Sofia, Bucharest, Macedonia & Pristina

My trip in Europe is almost ending and I have two weeks left to see some new places. Normally I love to travel slowly and spend a lot of time in just one country. Now I decided to travel quicker and see some of the capitals. My original plan was to go from Istanbul by night train to Bucharest. Unfortunately these trains start running from next week. I was forced to go first to sofia before arriving in Bucharest. I took for 20 euros an eleven hours during night bus to sofia.

I arrived at hostel 123 in the morning, checked in and left to the city for a walk. I heard from a lot of travelers that this would be a boring city. Despite of other opinions I would give this city an unbiased chance. 

The first stop in the city was to score some vegetarian food at a place called the loving hut. Really nice and good food and all the food is vegetarian or vegan. With a full belly there would be nothing better than going for a digestive walk in the city center.  

The Alexander Nevski Cathedral is the most famous building in Sofia. This Bulgarian Orthodox Cathedral is built in Neo-Byzantine style and finished around 1912.  In the huge dome are gods prayers inscribed with golden letters. Saint Alexander Nevski was a Russian prince. This church was build in honour of the lost Russian soldiers who died during the Russian-Turkish war. Till 1992 this was the biggest Orthodox church in the world.  

Via the tomb of honorius I arrived to the St. Nicholas the miracle maker church. On this place was before a mosque that was destroyed in 1882 after the liberation of Bulgaria. This church was built and finished in 1912 as church of the Russian embassy. 

After a walk via the palace and some small parks i decided to visit the national art museum. A few interesting paintings but nothing really special for me personally. This didn’t take a lot time before i continued my way. I saw the old roman roads, more churches and buildings and ended up in the park by the national palace of culture. This park was actually one of the highlights of the city in my opinion. 

After a few hours of walking and visiting places I saw everything what this city has to offer, except the nightlife. Besides that there should be a nice mountain to visit next to the city. One morning or afternoon would be enough to see all the highlights of this city. I decided to move on to Bucharest the next day. To be fair is this city in my opinion really boring and only worth a visit if your passing by in East Europe. But the Bulgarian people I met in this short amount of time were all really friendly. 

I’ve been to Romania before but not to Bucharest yet. I heard some good stories about the city and after Sofia everything would be better anyway. This country is famous about Cha Cha, The Danube, Dracula, the moving churches and Palinka.  

I actually wanted to visit the National museum of national art here as well. I didn’t want to get disappointed as in Sofia so I decided to go only for the temporary art museum what has way more of my interest. 

This museum is located in the second biggest building in the world after Pentagon. The palace of the parliament is an amazing and impressive building build in Roman style. I’ve seen this building before on television when Andre Rieu was giving a concert. This was a beautiful setting in front of the palace square at evening. 

Herâstrâu park is beautiful for walking or cycling. When you come with the subway there is immediately a bike rental stand at the exit. You pay for the amount of time that you use the bike. I had time enough and went for a walk in the park. A lot of people are relaxing, sporting or walking around the lake or in the park. A good place to hang out of walk for some hours. 

Next to the park is the triumphal arch. The first arch was build by wood in 1878 when Romania gained independence and the victorious troops could march under it. Since 1 December 1936 the arch similar to the one in Paris was ready for use. Nowadays on the 1st of December the arch is used for military parades on the national independence day of Romania.

Besides these things I walked a lot around in the city what has a lot of roman style buildings. The city has some good bars for some dancing and drinking. In a lot of clubs they only let you in with a (short) jeans. Its a nice city to walk and I would say staying two full days is more than enough.

In the bus to Skopje, the capitol of Macedonia I met Cal from Australia and Owen from Ireland. After arriving in the same hostel we went for an afternoon hike to the millennium cross next to the city. A warm temperature for hiking but at the end worth all the sweat. The views from the top over the city, mountains and valleys are really beautiful. Especially if you see how much you get for a very short hike. For the lazy, old or injured people is there  a cable car to go the summit. 

After a shower it was time to go to the Irish pub to see the final of the Nations League. The Netherlands was playing against Portugal for the first ‘friendly’ final of Europe. Luckily the beer tasted better than the quality of the match. After a loss of 1-0 we decided to move on to the next bar. Off course i wanted the Netherlands to win, but to be fair I didn’t bother that much about the loss.  

On the way to probably the most famous place of Macedonia, lake Ohrid. This lake is half in Macedonia and half in Albania. If you believe the locals Lake Ohrid is the deepest lake in Europe but its not true. The deepest lake of Europe is in Norway. 

After arriving we went for a walk in the city and did the coastal walkway. Nice to walk around in the nature and see the churches and fort on top of the hill. Also the roman theatre is nice to see and probably in summertime there would be some nice shows. The views from the hill over the city and lake are amazing. If you have the time don’t forget to see sunset from the hill. There are many restaurants and bars and some of them have a beautiful view over the lake and nature. The prices of beer are in general not that more expensive as in the supermarket. 

In one afternoon you can easily visit the sights of Ohrid. This place is wonderful and I would recommend to take your time and make enough stops when you explore this place. Swimming is a good option as well but be prepared for the cold water. 

Sunny lake hostel is a cheap and nice place to stay and meet new people. Breakfast is included but definitely not recommended, nothing special and less choice. After breakfast we moved on to start hiking from the village Velestovo to the Tri Maži peak. This is an 4-5 hour hike included food at the end of the track. A beautiful hike with different types of landscapes to walk through. Especially the view on the peak over the lake and mountains are already worth making this hike. On the top you walk for a while over the ridge with stunning views. The best part was that this route is not popular and we didn’t see any other people during the whole hike. 

I wanted to go for a night to Pristina in Kosovo. Literally everyone recommended me not doing this but going for a day trip. They told me walking around here for 2 hours would be more than enough. Kosovo, this country declared for the 2nd time in history his indepency. This time with luck, Kosovo is Europes youngest country. I left for my day trip and the first thing i mentioned were the beautiful and green colors of the nature. After arriving in Pristina there were loads of police officers and people from the army with semi-automatic guns on the streets. I had no clue if this was normal or that something was going on. 

I walked around in the city, took a picture of the Bill Clinton statue and visited the beautiful designed library. After a lunch I continued my way to the city center. The place was crowded with army, fences, people and more police. I saw people with flags from Albania, America and Kosovo off course. I walked into the crowd to the fence and saw a lot of photographers and people from the television. After asking some people, the real Bill Clinton would walk here soon. I decided to wait and looked around what all was happening. I saw a lot of people as well with guns and binoculars on the roofs. People were singing and shouting U-S-A. They all love America and Bill because he recognized Kosovo as a country during his presidency. The closer he came the more noisy and crazy the people get. This was for me a nice and unexpected experience because I knew nothing about this. After seeing this crazy parade passing by I moved on to the next destinations. 

I walked around the city and saw some churches, mosques and statues. To be fair I’m really glad I listened to the people in Skopje. This city has nothing to see except a lot of beautiful women. The unexpected meeting with Bill was by far my highlight of the day. 

In Skopje we walked around in the city centre. The government decided a few years ago to be more like a western European city. Loads of statues got build in the city and many old buildings got plastered. These old buildings are still the same but the outside looks like an Roman style building. 

In the evening I went to a Cuban bar for some beers and Spanish dance moves. The day after I just relaxed because we should spend the evening with Derrick May. After a long time finally some techno beats again. After a really good and long night I woke up very late the day after. The club scene seems to be very good in Skopje, different events are going on. 

Matva canyon was scheduled, but I asked the guys to leave a bit later due to my hangover. At the end this was a really good decision. We entered the bus and we sat in the back. A guy walked into the bus with a very familiair face. I did not doubt for a second and walked towards him. This was Bart, my friend from high school. How random can this be to be in the same country and especially in the same bus to a place outside the city. I did not see him for 2 years. We spend a lovely day together with his step-sister and sister in law in the beautiful Matva canyon. This canyon is absolute worth visiting. The canyon is just 50 minutes outside the city and a must do if you like the nature. On the way back we missed the last direct bus to Skopje. At the end this was not a problem, via 2 other busses we arrived back in the city. 

Normally when I take a plane I never check in online. I always arrange this when I reach the airport and do all at the same moment with the lugage. From this moment I will never make this mistake again, especially not with low budget companies as Wizz air, Ryan air or whatever.  At the desk they told me I had to pay 2900 Makedonian Denar (47 euro) because I did not check in online. Just some poured away money...

But I didnt care that much about the money to be fair. I was on my way back home after a year again to surprise my family and some friends. Nobody knows Im coming home and I will just knock on their doors to surprise them. Im very excited to see them and for the reactions of my short return.