I spent a month travelling around the Balkans. I had never been backpacking before and decided it would be a good, cheap place in Europe to get some experience.
I put myself on a budget of €30 a day, including accommodation. I generally chose to stay in the cheapest hostels, but they were mostly really good!
I travelled first to Albania and spent some time in Tiranë and Berat. The journey from Berat to Ohrid in North Macedonia took close to 12 hours due to unreliable buses and buses simply being full upon arrival. I had been warned about public transport in Albania and had assumed it wouldn’t be that bad and found out the hard way. It actually ended up being a really fun day because of how impromptu it all was!
In North Macedonia I spent time in Ohrid, Bitola, Prilep and Skopje. My days were spent hiking, visiting churches, looking at statues and trying to figure out how to use a camera I’d found in the house. Ohrid was recommended by a Croatian friend and it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip.
Kosovo in hindsight ended up being my favourite place. I spent time in Pristina, Gjakova and Peja. I had went with zero expectations and was absolutely blown away by the mountains and scenery. It was also nigh on impossible to spend money here. As a short anecdote, I went to a pizza place in Gjakova and spent €4.70 on what I had assumed were 2 slices of pizza. The cook lands out 10 minutes later with 2 giant pizzas. It made sense to me then why he was looking at me funny whilst I was ordering.
My next stop was Montenegro and I once again ran into bus trouble after assuming it would be easy enough to get from Peja to Podgorica. I was wrong as there was one bus a week and it did not match the day I was there. I ended up spending a full day looping back down into Albania and going north into Montenegro.
Montenegro was amazing. I spent time in Podgorica, Bar and Kotor. My girlfriend joined me in Podgorica and my €30 budget died a swift, painful death. Kotor was genuinely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.
Lastly, we spent a couple of nights in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Dubrovnik is amazing. I got up one morning at 5am to take pictures and it felt like I was the only one there. Doing the walls and visiting the Game of Thrones filming locations was a lot of fun. The only let down for Dubrovnik is that it is ridiculously expensive. I really missed that Kosovan pizza parlour here.
As a last note, the food was amazing and aside from one bad interaction with a taxi driver from Podgorica Airport to Podgorica, the people were very friendly and helpful in my many moments of need!
Picture locations; 1. Berat, Albania 2. Berat, Albania 3. Berat, Albania 4. Ohrid, North Macedonia 5. Ohrid, North Macedonia 6. Ohrid, North Macedonia 7. Bitola, North Macedonia 8. Bitola, North Macedonia 9. Prilep, North Macedonia 10. Skopje, North Macedonia 11. Skopje, North Macedonia 12. Skope, Nort Macedonia 13. Pristina, Kosovo 14. Gjakova, Kosovo 15. Peja, Kosovo 16. Podgorica, Montenegro 17. Bar, Montenegro 18. Kotor, Montenegro 19. Dubrovnik, Croatia 20. Dubrovnik, Croatia