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Cabin in the woods, Lithuania...

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We’re stoked to have finished up 12 weeks refilling the bank account in London (although London is normally a better place to drain your bank account than to fill it) and we are getting ready to hit the road again. We’ve even been treated to a rare burst of British sunshine this week - things are looking up!!

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It surprised us to learn that many people living in London, just three hours away, have never visited (or never even heard of) England’s spectacular Jurassic Coast. There is so much more to England than the hustle and bustle of London, and we’re so glad we took the time to go and find it.

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New video up now - 6 MONTHS ON THE ROAD! Actually, we’re a little late here - 6 months and 9 days as of today. Check out the link below to find out some of the amazing lessons that we have learnt about the world, ourselves and each other by breaking away from the daily grind and living life completely on the fly. The world is such an incredible place and more than ever we appreciate life and the people that we have in our lives that make it the experience that it is. Thank you all so much for being part of who we are and what we do.

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As our trip goes on, we have found ourselves spending less and less time staring at screens and social media. While we love sharing our trip with everyone and seeing what everyone is up to back home, it is important that we remember to appreciate where we actually are and what we’re doing, rather than letting our phones rule our lives. That said, we will still be posting whenever we can and we will be back with our first YouTube video in a while later this week! Thank you as always to those who are following our journey and we can’t wait until the day that we can tell you all about it in person, rather than through the diluted medium that is social media.

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Travelling the Balkans

There are many European destinations on people’s travel bucket lists, and most of them are hideously crowded with tourists throughout most of the year. But, there are also hidden gems all throughout Europe that get overlooked by most of the tourists, which means that you can have them (almost) entirely to yourself!

Before we took our trip, we had no idea what a “Balkan” was. In fact, we only ended up in Sofia, Bulgaria because it was the cheapest place we could find to fly to on SkyScanner (which, incidentally, is a great way to both save money and see parts of the world that you never even knew existed). We arrived in Sofia at 2am with pretty much no knowledge at all about the place.

But, despite being overlooked by many tourists, the Balkans are a great place to travel if you have a budget to stick to and want to walk the path less travelled. So just to clarify, the Balkans are a set of countries on the Balkan Peninsula in South Eastern Europe. The exact geographical definition varies a bit depending on where you look but the countries that we visited were Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia.

Also, it is worth noting that Eastern Europe has had a very skewed reputation both in the past and present. Whilst everybody has their own experience, it is generally a fairly safe place to travel with very few language barrier issues. Of course, exercise safety precautions as you would anywhere, but we came in to Bulgaria after 10 weeks travelling the US and we can comfortably say that there were definitely times when we felt less safe in some of the US cities than in certain Balkan countries carrying “high risk” travel warnings. The point is, it’s not all missing kidneys and Eli Roth movies.

We made (hopefully) informative videos about all of the places that we visited in the Balkans (except Bulgaria) which you can check out below.

Skopje, Macedonia

Macedonia’s capital city stirs up some mixed opinions from both visitors and locals, and sports some interesting nicknames varying from “The Las Vegas of Europe” to “The Ugliest City in the World”. We found neither of these to be accurate; although it should be noted that there has been some significant “dressing up” of the city in recent years to draw tourists, the original character and history of the city remains and we loved it. See our video of “5 Reasons Why You Should Visit Skopje” below.

Ohrid, Macedonia

Without a doubt a place that would be drawing more tourism if more people knew about it, Ohrid and the incomparable Lake Ohrid is a buzzing yet chilled out piece of paradise on the border of Macedonia and Albania. A very affordable alternative to other European sea or lakeside holiday destinations. Check out what we loved about the place in our video below.

Albania

Although it does Albania absolutely no justice whatsoever to put the entire country under one heading, I’m structuring this blog around our videos so this is just how it pans out! A country completely isolated from the outside world up until less than 30 years ago, Albania is not only a country with some astoundingly beautiful wilderness and coastline but a place where many lessons can be learnt. The country’s political past is a warning that should be heeded by all about just how out of control government power can get, while the exceptional good nature of the people who lived under this regime shows us that simple human decency can survive just about anything. In visiting Albania, we would definitely recommend getting a car if you can because in many cases the towns are not overly well connected and you could end up losing valuable time (and money) through this. There are also many hidden gems that you really can’t access without a car, and we just had an amazing time road tripping around the place. Check out the video below for the full adventure!

Montenegro

Montenegro is a tiny country known mostly for it’s coastline. It is also a very mountainous country, so we opted to move away from the coast and spend some more time up in the mountains, and we are very glad we did. Just above the quaint town of Cetinje is Lovcen National Park, a picturesque and gloriously tourist free piece of mountain paradise. The impressive Mausoleum Of Petar Petrovic Njegos II is starting to gain tourist traction, but with good reason. It is unbelievable.

Dubrovnik

I can’t help but groan a little bit inside my head at just the thought of Dubrovnik. It’s beautiful, sure, but why this is an unrivalled tourist Mecca we still have no idea. We made a video covering some of the pros and cons of Dubrovnik, because whilst we normally have nothing but good things to say about the places that we visit we couldn’t in good conscience just tell you that Dubrovnik is amazing and worth the time and money. Not that it’s all bad - check out the video and make up your own mind.

Hvar And Stari Grad

After nearly half a year on the road, we booked ourselves an Airbnb for a whole month in Hvar because we wanted to chill out. Hvar is an island off the coast of Croatia that is easily accessible by ferry from Split or Dubrovnik, and it has a special place in our hearts as one of our favourite travel destinations ever. Unfortunately, the tourists have really started to sink their teeth into this one too so we had to stray a little off the beaten track to avoid the crowds. We would certainly recommend staying in the quieter villages of Milna or Stari Grad if you are looking for peace and quiet, although Hvar Town itself certainly has a buzz that’s hard to beat.

Zagreb, Croatia

Our last Balkan destination was actually one of our favourites, but is largely overlooked by tourists. The capital city of Croatia has managed to maintain its authentic integrity despite the country becoming such a tourist magnet in recent years. It is fair to say as well that we felt more at home on the streets of Zagreb that in almost any other place we have visited; I would dub it the “Melbourne” of Europe.

So, when you are looking for a great, affordable place to travel that offers an astonishing amount of variety, the Balkans are well and truly worth checking out. If you have any questions about our time travelling here or anywhere else, please feel free to contact us directly - or, even if you don’t have any questions, say hi anyway. Thanks for reading and watching and we’ll see you somewhere in the world!

Emma and Matt - Earthly Travellers

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Happy travels!

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The Pilgrimage Church Of St. John Of Nepomuk sits silently on top of its hill in the Czech Republic. The church is eerily peaceful, surrounded by cemeteries and with very few visitors.

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The city of Prague is one of the most beautiful places that we have visited. Although the tourism seems to be increasing at an alarming rate, this city will always hold a very special place in our hearts and the hearts of people that we love.

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Looking out on the world from Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. With 1,441 rooms, the ornate palace and surrounding gardens has been of significance in Austria since as early as 1569 (although the palace in its current form was rebuilt in the mid 1700s) and remained in use by the Habsburg monarchy until 1918. The palace is now one of Vienna’s very impressive tourist draws.

Also, although I am very happy to see you all, that is just a lens in my pocket!

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One thing that we definitely don’t do enough is crack out our trusty @gopro so that we can get shots from angles that the DSLR can’t reach. What is the most creative thing that you have ever seen done with one of these amazing little inventions?

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We had some amazing days swimming in the clear water of Lake Ohrid.

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NEW VIDEO UP NOW!! Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia, is often overlooked by tourists passing through to visit the coast, but we would consider Zagreb one of our favourite cities that we have visited yet. Check out the reasons why now in the video linked below and let us know what your favourite underrated city is!

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Even on a gloomy day like this, Lake Ohrid was a spectacular sight. The 300 metre deep freshwater lake in that lies on the Macedonia/Albania border is truly unique, and absolutely teeming with life. Check out our video of our time there:

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The Great Market Hall in Budapest is a bustling snapshot of Hungarian culture, with everything from traditional wares to delicious Hungarian food. The 10,000 square metre hall is 120 years old, survived damage in the World Wars and is still one of the most popular attractions in this buzzing city. We have always loved a good market, even if we are just wandering the stalls without buying anything. What is your favourite market in the world?

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Zagreb is full of beautiful places to sit and watch the world go by - as much as we love being on the go, it’s nice to take some time out to enjoy people watching and taking everything in 🍁🍂

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This was a great moment on the rooftop of our apartment building in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. It is always worth visiting the small towns that tourists don’t seek out; there is no better way to experience the true culture of a country.

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We’re back in our jackets after what has been nearly a 12-month summer for us (sorry, not trying to make anyone jealous!). We have almost never had the time and the freedom to truly appreciate the beauty of Autumn; as the days get shorter, it used to mean we would see almost no daylight at all outside of working hours. It is a true joy to explore a leafy city like Zagreb, Croatia while the leaves begin to change! 🍁 Where is your favourite place to watch Autumn roll in?