TRAVEL | TRAVEL PLANS
Surprise — We Are Going To Greece!
When plans change, we get excited.
As this is my first post of 2023, I should start with a hearty HAPPY NEW YEAR! I trust everyone had a great holiday season and you are reveling in the joy of putting another year behind you.
After our nice Christmas break, we editors at Globetrotters are ready to get publishing again and I am excited to kick off the January writing prompt: My Travel Wish List 2023.
I have a feeling that it is going to be a great year!
Our year is starting to look a lot different than we thought. This is because a housesitting job that we were supposed to have in Mallorca, Spain in July and August, just got canceled in the past week.
You may be surprised to learn that instead of being bummed out about it, we are actually relieved.
Let me explain why. It’s primarily because of the Schengen Area rules.
What is the Schengen Area?
The Schengen Area allows people to travel freely across borders of countries that are a part of it, without the need to present passports and get stamps at each border. Most of the EU is part of the Schengen Area.
According to Wikipedia:
The Schengen Area is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice policy of the EU, it mostly functions as a single jurisdiction under a common visa policy for international travel purposes. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement and the 1990 Schengen Convention, both signed in Schengen, Luxembourg.
There are limitations, though. As Canadians, we can only be in this area for 90 days in a 180-day period. With us planning on being in Spain for 60 of those days, it meant that we had to carefully plan when we would be entering the area, and we would have to make sure that we didn’t stay in any other Schengen Zone country for over 30 days.
Thankfully, Bulgaria and Romania are not part of the Schengen Area, and neither are Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo. So there is still lots for us to see in Eastern Europe outside of the zone anyways.
But not having a schedule now, and not having to worry about overstaying in the Schengen Area, means that we can now go to Greece by ferry from Turkey. Previously, we didn’t want to do this because we also had plans to go and visit our friend Nico in Germany in June, before heading to Spain.
So yeah, we are going to go to Greece and we are pretty excited about it!
For starters, we have our sights set on Crete. It is a place that we didn’t get to the last time we were in Greece in 2015, and we really want to check it out. We aren’t sure about any details yet, but we hope to find a volunteer position either painting murals or farming/gardening.
Back to Bulgaria and beyond
Traveling by boats and land, we will head North through mainland Greece back to Bulgaria in March and will finish painting our murals at the YoHo Hostel in Varna. We will likely spend our full 90-day entry allowance in Bulgaria before we then head north to Romania, then will travel across Europe to Germany to visit our friend in Leipzig.
Possibly a trip to Canada?
As summer is the best time of year to be in Canada, we may take advantage of this opportunity and cross the Atlantic to pop in on our families. We haven’t been back for a visit since leaving in January of 2020 and we are due. Of course, money will be a determining factor in whether we can make that happen or not.
Then what?
Whether we go to Canada, or not, we think that after Germany, we will head back to Eastern Europe because we really do want to see Albania and Montenegro. I’m sure once in the area, we will also get to Serbia and North Macedonia as well.
At this point, who knows?
Italy anyone?
If we stay out of the Schengen Area for 3 months, we will then be free to go back into it. So, if all goes well, we can hop across the Adriatic Sea from Albania or Montenegro by ferry to Italy. Or, we can travel up to Croatia and over into Italy in the North. We have 2 sets of friends in Italy that we would love to see, so this could be a great option for the end of the year.
We spent New Year 2016 in Italy and we have been yearning to go back ever since.
As usual, this traveling life is constantly shifting and changing. Being flexible and adapting to the changes is key to making this life work for us. And of course, when one door closes, another one always opens.
We are very excited to see what this next year brings us!
So who’s with me? Let’s make 2023 our best year yet!
To get all caught up on the prompt read Anne Bonfert’s introduction post here:
In accordance with our requirements this month, here are 2 links that are related to the destinations that I have outlined above:
Darren Weir takes us on his road trip in Italy. His photos of Tuscany certainly are inviting and it is an area that I would definitely like to see more of. I’m not sure if winter is a good time, though. We may just stick to the southern end of the country.
Scott-Ryan Abt: I chose Scott’s article as my favorite in the September Globetrotter challenge. His description of the Greek Feta has my mouth watering and I can’t wait to taste it again!
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