This time, we got food first. During dinner, we decided that Skopje was (understandably) a bit quiet on a Sunday night, and that we weren't very tired. So we hopped back in the car and pressed on so we could return the car the following day to Sofia.
We had planned on driving through Macedonia for a bit and then coming up through Bulgaria, but after a missed turnoff we found ourselves at the Serbian border. The crossing was fairly smooth, but the Serbs were not thrilled to see the Kosovo stamps on our passports. Here's how they responded:
They annulled the Kosovo stamps. So, depending on how you look at it, perhaps I never did go to Kosovo. At least, that's what the Serbs will tell you.
We drove up through Serbia until we were almost due west from Sofia. The road was tiny. At times, it looked like somebody's driveway. Big stretches were narrow and unpaved. Sometimes it was cobblestone. Luckily, we encountered approximately one bus and one car during our late-night trip through southeastern Serbia.
Eventually, we arrived at a tiny border crossing seemingly in the middle of nowhere called Strazimirovtsi. It was eerie and quiet -- too quiet. Though it was the middle of the night, a couple of guards materialized and eventually stamped our passports and waved us through.
We pushed on, finally arriving in Sofia around dawn. After a snooze in the car, the rental car guy came to collect the car. During the final 24 hours of the trip, we were in 5 countries (Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria). Intense, but really fun.
In less than five days, we drove almost 2000 km through southwestern eastern Europe. It was a blast.
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