DAY 113 – Our first full day in Montenegro was quiet, as we stayed in our room in Ulcinj, trying to warm up and enjoying the views over the sea. Our food continued its casual junk food theme. [keep reading]
DAY 112 – We left Albania from Shkodër by bus, riding about 90 minutes to the Montenegrin town of Ulcinj. It's a hilly town on the Adriatic coast, very scenic. My BG was ok at first but was high all midday. [keep reading]
DAY 111 – My BGs were a little up and down today, but it was a fun day: Masayo and I used the free bicycles at our hotel in Shkodër, Albania to go visit Rozafa Castle on a hill near Lake Shkodër just outside town. [keep reading]
DAY 110 – After four hours of sleep, I made it out of Tirana to the northern Albanian town of Shkodër. It was rainy the whole day, and we stayed in the room and had local burek. [keep reading]
DAY 109 – Our last day in Tirana was spent on two unusual things: a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci made of nails, and statues of Communist leaders abandoned behind a museum. Then I stayed up all night to watch Super Bowl XLIX. [keep reading]
DAY 108 – Tirana is an interesting place, still rebuilding after decades of closed, paranoid Communist rule. There is a ragged urgency in the streets, though things were dampened for us today by the rain. [keep reading]
DAY 107 – We strode down to the bus station on the edge of Skopje and took a bus over the Albanian border to the capital, Tirana. It was raining there, but we walked to our hotel and checked in, taking it easy all evening and having pizza. [keep reading]
DAY 106 – Today was a great day in Skopje, Macedonia -- sunny and warm for January. We walked around the ruins of Kale Fortress, and wound around the endless small pathways in the Old Bazaar. [keep reading]
DAY 105 – Kosovo had seemed too volatile at the moment so we found a bus to take us quickly out of the country, to Macedonia, although that wasn't our original plan. Skopje was nicer, and packed with picturesque statues. [keep reading]
DAY 104 – Masayo stayed in all day, still sick from the air of Kosovo yesterday. I went out by myself, and gave up when I saw large crowds and police. Luckily I was gone by the time the tear gas and rubber bullets flew. [keep reading]
DAY 103 – The capital of Kosovo saw a demonstration, with tear gas, just a couple days before we arrived, and while walking around the city to see a Bill Clinton statue and George Bush Boulevard, Masayo collapsed. I had to carry her back to the hotel, where she made a slow half-recovery. [keep reading]
DAY 102 – Our time in Serbia proper was done, and we took a series of two buses to Kosovo's capital city of Prishtina. The first bus went over some really scary mountain roads in a snowstorm, and we then had an unanticipated six-hour wait for the next bus. But we made it. [keep reading]
DAY 101 – We took a taxi from our hotel in Zaječar today out to the Felix Romuliana ruins. It was drizzling the whole time, but we were the only tourists there the entire time. Then we came back to town and got a private tour of the museum there. [keep reading]
DAY 100 – We left Kraljevo for a small town in the east part of Serbia called Zaječar, where hoped to take in another UNESCO site. First we went to Niš, then the snowy mountain road to Zaječar. [keep reading]
DAY 99 – I spent today recovering from the high BG I had last night, and saw a little of Kraljevo. The main part of the day was seeing Žiča Monastery, which we took a taxi to but walked back from. [keep reading]
DAY 98 – Today had its ups and downs: we figured out how to get to the wondrous UNESCO-inscribed Studenica Monastery by buses from Kraljevo, but I ended up with the highest BG of the trip so far after dinner. [keep reading]