Here I am at the end of a five-week trip. I started in Rome, where I had eleven days on my own. From there I went on an OAT tour with fourteen other travelers to Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia. And at the end of that tour, I decided to treat myself to some solitude…
I spent four days in North Macedonia to finish my OAT tour. Now I’m back in Greece, on the island of Naxos, to finish my trip with some quiet and solitude. The North Macedonia portion of the trip consisted of two nights in Охрид (Ohrid) and two nights in the capital, Скопје (Skopje). (I’m done…
I’m currently in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. And that simple statement is actually very complicated
I’ve never been to a city like Tirana. At the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Tirana was about 10,000. It became the capital of Albania in the 1920s and grew throughout the century, but growth slowed during the Communist era, from the end of World War II until 1991. Since the fall of…
I stayed three nights in Gjirokaster. We took a day trip to Butrint, and we spent a few hours in Berat yesterday on our way to Tirana, where we are now. Gjirokaster, Butrint, and Berat are all UNESCO World Heritage Sites. I’ll mostly let the photos do the talking, and I’ll share some of what UNESCO…
One of the things I like about traveling with OAT is what they call “A Day in the Life.” They give us an opportunity to interact with a local family in a way that gives us a chance to understand what life is like in their community. Yesterday we spent the morning with Roland on…
I expected my travels to Greece to consist primarily of seeing ancient ruins and experiencing Greek culture. I didn’t expect so much scenic beauty. And then we came to Ζαγόρι (Zagori) and I was blown away for the third time in the past four days, but this time because the landscape is stunning. Some of…
I don’t know how to write about Meteora. Most places I’ve traveled in my life I’ve researched in advance. But I knew nothing about Meteora before I came here. So I was blown away by the amazing rock formations. And then I came to realize that they are topped by medieval monasteries that would be…
Some of these stories are true. Some are mythological. I think they’re all interesting, and they all help understand a lot about Thessaloniki and the nearby places I visited over the last few days.
This morning I left Crete and flew to Thessaloniki, where we are spending three nights. Our last two days were spent traveling from Chania to Ηράκλειο (Heraklion) and visiting the Palace of Minos at Κνωσσός (Knossos). I’m finding more and more that photos tell my stories better than I do, so I’ll be brief here…
Χανιά is Chania, the city where I spent the last two nights. I just admire Greek for having one letter for sounds that the Latin alphabet requires two letters to spell. Χ (chi) represent the “ch” sound in German “Ach” or Scottish “loch.” Θ (theta) gives Greek its “th” sound with just one letter. It’s…
I had just about a day and a half in Athens. I arrived Sunday afternoon and left before dawn on Tuesday morning. It was a whirlwind visit. That’s okay. There was not really all that much to see. Athens is a one-trick pony. It’s a pretty damn good trick, but having seen it, I don’t…
