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Topola/Oplenac There is probably not a mile of Serbian land that hasn't had some sort of bloodshed occur on it. In 1389, then-ruler Prince Lazar fought Ottoman invaders in the Battle of Kosovo. He and the sultan both died and both sides suffered significant losses, but the loss of such a...

Saints, sinners, and slivovica* Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Banja Luka (BiH), and some places along the way A couple of months ago I visited Kosovo. After seeing the Serbian churches there (the Kosovar city of Peć being once the seat of Serbian Orthodoxy) and passing through Belgrade, I decided...

BNE-MEL minimim + $15 from Choice fare. Probably overpaid given there were 4 seats available Got confirmation T-24 I couldn't see competing bids

Tallinn A Latvian good-humouredly told me that they have a saying that Estonians have brake fluid in their veins. My impression from my brief sojourn in Tallinn was that it certainly had a slower, more-laid back feel than other capital cities I've been to, and not merely from the slow speed at...

Narva From Tartu I took a bus directly to Narva in eastern Estonia on the border with Russia. This is the 3rd largest city in Estonia, although a very Russian one in that it is predominantly russophone and has a high proportion of Russian migrants on work visas and Estonian-born Russians. In...

Losing passports in countries without an Australian embassy. I compulsively check for them every couple of hours or when I'm moving between cities/across borders. On overnight train/buses I sleep with them tucked into my waistband just in case someone steals my backpack. Assault as well but I...

Tartu I returned to Riga to take the bus to Tartu, the second-largest city in Estonia. (The Estonian government is considering building a rail line between Riga and Tartu, but nothing has been formalised yet.) Tartu will be the 2024 European Capital of Culture and is well worth a visit if...

Language notes - Latvia The trains don’t have English announcements so you might have to listen closely for your station (if you don’t use a map/timetable on your phone). I think the main pronunciation differences to keep in mind are that ‘c’ makes a ‘ts’ sound and whenever there is a bar...

(Inter)country roads, take me home I had originally thoughtlessly planned to go from Mitrovica to Belgrade to catch a flight back to AMS for my trip home, as the timing of flights from PRN or SKP didn't work for my schedule. I only afterwards realised that I can't go from Kosovo to Serbia. I...

Some advice and thoughts on visiting Kosovo What to see If you want to visit, I think it'd be best to see other cities/towns and not just Prishtina. This would mean getting used to bus travel, hiring a driver or, ideally, renting a car. There is a train service only between Peć and Prishtina...

Mitrovica While Mitrovica is reachable by bus, I hired a private driver to take me there. It's an hour's drive from Prishtina and the closer you get the more NATO trucks you see. The city lies on the Ibar river. The part south of the Ibar is called South Mitrovica and is Albanian. Then there...

Peć Peć is a city in western Kosovo. I got there by train. Had I known about the nature Peć had to offer and had my tendinitis allowed, I would've stayed two or three days here. The city lies at the foot of the Rugova mountains, where one can go hiking, camping, or ziplining. The old bazaar...

Prishtina My Macedonian friend laughed when I said I was going to Prishtina. "There's nothing there - two hotels, three restaurants, and a statue of Bill Clinton." He wasn't very off target. There's not a whole lot to do in Prishtina during the daytime; most sights can be visited in one day...

Three days in Kosovo (via Shanghai, Amsterdam, Skopje, and Belgrade) I had two weeks' leave in Nov and planned to spend a week in Kosovo. After losing several days in transit and then resting with an exacerbation of the Achilles' tendinitis I had left Australia with, that ended up being only...

Does anyone know the repercussions for crossing from Kosovo to Serbia without having entered Serbia first/leaving without an entry stamp? I am entering Kosovo from Macedonia and hoping to exit on the Mitrovica-Belgrade train as my flight departs from Belgrade. Smartraveller advises against this...

Oops missed the dinner, got to the hotel and slept right through to midnight. Looks like you all had a good time

Moldova has the highest alcohol consumption per capita in Europe and even that figure is likely underreported due to the omnipresence of homemade wine. The joke goes that they guzzle wine by the gallons because it doesn't keep for long and it's better than wasting. Great TR

Thanks for stopping by. I also like reading reports from others going to places I've been to to see what it was like before/after I went there. I followed yours of course, downtown Chisinau looked more western than I remember it but of course the ubiquitous babushkas selling flowers. Only just...

Daugavpils 3 hours by train from Riga, Daugavpils is located in the south-east near the borders with Lithuania and Belarus. Through the centuries it has changed name and hands between the Teutonic Order, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and naz_ Germany...

Cesis Latvia has a pretty comprehensive and modern train system. The trains are clean and spacious and you can pay by credit card upon boarding with myki tap on-like machines. An interesting structure I saw from the train window. Otherwise the scenery is pretty flat and unremarkable. The...