Montenegro and Albania

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From Bosnia and Herzegovina i went once again to Croatia to the much talked about Dubrovnik. an incredible city full of perfectly restored buildings and saturated in history, only slightly spoiled by the hoards of package holiday makers swarming everywhere.

i made the narrow winding mountain road into Montenegro in a 16 wheeler lorry - a ride which proved very frightening every time we had to reverse and edge next to the cliff whenever there was an oncoming truck. it was here in the peaceful and non touristic town of Kotor i met Audrey from America, and we ended up hitchhiking together for about a week. we made it through the mountains to a small village where we camped in a secluded spot by the river. it was really scary hearing wolves howling not too far away in the middle of the night. from here we got a ride to the beach town of Budva which was packed with Russian tourists who park their multi-million pound yachts in the guarded marina.

we next made it to Albania, an extremely friendly place so far unspoiled by the western tourist development which has devastated so many places here. you can immediately notice the difference after crossing the border - from the extremely bad roads to the tens of thousands of concrete bunkers which litter the countryside. We made it deep in the Northern mountains to get an incredible ferry ride on lake Koman before going further south to Lezhe where we stayed in a really quirky hunting lodge built by Mussolini's son-in-law. after passing through the capital Tirana, Audrey made her way to a hippy festival, while i continued further south to Berat. as this old fashioned town has no bars or clubs, in the evening all the local dress up and walk up and down the wide boulevard chatting, while others drink endless cups of coffee in the cafes which line the street (something which seems to be an occupation here).

we managed to find a local who took us to a crazy wine festival where all the rich and famous came to drink endless cups of good wine and watch people dance barefoot in a massive barrel of grapes. we later found out we appeared on the six o'clock news the next day! Berat and the really cool and chilled out hostel here were so amazing i ended staying for five days.

i then traveled with a Canadian and a couple of polish girls for a week or so. we raced each other hitchhiking into Macedonia, taking about 6-7 cars/lorries each to find we all made it with about 20 minutes difference. hitchhiking here has been quite easy, and all the locals seem so friendly. quite often people would buy us drinks or some food. once someone bought us a 3 course meal and 2 bottles of fine wine - its so much more fun hitchhiking than just taking the bus. at one point all four of us crammed into the back of a van in the pitch black with little ventilation - we felt like such refugees!

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