Thessaloniki - Skopje - Pristina

Yes I know, it has been three and a half weeks and I am posting just now… sorry! 😑

So, I thought I will travel to Bulgaria, Ukraine and Belarus… So of course I end up in Greece, Macedonia and Kosovo! ☺ I found a good deal on flights, I booked just 4 days before the flight and return ticket was about 153€ including a checked in baggage, the airline was Ellinair (good service on flight by the way). And they didn't even loose my baggage! With my track record that is excellent. Flight from Bucharest to Thessaloniki took only about an hour, but that is also a very long time when you have to listen to a screaming brat. Yikes! I took a bus to city center, that cost 2€, and then about 15 mins walk to the hotel. Which is also a very long walk when you have a backpack on and it is 32 degrees! But it felt so great to have backpack on again!

I was at the hotel quite late and it was already a bit dark outside so I just stayed in and ordered room service (yes, really, like a true backpacker). Hotel Olympia was really great with very good service and nice breakfast, just 10-15 mins walk to the center or to the seaside. The only not so good thing was that you couldn’t adjust the temperature. I could have the ac in low or high or have it on or off but 23 degrees was the only possibility. That was too cold and I would’ve been sick in couple of hours f I hadn't turned that off. The next day after breakfast I went walking around, mostly I walked at seaside of course. I saw a lot of motorcycles but not a lot of helmets! Yes, it was hot  and I am sure it feels great to ride and feel the air but still… Wear a helmet you idiot! Thessaloniki is a beautiful city with long pavement by the sea, nice cafes and restaurants. It was really hot day, about 37 degrees and I was sweating like a pig all day. I don't even want to know what the temperature was in the sun! Maybe 4 hours walking in that infernal heat wasn’t my brightest idea… I sent two postcards, one for my mum and one for a friend who collects postcards from different countries. I try to remember to send him cards whenever I travel but sometimes I forget (sorry). He is restoring some of my stuff in Finland for free for indefinite time, so this is the least I can do! It was so hot outside that I had to go to hotel for a few hours, I <3 air conditioning! In the evening I went out again to get some food and a glass of wine (duh…). The next day I checked out from the hotel, left my backpack to a locker at the station and went to the sea again. I can’t even describe how much I love the sea! My bus to Skopje left at 17.30 and it cost 20 €, the bus company was Simeonidis tours, and you can book by email!

Photos of Thessaloniki should be here. But they are not. I downloaded my photos and it showed download completed, but in reality only a few photos had downloaded. I lost a lot of great memories and beautiful scenery! 😥

The bus was supposed to arrive to Skopje at 20.30, we arrived at 22.50 because we spent two hours at the border, they were checking some people on the bus. It seemed to be the non-europeans they checked. Gotta love Schengen and my EU passport… next to me sat a Mexican guy, he was one of the persons that got checked, although they didn’t ask him a lot, just a couple of questions and that was it. Some others they questioned a lot more. But I had some nice talks with the guy, he was also a couchsurfer! ☺

I got a negative experience from Skopje before even going there. I made a booking for an apartment, and received confirmation. I emailed the time of my arrival, and asked for directions how to get there from bus station. She replied and asked how many persons (like the directions are different depending on how many persons arrive..?), and when I said one she said there was an error in the system and it should not have shown it is available since it is not available. But she told me she knows another place, and I had to ask many times are the services and the price the same. She finally said yes they are and I confirmed I will take it. Oh no no no no no… next that is not available either and that owner had let her down (who was first she and then he) and I have two choices: stay in another (third) apartment which has the same services and price but it is further away and not walking distance, or I could stay at her house and she has an extra bedroom. Seriously? Would you pay 100€ in Skopje to get one bedroom in somebody’s house??? Luckily she said she has a dog so I couldn’t stay there in any case due to my allergy. What a scam. I told her no and that I will leave a feedback where I will tell the true story. Her last message was calling me rude and she doesn’t want people like me near her, and that she’s had it taking all this shit from me and that she is very stressed now. Apparently it is shit when a guest is asking to get what she has booked. Yep yep… I of course made a new booking to another place. The first booking was for Christie apartments, just so you know to avoid it.

But the other place didn’t go so smoothly either. I was wondering why it was so difficult to find accommodation and everything was already booked. Yeah, exactly then there was Uefa Super Cup Manchester United vs Real Madrid! No wonder. I knew that what I booked was overpriced and it will be a crappy place. And it sure was. The location was pretty good though, I could walk to the center! Checking in was a bit tricky because the guy spoke hardly any English, he had to call a colleague who came to work for that, and she complained to me about it. Really not my problem.

Since I arrived very late, I just went to sleep… next day I walked to the center, got lost a few times (maybe I should write the times I DON’T get lost). Because of the game, there were a lot of people and tents etc, LOUD techno playing at 11 am in the old town. Quite a contrast. I am sure I really didn’t see the “real” Skopje but that was not the place I enjoyed much. I chose the wrong dates to visit! I noticed that they sure like statues and monuments, the place is just full of them! Officially I think the country is called FYROM, the Former Yugoslavian Republic Of Macedonia. Greece also has area called Macedonia (where Thessaloniki is), and Greece opposed so much that there would be a country called Macedonia, that it is FYROM. Well boohoo, get over it Greeks!

Photos of Skopje are not here...

After two nights in Skopje I took a bus to Pristina, it costs only about 5€. It was supposed to take two hours but it took three hours, again they checked some people at the border more closely. I took a tax to the hotel, hotel Adria was a very nice hotel! I had a great view from my window. I rested a little bit and went walking around, it was just about 10 mins walk from the center so also the location was pretty good. Next day I also walked around the city, five hours in the heat and I was exhausted… the infernal heat continued the whole trip, during the day it was 36-42 degrees so you really can't walk around all day like I usually do when I am travelling. I was actually so tired that I had dinner at the hotel and went to bed really early.

This is one of the few photos that has been saved, the monument of a new country.

Friday was travel day! First back to Skopje. I was prepared for a couple of hours of delay, but the bus was just 30 mins late so I had a couple of hours in Skopje, and time to have something to eat. Then a bus to Thessaloniki which was “just” about thirty minutes late. The bus had only about 25% seats taken, and there were no waits at the borders, but still thirty minutes late. I would like to know if those busses have EVER been on time?! The scenery in Macedonia, which I didn’t see on my way there because it was too dark, was absolutely gorgeous! Too bad people there throw their rubbish to the nature so that was not a pretty sights. Just rubbish everywhere! Why are people so stupid?? In Thessaloniki I stayed the one night in Rent Rooms, really lovely place, and they had a hostel cat! It had a real backpacker atmosphere☺.

Photo of the hostel cat, so lucky that this one was saved!

We are all the same!

For some reason I had thought that not everybody in that area speak English. In all those places, in every cafe, restaurant and shop I went to, they spoke at least some English, so did the taxi drivers. I don’t know why I thought English is not that widely spoken! Stupid things in my head obviously. I definitely saw the consequences of the economic crisis in Greece. I wasn’t expecting to see that many homeless people and beggers and street dogs as I did. It is quite sad how that many people don’t have a roof over their heads and enough food to eat, and we are talking about western countries! It is a hard life when you don’t have a place to go, and I realize how privileged I am and have been all my life! My problems are nothing compared to that. In Macedonia and Kosovo I expectd to see a bit more of that, and I also did.

Saturday it was time to go back home… 😣

I started to feel a little bit blue already on Friday evening. It’s always a bummer when you have to stop travelling and go home and back to work and be a “normal” adult again. I HATE THAT!!! But I have six more weeks to go, and then I will be moving to Lisbon, my flight is on the 4th of October and I will start in my new job at the 9th. So I will have some days to explore the city and relax! But I don’t know when my next holiday will be and when can I travel again. I will try to visit some more romanian cities before I leave but they will be just day or weekend trips since I have used all my holidays now. My next post will probably be about visiting those cities, don’t know when will that be…

Last Saturday I went out with friends, and in one bar we found a perfect wine for me!

On Sunday I went hiking to Poiana Brasov, took the cable car up and walked down. The next couple of days I could barely walk 😂. I even had to roll out of bed, that would’ve been one funny home video! But Poiana saa amazing… sigh. I will miss the mountains. I am excited about moving to Lisbon and can’t wait to get to the ocean, but I am starting to feel a bit blue at the same time. I will miss Brasov, the mountains, the old town, and especially the lovely people here. I have felt here better than in years. But new country and new city are waiting! And new people, new travels and so on. But Brasov will always have a very special place in my heart 💓.

Still a few photos of Poiana

I still have some places I want to visit nearby, at least Codlea and Sibiu. And I am also thinking about leaving Brasov already on weekend and go to Bulgarian cost for a few days before going to Bucharest and flight to Lisbon. We'll see... You have probably already figured out my plans seem to change sometimes a little bit 😁. But my next post will be about these last weeks here, and then I will start writing about living in Lisbon!

Peles castle - Poiana Brasov - new plans

As I wrote in my previous post, my sister and her husband visited me, and I also took those days off. They arrived early Wednesday morning (5 am) and after a few hours of sleep we started to explore the city. The weather was gorgeous all the time they were here, about 30 degrees and lots of sunshine! We visited the Black Church and went up to Mount Tampa. My sister is terrified of hights but after a couple of drinks we got her to the cable car 😁. Dinner we had in Sergiana.

On Thursday we took the train to Sinaia in the morning and went to Peles castle. I hadn’t been there myself before! Omg that place is gorgeous!! I totally recommend everybody to visit, the garden is so beautiful too. The entrance fee was 30 lei, it includes a guided tour. If you want larger tour to the private rooms, it is 60 lei, and if you want to take pictures inside it is 35 lei. We took just the basic tour. Luckily we were there early so we didn’t have to wait long, but after our tour the queu was VERY long. So go early, or not in high season. We were back in Brasov in the evening, and had dinner in Stradivari.

Here’s some pictures from there

On Friday it was the hottest day so we wanted to escape that a little, and went to Poiana Brasov for a day. It was hot there too but of course the air is more fresh in the mountains. We took the bus at noon so it was already quite warm… we just walked around and me and my brother-in-law took the cable car up. There is not enough alcohol on this planet to get my sister there so she stayed on the terrace ☺. The view up there is just amazing! I just walked around and took dozens of pictures because it was so gprgeous! I think the price for up and down was 30 lei. You can also go only one way and I was thinking some day go just up and hike down, they have good trails for hiking there. After going down we decided to stay in Poiana until evening, we found a nice terrace and the cider was cold 🍻. Dinner place in Brasov was Pocol (they have excellent risotto) and that restaurant has the weirdest toilets ever. Every wall in the toilet is a mirror. So no matter where you look, you just see your own ass 😂. Very confusing. I wonder if the designer was high?

Pictures from Poiana

Saturday was shopping day and that is always fun! We also had excellent sushi for lunch! For dinner we went to Jamaica Club or something like that. On Sunday they left. So I thought. But there was a storm between Brasov and Bucharest and on the mountain roads there were fallen trees for 2 km so they had to turn back. I booked them new flights for Tuesday and on Monday they went to Bucharest to see the city a little bit. And they made it back home! It was great having them here, we had very nice dinners with very nice wine, but I also have to say that for a very introverted person like me it was also exhausting. Glad they visited and glad they left.

This sign for toilets in hotel Aro Palace in Brasov

I noticed I haven’t shown you my tattoo, so here it is. The text NOMAD I took in November 2015 in Finland and the rest of it I took here over a month ago. I am also going to get a cover tattoo on my old one, it is a black and white rose and it is getting very blurry now. I can recommend Eli Tattoo here! 

And then my new plans… I told about the contact from Lisbon in my previous post. Well, they offered me the job and I have accepted it. The training will start October 9 and my flight is on the 4th, so I will have a few days to get to know the city a little bit. I love Brasov and I am going to miss so many people here (but some of them have promised to visit me in Lisbon) but I miss water so much and now I have a chance to live at the ocean! OCEAN!!! If I hate the job, I will look for something new again. At first I will live in company’s apartment, shared with others so we’ll see how that goes… but I am excited to go and can’t wait for the two months to go by!

I still have five days vacation so in a week I will have a week off. Still not sure where I will travel then because I have too many choices in my head. So many nearby places I want to visit and if I don’t visit now they will disappear and I will never see them. PANIC! So my next post will be about that holiday, stay tuned to find out where I ended up… ☺

Poiana Brasov, and this and that

I just celebrated my birthday a week ago! On that day, which luckily was Saturday this year, I went out with a few friends, and then on Sunday I went to Poiana Brasov. I even bought a summer dress! Yes, really!! It was really warm weather that weekend, on Saturday even 35 degrees and that kind of temperature is not usual here. I love Poiana, it takes about 30 mins by bus from Brasov, and it costs 5 lei. Poiana is very touristy, lots of hotels and spas, because lots of tourists come to the mountains, in the winter for skiing, summer for hiking, or just for a spa.

Here’s finally some pictures from there.

Since I updated my Couchsurfing profile to accepting guests again, I have been hosting here a lot. I have a guest almost every week, or even three guests a week! As I am an extreme introvert, sometimes I have to “force” myself to host. Don’t get me wrong, I love hosting and I have only positive experience, but I just need so much time alone to recharge my batteries. At work I am with people all day so sometimes I decline requests because I can’t handle any more social interaction. But I have met great people from all over the world and with some of them we keep in touch and I hope to meet them again! There are not that many active hosts in Brasov so I get a LOT of requests, and just because of that I have to decline most of them, I have only one couch ☺. My friends in Brasov; set up a couch! NOW!

But so far, all my guests would stay with me again, and I would host all of them again. I haven’t surfed myself a lot, and not in a long time but all my hosts would host me again! So in my profile I have only positive references.

Some of my friends have asked me about street dogs. Yes, there are a lot of street dogs here, and a lot more in Iasi and especially Chisinau. Here in Brasov you don’t see them that much in the centre though. It was just breaking my heart in Moldova when the dogs were looking for humans, coming close and wanting food and attention. I just wanted to adopt them all 😭. Just horrible. Every dog should have a warm and loving home! In Poiana when I was hiking, a street dog started to follow me. He walked right next to me all the way to the hotel, just like he was my dog. I just had to walk to the hotel without even looking at him because I just wanted  to take him with me. I had my window to the  door, and I saw him standing there for a while looking at the door, like waiting for me to come back. It was so awful!! Don’t take pets if you can’t take care of them! And if something happens, find your pet a new home or take him/her to an animal shelter but DO NOT throw them to the street! Assholes. And if you have a chance, offer a home to a homeless animal, just as my friend here in Brasov has already done, adopted a street dog. I have spoken.

In week and a half my sister and her husband are coming for a visit, and I will also take a few days off to show them around. Haven’t made any plans, except just walk around the old town, eat good food, and one day go to Poiana. Maybe, just MAYBE, sometimes have a glass of wine :).It is great they visit me, actually so far only one friend has visited me and then I had been here only a few weeks and knew nothing where to visit! I still haven’t visited Codlea or Peles castle, or Cluj, and those places at least I want to check. I hope I will still get other visitors too!

And then some thoughts about the future… Almost a year ago when I was looking for a job, I also applied for a job in Lisbon, and they contacted me but then I got this job and told them I am no longer available. About six months later they emailed me that they need now some finnish speaking people over there, and asked if I would be interested. First they were talking about 2 positions that would’ve started right away but I said no. Then they said a new project will start in October, and interviewed me for that position. But then a couple of days ago they emailed me that the project has been cancelled, BUT they might have another project starting in October if I would like to hear more about that. They will call me on Monday and tell me more. What I know so far is that this project doesn’t seem as interesting as the previous one. This would be pretty much the same thing I am doing now. The salary would not be as good but I could live in company’s apartment (shared). But living costs in Lisbon are higher than in Brasov. But I would live near the ocean. You probably noticed I have mixed feelings at the moment. Am I moving forward if I am doing the same thing but just in a different location? I want to move forward, haven’t applied for any other jobs yet though, because it is just my personality to keep going! Of course, if I hate the job, I can always look for the next one. Or hell, come back here (if they will take me back anymore :)). I don’t know, but I have weeks to figure this out. And talk to my sister about this, she is always a good mirror to me and knows me better than anyone else.

So there, lots of things to write about this time, next post will be after my sister’s visit and hopefully then I have visited some new places! 

Malaga - Stockholm

Very long and too short road trip is done! I left home at midnight, took the airport bus, and my flight was at 7. Couldn’t sleep on the bus as usual, and slept maybe 30 mins on a plane so I was a little bit tired when I arrived to Malaga… I rested a while, then we went riding on his motorcycle to Torremolinos and Fuengirola. And I saw the sea again!!! I just love the feeling when on a motorcycle… there you can really FEEL you are going somewhere, so again I was smiling like an idiot 😎. Unfortunately the weather was not the best and it was also raining a bit… No surprise there! In the evening I got smoked trout! Friday morning it was raining like hell, naturally. So we waited a few hours and it cleared up, and finally I got to see El Chorro. From there we rode to Fuengirola and then back to Churriana. And we smoked salmon and I had a sauna… oh yes! It was nice to see some people again but it was weird feeling going back there. But I definitely miss so much being near water!

Here’s some photos from El Chorro.

Early Saturday morning we started driving… first destination was Pamplona (no Peniscola this time), about 870 km I think so we arrived there quite late. We drove a lot on smaller toll free roads, which were absolutely beautiful with idyllic villages on the way. But it was also quite slow with the trailer and small mountain roads! Breaks were really smelling bad after that… In Pamplona we stayed at hotel Bed4u, perfect for just a sleep and a big parking lot that we needed. Sunday was our longest drive, about 930 km to Rouen. In the first two days we drove 1800 km’s, and I could really feel it. Some of you know that I have permanent damage in my left ear, which causes dizziness sometimes, and especially after a flight or a long drive. Since I forgot my ear plugs for the flight, and had two long days in a car, I was feeling a bit dizzy. Luckily it was not as bad as it could have been, and surprisingly my ears were not blocked after the flight! So far my record has been 3 weeks of not hearing well and having to hold on to something when I walk. In Rouen our hotel was Ibis, again perfect for just a sleep and a good parking lot.

Third day we drove to Bremen. First two days was gorgeous scenery, but the norther we got, the flatter and also more boring it got, since then we were driving on highways instead of small roads. We had 7 cd's and we were sick of hearing them after two days. Don't get me wrong, I love Metallica, but enough is enough. In Bremen we stayed in hotel Wolters, small hotel but also very nice! Luckily I am so good at finding the best hotels for any situation ☺. Day four, to Ängelholm, and that was absolutely the best hotel! Hotel Klitterhus was at the sea, seriously like 10 m to the sea! We also had a view to the sea from our room. After eating four days at the gas stations it was great to eat real food in a real restaurant. It was a bit rainy for the last days, and very cold in Sweden! So we were just looking at the sea… The last day we drove to Stockholm, only about 570 km so we arrived early. I booked a studio from Airbnb, and that was really great, and our host was totally lovely!

Here's some photos from the road, mostly from Spain and France

This is to my Dutch friends ☺

We stopped at the border shop before taking the ferry from Germany to Denmark. I didn't buy this but just had to take a photo... You know why!

This is the view from our hotel room window at hotel Klitterhus!

This is a bad photo but it says HÖLÖ and MÖRKÖ. If you know Finnish and Swedish you know why it is so hilarious! The rest of you have to use Google translate. 

When I was at Arlanda, waiting for boarding, I received a message from my sister that mum was taken to hospital that morning by ambulance. I already thought I have to quickly somehow change my flight… she is still at the hospital and will stay there for a while but is better now, she has heart failure. I feel sorry for my sister for having to be the only one taking care of things over there, since I am in Brasov and my brother is in Dallas. I can only offer moral support from distance!

Then something that I have been thinking how to put. A few of you know who I travelled with, and you know what a total a**hole he is. To the most of you, let’s just say that me and him have an ugly history. When he asked me to this road trip, I knew it was a bad idea to say yes. One of my worst ideas ever. And that it really was, just in a different way than I thought. I was prepared that nothing has changed, but I was not prepared that everything has changed. He kept telling me before the trip that it will be fine and we will work it out if something goes wrong. What a load of bs. Also the good parts between us had changed, and that I couldn’t handle but shut myself totally to cope with it. It caused him to be even more cold and indifferent to me. After day two we hardly spoke at all. I was really upset in couple of nights but he just didn't give a shit about that (he never does). He still hasn’t commented anything and I know that he never will because he has zero respect for me (or for any woman). I am still waiting for him to pay for the hotels!

So there, I will not give all the ugly details, but it made me thinking of travel partners. I love travelling alone, because usually I like being alone. Sometimes it would be nice to have someone with you to share ideas, to look for your bags, someone to have dinner with, someone to say it will be ok when I am tired… but could I travel with someone? I am not the easiest person either to be with! I need a lot of time for myself, I need to recover alone from social interaction, I get exhausted and cranky if someone speaks all the time, I can’t handle noice in the morning, I get cranky when I am hungry (I know someone who is just laughing her ass off right now!) or tired and so on… Any volunteer travel partners? No? Ok.

Now I am having the post travel depression… coming home is always hard. In fifteen minutes it already felt like I was never anywhere and have this empty feeling. I am still hoping my friends would visit me here so we could make short trips to nearby cities. Everyone is welcomed to stay at my place for a few days. As long as you don't speak in the mornings. Or eat garlic. And bring red wine. 🍷