Our October 2014

In October we lived amongst the unbelievable monuments of Skopje, hiked in the beautiful Matka Canyon, had a short vacation at the history-filled city of Thessaloniki, and explored Athens and its surroundings with fellow travel bloggers.

Statistics

Countries visited: 2 (total 28 countries*)
Macedonia and Greece. Both new countries for Antti, so he's quickly catching me up on number of countries visited.

Cities/towns visited: 3 (total 100 cities/towns)
Skopje in Macedonia plus Thessaloniki and Athens in Greece.

Beds slept in: 4 (total 114 beds)
Airbnb apartment in Skopje and another one in Athens, both excellent! (If you want to try Airbnb, you, and us, will get 20€ bonus by signing-up with our Airbnb-link). In Thessaloniki we stayed at the Hotel Augustos, which was nice enough. And in Skopje, because of a change in plans, we stayed one night at our Airbnb-host's own apartment for free.

Average daily spend on accommodation: Macedonia 32€, Greece 36.5€ (21,5€**)
We made a small upgrade in our accommodation this month, when realising that for few extra euros we can get much better options in the cities we were heading to. For Athens, I found some cheaper and nice ones when searching for the first time, but didn't book then and when I went back all were booked. Blame the hundreds of travel bloggers storming Athens... But the one we ended up booking was really nice and only 10 mins walk from the conference site, so we were very happy.

Average daily spend on food: Macedonia 26€, Greece 29€ (30,5€)
In Macedonia we cooked at home at least once a day. When eating out, the costs really differed depending what and where we ate. Sometimes we paid 10€ for the two of us, sometimes 30€. In Greece I had food (and drinks, thank you!) provided to me on 6 days during the TBEX-conference, so this affected the spending on food. We cooked a lot at home too, or bought take-away gyros. Normally we paid about 20€ for a dinner for two with wine.

* All totals Anno Digital Nomad (ADN) = after January 4th, 2013.
** Average spent ADN

In the blog

Week 40: A week in Skopje. Most of it I've spent on a couch nursing my flu, but before that I was blown away by the kitschy, out-of-this-world center of Skopje at night. Monuments, statues, fountains, color lights everywhere...

Week 41: Another week in Skopje. Walking in the autumn-colored park, exploring the city with a guided tour, eating out almost every day, enjoying drinks at the Old Bazaar, and a surprise meetup with a friend.

Week 42: Last day in Skopje, visiting the stunning Matka canyon. Taking an early morning bus to Thessaloniki, witnessing a nice sunset over the mountains on the way. Day exploring Thessaloniki and onwards to Athens, where from Tuesday on I was busy with the TBEX travel blogger conference.

Week 43: My days from Friday to Sunday were filled with the TBEX travel blogger conference and the rest of the week with recovering from it... My expectations for Athens were not so high, but I'm liking it more and more each day. It's colorful, friendly, and there's always something new around the corner.

And then there was the recap of Our August 2014: saying goodbye to Finland once again, meeting friends in Germany, and learning in Slovenia.