A Lady in London

Everyone loves Belgrade. Throughout my 15-day Balkans trip, I heard from fellow travelers, hoteliers, and others about what an amazing city it was. From the famous nightlife to the great grilled meats and the cafe culture, the capital of Serbia came highly recommended.

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Fans of Saint Sofia had some good urban planning ideas when they built the city they named after her. Bursting with churches, cathedrals, parks, palaces, and pedestrian streets, Sofia, Bulgaria is alive with cultural treasures. Even decades of communism and the drab buildings that went up with them couldn’t dampen the spirit of the saint’s pretty city, and my two days in town were a riot of color and culture.

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Not many people travel to Kosovo. The capital, Pristina, isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind when people think of visiting the Balkans. But then again, neither is Sarajevo or Skopje. And certainly not Tirana. Given that my Balkans trip had covered so many unlikely capital cities already, I didn’t hesitate to add Pristina to the list. And so I traveled to Kosovo, the 78th country on my 90 under 30 Travel Project list.

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Skopje reminded me of Tomorrowland. I mean that in every sense of the word. In the Disneyland sense, it looked like a 1960’s version of what the future thankfully didn’t turn out to look like. In the modern sense, new, futuristic buildings and public spaces were popping up everywhere in the capital of Macedonia.

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Lake Ohrid is paradise. Straddling the border between Albania and Macedonia in the Balkans, the ancient body of water lies at the base of green mountains and stone fortresses. Its perimeter is dotted with towns and villages that are home to some of the most important churches in Macedonian Orthodox history. The most famous of these cities is aptly called Ohrid, and I was excited to enter the 77th country on my 90 under 30 Travel Project there.

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I was warned about Tirana. The two English-speakers I met while traveling from Montenegro to Albania told me that it was dangerous. They said that other Europeans considered Tirana a no-go zone, and that the only people stupid enough to visit were Americans and Australians that hadn’t gotten word about Albania’s bad reputation.

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It rained in Budva. After almost a week of sweltering weather on my Balkans trip, I traveled to Budva, Montenegro on a 25-minute bus ride from Kotor, and found myself under stormy skies. I didn’t want the clouds to spoil my visit to the famous walled town on the Adriatic Sea, though. With a positive attitude, I hopped into a taxi and headed to the historic city center.

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Kotor is the new Dubrovnik. Or so it seems. The coastal town is located deep in a fjord on Montenegro’s coast, and boasts of a stunning walled city that rivals that of its Croatian neighbor. With all the natural beauty and a fraction of the tourists, Kotor is a great alternative to its northern counterpart. Or—at just two-and-a-half hours away—a great addition to a Balkans trip itinerary.

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I was nervous to return to Dubrovnik. It’s not that there was anything wrong with the city. It was just that I hadn’t been there in over eight years, and I was afraid that everything had changed. Back when I first visited, most Americans had never heard of the place, let alone been there. But shortly after my Dubrovnik travels in 2003, the city became a hot destination.

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I owe my Mostar travels to a good friend. We studied abroad together in Prague when we were in college, and she came to visit me in London after her trip to the Balkans a couple of years ago. One of her favorite places to visit in Bosnia and Herzegovina was Mostar, a town with a bridge so famous that it made the cover of the Lonely Planet Western Balkans guidebook she left with me when she went home to Seattle.

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I wasn’t sure what to expect from Sarajevo. My knowledge of the city was dominated by what I had learned in school during the war in the 1990′s, and I didn’t know many people that had traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina. I had wanted to visit for a long time, and it fit well with my 90 under 30 Travel Project, so I was excited to go on a two-week trip to the Balkans and do some Sarajevo sightseeing to discover what the city had to offer.

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It’s not every day that celebrated Kiwi chef Peter Gordon opens a new restaurant in London. His Providores restaurant in Marylebone is one of my favorite places to eat in the city, and I was lucky enough to have a private tasting of his fusion cuisine at the Singapore Takeout. Gordon recently opened a place in London called Kopapa restaurant in Covent Garden, and I was excited to try it.

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Autumn is coming. London’s weather is getting cooler and rain is becoming more frequent. I am trying to do as many outdoor activities as I can before the cold really sets in. To that end, on Friday night I went with a friend to Fulham Palace for a bit of outdoor cinema in London.

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I will never forget my first trip to New York City. It was at the beginning of my sophomore year at Brown. Earlier that week, I decided to wake up in time for breakfast at the dining hall for the second time ever. As I stood in line, the girl in front of me told the woman serving her that she was sad because a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. It was September 11, 2001.

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The final destination on my Pacific Northwest tour was Victoria in British Columbia. I was excited to visit the capital of BC and explore a city about which I had heard so many good things.

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