Europe Archives - Travel Bugs World

Vatican Museum Online – Virtual Travel to The Best Museum In The World

We can’t travel yet, but we can take many fascinating virtual tours from home. Even if you don’t generally like museums, you will find the art in the Vatican Museum impressive. A free virtual tour of the Vatican Museum, one of the most enchanting and best museums in the world, will give you hours of entertainment and cultural enlightenment. Experience our favorite museum in the world from the comfort of your own home with a Vatican Museum online tour.

Veliko Tarnovo, Ruins, Feasts & the 1st Winter Snow.

Bulgaria is a country overflowing with delightful old towns, sublime countryside, delicious cuisine, quality wine, modern cafes and vibrant nightlife.

After exploring the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, and the historic old town Plovdiv, where we luckily happened along a Young Wine Festival, we travel bugs continued our journey to Veliko Tarnovo.

The third destination on our Bulgarian tour, the words “medieval city” in our Lonely Planet guide-book inspired us to visit Veliko Tarnovo.

Plovdiv – Wine Festivals, Old Ruins, Old Towns, European Capital of Culture 2019

Following our exploration of the capital of Bulgaria – Sofia, we headed to Plovdiv with the expectation to see a few ruins. We had read in the Lonely Planet that it was one of the oldest cities in the world. We loved all the historic old towns we had seen in Europe, and we were eager to explore another one.

In Sofia, we had spent two active days exploring parks, monuments and churches. We also ate and drank ourselves silly. (As you do when delicious gourmet food is also so budget priced.) In Plovdiv, we expected a couple of laid-back days and an opportunity to see the Bulgarian countryside.

Bulgaria – Twenty years later

Bulgaria_Sofia_Aleksander_Nevski_Cathedral_view

The start of my Bulgarian story began twenty years ago. It started with a dirt cheap budget saving airfare from Sydney to Greece. I was a happy teenager on my way to Party on the Greek Islands.

The cost was as cheap as it gets for a 30-hour flight from Sydney, Australia. But, in return, I was to stay in no man’s land – Sofia, Bulgaria for two days. I was not interested in churches and historic buildings. Don’t judge me; I was a teenager and, I just needed to get to the promised backpacker party scene on Santorini Island, Greece.

Albania – Like no other place in Europe

After travelling in Europe for 7 months, one gets a bit unimpressed by another castle, another church and another old town. The interest in quaint cities full of coffee shops lining pretty streets is no longer there.

So by the time we hit Albania, we were enthused to race down to that gorgeous cheap Adriatic beach that we’d heard about. We were ready to put our backpack down and practice the sweet art of doing nothing.

The road less travelled to Sarajevo, Bosnia

Bosnia is not a road many people would take.
I hadn’t heard many appealing things about the place. There were no must-see attractions that people had mentioned on their bucket lists. I had only seen the war movies. And I had perceived it as an unappetising place. Yep, it sure didn’t sound like Paris, drinking coffee and munching croissants.

However, these are days of easy travel, and the world is getting very small. It’s hard to find a different culture without queuing behind hundreds of tourists to view a stone bed that was once a brothel. It’s hard waiting patiently for a bus tour group to idle by. Especially the noisy crowd following its flagged leader.

Mountains, Temples, Islands & Seafood Feasts in Greece

An overland bus trip from Corfu to Meteora to Delphi.

After 6 months in Europe and the threat of “Winter Is Coming”, ever since the 13 degrees Celsius of Dubrovnik, we travel bugs continued on the eternal favourite longterm backpacker habit of chasing the sun.

This overland journey from Croatia took us through some exciting countries off the beaten track (for Europe anyway). We were reluctant to leave our authentic experiences in Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania. Thus, it was a month before we finally got to the Greek Islands. Sadly, the weather reports we had seen in the last month promising scorching 30 degrees heat were no longer current. It was now a balmy 18 degrees. Never mind, at least the tourist masses had gone home for the winter, and we enjoyed our leisurely travels without the usual crowds found at major attractions.

Category: Europe