INTRODUCTION BALKANS 2010

I spent two semesters in Erasmus in Bratislava, Slovakia. To ending that great experience, I decided to leave for a trip in Balkans following where I have friends.

The first stop was clearly drew; Lviv in Ukraine. I have good friend there, I met them in Lithuania three years ago during a work camp. But when I went to the train station the buy my train tickets to Lviv, it was less expensive to stop in Kosice; in Eastern Slovakia, because thanks to my Slovak student card I could get discount, that why I decided to make a stop in Kosice and to meet one of my Slovak friend native from a close village.

About the second stop I did not have idea; for sure I wanted to get Istanbul to meet a very nice girl from Erasmus, to cut my journey I decided to stop in Bucharest, Romania. So after Bucharest, I must get Istanbul in Turkey.

In France, I studied my first two years of Law in the faculty of Toulouse. One of my good friends met there is from Kosovo, from Pristine exactly. At the end of May, I came back few days in the south of France, We met around a coffee and she proposed me so nicely to come some days to visit her in Pristine, Why not?

Actually I wanted to visit Kosovo for long time, in my first trip in Balkans with two Erasmus friends we wanted to get there but we missed time. Anyway, when you greeting in a country from native people it is always much more interesting and yours impressions is always much more fantastic.

So It was decided my next goal will be Pristine, far from Istanbul that why I planned a stop in Sofia, Bulgaria. A problem was to get Kosovo, I don’t know and don’t want to know about the pressure between Serbia and Kosovo that why I did not want to get Kosovo by Serbia, nevertheless much easier. A stop to Skopje was then necessary to get Pristine.

After to have counted few days in Pristine, my budget and my free time was over I needed to go back to Bratislava to take my plane to France. I estimated my budget trip at 400E everything included; actually it was my biggest deal.