We took a highway to Peloponnese (🛣 15,65 EUR) to reach a hilltop backed by powerful mountains, where stand the somber and mighty ruins of Ancient Mycenae, home of Agamemnon, the legendary king who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. For four centuries in the second millennium BC...
We decided to spend five days in the city, from where many of Classical civilization’s intellectual and artistic ideas originated. It is generally considered to be the birthplace of Western civilization. When approached from the Middle East, Athens, with its tall buildings and trendy...
The monastery of Moni Hosios Loukas, a UNESCO World Heritage site (entrance 4 EUR), is situated at a scenic site on the slopes of Mount Helicon. It overlooks a remote valley 23 kilometers southeast of Arahova. Dedicated to a 10th-century hermit Luke of Steiris canonized for his healing...
We spent one day in the ancient sanctuary of Delphi. For the Greeks, Delphi marked the very center of the world, a sacred space where human beings could communicate directly with the gods. Blending harmoniously with the superb landscape and charged with sacred meaning, Delphi in the 6th...
Our first stop in Macedonia was a small city on the shores of Lake Ohrid with a compact old town, where medieval churches, monasteries, and open-air ruins stand alongside traditional houses with red-tiled roofs. The massive walls of the centuries-old Samoil’s Fortress, at the top of the...
Kokino, a bronze age ritual site, is a megalithic observatory sitting atop a volcanic hill. In 2001, the ruins of a Bronze Age settlement were found outside the small North Macedonian village of Kokino. Amid the signs of occupation like pieces of vessels and weapons, researchers also...
We made a short stop in Gračanica Monastery (it’s not allowed to take photos inside). The monastery, which is set on large, grassy grounds, was built by the Serbian king Stefan Milutin in 1321 on the ruins of a 6th-century basilica. The medieval-era paintings here are impressive enough...
Leaving Peja was a nightmare, because Google navigation brought us deep into downtown, literally just in the main square, it was not easy to turn back and find the correct road, but we made it. After thirty minutes Google brought us again to the totally wrong location in Dečani, so if you...
This church and nunnery complex on the outskirts of Peja is a raw slice of Serbian Orthodoxy. Outside on the landscaped grounds, all is bright and colorful, but once inside the church it feels more like you’re within a dark cave with magnificent faded frescoes covering the walls and...
We left Studenica Monastery in rainy and foggy weather, we drove (105 km / 3 hours) through serpentines of the Route 30 and 21 via Golija Mountains through Ivanjica town to Sjenica. The mountain is part of the Dinaric Mountain range and is heavily forested with significant biodiversity...