vacation via plane or by car. A traveler can fly into either Podgorica or Tivat which is along the northern part of the coast. Ulcinj is actually a very small beach town along the very south portion of Montenegro. Here it is affordable even for the hottest and most popular part of the summer and this is what drew me to it. Go to the north, and it’s much more expensive to rent for August. the same is true for Croatia, prices up there are pretty ridiculous unless you want to visit in the winter.
Now there are certain things that were memorable about my trip over to Ulcinj and the surrounding areas, here we have a tourist town on a hill with many beaches around. There is a small castle/fortress area, the rocky beach area, the Little Beach at the center of town, and what is called Ada Bojana Velicka Plaza, which is translated to big beach, which is a huge flat beach about 2 miles south of town and doesn’t have any mountains. On the other side of this is Ada Bojana which is a nudist island, memorable for its own reasons, and I’ll get to this later.
So, just a few notes about my moving there, I took the bus to Budva Montenegro but there is also apparently a bus to Ulcinj from Belgrade, you just can’t buy the tickets online. I mentioned the hills earlier, that was a bit scary and the second issue was my luggage, 3 big jumbo suitcases, a backpack, and a bicycle, quite a haul. I was able to get these into a taxi in Belgrade, then get them to the bus station, then aboard the bus for roughly $2 per bag, so only $6 total, flying with these items is much more costly. After I arrived in Budva, which is a cute upscale area, a little more so than Ulcinj, I then hired a local taxi driver to take me to Ulcinj, this cost me a bit more $$$. It took about 1 hour’s time and cost $50. The taxi driver helped me with my bags going into a guest house in Ulcinj.
I spent the summer time, a few weeks/months in Ulcinj and going to the beaches here, cycling, droning with my Mini 2, boating, and hanging around the beach doing just summer stuff. I didn’t do any fishing here but I am considering buying a pole, since I do have a small rubber boat inside my luggage – one of the reasons that I have so much luggage. I also spent some time hanging out in the local cheap restaurants that are not a bad price for a burger. Here is a vid I filmed along the main drag… uploaded YouTube.
ulcinj near big beach
After my time was up in Ulcinj I actually moved to two different locations, I spent one month at a guest house in Ulcinj, and didn’t really like the owner too much, but the price was decent for the room type. I switched to another place over in Ada Bojana Velicka Plaza that was more expensive, for about 2 weeks, and after this I moved to a place called Sutomore, Montenegro which also has its charms, this was in September to October of 2021, and I’ll tell you why it was memorable. Sutomore is a small beach town that is up the coast of Montenegro about 30 minutes in between Budva and Ulcinj. The taxi driver who drove me from Budva to Ulcinj was badmouthing Sutomore because it was the cheapest place you can rent along the coast in Montenegro.
My time in Sutomore Montenegro. When I arrived here the summer was winding down and it was interesting to see the place becoming quieter into the fall, in my mind this was memorable. Sutomore I would describe as charming in the fall. I stayed in an Airbnb up a hill about 1/3 of a mile from the beach. It was a super affordable price, one of the lowest prices I’ve paid for a monthly rental for a private room with A/C, tv, its own private bathroom, and a fridge! Here i spent my time at the beach or inside the restaurants on my laptop as I’m somewhat of a digital nomad/pro tourist and social media fiend. I also used to play with the strays along the beach one of whom was adorable. One town south, is a place called Bar, Montenegro.
sutomore montenegro
Bar, Montenegro and the fall season. In order to get to Bar, you must either hitchhike or take a local private bus for about $1. You can’t walk along the roadside because there’s not one and there is no sidewalk, there are also big trucks that come barreling down the windy roads without looking, did I mention hills and curves? So once one hitchhikes his way over to Bar, there’s a bit more of a town there, including some shipping centers, a waterfront, sports facilities, and bigger resorts that cater to cruise ship customers. there is also a port for loading and unloading. You can see this video that I took in Bar which I uploaded to Youtube here! You can see how it’s kind of deserted in the Fall, enjoy.
Moving… Later in the fall it became very dark and rainy here in Montenegro, and beach season ended. Over in Sutomore many of the business shut down for the season, and hardly anything was left. on October 20th I made the choice to relocate to Tirana, Albania. I hired a private taxi driver to drive me from Sutomore to Tirana for about 120 Euro, it was a smooth trip, and I needed to get a Rapid covid test to enter Albania, and passed the border by land.
