Winding our way to Albania

We woke to rain and thunder - at least today would be a travelling day. The mini-bus (a different one this time) arrived early with two drivers - again no English but at least these two knew how to smile. Packing the luggage proved to be a challenge, but eventually, everyone and everything was aboard and we set off south towards unknown Albania.

For the first half hour or so, we followed the coast road - a winding, picturesque section of the country which shows promise of major development during the next decade. Due to 10 people breathing, combined with the weather it was necessary to keep wiping the windows to enable us to see the view. Already the richer Russians have made their presence felt. Unfortunately, the steady rain and fogged up windows made Kodak moments an impossibility. After about 50 minutes, for some strange reason, the driver made a sharp left hand turn and headed inland. For the next few hours, we travelled through the hinterland and saw many small farming communities - this was rural Montenegro, complete with shepherds and their sheep, cowgirls and their cows as well as a collection of goats, chooks, ducks and dogs.

We reached the border with Albania and went through the customary noting of passport details, the border guard coming onto the bus to eyeball each of us and leaving with our passports. He returned a few minutes later and we were off into Albania. About a kilometre down the road, Ron complained that he didn’t have a stamp in his passport. This seemed to cause some concern with the two drivers who promptly checked their own passports then turned the bus around and headed back to the border checkpoint. Upon arrival, the main driver took our passports back to the small office and returned a few minutes later with our passports duly stamped. Ron was happy!

Albania - what can I say? It would seem that the aim in the average Albanian’s life is to dump as much rubbish in as many conspicuous places as possible. Rubbish was everywhere!

The countryside flattened out into broad valleys, the mountains still looming in the distance, covered in low clouds. At least the rain began to ease. We passed through several small villages as we approached Tirana, the capital. The living conditions of the people in these places leaves much to be desired. In other parts of the world, the inhabited buildings would have been condemned but not so here. People seem to live in whatever structure they can find - at least in the smaller villages. As we approached the capital, the structures began to look a lot more stable. Much construction was apparent, with many 2 and 3 storey houses either half built or recently completed. We commented on the number of furniture stores that lined the road - we must have passed at least 30, all full of modern and ornately finished tables, chairs, lounges, wardrobes etc. It would seem that the furniture business is big time here. Some of the stores were so new that they didn’t even have front doors or windows - just the empty shell of a soon to be completed concrete building.

The other notable observation is the number of ‘butcher’s stands’- couldn’t call them shops. Just a type of shed with slaughtered carcasses hanging in the open air. This reminded us of Morocco!

Then we hit the city! Tirana seems to be one big traffic jam. We crawled through traffic for almost an hour before we arrived at our hotel. The driver eventually found the back entrance to the hotel - not a good look! - and we were able to park the mini-bus and off-load everything. Of course there wasn’t a lift so we had to carry our luggage upstairs - the hotel staff were extremely helpful here and, soon we were safely inside our rooms.

We set off to explore the nearby streets, but soon decided that to leave the street on which the hotel was situated or to cross the busy intersection just up the road was not a wise move. Liz, Ron, Jill and I wandered the street - this part of town was rife with travel agents. This suited Liz as she wanted to check about our transfer to the airport and our flight on to Athens tomorrow. After that was all sorted, we found a modern fast food outlet and enjoyed a pizza and a club sandwich. This was followed by a little window shopping, the purchase of more batteries for Jill’s camera and the decision to exhange our Euros for Leke (pronounced lecca), the Albanian currency. In this country, it is easy to be a millionaire! A leke is worth about an Aussie cent. Walking around with several thousand leke in your pocket might seem a bit extravagant but 1000 leke is about 10 bucks! Poor Ron, he still had 100 kuna from Croatia and he tried to exchange that for Albanian currency - no luck, they wouldn’t accept it. Luckily he was able to exchange at another agency later in the day. There are about 5 Croatian kunas to the Aussie $. We came across a subterranean bar (downstairs into a cellar) called the Melbourne Bar and decided that a drink there was essential. Very modern, very red and very loud music! There were several little grottoes within the bar and we debated whether or not this was a place where “working girls” plied their trade. The jury is still out on that one. Needless to say, Ron was glad to get out of the place. Ron’s only inclination to pink things is his camera (he got it cheap because it was pink).

After a brief nana nap, Jill and I decided to walk a little before dinner. We headed in the opposite direction, but still on the same street. Everywhere we looked, there was evidence of decay and a general run down appearance. Vendors wishing to sell their wares, simply set up on any street and waited for passing customers. Jill commented that the place reminded her of Airds, a housing commission area near Campbelltown - just a feeling of “what does the future hold for people here?” Maybe in 10 years or so, there will be changes.

Dinner was enjoyed in a modern bar not far from the Melbourne Bar. Gert came to our rescue as no-one spoke English but the Chef spoke German. So, she translated and we ordered. The meal for 8 of us cost almost 10000 leke, including drinks - cheap really!