Romania and Bulgaria were at the top of my bucket list, so when the OAT tour I signed up for got canceled, I had to make different plans, as I had already purchased airfare.
I settled on a tour OAT calls “Ancient Lands of Alexander the Great.” This is something of a misnomer, since probably less than half the tour had anything to do with Alexander. But that’s okay, because this tour was as good as I could have hoped for. I loved Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia, and I’m glad in retrospect with how everything turned out.
The pre-trip extension started in Athens and then went to Crete. Then we flew to Thessaloniki and traveled across northern Greece. The tour ended with five nights in Albania and four nights in North Macedonia.
After the tour was over, I decided to give myself a little time to enjoy some solitude on the Greek island of Naxos. November is definitely quiet time on Naxos, but that suited me just fine.
Photo Albums
Greece
Athens (78 items)
Chania (67 items)
Botanical Gardens of Crete (118 items)
Rethimno and Achlada (69 items)
Heraklion (79 items)
Knossos (50 items)
Thessaloniki (83 items)
Aigai (11 items)
Mount Olympus (23 items)
Meteora (81 items)
Metsovo (34 items)
Zagori (84 items)
Ioannina (34 items)
Naxos (116 items)
Albania
Gjirokaster (59 items)
Dhoksat (32 items)
Butrint (55 items)
Berat (57 items)
Tirana (62 items)
North Macedonia
Everything (171 items)
Blog Posts
Ancient Lands of Alexander the Great (9/20/2024) - My next OAT tour is called “Ancient Lands of Alexander the Great.” It includes Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia, all countries I have not yet visited. I already wrote about my plans for Rome at the beginning of October. These… more…
A whirlwind visit to Athens (10/16/2024) - 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… more…
Crete Part One: Χανιά (10/16/2024) - 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”… more…
Crete Part Two: Ηράκλειο and Κνωσσός (10/19/2024) - 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…
Stories from Thessaloniki and Environs (10/22/2024) - 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. Thessaloniki Thessaloniki is the second biggest… more…
Meteora: Monasteries in Magical Places (10/24/2024) - 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… more…
Ζαγόρι: Villages in Magical Places (10/26/2024) - 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… more…
Dhoksat, Albania: A Day in the Life (10/27/2024) - 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… more…
Gjirokaster, Butrint, and Berat: Albania does UNESCO (10/30/2024) - 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… more…
Tirana: A Becoming City (10/31/2024) - 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… more…
What is Macedonia? (11/3/2024) - I’m currently in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. And that simple statement is actually very complicated I asked Petros, our Greek tour leader, and Naum, our local guide, whether Macedonians are an ethnicity or a nationality or a geographical… more…
North Macedonia: Охрид and Скопје (11/5/2024) - 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… more…
Νάξος: by eBike, by Car, and on foot (11/8/2024) - 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.… more…