The Big Decision!


It's been a few weeks since we got up to much if anything. I had a brief meltdown with anxiety about two weeks ago which put our trip to Himare on the back burner a bit, at least for now. The weather in October seems to fluctuate highly and we missed the last window for Himare, but not to worry. We have already decided we're going to come back to do Himare maybe in May or June of next year (after our visas reset) so more on that as well as Berat later!

In the meantime though, we only have around 3 weeks left before we need to really get a move on and get out of Albania or risk overstaying. Overstaying is NEVER a good idea in any country and can cause you several issues including fines or even exclusion periods, so to play it safe, just don't do it. Although, it does depend on the country you find yourself in. For example, Thailand and Laos typically just charge you an extra fee of like $4 a day for each day you overstay. So it can rack up fast if you don't get to a border. I guess because of the nature of South East Asia, they kind of understand it's easy to lose yourself and lose track of time in the richness of the countryside and so it's not unusual for travellers to rock up at the border in a stress because it's a day or two past their expiration and so they just get you to pay up.

So anyways, we have had to discuss where we're going to go next and I think we have come to our conclusion. Basically the options were somewhere like Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia or the like. Well, the thing that sucks is that of ALL those countries only ONE (Montenegro) would probably work with us and the gear we have at our disposal - essentially summery and very very light autumnal clothes. We certainly don't have the right stuff to explore the options of a continental winter in the likes of Moldova or Ukraine, so those are out. As are Bosnia, Serbia and Macedonia. We were fast running out of options, and Pete feels that Montenegro is a waste as we won't be able to take advantage of coastline or swimming, so it's pointless going there too.

So, we discussed it one night and we both seemed to be fancying a bit of a desert. So we started entertaining the ideas of maybe Ethiopia, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. We did think about Greek islands such as Corfu too, but the cost factor is a big thing for us. Morocco seems to have everything we want, but... something was missing.

So then somehow we decided Egypt might be a great place. It's safe - in parts - especially the Southern Sinai peninsula, and that area has world class snorkelling. The more we looked into Dahab, the more and more it sounds like our kind of place. Hell, on TripAdvisor people were referring to it as "quicksand". Saying they'd gone there for a week to see some friends but ended up staying so long they had to go on a visa run to Israel.

Beaches, amazing snorkelling, diving, yoga, meditation, Kundalini Yoga on Mount Sinai, Full moon retreats into the desert? All in a Bedouin/Hippie village on the coast? Where do we sign? We may have found our Mecca...... but first, we will need to get to Istanbul, as that's where they do criminally cheap flights to Sharm el Sheik!

Stay tuned....

Erin

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