Tag Archives: Macedonia

My 7 links

Katie at Tripbase has put together a fun, new blog challenge to unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavour to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again. And how to do this? Details are over at Tripbase [...]

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Things to do in Skopje

Skopje isn’t what leaps to mind when you think of European cities, is it? It’s probably among the lesser known capitals, along with Chisinau. To me, it was the easiest way to get to Kosovo for a travel writing assignment on the then two-month-old nation. When I checked into my Skopje hotel, the manager asked [...]

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Elvis of the Balkans

Ambling around Skopje one balmy April night, I spotted a large crowd on Macedonia Square, gathered around a photo of a young, ruggedly handsome man with the caption 1981 – 2007. The picture was placed in a large bed of flowers, encircled by lit candles. Nearby, young and old queued to buy 10-dinar-candles; some bought [...]

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The Macedonian naming dispute

Returning from Kosovo, Alex, my driver, complains about fuel prices. Who doesn’t? Yet, he has better cause than many of us. At Aktiva Petrol on the outskirts of town, unleaded 95 octane petrol cost 65,5 dinars per litre. 1 Euro = 61 dinars: that’s pretty expensive for a country where salaries are low and unemployment, [...]

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First impressions of a fledgling nation – Kosovo one year on

A year ago (April 2008) I travelled to then 2-month-old Kosovo to try to get a first impression of the fledgling nation. It was a quick visit – and I only visited Pristina. Pristina April 2008 In October the same year, an article of mine was published in Travelmag UK. I received numerous e-mails following [...]

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11 fave hotels of 2008

Here are my favourite sleeps of 2008 – in no particular order: In January, we spent an entire week in the same place. That’s pretty rare, as I get restless after a few days. This hotel was a boat, though, the M/S Helio, cruising along the Nile. In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – [...]

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Boating up the Nile

Travels of 2008 – and plans for 2009

So here it is – my first travel list of the new year. 2008… In early January, the kids and I boated up the Nile, sailing up from Luxor to Aswan and back down. And Nubia! It was fantastic! And how could it possibly not be fantastic: cruising up a river surrounded by 5 000 [...]

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