I didn’t know what to expect when I touched down in North Macedonia. I just knew that Lake Ohrid was a stunner and there was a long-running dispute with Greece over use of the name ‘Macedonia’. It’s far from a melting pot of Lonely Planet-carrying or fanny pack-toting tourists, but for me that made it all the more interesting.
A whole new world exists outside the main island of Malta. Here are my adventures from the islands of Gozo and Comino, in the middle of February, when there's barely anyone else visiting, and where history goes back thousands of years.
I made three assumptions when I booked my ticket to Malta one grey Saturday in November. The first was that it was a single island in the Mediterranean. The second was that the only things to see were alluring beaches. And the third was that given its popularity with tourists, it might be hard to stick to my budget of £40 per day (including...
"Why on earth are you going to Andorra for three whole days if you hate skiing?" my colleagues exclaimed. "You'll see everything in a day!" I was acutely aware that this mountainous micro-state nestled high in the Pyrenees between France and Spain was mainly (if not only) known for skiing. It comes as no surprise with the country's landscape...
"What do you know about Kosovo?" I remember asking a few friends before I set off. The responses were almost universally just that of the conflict in 1999 when Kosovo dominated the media. The Kosovo War was the first conflict I remember watching on the evening news, aged 10 when I secretly stayed up past bedtime with my grandfather. While its...
"You're going to Monaco on a budget trip?" my friend asked incredulously. "Don't people just go there for yacht parties and to gamble in casinos? What on earth will you do?" There was still a chill in the air at 07:30AM as I stood on the promenade behind the Opera House, remembering this conversation. I regretted not bringing a thicker jacket - I...