After the difficulty of getting here I was curious about Albania. How would it be? Well on the bus into Shkodra we passed horses and carts and other signs of third world countries. The primary mode of transport was to be minibuses that ply their trade from random roundabouts. So far, so good in terms of third world travelling. We arrived in the city and had problems getting cash. While I went to look for some the bus to Tirana drove off with the gringo price of 5 euros each. Its actually 4. Every euro counts. So we went to look for food. Flopping into an embarrassingly cheap pizza restaurant we were immediately given two glasses of coke free of charge while we waited for the pizza. I liked this country already. The food was good, the service was friendly and they told us where we could pick up a minibus to Tirana. The language has a lot of Italian influence and speaking Spanish you can pick up some of the tings and signs, but not loads. The guy asked for 4 euros in hindsight assuming as a tourist I wouldn't have money and I paid him 400 Lek. My mistake I think. Cannelle left her sleeping bag in the bus, which ruled out camping until we replaced it. We went looking for a pension and an old woman asked us if we needed help and took us to the place. We stayed there two nights and it is run by a really nice old woman and she just trusted us on the exchange rate. I love these people. What a wonderful country. Its a seemingly endlessly proven fact that the less touristy a country, the better the people. We went for a small walk around in the evening, but after 5 buses and a train we were a little tired.
We went for a walk down to the little old bridge, which is nice and to see some multi coloured tress and the main square. Its not the prettiest of towns, but its got a nice energy to it. We couldn't find a laundrette or the Blood Feud House (where people were still locked inside, because if they left they could be killed over an old blood feud), but found neither. We did find the train station. Sadly we would never get to try the joy of an Albanian train journey due to a change in itinerary. We went to see Transformers 3 and to an art gallery with a nice photo exhibition. We didn't do much. In the evening we went to the rotating sky bar in the top of the tallest tower for a coffee and tiramisu. It was nice sitting and rotating, seeing all of the city. We could do whatever we wanted here. Ice cream was 10 cents, you could have a burek for 30 cents. Ridiculous. We couldn't spend out budget if we tried. We went to the nice bar district in the evening and had cocktails. Not much happened. The people were really nice here. An insect flew into a copper plate in the room and knocked itself out. That was reasonably amusing.
We went to a very expensive (relative) French patisserie for breakfast and had some really nice cakes. Where were the buses to Berat? They went from a random bus station on the edge of town where people shout out destinations and you find the bus you need. I loved it. Like being back in Guatemala. It's a beautiful town in the mountainous hills, with white buildings all around the hills. We hiked to the other side of the river to find the hostel and had our laundry done cheaply. The hostel is one of the best I have stayed at. A perfect hostel with everything you could need. We got chatting with a Spanish/Croatian couple and the people who worked there. They asked how the bus ride had been and I said like Guatemala and he laughed as most tourists complain, but I was used to that type of travelling. I was feeling a bit sick, but we headed up to the castle. Its a brisk climb, but its really cool to wander around the ruins of the castle. The view is nice, but the prettiest thing about the town is the castle, so when you are inside it you don't get such a great view. A local guy wanted to charge me extra for an ice cream. I took him outside and showed him the price. He then said what I wanted was a different ice cream. The one in my hand was pink and the other one was green. This was the most ridiculous attempt at a lie I have ever seen. Needless to say I didn't buy it. He was one of only 2 annoying Albanians we met. The others were all fantastic. Finishing the castle we had a chicken curry cooked at the hostel, before heading down to the town centre to watch the communist era promenading. They had told us in the hostel that under communist rule people would walk up and down the street at dusk to be seen. Suddenly all the random walking people in Tirana made sense. It was amusing to see, but we didn't stay too long. I decided to climb the hill behind the hostel to see the castle, but Cannelle didn't feel like it and the narrowness of the path, combined with the cobwebs, meant that she didn't join me. I hiked up and scrambled over fallen down trees etc until I came close to the top. Then there was something black in front of me, about 60m away. It snapped off a branch from a tree. Fuck a bear. Damn my shit eyesight. It looked towards me. I ran. No time for second guessing. I ran, scrambled, fell and jumped my way down the hill. My heart was pounding. I have no idea if it was a bear. Could have been a horse or a weird man. Might well have been a bear. I didn't care. I ran. Back in the hostel we met another super weird Canadian, living in her own world and wanting to take a taxi up to the castle when its a ten minute walk. I am still trying to persuade Cannelle that English speaking Canadians are weirdos. The more she meets, the more easily convinced she is.
In the morning we got up to go to Gjirokastra, the other UNESCO town. I had high expectations. There were no hostels, but the Berat lot had told us of a guesthouse. Hostels are much less important when you are in a couple as you don't need to meet people. As we were making breakfast we met a Polish guy called Adam. He joined us and was travelling with a massive wheely suitcase. What kind of a person goes backpacking with that. Never mind. We caught the bus and Cannelle got annoyed with him quickly and his plan to make money travelling while playing an accordion with one glove. We talked all the way, so she made friends with an Italian guy named Marco. The four of us arrived in Gjirokastra and Adam wanted a taxi. I hate taxis so we walked and a woman grabbed us on the streets and offered us a place in a hotel for 7 euros each. Ridiculous for our own private room with en suite bathroom lol. I love this country. They wanted me to help them put their hostel online so people would find it. Not sure if that worked. We went out for lunch and ordered a single sausage and 3 sausage meals. The guy who ordered the single sausage got what we ordered and the rest of us got a salad. Oh well. I think it was a mix up. We went for a walk around the castle and the old town, which were nowhere near as spooky as they say or even as spooky as some of the Romanian towns, but it was still pretty. Cannelle was quite disappointed though. We couldn't find the aqueduct and a lot of things in town did not have prices on them in the small shops. That always makes me suspicious so we went to the supermarket to get stuff. We went out for dinner with Marco as Adam didn't fancy it. Then we just chilled watching VH1.
We lost sound on VH1 in the morning. Shame. We grabbed a minibus to go to the Blue Eye Spring, which went 15km before turning around and going back to pick up a friend of a friend. Typical. They eventually dropped us off at the entrance and we didn't pay because we got there before the guards. Its a favourite trick of mine while travelling and has saved me a lot of money over the years. The pool is very beautiful with this unknown depth. Divers couldn't go far enough against the current to see how deep it is. Its a beautiful place. Very peaceful. The river around it is also nice. We then went back to the entrance, past the newly entrenched guards and waited for a bus. Instead a local guy with his wife and daughter picked us up and drove us to Saranda for free. Halfway he stopped and let his wife and daughter out. It turns out they weren't his wife and daughter. He's just a very nice guy. He even put Celine Dion on for Cannelle when he found out she was French lol. He refused to take any money until they forced him to accept some. He drove us to the centre of town and dropped us off. I wanted to see Butrint, but had promised to meet Adam at his hostel. We hiked all down the coast and into a block of flats. Eventually at the end of an abandoned corridor we found a door. Apparently this was the hostel. He wasn't there. What a waste of fucking time lol. We now didn't have enough time to get to Butrint so we hung by the beach as it was the last time we would see the sea until Ukraine. We took a bus back and chilled out with VH1 and Tango and Cash.
We had to get up early again. Won't be such a rush when we are in Asia at least. We went everywhere looking for the bus to Korca that Marco had taken the day before. Couldn't find the bloody thing. Some people sent us 1km down the road only for us to find out that we had been standing right next to the bloody thing. Anyway. Onwards. The bus was going to be a ball busting trip over the mountains, but I had done these before. Halfway the bus started to stutter. We had to go at 5km an hour uphill. That's not good. Then it broke down and died. They had to call for a replacement so we sat on a mountain road for half an hour or so. Eventually the new bus arrived and promptly almost reversed off the cliff while turning around. One wheel went over the side, but the bus held. We had to wait in a restaurant for one hour while we waited for the driver who had stayed in the bus to be towed. When he eventually arrived we were off again. We got our connection to Podgarec at Korca and it was much easier than I thought. We almost ran out of money as we had only enough for the bus and a burger. We were going to need cash in Macedonia and fast. When we arrived we decided to walk over the border as we had no money. We walked around the lake and someone offered us a lift when we were halfway for 5 euros. What a ridiculous amount of money for a 4km walk. It was the first time Cannelle had walked across a proper border. Lake Ohrid is very pretty and the walk was nice. We arrived at the border and queued with the cars. There were travellers doing the same in the other direction and lots of car, car, person, car, person lines. Was amusing. The guy at the border said we had to have a stamp for entering Albania and I said that they hadn't stamped it. He let us off and we entered Macedonia where some Argentineans were waiting for a bus. The Macedonian border person thought it was weird that so many nationalities were walking across his border. Anyway Albania had been a super cheap, very cool country with some beautiful cities and an uglier but bustling capital. They were probably the nicest people after the Bosnians. Onwards to Macedonia.
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