Getting There Ksamil (our last stop in Albania) is only about four miles from the Greek border. However, that didn’t mean getting to Greece was simple or easy. We ended up taking a taxi back to Sarande and, from there, catching a ferry to Corfu. In Corfu we needed to transfer to another ferry to take us to the Greek mainland. We landed in Igoumenitsa which was eerily deserted and seemed to be nothing but a port and a bus…
From Dubrovnik it was another long and winding bus ride to Montenegro. Our first stop was Kotor, a beautiful walled, medieval city located on sparkling Kotor Bay. Kotor is similar to Dubrovnik in many ways. The beautiful stone architecture hearkens back to the same era. There are narrow streets and alleys that make it impossible not to get lost. The old city walls limit the pathways in and out of the city to only a handful. Kotor is also the…
From Salzburg we took a train south to Slovenia. Before I talk about Slovenia I need to talk about this train ride. This route was was everything I had hoped for when I imagined riding trains through Europe. We wound through narrow mountain passes with crystal clear rivers running beside the tracks. Then the view would open up into scenic valleys sprinkled with picturesque alpine villages. Lake Bled The beauty of that train ride was a hint of what was…
From Budapest we hopped on a train to Vienna, another big city that would end up being a bit of a whirlwind. I didn’t know what to expect from Vienna. Before arriving I knew very little about Austrian culture. I imagined Vienna as a city of manicured plazas, grand palaces, and opera houses. This is accurate to a certain extent but Vienna has a lot more to offer. These are some of my favorite things we did there. Visiting the…