The NATO bombing during the Kosovo War in 1999 caused substantial damage to the city. A few bombed buildings are still standing.

Biggest Orthodox Church in the world

The republic square which is just right beside Knez Mihajlova – one of the most popular pedestrian streets in Belgrade

Danube and Sava river cross

Met a lady at the fortress. She told me that she works for the Kuwaiti embassy and mentioned that there is a Malaysian embassy that just opened so I decided to drop by. Met the friendly ambassador, Zalinah at the embassy.
Malaysian Embassy

Karl, Milan (middle) my host and Malwina

Visited the new Belgrade which has blocks and blocks of communist style buildings. In most ex communist countries, the New city usually means the area which the communist built. The road in new Belgrade is wide and spacious. All buildings here look the same. There is a big chinese market there at Block 70. I decided to check it out, but surprisingly it is close on Tuesday. I thought Chinese work everyday. Met a few Chinese guys and they shared some of their experiences. There are many small shops here but the look might be deceiving because they only do wholesale, and the revenue for each day is above a million Serbian pounds.

Old Communist Style buildings in New Belgrade

Chinese Market

Went to the Serbian embassy early today, I was second in line. Got my transit visa (22 Euros) after some questioning.

Decided to visit Belgrade as well since I have the visa now. Got on the 1.10pm (23 Euros) bus to Belgrade. Belgrade is just around 440km away but the bus took 8 hours.
On the border, I saw the immigration officer took my passport to a room and I thought there were some issues with my visa. Later I found out that they canceled the Kosovo stamp on my passport because Serbians still think Kosovo is part of Serbia.

Kosovo stamp annulled.

Skopje has a population of around 500,000 and the city is quite small, you can walk across the city in less than 40 minutes. A quarter of the country’s population live here.After achieved independence from Yugoslavia 18 years ago the country is still trying develop its economy. Macedonia is still a poor country, monthly average salary here is around 300 Euros. Macedonian is a pretty diverse country, with Albanian, Macedonians, Turks, Serbs and Gypsies living here. Majorities are Christian orthodox but there are many Muslims too.

Market selling all kinds of pepper

Mosque

Museum

Church

Went to Shupka, (bus 19 o 20). Shupka is the largest gypsy neighborhood in the world. People are quite nice there and I noticed people here stare at me a lot, probably not many Asians here.

The market in Shutka

My next destination is supposed to be Sarajevo, Bosnia but I found out that the bus will pass by Serbia and I will need a visa to go through Serbia. Another way is to go to Montenegro first, I thought I won’t need a visa to Montenegro but then I found out I need a visa too. Since it’s a Sunday, I just have to stay one more night at Skopje. Usually, I prefer to take overnight ride but I guess not this time.

Spent the morning visiting the historical museum in Tirana (100 Lek for student). Surprisingly, there are a lot of stuffs in the museum with history from the Neolithic period all the way to Albania independence and communism but the explanation is in Albanian.

I was deciding if I should go to Skopje, Macedonia or Prishtina first. On the map, Skopje looks closer to Tirana but the bus ride takes more time (9 hours vs 6 hours, Prishtina to Skopje takes 2 hours I heard). So I guess the road to Prishtina is better and I heard that it’s easier to get to Sarajevo from Skopje too. So my plan is to Prishtina, Skopje then Sarajevo. There is no central bus station in Tirana and bus leaves from a particular location and the ticket office. Took the 3pm bus to Prishtina, Kosovo (15 Euros, 6 hours bus ride).

From the last census, 70% of Albanian population are muslim but people here are not religious at all, probably because of communism few decades ago. There is not many mosques and no one wears the Burqhas on the street. Took the 3pm bus (15 Euro) to Prishtina.

On the road

Arrived Pristina at 9.30pm. Pristina is the capital city of Kosovo. Kosovo is the newest country and the self-declared independent state is recognized by 62 countries so far. Serbia still does not recognise the secession of Kosovo and considers it a United Nations-governed entity within its sovereign territory.

After the Kosovo War and the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the territory came under the interim administration of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), most of whose roles were assumed by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) in December 2008.

The bus station is at the south eastern part of the city. Usually I avoid taking cab but since it’s raining, dark and the hostel is around 3km away, so I took a cab to the Professor Guesthouse. This is the only hostel in Pristina. Got a single room (15 Euros since dorm beds were full).

Next day,

Library of Pristina University

The city

New born country

Kosovo is new and still trying hard to get other countries to recognize them. These are countries that recognize Kosovo so far.

Met a German guy at the bus station and he speaks much better Indonesian/Malay than me. He put me to shame.

Took the 3pm bus to Skopje (5 Euro), the bus already left the platform and luckily I managed to catch the bus. The trip to Skopje from Pristina is just around 85km but the bus took 2.5 hours. Arrived Skopje around 5.30pm and it’s still raining. Tried finding my way to Art Hostel but someone gave me a wrong direction so I went to Hostel Hostel instead (8 Euro).

Met a Belgian and a Serbian at the hostel and we went to a club which played electronic music.

I though it sounded just like techno but they disagreed.
Steve and Milosh

Arrived at Sarande 5am in the morning, Albania is an hour behind. Took another 6.30am bus to Tirana. Tirana is only about 230km from Sarande but the bus took 7 hours. Albania is a hilly country.

The bus to Tirana took a while because the road is not that developed. So in total, I spent 17 hours on the bus.

Tirana is the capital of Albania with a population of around 800k. Spent 2 hours walking around the city before found the Backpacker hostel (12 Euro).

There are not many tourists in Albania and I think there are only 3 hostels.

The Historical Museum

Skanderbeg Square (The Opera, National History Museum, Mosque, clock tower and the statue of Albanian hero Skanderbeg, stands in the square)

Albanian money is called Lek, 1USD=91Lek. Things here much cheaper than Athens. Ate a lot of Soulaqe (Gyros, 100Lek) and ice cream (30Lek) today. Then met Edrin, an Albanian friend for a drink at night.

Finally got on my 3.55am flight and arrived at Athens at 6.30am in the morning. Yeah!
There are many foreign workers in Athens. Waited for an hour in line for immigration. Got in into EU quite easily, the immigration officer didn’t ask any questions at all.
[mappress]

Took the metro (6 Euro) to the city and checked in to the Aphrodite Hostel (14 Euro) which is close to the Larisis metro stop. After cleaning up, started another full day of sight seeing in this historical city.

Walked to Omonia which has many shops and is close by the acropolis.

Athens meat market

The changing of the guards in Athens was unique

Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Zeus

Parthenon at the Acropolis

Theater

Piraeus (A port city in West Athens, with boats to Italy and the greek islands.)

The Acropolis Museum

Athens Olympic Village

Next day,

Tried to get a ticket to Tirana, Albania. Went to a bus station behind Larissi train station but wasn’t able to get a ticket. I thought the guy said that all tickets were sold but later I found out that there is no bus to Tirana on Tuesday.

Bus schedule in Greek (no bus on Tuesday and Wednesday)

Met Maria and she showed me around Athens. Tried Gyros (Souvlaki, 2 Euro) and Frappe (Greek ice coffee). Went to Gazi which is an area with many cafes.

Greece has a population of 11 millions but there were 17 millions tourists visited the country last year. There are also many immigrants from Africa and Asia in Greece. Greece is very touristy so things are not cheap here, especially with the weakening dollar. An average meal here cost around 8 Euros.

Since the route to Europe is a detour, I tried to travel faster. I decided to go back to Larissi bus station and took an overnight bus to Sarande (10 hours bus ride, 26 Euros), a town beside the beach at the southern part of Albania. From Sarande I can then take another bus to the capital city, Tirana.

Took bus no. 6 (1500 LP) to Beirut and stayed at Hostel Al Shabaa (USD$10). It’s very common to use US dollars here and 1 US dollar = 1500 LP.

Beirut is an interesting city, the city has a population of around 1.5 million people and is a city of contrast. There is a mixture of European and Arab influences. Most Lebanese speaks Arabic, English and French. The proportion of Muslims and Christians are around 50% each. There are now slightly more Muslims because many Palestinian refugees are settling in Beirut. Some places there are churches that are just right beside a mosque and woman in Burqhas and nun walking on the street. By first look, the city is much more modern and wealthier than its Muslim neighbors. There are many luxury cars on the street. It seems like a third of the cars on the street are Mercedes or BMWs and another 30% are some other expensive European cars. I don’t see that many luxury cars even in New York city. I heard most people are just leasing the cars to look good. On the other hand, there are army tanks on the road and many military personnels carrying machine guns at every corner of the street. In some parking garages, cars needed to be scanned by bomb detector before allowed to go in.

Some areas, there are some nice modern buildings standing just beside some war torn old buildings with gun shots hole in it. Beirut has a great nightlife, there are many bars and clubs just like any other western cities. It’s also interesting to see the army everywhere guarding with their machine guns while party goers zoom around with their Porches and Mercedes.

In Beirut, there are military personnels everywhere. Feels like the country is still at war.

Tanks on the street

Army vehicle

Beirut is considered as the Paris of the Middle East because unlike other Middle Eastern cities, Beirut has nice beaches and mountains while most other Middle Eastern cities are built on desert.
Seafront

National Museum of Beirut

Moved to Hostel Talal ($10) on day two because they have free WiFi and the hostel has nicer people.
Hostel Talal

There are more Muslims living in the west side of Beirut and more Christian living in the east side. During the civil war, there is a green line that separated the 2 sides. The south side of Beirut is poorer with many Palestinian refugees living there.

Overall, people here are very friendly and helpful. The city looks more normal compared to other middle eastern countries I visited. In Syria, Jordan and Egypt, 70% of the people on the street are males.

Walked around Hamra (west Beirut) which is a college town and visited the American University of Beirut.

Acharfiyeh and Gemmazeyeh at the east part are considered the hip area. Solidere is another new area with expensive shops and there are many constructions going on.

Originally, I thought about going to Cyprus or Turkey after Beirut, but now I think about making a detour for my trip and go up north to Eastern Europe before visiting Turkey and Iran. It’s hard to take time off to travel but since I have already quit my job, I might as well spend another 2-3 weeks visiting Eastern Europe too.

On Sunday, I tried calling and checking online but wasn’t able to buy an air ticket. Went to the airport but wasn’t able to get an air ticket too because everything was close on Sunday. On the way to the airport, there were soldiers at every 20 meters. I took a picture but was stopped by a military officer and he wanted me to delete the photos. Luckily I was able to get back my camera.

On Monday, I spent the morning trying to get an air ticket to Athens. I went to Olympic airline ticket office but the lady doesn’t want to issue me a ticket because she mentioned that I might need a visa and might need to buy return ticket instead. I am sure that I don’t need a visa but she won’t listen. Spoke with the manager and finally went to a travel agency instead. I paid more (USD233 instead of USD 195) to get a refundable ticket just in case I can’t get on the plane because it’s a one way ticket.

Walked around the city then took a minibus to the airport (1000LP) at 9pm. Got to the airport early because the minibus will stop running after 9pm and taxi is more expensive. My flight is at 3.55am so I have a few hours to spare at the airport. The security is tighter to fly with one way ticket especially without another onward flight ticket But I managed to get my boarding pass at the airport counter without any problem.

Spent the morning looking for the world biggest restaurant, Damascus Gate. The restaurant is far away from the city and is close to the international airport of Damascus. Since a cab will cost almost $20, I tried to take a bus there. Got to Baka bus station and took an airport shuttle (45SP, $1). The bus dropped me off on the highway and got to the restaurant after 20 minutes walk.

The restaurant

It’s not that big as I thought, probably they just put more chairs in the restaurant to get the title.

Got back to the city after taking 2 minibuses and one taxi (45SP too).
Went to Al Sumariyeh bus terminal by a minibus (10SP) at 12pm and took a bus to Beirut, Lebanon. Bus was delayed and finally left at around 2.30pm.

At the border, we were required to pay 500SP for Syria departure tax, however the custom wanted more for his own pocket. Got to Lebanon checkpoint

and the immigration were so slow. They told me that I will need to pay 25000 Lebanese pound for a visa but I remembered that I read that I don’t need one. They only took payment in Lebanese pound and I had trouble finding people to change the currency. While waiting, the assistant bus driver took out my backpack from the bus and the bus left without me. So far I don’t have good experiences with Syrians.

Hitched a ride from some Saudi guys at the immigration checkpoint to Beirut.

Got to Beirut and visited the mosque.

A hip area with any cafes in Gemmayeh

Spent a night with those guys in Journieh.

The overnight train arrived at Kaddam train station in Damascus around 6.30am. Took a public bus back to the hostel and after cleaning up, went to Pullman bus station and bought a 9am bus ticket to Palmyra. Palmyra is around 3 hours (250km east) away.

Palmyra Museum

The ruins

Video of the ruins

Temple of Bel

Got back to Damascus at 7pm.

Went to Pullman bus station and got on the 9am bus to Aleppo. Aleppo is the second largest city in Syria with population of around 4.2 millions and is 4.5 hours north of Damascus. Aleppo and Damascus are vying for the title of oldest inhabited city in the world. Aleppo was said to be inhabited since 8000 years ago.

Met Jane, a Canadian on the bus and we spent time wandering around the city. We had kebab for lunch (250SP, around USD5).

Walked around the souq which is said to be the biggest in the middle east. The Souq is around 12km in total length. Most shops were closed because of the Eid holiday.

Visited the Citadel which is around 2000 years old.

View of Aleppo from the Citadel

View of the Citadel

We were walking around and Jane recognized a man who is one of the very few if any Buddhists in Aleppo. He has a small café

and is trying to create a meeting place to teach Buddhism to people who have an interest in the subject matter. Met some new friends at his café.

The great mosque

Decided to take an overnight train back to Damascus so I can sleep on the way back to save cost and time, and just to try something different. The train took around 6 hours (110SP around USD2).