I’m starting to be asked the question of what I’m planning to do after Bulgaria. My original, very loose plan, was to go to Turkey for about a month, take a short holiday in Lebanon, and then head to North African (Morocco or Tunisia) for a bit. With Turkey being flat out of the question after the recent attempted coup and speaking to a lot of women who have been to North Africa alone, I decided to completely scrap that plan and stay in Eastern Europe, in countries outside of the Schengen Area (so Greece is not an option), as long as I can stand the weather.

My itinerary will really depending on ease of getting around. Flights are very cheap, but sometimes go through cities I don’t want to land in (because of Schengen), and buses and trains are iffy in this part of the world.

But here’s a rough idea of that I have in mind:

So from Bulgaria, I’m thinking of going to Serbia and living in Belgrade for about a month. Research tells me that Belgrade is lovely, Serbia is inexpensive and has decent internet, and Serbians are very welcoming. Sounds like a good next stop!

From Serbia, I would go into Kosovo for a bit. I’m doing it in that order because of the tense relation between the two countries (Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as being a sovereign state) and I’m worried that going to Kosovo first would impede me from going to Serbia.

From Kosovo, sometime in the last days of October or first days of November, I would then like to take three to four weeks to go through Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, stopping only in the major cities. The cost of living in these countries is low enough that I’m hoping I can do a work four really full days/travel three days sort of schedule. I’m told the Adriatic coast is beautiful and the weather is still good for swimming in November, so I might want to find myself a beachside residence for a bit. Who knows 🙂 So that would bring me to the end of November.

From Croatia, I envision flying to Bucharest, Romania, for a few days and then possibly traveling through Moldova into Ukraine. I’d like to do a tour of Chernobyl (yes, it’s safe now!) and whatever dates I book for that would help me set my post-Serbia itinerary.

From Kiev, I would then travel to Poland, which would start my “Schengen clock.” I primarily want to go to Poland to visit Auschwitz near Krakow. Average December temperatures in Krakow are much warmer than I expected (around 7C), so I may want to hang around the area for a bit and enjoy my last chance at a lower cost of living before heading to Portugal or the south of Spain for the worst of the winter.

So that’s a rough idea of what I’m looking at through the end of 2016.

But first, I have my grand tour of Bulgaria to plan! I should be able to get away for a week to ten days at the end of this month!