Prepping for a Balkan Adventure
I crack a cold beer as I sit down to write this, pausing to admire the chipped green plastic covering the rusting metal opener and rubbing my thumb over the raised Tsingtao logo. Some would look at this piece of junk and see just that: junk. But it's a relic of some of the best times of my life gone by to me — a bottle opener from our favorite hole-in-the-wall chuanr (meat on a stick) restaurant in Daqing, China.
After spending so much time there with so many great people, it's been difficult to slowly let go of that chapter of my life after it came to an abrupt halt during the Covid-19 pandemic.
I was definitely sensing it was time to move on prior to that, but damn, talk about unceremoniously ripping the bandaid off. Also, no, I never got my stuff back.
I've had a few international adventures between then and now — an extended visit to the Inner Hebrides, weathering London's 2021 lockdown, venturing south of the border for the first time to Costa Rica, and an unlikely Western Caribbean cruise — but nothing on the scale of China.
It's time to change that.
The trip I teased in my last post isn't just a nebulous "might be nice" reverie any longer — flights and five months of accommodation are all booked for Tirana, Albania!
“Now I'm just that guy living in North Carolina again who travels when he gets the chance.”
I'll be heading out for this potentially year-long gradual journey around the Balkans in February, which simultaneously feels like tomorrow and ages away. It won't be a vacation — I fully intend to continue remote working during weekdays from 9 to 5 Central European Time (a special note to present and future clients).
Let's take a look at the rough itinerary, shall we?
The Balkans Loop
This travel plan hinges on taking advantage of AirBnB's discounts on monthly stays. Now, I know they've been taking a lot of flak lately for many reasons, but this traveler has yet to experience any issues with them. Perhaps I'll have a different opinion during or after this trip. For slow travel and remote working, the huge discounts of sometimes over 50% on a per-month basis really can't be beaten.
Provisionally, I'm looking at five different cities in the Balkans to use as home bases for a slow circuit around the region. I'll visit other places along the way and take numerous day and multi-day trips from each hub. Check out the snazzy little map below that I drew up in a frenzied planning session during the witching hour one evening. Next to it is a revised version after some valuable feedback from the last bastion of goodness on Twitter: the travel community. Read to the end for shoutouts to everyone who contributed!
My map before and after the Twitter travel community’s feedback.
Stage 1: Starting in Tirana, Albania
In February, I take a very reasonable one-way flight out of Greensboro (GSO) — with layovers in Newark (EWR) and Vienna (VIE) — to Tirana (TIR). I spend five months in Albania, hopefully thriving, adapting, and gaining a deeper understanding of the country. I'm definitely a fan of slower, mindful travel, and having some roots in a new place for a bit will prepare me for some of the more whirlwind legs of the journey instead of just go-go-going right out of the gate.
Tirana will be my jumping off point to many excursions around the country, including Pogradec by the mirror-like Lake Ohrid, Himarë’s crystalline Ionian coastline, and the very metal-sounding Accursed Mountains in the north. The beauty of being in a place for so long is collecting nuggets of local knowledge that you can’t easily find online, so I’m certainly anticipating and leaving room for that. Oh, and there will be a bunker counter. If you know, you know.
Stage 2: From Montenegro and Croatia to Bosnia
After my time in Albania is up around mid-July, I plan to move north, spending a couple of days in Kotor, Montenegro, before hitting up Croatia's Adriatic coast to see Dubrovnik and Split, but I'm also open to some smaller towns in between. I won't be in Croatia long because this is a budget-friendly trip. Suffice it to say, the prices have been growing with its popularity. I imagine I might be seeing the inside of some hostels here for the first time in a while...
With my head and hopefully my wallet intact after King's Landing, I'll turn inland toward Bosnia and Herzegovina, a place that has captured my imagination as a place of great beauty and rich, often dark history. I want to spend at least two months here. At least one will be in Sarajevo, but I may spend the other in a smaller town. Even now, the wounds from the 90s still reopen amid renewed tensions in the area, and while my aim is certainly not to interject my opinions as an interloper, I definitely hope to gain a better understanding of why ethnic and religious violence has plagued the region for so long.
Stage 3: Over to Belgrade for a bit
On my mission for that complete picture, I'll next spend a month in Belgrade. Perhaps it's due to my own biases that I grew up with, but I'm more nervous about this leg of the trip than any other. For whatever reason, I have that probably unfounded feeling that I won't be as welcome as an American there. And I can't wait to be proven wrong. I also had this feeling before moving to China, and while nationalism certainly reared its ugly head from time to time. I very rarely met Chinese under 40 who had any ill will towards me. I expect it will be much the same in Serbia despite my apprehension!
Bonus Stage: Overland to Kraków from Belgrade
Like much of this trip after the Albania stage, this stage isn't set in stone. Some friends from my time in Daqing are now teaching in Kraków, and I'd very much like to get that proper send-off we were robbed of amidst Covid. Ideally, I'd like to make an overland train journey to get there. Kraków is only about 365 miles from Belgrade, a shorter distance than it takes me to get to the Carolina coast from Greensboro. It does sometimes blow my mind how close together things in Europe are.
However, it's clear the train links all over the Balkans are in shambles right now, and I need to do more research to see how possible/enjoyable this would be. Basically, if it involves buses, I'll end up taking a flight since I'll be seeing enough of those on the other stages of my journey.
Stage 4: Belgrade to Sofia, Bulgaria by rail
Bonus stage or not, Stage 4 will start with a train journey from Belgrade to the south of Serbia, where I'll spend a few days in Niš and Dimitrovgrad before heading onward to Sofia, Bulgaria. I'll call Sofia home for a month or so, using it as a base to see the gorgeous Rila Mountains and the ancient city of Plovdiv. I'd LOVE to take the overnight train to Istanbul and spend a few days there if my budget allows for it.
I’m not there yet, so here’s a random collection of photos from the last time I was on the Balkan Peninsula.
Stage 5: Through Macedonia to Pristina (or Prizren), Kosovo
Once again, due to not-so-great train connections, I'll take a direct bus from Sofia to Skopje. I may only spend a few days here as I will have probably seen Ohrid and Bitola while based in Tirana. 5 months is a long time, and it's not so far to get to the south of North Macedonia by bus from Tirana.
After Skopje, it seems only poetic to end my trip kind of how it started — among Albanians in Kosovo. Stage 5 may very well be after the New Year into 2025, so I'm kind of unsure how long I'll stay in Kosovo, but I'd like to spend at least a month in Pristina and/or Prizren. What happens here depends on my budget, whether I'm burnt out or not, and a cheeky peek at flights.
Thank you Travel Twitter folks!
The expanded version of my map is all thanks to recommendations from other travelers on Twitter. Workshopping this with you guys is surely going to lead to some incredible experiences! I'd like to shout out everyone who contributed locations that made it to the second version of my map. Follow these guys for their Balkans knowledge:
“You don't even have to ask — I'll be doing all this with one bag.”
How do I pack for all four seasons in the Balkans?
If you've been paying attention to my ramblings here for any time at all, first, sorry for not being more regular with those ramblings. Second, you don't even have to ask — I'll be doing all this with one bag. Choosing a pack that can accommodate gear for outdoor activities in four seasons, nicer clothing to occasionally look presentable, and tools to work remotely requires a lot of careful consideration. My bag obsession may drain my bank account, but I have no shortage of options!
I’ll be taking the Osprey Farpoint 40L for this outing. Yes, I’m a reluctant Cult of Osprey member. There are bags out there with better organization, like Cotopaxi’s Allpa 35 (also in my gear closet), but it’s hard to beat the Farpoint when it comes to versatility and comfort. If I’m wandering around trying to find a bus station or stuck with my full pack for a couple of hours while waiting to check in, this is the one I want on my back. It’s the closest thing to a hiking backpack’s comfort in a travel pack that I’ve found.
That extra level of comfort will come in handy for bearing a weight right around Austrian Airlines’s carry-on limit of 8 kg (17 lbs). Could I go lighter? Almost certainly. But for a full year, I do like to look nice sometimes and not exclusively wear outdoorsy gear. The core of my packing strategy is those two Peak Design packing cubes in the photo below. Crazy what you can fit into those. Once the trip is underway, I’ll do a more detailed write-up on my packing list, similar to my Costa Rica post.
I’m still fine-tuning my Osprey Farpoint 40L loadout.
How will I fund this Balkan adventure?
As a humble freelancer, the cost of living to quality of life ratio in the Balkans weighed a lot on my decision-making process. I have to get back out there for a long-term adventure again, but I'm also not made of money. I chose a region with a lot of natural beauty and a long, complicated history, and can easily fit into my monthly budget.
I'll continue to freelance remotely with my current clients and make a big push to add more (with the important stipulation that they're all based in the US and not in any of the locations mentioned above). Hell, I might even save money compared to living in the States, even after factoring in all the travel excursions. I plan to track my expenses each month to try and gather some data for other nomads who might be considering the Balkans for their next move.
What are my goals while I travel the Balkans?
More than anything, to start a new chapter. Ever since China and Covid and a slew of other personal things in my life, I've felt stagnant here at home. I'm eager for a hard reset that will challenge and enrich me in a way I've been struggling to find here in NC. I love this great state and will probably die here one day, but it's one of those "wrong place, wrong time" situations right now.
I say that, but also securing my future has been more on my mind lately. I'm not sure how many chances I'll have to do another year-long adventure like this, so I'm doing it now. I'll be happy to settle for you one day, North Carolina, but I've got to take care of something first.
And have you seen how much Albania has been making the rounds in the travel space? It's time to get in on the ground floor, people. We're in an age where the "diamonds in the rough" are rapidly becoming in short supply. One day, Albania will be like Croatia is now. I feel privileged to see it before it gets to that point. ◉
Written by Seth Barham
