Out of cage

Dear beautiful people. I'm Besarta, 25 and i'm a lovely blogger. Born and raised in Kosovo i chose to study finances and meanwhile because i loved writing, i started keeping a small book with me wherever i'd go. That would be my little friend. Whatever i see, hear or touch, i would tell him.

Living in Kosovo means you're isolated, you cant move, you need a visa for everywhere, so my love for traveling was bigger than this little cage of 10,888 (Kosovo's dimension in km). Really young i

started volunteering in kids/youth projects which would lead me to my first travel opportunity. That was Struga, Macedonia (2008). Being connected to Macedonia because of my brethern albanians living there was more than just a travel spot. It was culture, history, sacrifice of people and love. Struga was amazing. An old town with a great architectural buildings and its river in place. Warm and cool people. Something you'll never forget.

I chose to go to Albania - My first time ever back in 2009. That meant a lot to me. After our separation and the war here in Kosovo, that was going back to my motherland. Somewhere i felt i belonged there. An emotional and amazing first met with it. Durres is a small town located in the north part of Albania as a very antique town with a beautiful beach and natural beauty. I would find it as a very interesting travel spot also because it's close to Tirana (the capital) where you can get to see the ex-dictatorship bunkers that are transformed in living places.

Traveling is a passion, love for nature, people, places. No race or religion determines it. No historical background can stop you from feeling what you feel when you are there.

That's where i felt in love with Belgrade (2014) no matter what.

According to our history with Serbia, i wasnt really sure what would i expect there. Many thoughts ran into my mind. I've heard it was a really beautiful place with a lot of history in it. I was amazed. Warm and kind people, a lot of history and perfect architechture. The most beautiful view from Kalamegdan tower: Sava and Danube. Two biggest rivers of Europe meet there, and you could see the difference between waters in the meeting point. A lot to see and experience. I've found "Skadarska" street (Shkodra in Albanian). A flowerish road with amazing coffee shops and undoubtely friendly people. I still want to go back there asap. Life lasting friendships i got there.

As an isolated country that you cant move without a visa (besides: Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, which i visited couple times, besides Turkey) it's really sad when you want to move further but you cant and especially when you love traveling and when you are a blogger.

The first "out of the cage" moment came up to me when i got my visa approved in three days when i was leaving for Croatia for two months (for a kids ministry, outdoors training and nature exploring). Can you imagine how a bird would feel getting out of the cage for the first time? It was a long way but totally worth it. I ended up being in Zagreb, which i would only hear stories from my dad when he was a soldier and for Severin as a very beautiful place. As a traveler i love exploring things in nature. We had a home snake, a deer ran out in our garden when we were training and we had a supposed bear cave in our back yard. Isnt that amazing? Our home was located into the forest somehow and with a very beautifuI river we used to swim everyday. I heard about different weird and funny stories, i saw people eating grasshopper, i played a lot of ultimate freesbay for the first time, did rock-climbing, canoeing and i tried Jokers for the first time. I created friendships also with people who came all the way from the Philipines to see Croatia.

Traveling makes you free, you breath every thing in the air, you feel everything you see and touch. It's just you and that thing. You feel yourself, something you love doing and would spend all of your days doing it.

Back in Croatia i used to see the best place ever that my eyes would see since now. The National Park of Croatia known as Plitvica Lakes (Cro: Plitvica Jezera). Have you been there? If not, get your list and write it down. That's a place that i recommend to all travel photographers and more. That's an earthly paradise. High mountains, deep crystal clear waters, a lot of fish, dreamy walking trails, cold fountains of water and a lot of tourists. It's an herritage protected by UNESCO.

I wonder and think that a lot of people here might have seen more and better than this, but that's a lot when living in a "cage". Thus, this should be my time out of the cage soon. I would love to see Bosnia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and more in my next oportunity around balkans.

See you there, blovers💚