After an interesting first few days in Serbia (during our trip to the Balkans), it was time to head to another country.  Next on our list was Macedonia. Our first stop was Skopje- it’s largest city and capital. We were told that the bus ride from Nis to Skopje would take no more than 3 hours but with border crossings it took more like 4+. We spent days 4 & 5 checking out Skopje and really enjoyed our visit. Skopje is a very interesting city. The city center has two sides to it. They can be divided (more or less) into old (old bazaar)  and new (main square) with the sides being separated by the Stone Bridge which was first built in the 6th century. The main square and surrounding area is modern with lots of new buildings , statues and fountains. The old bazaar is filled with shops, food vendors & restaurants and one of the largest markets in the Ottoman influenced Old Bazaar. We liked exploring the old bazaar and the nearby food market.

One of the best things about Skopje is that most of the main sites can be reached by foot. The city was also very lively at night with many fountains and buildings lit up and lots of people walking around or just hanging out in the squares.

Here are some of the things we did (in no particular order):

• Checking out the interesting (odd) statues
• Old Railway Station now the Museum of the city of Skopje
• Over-the-top fountains
• The Old Bizarre
• Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia  Continue reading The Balkans Trip Recap- Days 4 & 5: Skopje, Macedonia →

After visiting two cities in two days in Serbia it was time to move on to our third city, Nis. We took an early morning bus which was a little over 3 hours long to get there.

Like Belgrade and Novi Sad,  Nis has a nice main square  & city center and an impressive fortress which is now a park. There were also some other interesting and unique sites to check out while there.

Here are some of the things we did:

• Red Cross Concentration Camp
• Mediana- Roman archaeological site
• The Skull Tower
• Nis Fortress  Continue reading The Balkans Trip Recap- Day 3: Nis, Serbia →

After a busy first day during our trip to the Balkans, we decided to visit another city in Serbia. Our plan was to leave relatively early and visit Novi Sad as a day trip.

Novi Sad is Serbia’s second largest city and just an hour and a half away from Belgrade. We took a bus to get there which was pretty cheap but not the most comfortable ride. Lucas didn’t seem to mind and ended up sleeping during most of the way there and back.

Here are some of the things we did:

• Novi Sad Synagogue
• Strolled around the city center
• Petrovaradin Fortress
• Novi Sad City Museum  Continue reading The Balkans Trip Recap- Day 2: Novi Sad, Serbia →

This post is about our first full day in Belgrade during our trip to the Balkans. We actually arrived the evening before after a long day of traveling. It took us three flights to get here from New York but it wasn’t too bad.

After wandering around Belgrade the evening before, we actually had an idea of where some of the things that we planned to see  were. The only annoying thing was that being here on a Monday meant some of the sites we wanted to see were closed. Regardless of this we still had a very nice day.

Here are some of the things we did:

• Kalmegdan-Belgrade Fortress: now a huge, public park
• Wandering around Knez Mihailova Street
• Cathedral of Saint Sava- The largest Orthodox church in the world
• Lucas had fun playing in a park
• Dinner on Skadarlija Street

Continue reading The Balkans Trip Recap- Day 1: Belgrade, Serbia →