The Balkans

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Arriving in Athens, then a quick flight to Tirana, the capital of Albania. Our plan was to take a multi day hike in the North which included a ferry and then into the Albanian Alps. Trying to escape the forecasted rain we quickly moved on to Shkoder, a 2 hour bus ride north to catch the ferry. Still trying to decide whether or not to do the hike, we received notice that the ferry was cancelled, due to low water levels!



So, a quick change of plans and we were able to rent a car and decided to drive to Dubrovnik, Croatia, 4 hours away. Considering we made this decision Sat afternoon, we were able to contact the one of 2 car rental places in Shkoder, and actually managed to pick up a car on Sunday morning. Although, we think it may have been one of the brother's personal cars, with 210,000 kilometers, and no chance of them cleaning it. A little leary of what we may have actually rented, we were able to get thru 4 borders on our way to Croatia, (out of Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina and then Croatia) without any issues.



Our quick time in Albania, we enjoyed great food and no tourists, so we were quite surprised arriving in Croatia to see the throngs of tourists in the walled city. But it was as beautiful as we remembered and we were surprisingly lucky with the beautiful sunshine. Courtney, our niece, joined us from Split, on our 2nd day.



Then it was on to Kotor Montenegro, which we loved. It was a small medieval village of 13,000 people founded in 5th century BC. Narrow, winding car less streets, with very few tourists. Lonely planet described it as 'a medieval maze of museum, churches, cafe strewn squares, and Venetian palaces'. We enjoyed a boat ride in the bay to the island where 'Our lady of the Rock' resided, a man made island that they built the church on.



Our first full day of rain, we were back to Tirana. Courtney continued on to Ohrid to check out Macedonia, while we drove down to Berat to explore a little more of Albania, with a beautiful functioning castle, and known for the Ottoman houses of a 1000 windows.



Tomorrow, it is back to Athens, and then we will join the others for an 11 day tour in Egypt!

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Photos

View of St Lawrence fortress
Built in 13th century and withstood all attacks

Continuing to fix the tile roofs
We were told almost all were destroyed during the Serbian war

Mesi Bridge 18th century Bridge Shkoder Albania
One of the longest examples of Ottoman Bridge -

Solving world problems in Shkoder
Did not have the courage to take the pic of the 5 men in the park playing dominoes with their brass domino pieces...