balkans, baby

The planning for summer is in full swing.

After a lot of back & forth we scrapped the idea of heading up to Nordkapp. It’s not that we couldn’t cover the distance in three weeks, just that the reality is we’d be in such a rush to get there & back in time, we’d miss everything that would make the trip special. The whole excursion would be limited to main highways & too many kilometres per day. It’s not worth it. If I’m going to go to a place, I want to see it. I want to be able to get off my bike, lay in the grass & soak up the experience without the stress of meeting a deadline.

So we decided to focus on touring the Balkan countries. With the exceptions of Turkey (we’ve both been), Albania & Kosovo. It’s still a nine country trip & it’s shaping up to be pretty epic.

Whilst Panagiotis pours over maps & forums, I’ve been looking up sights each country has to offer & doing some more practical research, such as local currencies & whether or not free-camping is permitted.

It dawned on me though, that most countries operate on their very own currency & we might be getting fucked & swindled on exchange rates. Taking our cash cards is also not an option since Capitol controls are still in effect in Greece which renders them useless. Not to mention bank charges on every gass top up & grocery run would just be excruciating. Then again, my sister is amazing & told us about a company called Revolut which looks too good to be true. Apparently you can top up your Revolut card & then it will automatically convert your money into the local currency using the most accurate exchange rate, without conversion fees or bank charges for your purchases. Going to check it out this summer & if it works it’s going to be the best discovery recommended to us.

For now, here’s the beginning of my research. I’ll be updating this with new information such as camp sites, the map files & more once we have it all finalised.

The excitement has reached & I’m in full swing

BALKANS

Bulgaria Currency: Lev Exchange rate: €1 – лв1.96 Vignette: yes – except motorcycles Free camping: yes

Romania Currency: Leu Exchange rate: €1 – lei4.56 Vignette: yes – except motorcycles Free camping: yes – not recommended

Hungary Currency: Forint Exchange rate: €1 – Ft311.93 Vignette: yes Cost: 7days / €4.80 – Website to buy online Free camping: no

Slovenia Currency: Euro Exchange rate: n/a Vignette: yes Cost: 7days / €7 – Website to buy online Free camping: no

Croatia Currency: Kuna Exchange rate: €1 – kn7.43 Vignette: no Free camping: no

Bosnia Currency: Marka Exchange rate: €1 – KM1.96 Vignette: no Free camping: yes

Montenegro Currency: Euro Exchange rate: n/a Vignette: no Free camping: yes

Serbia Currency: Dinar Exchange rate: €1 – Дин124.02 Vignette: no Free camping: free

Skopia (Macedonia FYROM) Currency: Denar Exchange rate: €1 – ден61.48 Vignette: no Free camping: no

#Balkans #Europe #Roadtrip #Travel #Maps #Planning #Adventure