I know that we have been moving quite a bit and some readers found it interesting to see maps of where we have been. In the previous summary post, we had done six housesits in over 3 countries. Our last house sit was in Trier, Germany over Christmas 2021 and New Year, shown as number 10 on the map.
From there we went to Belgium (11) in January, where we looked after 3 wonderful dogs and enjoyed the often snow-covered forests. We then travelled to Reims in France (12) for two nights to see the beautiful cathedral on the way to our next sit that was 5 hours further South-East. This was in a tiny village called Saint-Jean-de-la Porte (13) which had stunning views of the Alps into Italy and Switzerland. Here we looked after 2 cats.
Then we had a long journey through to Josselin (14) in Brittany, France where we were based for 5 weeks looking after a dog and two cats. Kyle also joined us in Josselin for his 21st birthday.
At the end of this point – 12th March – we had done 10 house sits in total and looked after 15 dogs and 6 cats across 4 countries.
We knew our next housesit was in Slovenia in mid-May. We also were keen on some exploring. I had booked a month’s stay in Ohrid on Lake Ohrid for Adu’s birthday and Easter. We had 2 weeks before this to fill. At first, we thought of exploring Italy but we found that it would be expensive without the advantage of house sitting and I was still keen to get to Albania. (We knew nothing about Albania before around mid-2021, but it came onto my radar as it allowed vaccinated South Africans to enter although SA was on the original Beta covid red list). The more I investigated the more I realised what an utterly stunning, scenic country it was.
So we planned an initial 2-week trip to Albania. Then we had our month in Ohrid. Then we went to Skopje (the capital of North Macedonia) for a Queen tribute concert, that was just amazing! Then onto Prizren in Kosovo for 3 nights.
This map shows the geography of Albania, North Macedonia, and Kosovo. We flew into Tirana from France via Frankfurt and our slow explore of Albania began.
