Albania to Macedonia (via Greece)

We begin our journey through Albania with three bus rides from Budva through to Tirana. We ended up with a private room at Freddy's Hostel. Tirana wasn't the most exciting city we have been to so far but it is interesting with Albania only just having come out of an unsuccessful communism in the 90's. Things in Tirana were fairly cheap & people were generally extremely friendly. On one occasion we were given a police escort to an ATM across town (they just found it easier to do this than tell us where it was). We walked around the main square, climbed up a minaret for a couple of photos, ate at a fake Mcdonalds (tricked us for a bit anyway) and found some of the really colourful buildings around the city.

From Tirana we took a day trip out to a small town up in the mountains called Kruja. Here is where the castle of the Albanian National Hero Gjergj Skanderberg used to be. Now there is a town and a rather serious museum about Skanderberg and his exploits. Apparently he united the various Kingdoms of Albania and kept the Ottomans out for 2 decades. It is a good story but the museum is laid out so that you might think he did it single handed. The lack of very many English descriptions and the general layout with 12ft statues of Skanderberg makes it look a lot like a religious altar. But it is still an amazing bit of Albanian History and a must see if in Tirana.

Finishing up in Tirana we caught a "Furgon" (dodgy cheap intercity bus, may or may not have doors and complete floor, great way to get around however) all the way to the UNESCO world heritage listed town of Berat. A beautiful Ottoman Architecture style town that has managed to stay preserved. We couldn't find a hostel and ended up in a hotel for about the same price. We took a walk up to the old town up on top of a rather large hill and finished up in a restaurant that specializes in offal (entrails and internal organs). Thankfully we managed to avoid these special options on the menu and had a rather normal chicken dish.

The bus ride from here to our next destination was rather special :) We met a friendly english couple who we hung out with for a few days, and at one of the stops at a gas station for drinks, there was a bear in a cage (yes a real live angry bear). Also there were kids puking all over the place on the bus - Carol managed to get thrown up on by a sick child half an hour into the 8 hour bus ride on a hot day, and we had just done our laundry the day before. The child managed to get three people in one go, impressive stuff. We ended up in the coastal resort town of Saranda. Actually a really nice place with pebble beaches and view to Corfu. The main thing bringing it down is the piles of rubbish that are just thrown everywhere. We stayed in a hostel called "the hairy lemon" run by an Irish Lady who made "Irish" pancakes for the guests every morning. When Carol asked exactly what "Irish" pancakes are, the owner laughingly admitted that there is no such thing, some tourists (particularly Americans) just like the idea of anything Irish. The views from the hostel were lovely, and a beach right beside us. We had a great time and ended up finding out a few interesting things. There is a lot of poverty around Albania, but there are an exceedingly large number of very nice Mercedes, some old some new. Apparently in the Communist Days people used to steal cars from neighbouring countries, bribe the Albanian police and bring them over the border. All the newer model ones have been bought but they are nearly exclusively owned by Drug Dealers. It is kind of worrying how many Mercs there are.

We took a day trip down to the Ancient greek city of Butrint. Just inside the Albanian border, it is one of the most amazing archeological sites we have seen all year. It has a long and interesting history dating back to 12th Century BC, having been controlled by many peoples including Greeks, Romans (some of who wanted to turn it into a retirement home (seriously)), The First Bulgarian Empire, Byzantine Empire, Normans, Venetians, Ottoman Turks, Napoleon to then becoming unoccupied for centuries. Anyway the walk is well laid out, great signs, astonishingly intact, amazing history and beautiful. Can't believe we had never of it until we got to Saranda. Anyway well worth the visit if you are ever in the area to see the Ampitheatre from 3rd/4th C BC, Baptistry and Bascillica from 6th AD, and Castle on top 13th AD and the list goes on...

The bus on the way back to Saranda had a stop at a little Beach town called Ksamili. It was the first sandy beach we saw in Europe and it was lovely. There were a couple of close by Islands that you could swim out to for a look. As with any half decent beach or better in Europe there were lots of people and it was a challenge to find somewhere to put a towel. It was still a nice afternoon and we then got the bus back to Saranda. Which is an adventure in it's own right. Standing room only, extremely cheap, extremely old, skinny narrow roads winding around cliffs, driver with a death wish - I am sure you get the picture. Another strange thing you can see all around Albania but particularly Saranda is the 2-3 storey concrete building bases that are never finished. Some fall down (great work), some goats move into. You also notice around Albania a lot of bunkers, built between 1950 and 1985, they look like little mushrooms. There are an estimated 700 000 of them, in a country with a population of 3.5 million. The Communist dictactor, Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albania for 38 years, ordered them built out of his paranoia of invasion from surrounding countries. There was supposed to be one for every four Albanians who would defend their country to the end. If this is not crazy enough for you, the engineer who designed the bunkers had to vouch for them by standing inside one, while it was attacked by a tank. Thankfully he managed to walk out unharmed.

Saranda is a short ferry ride away from Corfu so we thought why not go there for a couple of days. When we got off the ferry, we had no idea where we were. No information, no maps, no taxis, nothing. We ended up walking around aimlessly with the bags for a while and it was sooooo hot. But we eventually found a little hotel run by a cranky old lady. It was only a 10 min walk from the old town and we were so impressed by the old town here. Its absolutely beautiful. We spent a few days wandering around the cobbled pedestrian streets, went up to the old & new citadels and swam in the beautiful clear water. We were hoping to rent a motorbike to get around the island, but unfortunately you need a special license which we didn't have, so we spent all our time in the main town of Corfu. But this gave us plenty of time to try out all the local cuisine - Garry fell in love with souvlakis and gyros, which lasted through to the next few countries. And somehow we managed to make do with the beach/swimming area in town which you can see in the pictures. Definitely a place to come back and explore one day.

We would usually not mention a place that we didn't leave the train station. But Thessaloniki Train Station gets a special mention. Garry was left alone minding the bags when a strange fellow with a bag full of alcohol and food starts babbling at him in a language other than Greek or English. Basically we got the impression that he wanted his bag minded while he went away. The stranger spent the next couple of hours going and returning. He started bringing gifts for us on some of these adventures, coffees, icecreams, redbulls and finally a beer, all at around 6am. He also managed to buy and change into a new t-shirt. He was covered in tattoos has enough silver and gold bling to be in a rap video and had a massive pile of 100 euro notes that we think he was complaining that no one would change. We eventually determined he is Russian, his name is Kewin(not a typo, Kewin is his name), he has no luggage, doesn't have a word of greek or english and has a load of money. We are guessing a travelling salesman of sorts!!. He then insists that we all exchange names and numbers including giving us his wifes number in Russia( I don't think we will be calling her anytime soon). He was interesting but we were more than relieved when he left, no doubt for another "sale" somewhere. We then got the train to Skopje - Macedonia

Only really a transit stop for us but we ended up having a really nice time. We tried a hostel on a recommendation, but the obnoxious hostel tried to over charge us for some terrible room half an hour out of town. We ended up with a lovely hotel in the middle of the Old town for 3/4 of the price of the hostel. Fair enough the hostel was expensive but the staff were unneedlessly rude, snarling that we would not get anything cheaper. Don't bother staying there, "Art Hostel". Stupid name as well. Anyway we visited Kale Fortress up on a hill overlooking the City, walked around the old town, ate some great and cheap local food, we were pleasantly surprised as to how friendly most people are and had a really good couple of days, even with the considerable amount of rain that we got.

Another bus ride and we wound up in the beautiful town of Ohrid that is on Lake Ohrid which Macedonia shares with Albania. We stayed in a decently priced apartment right on the lake and had a lovely couple of days here. The town itself is wonderful, located along the edge of the lake. It's a real tourist spot for Macedonians as it's the only place by the water as they have no coastline. So everyone sits out on the boardwalk, taking dips in the lake. Again, they have an old town great for wandering around with pedestrianised streets. We spent the few days wandering around the old town, looking at some of the old old churches, and walking up to the reconstructed fortress walls with amazing views of the town and lake. There is an ampitheatre on the way up to the fortress that dates from the time of the birth of Christ which was used for plays and later on blood sports. Its a great little spot, a definite highlight of Europe for us, and we can see why the Macedonians all flock here for their summer holidays.

Then we got a direct bus all the way to Turkey, about a million hours away......

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