JOURNEY OVER 1000 KM IN 13 DAYS. TOURED MORE THAN 10 NEW CITIES IN 4 COUNTRIES WITH A 30-YEAR-OLD CAR [ENG / ex YU]

At the very beginning, I would like to say hello to all members of the Hiva community, this is my first post here :) I have been thinking for a long time what would be appropriate to post, so that it could be at least a little useful to someone who spares a few minutes to read the article. The decision came down to planning the trip. I think the profession - Tourist guide is one of the best in the world if you are a guide, but I personally do not use their services. The key reason for this, in addition to the monetary compensation, is that I have to adapt to the group, so I will meet in a place for a couple of hours, and I would visit it myself in the wider area, and on the other hand, in a location that is of great importance to me if it is included in the places that need to be visited, it remains significantly shorter than what I would like... now that the children are with us, we also need to coordinate time there, because in our direction we combine visits to places that are primarily to their liking, and then

we go to an archaeological site for example :)

Of course, like everything in life, it has its flaws, a vivid example is that while visiting Ohrid in Macedonia, I arrived late to Samuel's fortress, the gate was simply closed, so we had to move the schedule because the same landmark was left for the next day... When you're in a bigger city, you won't have time for repairs. Unfortunately, this happened to us when we toured Istanbul, we slowly walked from the Golden Horn towards Taksim and enjoyed the view. Our last stop of the day would be the Dolmabahce Palace, but when we arrived it was 15 minutes before closing time, so we just took a peek. from the gate inside and with much longing they returned back with unfinished business. The point is that many small details must be taken care of. Working hours are certainly an important thing because there are institutions that do not work at all on some days, and it is not Sunday as we would assume. I will explain how I plan it in more detail for each individual city in a future post (selection of sights, mapping, accommodation, indication of how many nights are needed to visit everything) and here I decided to describe how I choose the route to the destination...

I live in Rožaje, a small town in the north of Montenegro. North Macedonia (I'm still getting used to this name North) is a country in our neighborhood, I only had the opportunity to visit the capital Skopje before, so I decided with my family to explore it a bit... I think it's interesting to mention that my wife at that moment she was late in her pregnancy, her son was 2 years old and the car was celebrating its big anniversary - 30 years (slightly younger than us). The original plan was to go to Ohrid, a large tourist center, and try to use as many attractive locations as possible.

Skopje Aqueduct

There were 2 roads leading to Skopje, an easier one - the highway and the highway that led through the cities in Kosovo that I did not have the opportunity to see. The beauty of Prizren was known to me both from the stories of friends and from the Internet, so I did not hesitate much, the decision was made to go via Peja, Djakovica, Prizren and arrive in Skopje to sleep. We spent so much time sightseeing these cities that we checked into the room at 10 p.m. What's nice to note is that the carman on the branch, looking at the car whose rear view was blocked by too many things except the side mirrors, said "I think this car is too small for you. Have a good trip!" :) Not long after the trip, we listened to him, we bought a caravan, but it's easy to fill :) Of course, for each city I pass through, I do a detailed search of the sights and decide what can be seen the most along the way and where I need to stay overnight (or more). . I decided to stay in Skopje for 4 nights and we visited 90% of what was planned.

From Skopje, they again had 2 options for arriving in Ohrid. I searched the sights of Tetovo on the one hand and Prilep and Bitola on the other and the choice was easy, again the B option :)

We slept 1 night in Bitola and there was only an error in the calculation, we would have liked to stay 2 but due to the next booked accommodation simply had to go further... Ohrid opened its doors to us for 3 nights, but when I looked on the map before leaving to see how far I was from home and where I could go back, I decided to make the trip even more interesting...

Samuil's Fortress, Ohrid

The difference was about 50 km, and new cities were opening that we had not yet discovered. Of course there was also the challenge from the beginning of the story, an old car and a wife about to give birth, and in front of us is Albania, a country whose language we do not know at all, Macedonian is somewhat similar to ours, so the basic things can be understood in case of some complications.

However, the adventure pulled us forward, we headed towards Tirana and stayed there for one night before descending to the coastal city of Durrës where we stayed for another 4 nights.

Durrës

There I met again with a beautiful city called Shkodër, so I took the opportunity to visit the fortress of Rozaf again, this time with my family. We entered Montenegro again and stayed another 3 nights in Bar, resting and sorting out impressions from the trip.

After that we returned home happy and a little tired. The health of all of us, thank God, was excellent, the car served us without a fault and I hope that the pictures will remain as a memory for the children, and I made many of them because I am afraid of hard drives, servers... so that many important things do not disappear in an instant .

The point of this post is that when we travel a little along the road we are not looking at the shortest route, but the most exciting. And on the way back, don't follow the same trail, but use it to see something new.

I hope you found it interesting to read this little adventure of mine. I sincerely thank everyone who had patience and reached the end of the text, as a reward for that I send a prayer to the Merciful Creator to grant you every good :)

Cities we visited: Djakovica, Prizren, Skopje, Prilep, Bitola, Ohrid, Struga, Albasan, Tirana, Durrës, Shkodra...

We are in Bar often, it is in my country so I deliberately did not include it in this list of cities, as well as the 3 nights in it that I left out in the title.

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BiH / CRO / MN / SRB
PUTOVANJE PREKO 1000KM ZA 13 DANA. OBIŠLI VIŠE OD 10 NOVIH GRADOVA U 4 DRŽAVE AUTOMOBILOM STARIM 30 GODINA

Na samom početku da pozdravim sve članove Hive zajednice, ovo je moje prvo javljanje ovdje :) Dugo sam razmišljao šta bi bilo prikladno da objavim, da bi moglo makar malo koristiti onome ko izdvoji par minuta da pročita članak. Odluka je pala na planiranje putovanja. Mislim da je zanimanje - Turistički vodič jedno od najboljih na svijetu ako si vodič, ali ja lično ne koristim njihove usluge. Ključni razlog tome je pored novčane naknade to što se moram prilagodjavati grupi, pa ću se naći na nekom mjestu par sati, a sam bih ga obišao u široom luku, a sa druge strane na lokaciji koje za mene ima veliki značaj ako je uopšte uvršten u mjesta koja treba obići, ostaje se značajno kraće od onog što bi meni godilo...sada kad su djeca uz nas, i tu treba uskladjivati vrijeme jer u svojoj režiji kombinujemo obilaske mjesta koje su prvenstveno njima po volji pa ona podjemo na neko arheološko nalazište na primjer :)
To naravno kao i sve u životu ima svoje mane, slikovit primjer je taj što sam posjećujući Ohrid u Makedoniji stigao sa zakasnjenjem do Samuelove tvrdjave, jednostavno je kapja bila zatvorena pa smo morali pomjerati raspored jer je ista znamenitost ostala za sledeći dan... Kada ste u većem gradu nećete imati vremena za popravni. To nam se je na žalost desilo kada smo obilazil Istanbul, lagano smo od Zlatnog roga išli prema Taksimu i uživali u pogledu da bi nam poslednja stanca tog dana bila Dolmabahce palata, ali kada smo stigli bilo je 15minuta do zatvaranja, tako da smo samo provirili sa kapije unutra i uz mnogo čežnje vratili se neobavljenog posla nazad. Poenta je da se mora vodti računa o mnogo sitnih detalja. Radno vrijeme je svakako značajna stvar jer postoje ustanove koje uopste ne rade nekm danma, i to ne bude nedelja kao što bi mi recimo pretpostavili. Kako ja to planiram obijasniću detaljnije za pojedinačni grad u nekoj narednoj objavi (odabir znamenitosti, mapiranje, smjestaj, alulacija koliko je noćenja potrebno da se sve obidje) a ovdje sam odlučio opisati kako biram putanju do odredišta...

Ja živim u Rožajama, malom gradiću na sjeveru Crne Gore. Sjeverna Makedonija (još uvije se navikavam na ovaj naziv Sjeverna) je država u našem susjedstvu, samo glavn grad Skoplje sam ranije imao priliku da posjetim, pa sam odlučio sa porodicom da je malo istražim... Mislim da je interesantno napomenuti da je moja supruga u tom trenutku bila u odmakloj trudnoći, sin je imao 2 godine a auto je proslavljao veliki jubilej - 30 godina (neznatno mladji od nas). Prvobitni plan je bio poći do Ohrida, velikog turističkog centra i gledati da se putem iskoristi što više atraktvnih lokacija.

Sopsi akvadukt

Do Skoplja su vodila 2 puta, lakši - auto put i magistralni koji je vodio preko gradova u Kosovu koje nisam imao prilike da vdim. Ljepota Prizrena mi je bila poznata i iz priča prijatelja ali i sa internet stranica tako da se nisam mnogo dvoumio, odluka je pala da idemo preko Peći, Djakovice, Prizrena i da stignemo u Skoplje na spavanje. Toliko smo se zadržali razgledajući ove gradove da smo se u 22h prijavili u sobu. Ono što je simpatično napomenuti, je da je caranar na granci gledajući auto kojem je od previše stvari blokiran pogled pozadi osim bočnih retrovizora izgovorio "Čini mi se da je ovaj auto premali za vas. Srećan put!" :) Nedugo nakon putovanja smo ga poslušali, kupili smo karavan, ali i njega lako napunimo :) Naravno, za svaki grad kroz koji prolazim izvršim detaljnu pretragu znamenitosti i odlučim šta se može najbitnije vidjeti usput a gdje je potrebno prenoćište (ili više njih). Odlučio sam da u Skoplju ostanemo 4 noći i obišli smo 90% planiranog.

Iz Skoplja su ponovo imale 2 opcije za dolazak u Ohrid. Pretražio sam znamenitosti Tetova sa jedne strane i Prilepa i Bitole sa druge i izbor je bio lak, ponovo B varijanta :)

U Bitoli smo spavali 1 noć i tu je jedino došlo do greške u preračunu, rado bi ostali 2 ali zbog narednih bukiranih smještaja jednostavno se moralo ići dalje...Ohrid nam je otvorio svoja vrata 3 noći ali kada sam na mapi pred polazak gledao koliko sam daleko od kuće i kuda bih mogao nazad, odlučio sam da put učinim još zanimljivijim...

Samuelova trdnjava, Ohrid

Razlika je bila u 50tak km a otvarali su se novi gradovi koje još nismo otkrili. Naravno tu je bio i izazov sa početka priče, staro auto i supruga pred porodjaj a pred nama je Albanija, država čiji jezik uopšte ne poznajemo, makednoski je donekle sličan našem pa se osnovne stvari u slučaju neke kompliacije mogu razumjeti.

Ipak avantura nas je povukla naprijed, uputili smo se prema Tirani i tu ostali jednu noć prije spuštanja u primorski grad Drač gdje smo boravili još 4 noći.

Drač

Tu sam se ponovo sreo sa predivnim gradom po imenu Skadar pa sam iskoristio priliku da ponovo obdjem tvrdjavu Rozafa, ovog puta sa porodicom. Ušli smo ponovo u Crnu Goru i ostali još 3 noći u Baru odmarajući se i sredjujući utiske sa puta.

Nakon toga smo se vratili kući srećni i pomalo umorni. Zdravlje svih nas je hvala Bogu bilo odlično, auto nas je služio bez greške i nadam se da će ostati slike kao uspomena djeci, a mnoge od njih sam izradio jer se plašim hard diskova, servera...da u trenu ne nestane mnogo bitnih stvari.

Poenta ove objave je da kada putujemo na malo duž put ne gledamo najkraću rutu, već najuzbudljiviju. I u povratku ne vraćati se po istom tragu već iskoristiti da se vidi nešto novo.
Nadam se da vam je bilo interesantno čitati ovu moju malu avanturu. Najisrdačnije se zahvaljujem svima koji su imali strpljenja i došli do kraja teksta, kao nagradu za to upućujem molitvu Milostivom Stvoritelju da vam podari svako dobro :)

Gradovi koje smo posjetili: Djakovica, Prizren, Skoplje, Prilep, Bitola, Ohrid, Struga, Albasan, Tirana, Drač, Skadar...
U Baru smo često, u mojoj je državi tako da ga namjerno nisam uvrstio u ovu listu gradova, kao i 3 noćenja u njemu koja sam izostavio u naslovu.

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