Albania

How do I even begin to describe Albania?

Getting from Budva, Montenegro to Tirane, Albania was a whole different experience from previous travel arrangements. Basically, it was a matter of trusting fate. There are no scheduled buses in Albania, and in fact there aren't even bus stations. We did take a bus from Budva to near the Montenegro/Albania border. From there we had to get a taxi, which took us through the back roads to the crossing, and into the "city" of Shkoder, Albania.

Shkoder is unbelievably filthy and littered. The roads are mainly unpaved, and garbage is strewn absolutely everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. There is barely any patch of ground where it isn't evident - it's really just a matter of how deep. I believe it's safe to say that there is no waste management program. No landfills, as such, and no garbage collection. The capital city, Tirane, does have collection, but there is still an unbelievable amount garbage piled up and strewn about.

Our taxi dropped us on a back street in this mess, and pointed us toward a "furgon" or mini-bus, for our onward trip to Tirane. There was no indication that this was a passenger bus going anywhere, but the driver knew where we were headed (we certainly weren't staying in Shkoder!), and so we hopped on. Happy to get moving right away, we set out and picked up and dropped off local passengers along the way. The "highway" was a tangle of traffic, potholes, mud, dirt, gravel, tractors, mule carts, motor scooters - you name it! Incredibly, no one crashed, although there were numerous close calls. The litter and filth is a constant feature, where ever you look - piles of it. Everywhere. And air pollution, the like of which I have never encountered.

I didn't take many pictures of Albania, and none of Shkoder, so if you want to see for yourself on Google, bear in mind, that from what I have seen, the photos must have been "photo-shopped" to not reveal the litter and pollution. One reason I took so few photos was because of the air pollution, which makes for a really boring picture. The smog seems impossible to escape, even away from the cities. In fact, I think a lot of it is from wood smoke, with a large contribution from diesel engines that need tuning up. Albania is a very poor country, a long way off from being an EU member. Third world for sure. I remember what Afghanistan and Pakistan looked like in 1974. This is 'way, 'way worse...

When the furgon (minibus) arrived in Tirane, after about two hours of threading through dense traffic on atrocious roads strewn with construction rubble, we were deposited on the side of a busy road, who knows where? But of course there was a taxi waiting to take us the final leg of our journey, to our hostel. Once we were able to communicate successfully where it is located (across from the Arts High School - ah yes! Addresses mean nothing.), we settled on the price and within 15 minutes we were shown our dorm room in the hostel. It was a great relief to arrive, and we four were glad to have had each other for company on the rather mysterious adventure of getting to Albania.

Tirane is a very busy and dirty (surprise!) city. It is really like a very large village. People are very friendly and willing to help where they can. As in all countries in the Balkans, almost everyone smokes, and there is nowhere that is off limits to smoking. It is very common for people to light up during a meal in a restaurant, regardless of children or other patrons. Caffe's are particularly bad, where men gather for long visits over an espresso and multiple smokes.

Having said that though, it is the first place since leaving Italy where I got a decent cuppa java (Lavazza), and as far as restaurant food goes, it is the BEST food on my trip so far! We were recommended a restaurant not far from our hostel, and it was so good that we ate there three nights in a row. Quite rich, and heavy on the meat, but very well prepared, incredibly delicious and the prices are ridiculously low. Even the hole-in-the-wall vendors' food is super delicious and of course, super cheap. We stumbled across the main market on our second day in town, and we were absolutely blown away by the high quality of the produce and the variety of foods stuffs available. Nuts, beautiful cheeses and dairy products, honey, fresh fruits and veggies, dried fruits, pickled and stuffed peppers and eggplants and zucchinis, olives, fish and meat, even tobacco (of course!). It is by far the best market I have been to yet.

A side trip to Kruhje was recommended and so we decided to make a day of it. The furgon takes about two hours to get there, and when we disembarked we made an arrangement with the driver to meet him back at the same spot at 5:00. Off we trundled around this town that sits up high on the mountainside, above the thick blanket of ever present smog, which obscured the views of the valley completely. It was very good being high up in some cleaner air for a few hours, and another nice meal was taken in a lovely traditional restaurant with friendly staff. We had a good look around in less time than we expected to take, and so ended up killing almost an hour just sitting in a square nearby the aforementioned pick-up spot, waiting for our furgon. Two hours later, we were pretty convinced that the driver was not going to show up, and we had to start finding an alternative way to get back to Tirane.

Trouble is, after dark (which it already was), cab drivers won't drive to Tirane, because of the bad road conditions. So that put us in the position of being at the mercy of unscrupulous drivers, offering to take us for exorbitant prices. After more negotiating and searching we we lucky to find someone willing to take us back, for a lot more than it took us to get there, but the alternative was booking a hotel for the night, so we were very grateful to the driver for taking us back to Tirane.

I went to the opera in Tirane, and saw Salome. It was pretty bad, actually! In fact the soprano was awful. But she could dance, and so I guess that's how she landed the part! One of the difficulties for me was that the surtitles were in Cyrillic, and I don't understand any German. So, it was a lot of guess work with regard to the libretto, but I got the gist of it. It's not exactly the most subtle of stories anyway, the general idea being pretty obvious, even in Cyrillic!

After three or four days in Tirane, I had had enough of the pollution, and in fact I was starting to get sick from it. Time to move on and at the last minute three of us decided to head to Orhid Macedonia, rather than south to see more of Albania. Luis, the Spaniard, opted to stay on in Tirane for a while longer, so Carlos, Carly and I headed for the Macedonian border, on another Albanian mystery tour.

The border between Albanian and Macedonia partially runs through Lake Orhid. On the Macedonia side is the city of Orhid which is a lovely resort town attracting thousands in the summer months. In order to get there from Tirane, we had to first locate the street where the fugons to Elbasan (half-way point) leave from. Again, there is no bus station or even a bus stop. It's just the place where these mini-buses leave from for Elbasan. One needs to look for a furgon with particular licence plate numbers in order to determine the destination. Organized chaos, I guess.

The route to Elbasan takes you through beautiful mountainous countryside with small and large villages along the way. Unfortunately, the views are obscured by the air pollution, and tainted by garbage. Such a sad and beautiful country. Once we got to Elbasan, we were told that there were no more furgons, so in order to make the second half of the journey to the border crossing we would have to hire a taxi. This was contrary to what we had been told by our hostel hosts, but seeing no other furgons, we had no choice but to go by taxi. Being a group of three meant that this was not an exorbitant expense, but certainly a lot more than taking a furgon. However, furgons leave only when they are full, and so even if we had found one, we could not be sure how long it would take to get to the border. The second half of the trip to the border was less smoggy so the views from the car were a little better. Within about another hour we were deposited at the border, where we had to hire ANOTHER taxi to take us to the city of Orhid. It was nice to finally arrive, but where to stay?