Fire wrote: ↑Jul 13th, '25, 18:13
I spent two months in Ohrid! It's such a beautiful area. Lovely churches, lovely people, lovely lake. I definitely plan to go back. We were there in.....2023, as well! X'D That Balkans trip started with a month in Sofia, then a month in Skopje, then two months in Ohrid, then 3 months in Albania. I think it was, like, a week in Tirana, then a month in Shkoder, then a week hiking in Teth National Park (which I CANNOT recommend enough!!!), then a month on the beach in Vlore, a week in Berat, a week in Durres, then back to Tirana for a few days, before we headed to Montenegro. Spent, like, a week in Bar, then a week in Podgorica, before heading to Vienna to meet up with my partner's mum for a month of museum-hopping, at her request.
I loved the balkans! I definitely plan to go back. My partner and I are Americans, so we do the schengen bounce with some regularity. The only thing stopping me from going back and forth between the Balkans and various Schengen countries is that I can't tolerate the winters in the Balkans - the cold exacerbates my chronic pain, and, unfortunately, I'm allergic to air pollution, so I can't handle the spike in AQI that occurs in the winter due to the combination of seasonal inversion and the mountains acting as a giant walled basin that keeps in the smog in.
My most recent trip was a 3 month trip to Japan. We managed to catch both ume AND sakura season, which was FANTASTIC! It was my second time to Japan, and I would go back in a HEARTBEAT.
Japan is one of my favorite countries to be in.
Where was your most recent trip?
Are you a digital nomad, or did you manage to hit all 40 of those countries on vacations?
So jealous! I did Albania+Ohrid in a less than 2-week whirlwind trip, so I hit most of the places you went to as well, but missed the hiking in
. 3 months in Japan is amaaazing! I shockingly have never been, but the influx of tourists is not particularly appealing to me right now, maybe in a year or two.
I totally understand with the pollution. Eastern European winter pollution is really no joke!
I'm also American with a full-time job, so comparatively, I have a good paid time off/vacation policy from my employer, but not as much as Europeans or other countries do. I just spend a lot of $ on travel and don't spend as much on other things.
My last trip was to China and Taiwan! I spent about 2 weeks there total, not long enough for sure, but my partner has less PTO than me haha.
Where do you plan to go next?
Not a digital nomad though, I wish! I just take a lot of short trips and have to kick back into the work grind again. Do you reside outside of the U.S? Seems like you have lots of opportunity to travel as well (for long periods), super jealous!
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I'm impressed! That takes some doing!
