Bulgaria, Kosovo and Macedonia

[RooFlyer]

The 1963 earthquake destroyed much of the city, including the railway station, which is now partly preserved as a ruin (with the city museum adjacent), with the clock set at the time the quake struck:



This is the memorial museum to Saint Mother Theresa, who was born in Skopje and lived here until she was 18.



Around the city are a number of plaques dedicated to her:



New York? No, Skopje and i don't know why.



I dunno ...



As a last attempt to get a good bottle of Macedonian wine, I asked directions to a wine shop, and was sent to this:



Great name, but it was just an outlet for a particular winery. I passed.

 

[RooFlyer]

We said farewell to Skopje and headed for Sofia. Before we leave though - remember how I had misgivings about the hotel being next to a mosque? Yep, at about 5am, one of the loudest calls to prayer i have ever heard!! Hotel Bushi not recommended!!

The itinerary called for a direct trip to Sofia, but we got a bonus stop at St Joachim of Osogovski monastery, set in the mountains. Immaculately kept and quite scenic.





These frescoes are only a couple of hundred years old:










there was a modern-built restaurant there. A bit chaoic - orders came out at random, across tables. i had the beans, which were adequate. The red was, as usual, undrinkable.



Several people ordered the 'small burger' I don't think I've mentioned this before - portion sizes throughout our trip tended to vary between big and huge.



Then we set off again, through the usual green mountains



Until we got to the Bulgarian border. Exit Macedonia formalities were a little unpleasant. Very officious guy. Passports collected in the bus as usual, then everyone ordered off and told to line up by the outside booth, then come forward, one at a time to have them stamped and given back. our guide (who was Macedonian) made a small factious joke (in English) for which he got told off for by the official.

 

[RooFlyer]

Back to Sofia, where the tour ended, with just the team dinner to finish with. the tour guide knew of a place close to the hotel, so off we went;.

A 'traditional Bulgarian' place. here is a portion of the wine list. 50 Bulgarian Levs is abt A$40






This was a cab sav-merlot-syrah blend, 2016 and was OK. You might recall we had been struggling to find any decent plonk on this trip, so maybe our expectations were low!!



Meals were pretty good; many ordered the shashlik, which seems to have come by the metre.






A second bottle was needed so we plumped for this one, a 2015 syrah. Again, better than what we had been buying, but IIRC it was about A$40, bloody expensive for Bulgaria!
u

Then came the traditional dancing!








So there the night, and the tour ended .... for most. A couple of us, including the tour guide decided that some more culture in Sofia was needed, so the guide led us a few blocks to ... a pool hall!!



Good grief. I haven't been in one of these for 20 years, and I hadn't picked up a pool queue for at least 10 years. Never-the-less, 'Minnesota Fats' RooFlyer dazzled them over the triangular round-robin and came out victorious!!

Late to bed. I had an extra day in Sofia where i was hoping to either rent a car or take a day tour into Serbia, but everyone said not to, as that border crossing at this time of year was a zoo. So, after the late night, i slept in a bit, then changed hotels back to the interCon for the final night.

 

[RooFlyer]

Taxis in Sofia are cheap and good (metered). Check in for my QR flight to DOH no worries, then off to the 'Aspire lounge' Pretty basic, but adequate:





Bit of plane spotting:



it was an A321, 3 x 2-2 in business, and a lunch flight.









The best part:



We had a 20 minute delay in push back due to 'Ctprus ATC holding us back', which i thought was odd at the time, as the flight should have tracked east over Turkey, then SE over (Qatar's ally) Iran.

Ah, no. We clipped Cyprus, sure, then tracked right over Syria and then Iraq



I wasn't the only one in the cabin watching the flightpath screen, i can tell you!! Yep, we took the 'short route over Syria, iraq then down the Gulf. During this week, about half the flights went this route, the rest, the flight went over Turkey and Iran. I wonder what makes them go one way Vs the other? "Oh, hi ... its Syrian High Command here. You can come our way today if you like, we're not shooting today ..."

 

[RooFlyer]

Damn right i was checking how high we were!!

 

[RooFlyer]

I had a couple of hours at DOH, As usual, painless re-clear security and a shower at the lounge.

It was an evening departure and naturally I was a bit anxious about getting the expected QSuites ...

YES! Best business class in the sky.





Only drawback was that I was in 9K - all the middle odd-numbered singles (odd numbers = seat is by the window; evens, seat is on the aisle), had gone, even when i booked months prior and my EF seat alert didn't bring anything. 9K was the last J row before economy. No toilet or galley nearby, but the meal service was excruciatingly slow. I was in the last row to be served and the FA I'm pretty sure was a newbie. Very happy to please, but everything was done sooooo perfectly. Every crease in every napkin was removed; every plate and condiment was lined up with millimetre precision ... every option for meal, wine etc was explored ... with every passenger!

PDB was champagne, and warm nuts; dinner orders taken. Post take-off drink served - so far, so good, but then it took 3 hours after departure for me to get main course of meal. First world problems, sure, but I was hungry!!

Amuse bouche:



Appetiser:



Main:



Hmmmm ... there was more, but I must have just scoffed it.

The the bed made up. the foot well narrows, but still plenty of room for feet, either pointing up, or sideways.



... and I added my patented self-installed mattress: Mattress for J and F beds

Landing international in Adelaide was great! No crowds at immigration (as long as you get off first ). Got bags and I had to stay overnight as i couldn't get a connection to Hobart. i stayed at the InterCon and ... well!!!

Being tired, I just wanted to get something half decent in their restaurant. Their main one, 'Riverside' is only open a few nights a week , so it was the lobby bar, i think with an extended menu. I just chose a steak and some 'chat potatoes' on the side.

Now, what would YOU expect when you order chat potatoes? I was expecting a serve of small, steamed 'new potatoes'. Instead, I got this:

... its the dish at the top. It looked like potatoes that had been boiled till they were falling apart, then deep fried. The steak was OK, but it came with some watery potatoes and some very tough broccolini.



The pile on the left is all the over-fried, crisp/burned bits of potato I separated out. I had managed to retrieve some edible bits (not shown).



If I wasn't so tired, I would have objected at the time. Fortunately for me, unfortunately for the hotel, I got a 'how was your stay' e-mail later on, and the service manager and I had a nice little illustrated conversation , and I got my meal costs re-imbursed. Fair dinkum, that meal was disgraceful.

Anyway, sorry to finish on a bit of a sour note. Makes the overseas experience all the better by comparison!!

To summarise:

* Qatar business class - non QSuites is great, QSuites is the best.

* Bulgaria,Macedonia, Kosovo - great to visit, you could easily do it independently, but you'd miss a fair bit. They are cheap countries to visit.

* Don't go for the wine, but do go for wonderful history, with an interesting story even up to relatively modern times. Food isn't bad but don't expect gourmet delights.

* Put Ohrid on your list of places to visit - you can even fly there internationally.

* Avoid eating at the InterCon, Adelaide.

 

[tgh]

Thanks for another ( characteristically ) excellent tr RooFlyer

 

[OZDUCK]

Really enjoyable TR. Bought back a few memories but lots of photos of new places to visit. Thanks.

 

[ChasingDaylight]

Thanks for the recommend for Exodus Roo! Just about to cancel a tour with Intrepid and go with them as it seems a lot better.

Have shot you a PM in the event you are intereted in the refer a friend discount

 

[JohnM]

Thanks for the recommend for Exodus Roo! Just about to cancel a tour with Intrepid and go with them as it seems a lot better.

Have shot you a PM in the event you are intereted in the refer a friend discount

As a generalisation, Exodus is a slight step above Intrepid, but a slight step below Peregrine.

Exodus is a British company; the Intrepid Group (Peregrine, Intrepid, Geckos) is an Australian company. Both have global offices. Often you will find that the freelance tour leaders you encounter on these tours have experience of both companies because they play so tightly in the same space. I think they often use the same DMCs (destination management companies - ie. the company ‘behind the scenes’ that constructs the tour that gets sold as an ‘Exodus tour’ or an ‘Intrepid tour’. They don’t actually do their own organising of the tour details. I have a friend who is very senior in a big DMC. Very interesting stuff.

Intrepid will occasionally have some public transport in their tours; Exodus less so; Peregrine basically never. Peregrine will include ‘Feature Hotels’ which can be high-level (usually for historical reasons - eg. earlier in the RTW trip I’m currently on (link below), I did a Peregrine tour in Cuba and we had three nights at the historic Hotel Nacional in Havana. Sensational.

Both Exodus and Intrepid Group make a solid effort to engage with local communities and avoid the crass commercial.

Geckos is <35 yo backpackers and is very basic. I’ve used Exodus, Peregrine and Intrepid and found them all excellent.

One advantage of Intrepid Group over Exodus is that, for most of their trips, a single booking guarantees it. Exodus requires a minimum of four pax. Generally, it works out but this year I got caught with an Exodus trip in India not making minimum numbers when I was locked into a string of things linked to a DONE4 I’m in the middle of right now. Being India, I was able to make other arrangements fairly easily, but it could be a trap for some.

 

[ChasingDaylight]

@JohnM Thank you very much for your post - probably one of, if not the most helpful post anyone has taken the time to write in reply to me in all my time on the internet (so 17/18 years!).

I've since had a look at Peregrine trips for my destination and they look markedly similar to Intrepid (for obvious reasons) but not as ideal as Exodus in terms of length, places visited or final destination so will stick with Exodus

 

[JohnM]

@JohnM
I've since had a look at Peregrine trips for my destination and they look markedly similar to Intrepid (for obvious reasons) but not as ideal as Exodus in terms of length, places visited or final destination so will stick with Exodus

I have flicked between them, simply to get what works best for my needs and timing. I buy a DONEx RTW fare every year and string various things along that like beads on a string, including things like those sorts of tours. Getting the timing to work so there is a short gap between things to enable optimum re-positioning can be a bit tricky, so I always scope the offerings from both groups.

It just happens that I’ve used Exodus more than Intrepid Group but I have no hesitation in using either. Despite being British, Exodus has an office in Melbourne and the folk are good to deal with by email and phone. Keep your eye out in about May for some specials they seem to promote about then.

I’ve met some really serious travellers, particularly on some of the more out-there tours (eg. Exodus Sudan tour last year) who have been fabulous sources of information. Every time I go on one, I come back with my bucket list vastly expanded.

There’s a Canadian company that seems very similar called G Adventures and another British one (I think) called Explore! that fellow travellers on some of my Exodus tours have used and say are good.

I only started going on these sorts of tours three years ago, with Exodus in Madagascar. It exceeded my expectations, usually the fellow travellers are good because they know what they want and are experienced, not a bunch of amateurs on ‘the trip of a lifetime’. Prior to that, I always travelled independently, usually renting a car. However, that is not so practical in places like Madagascar, Sudan, the 5 Stans etc.

 

[JohnM]

@JohnM Thank you very much for your post - probably one of, if not the most helpful post anyone has taken the time to write in reply to me in all my time on the internet (so 17/18 years!).

I've since had a look at Peregrine trips for my destination and they look markedly similar to Intrepid (for obvious reasons) but not as ideal as Exodus in terms of length, places visited or final destination so will stick with Exodus

BTW, where are you going? And don’t forget a TR .

 

[RooFlyer]

I’ve met some really serious travellers, particularly on some of the more out-there tours (eg. Exodus Sudan tour last year) who have been fabulous sources of information. Every time I go on one, I come back with my bucket list vastly expanded.

And remember what the Iran tour leader said about Abercrombie and Kent tours .

I've only done a couple of Exodus tours, and the age group definitely seems to be biased towards the over 50s.

Like JohnM, I used to be a self drive tourist, and loathed the thought of 'tour groups' - thinking of those rabid Italian or Japanese groups, loud, pushy etc. following a little flag. These small group tours ( max 16, seems to usually be 10-12) are quite different.

 

[JohnM]

And I’ve already shown the boys the selfie my excellent and gorgeous Peregrine tour leader in Cuba a few weeks back took with me .

The tour leaders have always been exceptional IME. They’re all freelance and the companies set very high standards.

It’s great to see female leaders. I’ve now had three and they have all been exceptional: Cuba, Bolivia and Russia (both Intrepid). Not long before my Bolivian trip, Julia had returned from a three-month trip to Australia that she had won based on her client feedback etc. for training and sightseeing with Intrepid.

 

[ChasingDaylight]

BTW, where are you going? And don’t forget a TR .

This one is to Jordan, w/ quick side visit to Doha. F& J flight redemptions. I'll have to remind myself to do a TR; I always have the best of intentions but invariably forget.

 

[JohnM]

This one is to Jordan, w/ quick side visit to Doha. F& J flight redemptions. I'll have to remind myself to do a TR; I always have the best of intentions but invariably forget.

I did Jordan with Exodus. Great trip. Make sure to take your swimming gear for the Dead Sea visit. I hope you have the two days at Petra.

On day two, if your leader is like I had, they might, depending on how they read the group, suggest the serious hike up into the hills, back down for lunch and then up to the Treasury overlook on the other side of the valley. It’s only about 30km, but just do it! That night, make sure to hit the Cave Bar for fluid replenishment .

Glad to see that the side visit to Doha is quick. The departing view is always the best view - especially in QSuites .

Nb. See 2017 RTW below for my TR.