Skopje and Sofia are reasonably nice at this time of the year, but definitely not in the winter. Then, they turn into the two most heavily polluted capitals on the European continent. Heavy use of coal heating with unfiltered exhaust, combined with frequent valley inversions due to the mountainous terrain, result in horrific levels of air pollution. And I'm not sure how this is going to affect the epidemiological situation in the winter as there is already some evidence that fine particulate matter can ease the spread of COVID-19.
As of the other bases in the Balkans... Bucharest is quite reasonable. If you speak Italian or Spanish, you will quickly pick up Romanian. Varna is nice in the summer, but it can get really windy in the winter; also, the airport is not LVO-approved, so be prepared to divert a couple of times every winter when it gets foggy. Chisinau was quite dilapidated and not particularly cheap when I last went there 10 years ago, don't know if it's any different now. Craiova, Tuzla, Tirana, Cluj, Iasi, Bacau - never been there.
Last edited by PilotLZ; 6th Aug 2020 at 10:40.