I have had a sympathy for communism for all my life and still I believe in its virtues. As son of an upper-middle class family I'm in a quite privileged position in the society enjoying all the fruits of capitalism but you don't have to be a genius to foresee that capitalism is leading us to an ultimate apocalypse; it's becoming more and more clear that we have to reorganize everything starting from the distribution of resources. Communism seems to be the only real alternative, together with anarchism which doesn't seem very practical, but it has to be rediscovered and reinvented. The so called "communism" in 20th century failed terribly so in the end all the practical experiments damaged the ideals of communism so much that nowadays it has seized as being an alternative, which also meant a world order with no real opposition. One of those leaders who caused this damage was definitely the Albanian leader Enver Hoxha. Traveling through Albania will also make you reach to the same conclusion as me and hopefully reading my travelogue will have the same effect as well.
The road from the Montenegrin border to Shkodra was terrible although it should have been one of the best in the country. It was in construction as the whole land is. Unfinished constructions, people traveling with donkeys are quite common scenes in Albania, doesn't matter whether you are in countryside or in a big city. Dorota was amazed to see the poorness and tried to photograph it, whereas I was more used to see such stuff because my homeland has also very underdeveloped regions, but still quite a huge part is developed nowadays so it's far better than in Albania in this sense.
Still we were expecting Shkodra, the second biggest city after the capital Tirana, to be something. When the driver told us that we arrived to Shkodra and dropped us out, it was no different than a poor small town in my counntry.But there should be a city center right? We asked some woman working in a bank the usual question: "Where is the city center?" to which she replied: "In our city we have three centers!" I think we have seen them all and none :)
Just at the moment we thought that leaving the city as soon as possible to go to Tirana might be a good choice; an Albanian guy came to help. We were passing a very suburban looking wedding saloon by, people were dancing in a very similar style to Turkish weddings. As we were watching them from some meters away I told Dorota sth. like: "Let's go and join the wedding, I'm sure they would be happy." She was reluctant about it, considered it to be impolite to join the wedding of a stranger. Cultural difference in a nutshell. As we began to walk further, an Albanian guy came running to us; probably he was a gypsy. Since he worked in UK he could speak English very well, a feature not easily to be seen in Albania by the way.He took us back to the wedding, offered us food and drinks and helped us to make our way to the castle of Shkodra. He wrote three sentences in Albanian on a paper:
"Shkodra Castle."
"I want go to the Shkodra Castle."
"How can I go the Shkodra Castle?"
Very basic indeed :) But it was very helpful, we thanked him and said goodbye. Showing our paper to a few people who were trying to show us the way with funny gestures, we made it into a bus finally, thanks to a woman with nice breasts. I mean it wasn't possible to get your eyes off her breasts, they were really in great shape, her cleavage was shown almost totally by her dress; both Dorota and me were attracted. The bus was free of charge for us and we were center of attraction, especially Dorota who was simply loved by Albanian women. Finally the bus stopped in front of the castle, which we could see finally and thus to find our way from then on was easy.
Another castle climbing which we successfully did in the heat of the day. Unlike many other sights it was not free and so we paid a small entrance fee. The castle had a nice view upon the city and the delta around it. These panoramic views might be deceptive sometimes; if you look from the castle you can conclude that Shkodra is a beautiful city but it's not. Anyway the castle was quite nice; has a nice cafe and some hidden spots which can serve as a toilet for a poor backpacker :) The cafe inside the castle is very cheap, if you compare the prices to its equivalent in my country for example. We had some tea as usual; it should have been our first meeting with tea in powder form. You can safely call it the "Albanian tea". Tasteless but hot; at least something to drink.
After the castle we walked down to the road to Tirana to hitchhike. Drinking a couple of surprisingly nice "Tirana" beers at a petrol station, we began to try to hitchhike. Albania is one of the best and worst countries in the world for hitchhiking. Every other car passing by has stopped but they had no idea about hitchhiking; just asking us what we want. Some of them wanted money for it. There was even one strange man who parked across the road and began to watch us strangely like a spy. To confess it, we were scared at the start but soon things got better. This peculiarity seems to be true only for Shkodra; for other parts of the country we didn't experience strange behaviour anymore.
A man working at the municipality of a town finally saved us and brought us to that coastal town from where we took a bus to Tirana this time. Not being true to the principles? Well yes but considering the price of the bus which was about 2 Euros or sth. it was really not worth hitchhiking. The bus was very slow and uncomfortable and the country and its people were still foreign and thus frightening to us.
When we had arrived to Tirana it was already dark.The first question we asked was again: "Where is the city center?" Luckily a man speaking good English answered us: "Our city center is in construction.". First three city centers and then a center in construction? Albania is really something to see, could be one of the most interesting countries in Europe for some Scandinavian or Western European. It's like Schubert's Unfinished Symphony; when everything will be finished it will not be better and its charm lies in its peculiarity. (Other than his lieds and string quartets I'm not a fan of him by the way)
So walking towards the unfinished center of the city; we looked at some hotels and finally decided for one with a reasonable price of 25 Euros for a decent room. We withdrew some cash ("lek" is the Albanian currency; plural "leke") for the hotel from a bankomat where the Polish the foolish -:)- tried to withdraw it from the wall next to the ATM machine. After paying the amount we were supposed to pay we went out again to discover the city a bit and eat something.
The city center was indeed in construction and there were not many things to see around, at least at night. I promised to Dorota to bring her to a fancy restaurant (relying on the Albanian prices) since it was her nameday (if you don't know about this tradition go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_days_in_Poland) so we chose to go to an Italian restaurant. The food wasn't too good but the waiter was, especially since he was very shy so we decided to give him tip on that occasion but can't remember whether we succeded in it or not.
During our walk on the main street towards our hotel again we saw a Turkish restaurant and decided to have a look and talk with the people there. The owner of the restaurant was an interesting guy, who had come only for 2 months to Albania and stayed for 7 years instead. He is married to an Albanian woman too. He gave us some advices such as going to Durres, offered tea and brought us to a market/kiosk where we could buy some really bad drinks with which I had some difficulties in drinking. Dorota, used to Serbian rakija, coped with it better than me but still. Speaking of markets/kiosks in Albania, one thing which is hard to see is a very crucial element: the fridge.It's really interesting to pay a visit to one of those small kiosks to understand the life before refrigerator technologies were developed.
The next morning we headed to Durres; again with a bus, the price was about 2 Euros. Durres is a small town at the coast with some Roman ruins. The feeling of the town is somewhat Italian but again many buildings were left to their destiny. The beach is not so beautiful and so is the sea, the Roman ruin are not so worth to see; very small compared to most historical sights. So our trip to Durres ended in a short amount of time. The panoramic look for free from a cafe at the top of a hotel and the interesting summer hit called "In My Bedroom" which we heard on the beach were two things we had done; so basically you could also say nothing.
The next destination was Vlora, again a coastal town which should be nice though we found it to be not so true. But it was better than Durres; thanks to a small Italian restaurant run by a family. The salads we ate there both in the evening of our arrival and the next morning were so tasty; the prices were reasonable as well. In the evening we had some drinks on the beach and slept there. After days of sleeping on a bed it was time to go back to homelessness.
There was one strange event at night however. There were two dogs playing with each other on the beach while we were about to sleep but we didn't care and watched them having fun. However when I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night I saw one of the dogs a few meters away with a cable in his mouth. It was the cable of my external harddisk! I ran after him and he left the harddisk on the beach but the cable was gone.After I returned to Istanbul I had a chance to try the disk only to see it not working. A dog and all my music archive was gone. Life is harsh sometimes.
We had bought a map of Albania in Durres and there were some nice photos on the cover showing some of the sights in Albania. Curious about one beautiful looking beach we entered to a travel agency and asked where it is. To our amazement they began to discuss about it finally deciding on a beach near Sarande. So our next destination was that beach.
In Albania as you go south, closer to Greece, you are like in a Greek territory; you can meet many Greeks; town names are Greek etc. So it was not a surprise to meet a Greek driver who brought us to a similar beach, not the one on the cover but another pretty one. He was working in a pub/disco and was definitely a cool guy. The road from Vlora to Sarande is full of mountains next to a very beautiful coast (rightly deserving the name Albanian Riviera) ; well almost all the country is full of mountains, and the roads are very tight, barely enough for cars. Not to mention the condition of the roads, if you see some asphalt you are generally lucky in Albania. However what did us scare a bit was that the guy was smoking weed while we were driving through the mountains! He offered us as well and I agreed to share his in order to prevent him getting dizzy. In the end nothing happened and we successfully made it to a beach.
The sea was great in color and the beach was also very nice. Swimming, getting dry, chatting with a few Polish tourists were some of the beach activities. It was time to go to Sarande then; supposedly a beautiful town. We made it to Sarande but it was a big disappointment; there was nothing to do there and it was like a ghost town. Probably the season ends in August and afterwards there are no one in Sarande. After eating some slices of pizza we went to the tourist information. Speaking of eating pizza; it was one of the bad parts of the trip. Not because of pizza but our search before for a restaurant having a menu! In Albania most restaurants don't have a menu and although I would also like to see the prices Dorota was much more strict in that. We looked for one but in vain and finally ended up in a bakery wating for pizza to be ready.
At the tourist information we asked how many kms there is from Sarande to Butrinti and the woman said something like 20-25 km. Since we didn't like Sarande and had nothing to do, walking all the night to Butrinti seemed like an adeventerous option. Just before exiting the city we bought two bottles of wine with our last cash. Actually our cash was not enough for two bottles of wine, we checked all the different brands, but when I gave all the money I had to the market owner and asked for two bottles of wine, he arranged two of them. Worst quality of course and absolutely non-drinkable though we managed to drink some on our way. We walked out of the town and came to a crossroads; just at the corner of the road to Butrinti there was a petrol station. We wanted to rest a bit. There were two guys, one probably the boss and the other one should be the guy who is taking care of the station at night. The boss saw our bottle of wine and offered us Albanian raki and also cigarettes and a lighter as a present. We enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of the petrol station and sat there for a few hours; it was really hard to go further, but we managed to do it.
We walked and walked, made several breaks on the way. The fresh air was enough for me to walk on and on but Dorota was really tired and when she gets tired she gets angry but she doesn't tell. Trying to keep pace with me finally she gave up to say that she is tired. There was a field near the road so we laid our sleeping bags and slept instead of making it to Butrinti.
The next morning we easily found a car to Ksamili and apparently where we slept was just 2 km away from Ksantili which makes it about 5 km in total to Butrinti. Making our breakfast in a small bakery we continued to Butrinti, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was a lovely Spanish couple who took us there; they left everything behind to travel with their car and made it to Albania at that moment.
Butrinti is a nice site indeed; with a lagoon and Roman ruins on a relatively large area. Ecologically it should be also a rich place, especially for different kinds of birds although we didn't get a chance to see many of them. Looking around, using the toilet of the castle, taking some photos: what else to do? There was a restaurant next to the city; a couple entering there promised to take us to their car but they really took their time in the restaurant so instead we took the van of an archaeologist to Ksamili. Just as we were eating our icecream we met our couple again who kindly stopped again and bringing us to the crossroads where the petrol station was also located. We wanted to head northeast in order to get closer to Macedonia from where we could return to Serbia for my return flight easily.
First we hitched the car of an American anesthesician who was traveling alone with his rented car through Balkans. There were many bunkers along the road which are actually everywhere to be seen in Albania; showing how scared Enver Hoxha was from a foreign intervention(Soviet I guess). So many bunkers for nothing, definitely a waste of resources! After he left us in Gyrokaster, we took another luxurious car to another junction. Albania is poor but luxurious cars are really so much to see, especially Mercedes with Italian license plates. According to our future drivers in Pogradec it is so because of a mafia who brings stolen cars from Germany and Poland to Albania. It was one such car we took with two dangerous looking guys. Dorota seemed a little reluctant but finally we decided to take it and they were anything but scary.
On our map there were some small yellow roads going through the mountains which can bring us closer to Macedonia or the other option was to make a roundabout to "highway" and use thus the roads in red. We chose the yellow one to add a little bit of an excitement. At the small junction we ate some small amount of meat for a high price and afterwards started to walk until some villagers took us to their pickup. They left us at another junction and from there we took the car of a friendly but a little bit strange Albanian. He offered us some beers and afterwards insisted so much that we stay with him. I would say that it was just pretty normal friendliness but the looks and manners of him were a little bit strange so we decided to refuse him and continue our way.
We left him at a small town, where we could find a small restaurant with a menu! Dorota was really happy to see a menu so we ate there. The car of some really friendly civil engineers was our next car, this time going to Permet, a somewhat more famous town where they dropped us out before continuing to their destination. "Such a nice guy"s again :)
Permet is like a Swiss town, with a green mountain, river etc.It should be also touristic since there were many hotels around one of which was the one we stayed, after an unsuccessful try of hitchihking. The room was really comfortable, there was a drunken man doing funny things on the road whom we could see from the balcony. A small park where old people gather to talk, small markets everything hinted to a very quiet and pleasant life there.
Next morning we made our breakfast and hit the road as early as possible. I had sth. like 27 hours lef to my return flight from Belgrade and we had to hitchhike all the way back! From Permet to Belgrade with the route we took it takes about 824 km according to Google Maps and it calculates 9 hour 44 min as the time required but believe me, the small roads from Permet till Erseke don't let one to drive even at 50 km per hour. It took us 2 hours or so to get a distance of 50 km behind. Add to that two hours of waiting at Leskovik, a nice small mountain town. We waited for two hours, there were rarely some cars passing by and none of them took us. But the loud and after some time unbearable Albanian folk music coming from a house made fun :)
It was a Greek driver who saved us when we had less than 24 hours left. As far as I can remember he brought us to Erseke, a small distance which took ages from where we took a bus to Korce. Eating at a restaurant on the road and continuing our way by taking several cars we made it to Pogradec, the small town next to Ohrid Lake which is at the border of Macedonia and Albania. In Pogradec we took the car of two UN officials working for the border security organization of United Nations in Albania. Both of them could speak English very well and they were nice and talkative people. They offered us tea somewhere near the lake where they met a friend of them, an Albanian border police who had been to the police academy in Istanbul before.
Where the UN officials took us was the junction to the border, which was just a few km away from Macedonia. This time something strange happened: a Turkish truck driver, Cemal Abi, took us! He was from Urfa and had many children -and grandchildren- like almost anyone else from those regions.He shared his peaches with us; among the best I have eaten in my life! We basically talked and ate peaches until the junction of Ohrid; he continued to Ohrid while we had to go the other way. According to the directions of Cemal Abi we had to walk a liitle bit to find a petrol station but it took us more than half an hour to find one :) It got dark by the way, with all the cars passing by it was not the best time to walk next to a road, let alone hitchhiking, but what to do, I had already postponed my flight once and to make it twice would not be so ok.
An Albanian truck driver took us in the end to Skopje. He was a communist and could speak a little bit of Turkish, mainly slang words learned from other truck drivers but he could really communicate well. All night he talked about bosses and made me laugh with his Turkish saying thinks like: "Patronlar maymun. 2 hafta yol 300 Euro su para be siktir be" " Komünizm güzel, Enver Hoca iyi, herkes eşit, demokrasi siktir be Amerika siktir be" ("All bosses are monkeys. 2 weeks of road only for 300 Euros, even water is for money, fuck", "Communism is beautiful and Enver Hoxha was good, everyone was equal, f.ck democracy and USA") He left us at a petrol station where he wanted to sleep but we had to continue!
The next guy was another truck driver, this time luckily a Serbian who was going along the same road we go. He brought us all the way to Leskovac. But before that when crossing the border Dorota and me left the truck to walk through the border and we gave our passports to a drunk Serbian border police. He saw my country and said: "United Nations boom boom Turkey boom boom" in a friendly manner meaning that Turkey was part of UN forces who bombed Serbia.I apologized for it. He got however pretty friendly when he heard Dorota studying Serbian and after some talk with her offered us chocolate and some Fanta-like drink. It's always nice to see meet someone friendly and happening at the middle of the night it was great.
The Serbian driver left us on the highway to Nis and Belgrade at the junction of Leskovac and drove further to sleep there. It was about 4 o'clock and the stars were never so bright since there were absolutely no lights around! The air was also fresh and it was nice to walk while looking for a petrol station but we walked almost until 6 o'clock and couldn't see any petrol station. Hitching on the highway we caught an old men's crappy pickup at which we couldn't resist sleeping; however I tried hard not to sleep to take care of the things we have and of course Dorota it was impossible for me as well. His crappy pickup was so slow that it took us more than one and half hour to reach the junction of Nis where he left us. From there we took a truck to Belgrade; actually he left us some kms away from the city but it didn't really matter. From there we took a bus to the city center.
In Belgrade you buy a ticket, validate in a small device in the bus and when there is a control you show your validated ticket. But I hadn't seen any controls before..until this last one which we used for free.There was a control at Slavija Square with some woman in uniform entering the bus. Dorota went to talk with the driver immediately while I told the women that I'm with her. The women got off, Dorota talked and talked and in the end we did not pay anything. How? Because the Serbian driver told her sth. like: "If you have such beautiful eyes you don't have to pay anything!" Thanks to Dorota and the driver of course I was saved too. On the way to the oldest "kafana" (coffeehouse; in this case a restaurant as well) at Belgrade the driver who took Dorota's number continued to send text messages like: "Do you believe in love at first sight?", "Why are you not replying?" :) Pushy Serbian drivers :)
This is the end, my beautiful friend
Our last lunch had to be eaten at the oldest restaurant of Belgrade, "?" (the question mark") since Dorota hadn't been there before. As I have already written about the restaurant in a previous post, I'm skipping the description part. It was a little bit of eating and drinking in rush and was definitely a sad moment since it also meant the end of the trip.
After the lunch Dorota accompanied me to the Slavija Square where shuttle busses to Nikola Tesla Airport take off. We had to hurry even for the shuttle bus; just at the last minute I bought a postcard for a Russian friend to whom I had promised to send a card from Belgrade. I sent it from Istanbul later on. We said goodbye, Dorota went to meet her Serbian friend and I was to return to Istanbul. The shuttle bus moved slowly through the city; across the bridge and then all the way to the airport. This time, luckily, JAT arranged a bigger plane which could make it to Istanbul about half the time when it was from Istanbul to Belgrade.
When the plane took off I was sure that I will visit all these countries again; if not for their beautiful sights then for its beautiful people. I'll never forget the friendliness I encountered on this trip and will try to be a worthy person for all those received helps.Perhaps usual for every trip but in the end I realized how much I got used to travel with a Polish girl called Dorota through Balkans; it was almost like leaving home. This trip definitely left far deeper traces in me than my previous Western-Middle European interrailing experience. If you want to experience a change towards good in your character or if you just want to meet "worthy human beings" I would say Balkan countries are definitely the places to go to. I almost forgot to tell; find a Polish as your travelmate too; if her name is Dorota and she is sweet the better.
Every trip should be accompanied with music. My choice among all the music from Balkans is not the typical folk music to which everyone listens, but an old and much beloved rock band, Bijelo Dugme. One of my biggest entertainments these days is try to sing the following song in its original lyrics, try it as well! Maybe it will convince you about the fun you'll get from the trip if all the written things have not. As for me, I definitely look forward to write about ex-Yugoslavia more and more. But for now I have to say; Vidimo se Jugoslavije!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Q1A1mYDik
The road from the Montenegrin border to Shkodra was terrible although it should have been one of the best in the country. It was in construction as the whole land is. Unfinished constructions, people traveling with donkeys are quite common scenes in Albania, doesn't matter whether you are in countryside or in a big city. Dorota was amazed to see the poorness and tried to photograph it, whereas I was more used to see such stuff because my homeland has also very underdeveloped regions, but still quite a huge part is developed nowadays so it's far better than in Albania in this sense.
Still we were expecting Shkodra, the second biggest city after the capital Tirana, to be something. When the driver told us that we arrived to Shkodra and dropped us out, it was no different than a poor small town in my counntry.But there should be a city center right? We asked some woman working in a bank the usual question: "Where is the city center?" to which she replied: "In our city we have three centers!" I think we have seen them all and none :)
Just at the moment we thought that leaving the city as soon as possible to go to Tirana might be a good choice; an Albanian guy came to help. We were passing a very suburban looking wedding saloon by, people were dancing in a very similar style to Turkish weddings. As we were watching them from some meters away I told Dorota sth. like: "Let's go and join the wedding, I'm sure they would be happy." She was reluctant about it, considered it to be impolite to join the wedding of a stranger. Cultural difference in a nutshell. As we began to walk further, an Albanian guy came running to us; probably he was a gypsy. Since he worked in UK he could speak English very well, a feature not easily to be seen in Albania by the way.He took us back to the wedding, offered us food and drinks and helped us to make our way to the castle of Shkodra. He wrote three sentences in Albanian on a paper:
"Shkodra Castle."
"I want go to the Shkodra Castle."
"How can I go the Shkodra Castle?"
Very basic indeed :) But it was very helpful, we thanked him and said goodbye. Showing our paper to a few people who were trying to show us the way with funny gestures, we made it into a bus finally, thanks to a woman with nice breasts. I mean it wasn't possible to get your eyes off her breasts, they were really in great shape, her cleavage was shown almost totally by her dress; both Dorota and me were attracted. The bus was free of charge for us and we were center of attraction, especially Dorota who was simply loved by Albanian women. Finally the bus stopped in front of the castle, which we could see finally and thus to find our way from then on was easy.
Another castle climbing which we successfully did in the heat of the day. Unlike many other sights it was not free and so we paid a small entrance fee. The castle had a nice view upon the city and the delta around it. These panoramic views might be deceptive sometimes; if you look from the castle you can conclude that Shkodra is a beautiful city but it's not. Anyway the castle was quite nice; has a nice cafe and some hidden spots which can serve as a toilet for a poor backpacker :) The cafe inside the castle is very cheap, if you compare the prices to its equivalent in my country for example. We had some tea as usual; it should have been our first meeting with tea in powder form. You can safely call it the "Albanian tea". Tasteless but hot; at least something to drink.
After the castle we walked down to the road to Tirana to hitchhike. Drinking a couple of surprisingly nice "Tirana" beers at a petrol station, we began to try to hitchhike. Albania is one of the best and worst countries in the world for hitchhiking. Every other car passing by has stopped but they had no idea about hitchhiking; just asking us what we want. Some of them wanted money for it. There was even one strange man who parked across the road and began to watch us strangely like a spy. To confess it, we were scared at the start but soon things got better. This peculiarity seems to be true only for Shkodra; for other parts of the country we didn't experience strange behaviour anymore.
A man working at the municipality of a town finally saved us and brought us to that coastal town from where we took a bus to Tirana this time. Not being true to the principles? Well yes but considering the price of the bus which was about 2 Euros or sth. it was really not worth hitchhiking. The bus was very slow and uncomfortable and the country and its people were still foreign and thus frightening to us.
When we had arrived to Tirana it was already dark.The first question we asked was again: "Where is the city center?" Luckily a man speaking good English answered us: "Our city center is in construction.". First three city centers and then a center in construction? Albania is really something to see, could be one of the most interesting countries in Europe for some Scandinavian or Western European. It's like Schubert's Unfinished Symphony; when everything will be finished it will not be better and its charm lies in its peculiarity. (Other than his lieds and string quartets I'm not a fan of him by the way)
So walking towards the unfinished center of the city; we looked at some hotels and finally decided for one with a reasonable price of 25 Euros for a decent room. We withdrew some cash ("lek" is the Albanian currency; plural "leke") for the hotel from a bankomat where the Polish the foolish -:)- tried to withdraw it from the wall next to the ATM machine. After paying the amount we were supposed to pay we went out again to discover the city a bit and eat something.
The city center was indeed in construction and there were not many things to see around, at least at night. I promised to Dorota to bring her to a fancy restaurant (relying on the Albanian prices) since it was her nameday (if you don't know about this tradition go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_days_in_Poland) so we chose to go to an Italian restaurant. The food wasn't too good but the waiter was, especially since he was very shy so we decided to give him tip on that occasion but can't remember whether we succeded in it or not.
During our walk on the main street towards our hotel again we saw a Turkish restaurant and decided to have a look and talk with the people there. The owner of the restaurant was an interesting guy, who had come only for 2 months to Albania and stayed for 7 years instead. He is married to an Albanian woman too. He gave us some advices such as going to Durres, offered tea and brought us to a market/kiosk where we could buy some really bad drinks with which I had some difficulties in drinking. Dorota, used to Serbian rakija, coped with it better than me but still. Speaking of markets/kiosks in Albania, one thing which is hard to see is a very crucial element: the fridge.It's really interesting to pay a visit to one of those small kiosks to understand the life before refrigerator technologies were developed.
The next morning we headed to Durres; again with a bus, the price was about 2 Euros. Durres is a small town at the coast with some Roman ruins. The feeling of the town is somewhat Italian but again many buildings were left to their destiny. The beach is not so beautiful and so is the sea, the Roman ruin are not so worth to see; very small compared to most historical sights. So our trip to Durres ended in a short amount of time. The panoramic look for free from a cafe at the top of a hotel and the interesting summer hit called "In My Bedroom" which we heard on the beach were two things we had done; so basically you could also say nothing.
The next destination was Vlora, again a coastal town which should be nice though we found it to be not so true. But it was better than Durres; thanks to a small Italian restaurant run by a family. The salads we ate there both in the evening of our arrival and the next morning were so tasty; the prices were reasonable as well. In the evening we had some drinks on the beach and slept there. After days of sleeping on a bed it was time to go back to homelessness.
There was one strange event at night however. There were two dogs playing with each other on the beach while we were about to sleep but we didn't care and watched them having fun. However when I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night I saw one of the dogs a few meters away with a cable in his mouth. It was the cable of my external harddisk! I ran after him and he left the harddisk on the beach but the cable was gone.After I returned to Istanbul I had a chance to try the disk only to see it not working. A dog and all my music archive was gone. Life is harsh sometimes.
We had bought a map of Albania in Durres and there were some nice photos on the cover showing some of the sights in Albania. Curious about one beautiful looking beach we entered to a travel agency and asked where it is. To our amazement they began to discuss about it finally deciding on a beach near Sarande. So our next destination was that beach.
In Albania as you go south, closer to Greece, you are like in a Greek territory; you can meet many Greeks; town names are Greek etc. So it was not a surprise to meet a Greek driver who brought us to a similar beach, not the one on the cover but another pretty one. He was working in a pub/disco and was definitely a cool guy. The road from Vlora to Sarande is full of mountains next to a very beautiful coast (rightly deserving the name Albanian Riviera) ; well almost all the country is full of mountains, and the roads are very tight, barely enough for cars. Not to mention the condition of the roads, if you see some asphalt you are generally lucky in Albania. However what did us scare a bit was that the guy was smoking weed while we were driving through the mountains! He offered us as well and I agreed to share his in order to prevent him getting dizzy. In the end nothing happened and we successfully made it to a beach.
The sea was great in color and the beach was also very nice. Swimming, getting dry, chatting with a few Polish tourists were some of the beach activities. It was time to go to Sarande then; supposedly a beautiful town. We made it to Sarande but it was a big disappointment; there was nothing to do there and it was like a ghost town. Probably the season ends in August and afterwards there are no one in Sarande. After eating some slices of pizza we went to the tourist information. Speaking of eating pizza; it was one of the bad parts of the trip. Not because of pizza but our search before for a restaurant having a menu! In Albania most restaurants don't have a menu and although I would also like to see the prices Dorota was much more strict in that. We looked for one but in vain and finally ended up in a bakery wating for pizza to be ready.
At the tourist information we asked how many kms there is from Sarande to Butrinti and the woman said something like 20-25 km. Since we didn't like Sarande and had nothing to do, walking all the night to Butrinti seemed like an adeventerous option. Just before exiting the city we bought two bottles of wine with our last cash. Actually our cash was not enough for two bottles of wine, we checked all the different brands, but when I gave all the money I had to the market owner and asked for two bottles of wine, he arranged two of them. Worst quality of course and absolutely non-drinkable though we managed to drink some on our way. We walked out of the town and came to a crossroads; just at the corner of the road to Butrinti there was a petrol station. We wanted to rest a bit. There were two guys, one probably the boss and the other one should be the guy who is taking care of the station at night. The boss saw our bottle of wine and offered us Albanian raki and also cigarettes and a lighter as a present. We enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of the petrol station and sat there for a few hours; it was really hard to go further, but we managed to do it.
We walked and walked, made several breaks on the way. The fresh air was enough for me to walk on and on but Dorota was really tired and when she gets tired she gets angry but she doesn't tell. Trying to keep pace with me finally she gave up to say that she is tired. There was a field near the road so we laid our sleeping bags and slept instead of making it to Butrinti.
The next morning we easily found a car to Ksamili and apparently where we slept was just 2 km away from Ksantili which makes it about 5 km in total to Butrinti. Making our breakfast in a small bakery we continued to Butrinti, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was a lovely Spanish couple who took us there; they left everything behind to travel with their car and made it to Albania at that moment.
Butrinti is a nice site indeed; with a lagoon and Roman ruins on a relatively large area. Ecologically it should be also a rich place, especially for different kinds of birds although we didn't get a chance to see many of them. Looking around, using the toilet of the castle, taking some photos: what else to do? There was a restaurant next to the city; a couple entering there promised to take us to their car but they really took their time in the restaurant so instead we took the van of an archaeologist to Ksamili. Just as we were eating our icecream we met our couple again who kindly stopped again and bringing us to the crossroads where the petrol station was also located. We wanted to head northeast in order to get closer to Macedonia from where we could return to Serbia for my return flight easily.
First we hitched the car of an American anesthesician who was traveling alone with his rented car through Balkans. There were many bunkers along the road which are actually everywhere to be seen in Albania; showing how scared Enver Hoxha was from a foreign intervention(Soviet I guess). So many bunkers for nothing, definitely a waste of resources! After he left us in Gyrokaster, we took another luxurious car to another junction. Albania is poor but luxurious cars are really so much to see, especially Mercedes with Italian license plates. According to our future drivers in Pogradec it is so because of a mafia who brings stolen cars from Germany and Poland to Albania. It was one such car we took with two dangerous looking guys. Dorota seemed a little reluctant but finally we decided to take it and they were anything but scary.
On our map there were some small yellow roads going through the mountains which can bring us closer to Macedonia or the other option was to make a roundabout to "highway" and use thus the roads in red. We chose the yellow one to add a little bit of an excitement. At the small junction we ate some small amount of meat for a high price and afterwards started to walk until some villagers took us to their pickup. They left us at another junction and from there we took the car of a friendly but a little bit strange Albanian. He offered us some beers and afterwards insisted so much that we stay with him. I would say that it was just pretty normal friendliness but the looks and manners of him were a little bit strange so we decided to refuse him and continue our way.
We left him at a small town, where we could find a small restaurant with a menu! Dorota was really happy to see a menu so we ate there. The car of some really friendly civil engineers was our next car, this time going to Permet, a somewhat more famous town where they dropped us out before continuing to their destination. "Such a nice guy"s again :)
Permet is like a Swiss town, with a green mountain, river etc.It should be also touristic since there were many hotels around one of which was the one we stayed, after an unsuccessful try of hitchihking. The room was really comfortable, there was a drunken man doing funny things on the road whom we could see from the balcony. A small park where old people gather to talk, small markets everything hinted to a very quiet and pleasant life there.
Next morning we made our breakfast and hit the road as early as possible. I had sth. like 27 hours lef to my return flight from Belgrade and we had to hitchhike all the way back! From Permet to Belgrade with the route we took it takes about 824 km according to Google Maps and it calculates 9 hour 44 min as the time required but believe me, the small roads from Permet till Erseke don't let one to drive even at 50 km per hour. It took us 2 hours or so to get a distance of 50 km behind. Add to that two hours of waiting at Leskovik, a nice small mountain town. We waited for two hours, there were rarely some cars passing by and none of them took us. But the loud and after some time unbearable Albanian folk music coming from a house made fun :)
It was a Greek driver who saved us when we had less than 24 hours left. As far as I can remember he brought us to Erseke, a small distance which took ages from where we took a bus to Korce. Eating at a restaurant on the road and continuing our way by taking several cars we made it to Pogradec, the small town next to Ohrid Lake which is at the border of Macedonia and Albania. In Pogradec we took the car of two UN officials working for the border security organization of United Nations in Albania. Both of them could speak English very well and they were nice and talkative people. They offered us tea somewhere near the lake where they met a friend of them, an Albanian border police who had been to the police academy in Istanbul before.
Where the UN officials took us was the junction to the border, which was just a few km away from Macedonia. This time something strange happened: a Turkish truck driver, Cemal Abi, took us! He was from Urfa and had many children -and grandchildren- like almost anyone else from those regions.He shared his peaches with us; among the best I have eaten in my life! We basically talked and ate peaches until the junction of Ohrid; he continued to Ohrid while we had to go the other way. According to the directions of Cemal Abi we had to walk a liitle bit to find a petrol station but it took us more than half an hour to find one :) It got dark by the way, with all the cars passing by it was not the best time to walk next to a road, let alone hitchhiking, but what to do, I had already postponed my flight once and to make it twice would not be so ok.
An Albanian truck driver took us in the end to Skopje. He was a communist and could speak a little bit of Turkish, mainly slang words learned from other truck drivers but he could really communicate well. All night he talked about bosses and made me laugh with his Turkish saying thinks like: "Patronlar maymun. 2 hafta yol 300 Euro su para be siktir be" " Komünizm güzel, Enver Hoca iyi, herkes eşit, demokrasi siktir be Amerika siktir be" ("All bosses are monkeys. 2 weeks of road only for 300 Euros, even water is for money, fuck", "Communism is beautiful and Enver Hoxha was good, everyone was equal, f.ck democracy and USA") He left us at a petrol station where he wanted to sleep but we had to continue!
The next guy was another truck driver, this time luckily a Serbian who was going along the same road we go. He brought us all the way to Leskovac. But before that when crossing the border Dorota and me left the truck to walk through the border and we gave our passports to a drunk Serbian border police. He saw my country and said: "United Nations boom boom Turkey boom boom" in a friendly manner meaning that Turkey was part of UN forces who bombed Serbia.I apologized for it. He got however pretty friendly when he heard Dorota studying Serbian and after some talk with her offered us chocolate and some Fanta-like drink. It's always nice to see meet someone friendly and happening at the middle of the night it was great.
The Serbian driver left us on the highway to Nis and Belgrade at the junction of Leskovac and drove further to sleep there. It was about 4 o'clock and the stars were never so bright since there were absolutely no lights around! The air was also fresh and it was nice to walk while looking for a petrol station but we walked almost until 6 o'clock and couldn't see any petrol station. Hitching on the highway we caught an old men's crappy pickup at which we couldn't resist sleeping; however I tried hard not to sleep to take care of the things we have and of course Dorota it was impossible for me as well. His crappy pickup was so slow that it took us more than one and half hour to reach the junction of Nis where he left us. From there we took a truck to Belgrade; actually he left us some kms away from the city but it didn't really matter. From there we took a bus to the city center.
In Belgrade you buy a ticket, validate in a small device in the bus and when there is a control you show your validated ticket. But I hadn't seen any controls before..until this last one which we used for free.There was a control at Slavija Square with some woman in uniform entering the bus. Dorota went to talk with the driver immediately while I told the women that I'm with her. The women got off, Dorota talked and talked and in the end we did not pay anything. How? Because the Serbian driver told her sth. like: "If you have such beautiful eyes you don't have to pay anything!" Thanks to Dorota and the driver of course I was saved too. On the way to the oldest "kafana" (coffeehouse; in this case a restaurant as well) at Belgrade the driver who took Dorota's number continued to send text messages like: "Do you believe in love at first sight?", "Why are you not replying?" :) Pushy Serbian drivers :)
This is the end, my beautiful friend
Our last lunch had to be eaten at the oldest restaurant of Belgrade, "?" (the question mark") since Dorota hadn't been there before. As I have already written about the restaurant in a previous post, I'm skipping the description part. It was a little bit of eating and drinking in rush and was definitely a sad moment since it also meant the end of the trip.
After the lunch Dorota accompanied me to the Slavija Square where shuttle busses to Nikola Tesla Airport take off. We had to hurry even for the shuttle bus; just at the last minute I bought a postcard for a Russian friend to whom I had promised to send a card from Belgrade. I sent it from Istanbul later on. We said goodbye, Dorota went to meet her Serbian friend and I was to return to Istanbul. The shuttle bus moved slowly through the city; across the bridge and then all the way to the airport. This time, luckily, JAT arranged a bigger plane which could make it to Istanbul about half the time when it was from Istanbul to Belgrade.
When the plane took off I was sure that I will visit all these countries again; if not for their beautiful sights then for its beautiful people. I'll never forget the friendliness I encountered on this trip and will try to be a worthy person for all those received helps.Perhaps usual for every trip but in the end I realized how much I got used to travel with a Polish girl called Dorota through Balkans; it was almost like leaving home. This trip definitely left far deeper traces in me than my previous Western-Middle European interrailing experience. If you want to experience a change towards good in your character or if you just want to meet "worthy human beings" I would say Balkan countries are definitely the places to go to. I almost forgot to tell; find a Polish as your travelmate too; if her name is Dorota and she is sweet the better.
Every trip should be accompanied with music. My choice among all the music from Balkans is not the typical folk music to which everyone listens, but an old and much beloved rock band, Bijelo Dugme. One of my biggest entertainments these days is try to sing the following song in its original lyrics, try it as well! Maybe it will convince you about the fun you'll get from the trip if all the written things have not. As for me, I definitely look forward to write about ex-Yugoslavia more and more. But for now I have to say; Vidimo se Jugoslavije!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Q1A1mYDik
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