Finally on the way to Albania.

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On the bus around the lake and at the Albanian border. This seemed a bit simpler process than entering Macedonia from Bulgaria. The beautiful scenery was just the start of what continued for the rest of my trip. This was a bit of a minibus, every seat full and not much chop really. Just a few hours of inconvenience though which can be a bit of fun. A German couple sat next to me and they had been riding their pushbikes all through the mountains. I saw quite a bit of this from now on too. Now I do not mind jumping on the pushy from home to the pub or for an hour or so now and again for some exercise. But all day up through these mountains Ludicrous! Especially given the roads and driving, but good on them if they enjoy it.

The Tirana bus station is a bit out of town near a big shopping centre. From there one gets another bus into the city. This bus, along with about 90% of everything else in Albania, is cash only of course. So off to find a bank teller. The bit of research I had done told me there was one brand of teller which did not charge a fee. This later turned out to be false anyway. So if anyone else is going to Albania, just get a big wad of Lek on arrival, wear the $20 odd fee and put it behind you!

The next couple of days around Tirana, walking around and doing the touristy things. Tirana seems like a nice city. For some reason, in a city and country with 1000s of restaurants I struggled to find something to eat on my first evening. I walked round and round and ended up at some place with an English menu that took credit card. I felt like it was obviously a tourist trap but whatever, I was getting grumpy and hungry. Spent $50 on a meal and a couple of drinks. That was the most expensive food for the rest of the trip.

On Tuesday, I cancelled my Budget reservation and went with SixT again. Same experience, they met me in town, swiped my card and off I went. Very friendly and helpful. First corner I went around the cops pulled me up, went on about something, and told me to “be Careful”. After this I saw cops on the side of the road everywhere. Sometimes just standing there with this red and green wand and sometimes pulling folks in. Fortunately, that was my first and last dealing with them.

Destination was Berat. This is one of the places I particularly wanted to visit in Albania. On the way I went through this little town with what appeared to be disused oil well pumps. I could even smell oil in the air. Apparently, Albania has or had good oil reserves.

On arrival at Berat I was met by this nice couple who ran a little apartment adjacent to their house. Again, basic but functional with THE perfect view. A person could look out to both parts of the old town Mangalem and Gorcia. As I like to do in any new spot after dropping my bag and inspecting the room, don sneakers and find the biggest hill to walk up. This one, led to another old castle.

After that little ascent and descent, I was thirsty and hungry. So off to find a local spot. Great Albanian food; a sausage stuffed with cheese what more could a person ask for? Accompanied by a great view of the creek and the old bridge. A bit more of a walk around after tea.

The trip had taken me a while to find my groove until now. I really liked this place and wished to stay another night. In the morning, I woke in the mood for cruising. I was getting the hang of this chaotic driving on the wrong side of the road again. Plus, once out of the bigger towns the roads were actually reasonably quiet. My next main place I wished to visit was Girokaster. However, I knew there was a lot to see and to between me and there so I thought I would just let the day pan out. I had discovered by now that there was no shortage of accommodation and the days are long.

 

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Arrival Albania,

International transport,

From the bus window,

1000 of these is ~$20

Main square of Tirana Sunday morning

 

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Proper local yummy food just off the main square. Around $20 for this and better than last night for $50.

Needed a bit of help with the language

Change booth worker was a bit shy

Bus

Bunkart and cable car.
Bunkart was really interesting and massive. Cable car was good to get a view from above.

 

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Bit of home cooking, eating out seemed to work out cheaper than the supermarket mostly.

Kittens everywhere, which seems standard in The Balkans.

Luxury VW, no clutch pedal, surprisingly went ok. Still no V8 Holden however.

Oil wells on the way to Berat.

Road conditions change vastly.

No park? No problem. If there are no parks, one just double parks, gets out and nips in to the shop quickly. Despite all the tooting and what initially I thought was aggressive driving people are fairly patient and understanding.

Berat, city of 1000 windows. I was really excited to get here, and it met my expectations. A really amazing place

 

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B

 

[RB]

The Tirana bus station is a bit out of town near a big shopping centre. From there one gets another bus into the city. This bus, along with about 90% of everything else in Albania, is cash only of course. So off to find a bank teller. The bit of research I had done told me there was one brand of teller which did not charge a fee. This later turned out to be false anyway. So if anyone else is going to Albania, just get a big wad of Lek on arrival, wear the $20 odd fee and put it behind you!

I actually stumbled onto a handy app during our trip-ATM Fee Saver and I found it accurate wherever we used it but barely used anything but credit card

 

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I actually stumbled onto a handy app during our trip-ATM Fee Saver and I found it accurate wherever we used it but barely used anything but credit card

That is good information RB. In Albania, apart from Sixt and big establishments, it was cash only. Some petrol stations too. Even booking.com, I just left cash out or occasionally I was met by someone and they took the cash

 

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I headed off toward Vlore. A big town/city on the coast. I drove through here and kept going. One thing I should mention is that there seems to be a massive amount of works and road building etc going on. The roads can be narrow and windy and then turn into a new dual lane freeway which just abruptly ends up back on a narrow track. From there though I could often see works going on kind of parallel to me.

The winding mountain roads were so fun however and put the Adelaide hills in the most relaxing category. How I wished I had the Maloo with me instead of the renta car, although she did ok.

After winding my way around a bit I found myself stopping at Dhermi. Now this was an impressive little place. I had a good walk around here and considered camping for the night. However, as it was only around 1400 and I was in the mood to drive I kept cruising. I think it would be a good little place for a day or two and not far to the beach as well. I will mention at this point that I did not spend nor intend to really spend much time at the beach, even though that is what a lot of the advertising for Albania is pushed toward. We have the best beaches in the world here in AUS so I was not really too concerned about more sand and water.

Now where the concrete mixer is still the main highway. Albanians seem to have this great system where when the road narrows folks just seem to know when to give way, stop or reverse if necessary. It kind of baffled me but after a while it just became normal and I started to feel as if I fat in with the locals. Possibly a bit naive on my part but it made me feel good.

 

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On a bit further to Himare, a popular beach side stop. I had also heard a lot about crowding on the beaches in Europa and Albania but not here. Just like any little beach side town in Aus. Pretty cool and I considered stopping here as well for the night but with the long days I kept going finally arriving at Gjirokaster around 1900. Another decent cottage through booking com. This one included a welcome beer and some fruit all for around $50.

In the morning a big walk up to the castle and through the old town. The castle was interesting but there was a kind of boss bloke who seemed to be yelling at all his subordinates to work faster or harder or something. Not really sure what was going on there but it did annoy me a bit and I felt like telling him to shut up!
This place did not really do it for me for some reason. Walking back through the bazaar was interesting, similar to the one in Skopje.

 

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Gjirokaster Bizarre and castle.

Bloke in the blue Tshirt was the one doing the yelling and carrying on. I think it was his carrying on that put me off Gjirokaster in general. Looking at these photos it looks ok! Also I did not meet the accomodation people however they were very friendly and helpful over message. About $50 for good accom.

Another local parking maneuver to get a pizza or ice cream. I was not quite that game to try this one yet.

 

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I departed and drove a bit and ended up at Permet. Now this place was cool and one of the highlights of the trip. Not a particularly big place but seemed to have a bit of atmosphere and another abundance of restaurants. Oh did I mention that this place (Albania and Macedonia) seem to have restaurants and cafes everywhere? So many to pick from. I am not sure how any one gets any work done. Anyway, prior to going for eating and drinking I need to work up an appetite. This time up the hill to Leus. Now if I thought Permet itself was a gem, this place is really a hidden gem! Hidden behind some bushes is the most amazing old church I had seen. Pictures do not do it justice.

On the way to Permet.

Outside of the accommodation. These old brutalist buildings often did not look much to me from the outside. Inside however, they were nice and comfy. Not flash but generally clean and functional.

The Leus church

 

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More Permet. I saw a few of these old stone bridges around. This one had a warm spring and was pretty popular with people.

Some beautiful Lucerne and small farms through out the area. Reminded me of growing up in the Adelaide hills a little bit. When a family could make a living from a small farm.

A couple of nights here. I considered staying a third but I have found that not speaking the language it is a bit hard to get into the culture as much as I would like so I may as well enjoy the scenery. Anyway If I stayed on I would have just sat around at a café all day probably .

This really is a great place and I would recommend here and Berat as the two "must see" places in Albania. The Vjosa River is spectacular.

 

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Another day in the car and in my pre planning I discovered I would be going right past a gateway to Greece. Rude not to pop in I thought. Parked the car and sauntered across to the window and enquired about walking across the border. No problems. I think the bloke on the Greek side was a bit confused but did not say anything. Walked across and back in about twenty minutes. One car load from Greece came through and there was no one else around. So peaceful.

Off I proceeded toward Korce. More winding and hilly roads with a brief stop at Erseke. Korce had a nice feel to it and again plenty of restaurants. I stayed in a great little hotel here with friendly people who liked to have a chat in English.

 

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Greek border. Pretty seamless border crossing..

Not much going on at Ereke on a Saturday afternoon. A bit like where I live!

I did not take many pics of Korce but it was a nice place to spend the evening. It also had an old bazaar.

 

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In the morning I drove up to Voskopje in the hills, rainy and foggy. From there I proceeded back toward Lake Ohrid and Pogradec. I was a bit unsure how to use the remaining three days as my flight from TIA departed on Wed morning. This was a bit of a status run on BA and non changeable. ~$720 for 120 SC. Which would get me to 1195 when I arrive home with 0 days remaining. (I will get to how I managed the remaining five later)

However, I still wanted to get to Shkoder and Theth. Something was going to have to give…. Unless I just drive for the sake of driving and then I could say “I had done Albania” . (My skin crawls a bit when I hear people use that term)

Meandered through some nice little towns and ended up at Pogradec. Walked around here a bit and decided to proceed to Lin for the night. A tiny town just a bit further around the lake with tiny streets. Some impressive traffic maneuvering was required here and despite no one speaking English, eventually with plenty of hand waving and facial gesturing the VW was soon locked in the church yard and I had the key to my room.

Dined at a little restaurant on the edge of the lake on some fresh caught trout. It was a whole fish with the face still on and 1000s of bones. Not exactly my thing but tasty enough once separated from the bones.

These fruit stalls were common throughout the country. Pogradec seemed to have even more than other places.

Lake view.

Lin. A mall town with tiny streets and the yellow church is to where I was directed for overnight parking. Then a short walk to my house.

 

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By wakening on Monday morning I had decided I wished to spend two nights on one place and not be too far from TIA airport even though my flight was not until 1300 on Wed. I had seen the way the traffic can jam up ridiculously in this country and slow down what on the map appears to be a short trip. Or even just get a bit of a backlog on narrow streets.

Durres could have (and possibly should have) been the pick however I still wanted to go to Shkoder. Theth was going to have to wait sadly.

I found a place a bit further north called Shengjin. This was on the coast and had plenty of accom options. Place I found was pretty basic and the whole area had a bit of a weird vibe to it. The beach was all set up with deck chairs but there was not many people around. I did get caught in one of the afore mentioned jams on the way back through Tirana and it took a couple of hours to get through. Again, plenty of restaurants but nothing seemed to have what I was looking for.

The next day I drove up to Shkoder. This place and the surrounding hills was really cool and in hindsight I should have gone here for the two nights as I could easily have made the airport in a couple of hours. I enjoyed my day in Shkoder and was starting to feel a little sad as my time in Albania was coming to an end.

The Volkswagon by now was particularly filthy and I wished to wash it prior to returning to SixT the next day.

Another stone bridge.

Beach and view from accom at Shengjin.

Shkoder.

I wanted to wash the car myself but that did not seem like a thing. So I went and had a smoke with some random at the fuel pumps while someone else did it for me! Such a normal thing to do!

Beer on the ocean. Last night in this amazing country. I have only scratched the surface in twelve days.

 

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SO I arrived at a Chaotic Tirana airport for my kind of status run on BA to WAW to net me 120 SC.

The queue was almost out the door for security. I found the fast track lane and no one was really going through. A girl was guarding it and I just mumbled “fast track?” and she nodded so off I went without any proof required. Security was a bit of a shambles but not too traumatic really. Same for passport control, quite a queue but I found some kind of fast track, I think having an Aussie passport here helped, automatic gate and into the departure area.

Not quite as cramped as Malta or Catania but still pretty hectic. Wondered around a bit and found the Skanderbeg lounge. Bording pass scanned and in. This was a pretty decent lounge save for no windows or showering facility. A decent Albanian spread plus not overly crowded.

Decided to check my email and that was when I received an email from Finnair kindly advising that my flight KRK HEL HKG MEL had been cancelled and that they rerouted me KRK AMS SIN MEL on KLM. No big deal I thought until (being a stickler for fine print) I realised that they were very sorry that the entire journey would be in economy. Entire original 081 ticket cancelled and re issued on some one else. I did not have much time before my flight but I sent an email off which has never been responded too (even a month later). On arrival into Warsaw that night I had booked into the airport Ibis. I spent half the night there trying to get some sense from Finnair or Qantas. No one at Finnair would answer my phone call or return their “chat”.

Wifi calling is good! Three phone calls later to Qantas, the first two being told they could not help me, and I got through to someone who was able to reinstate my ticket from Helsinki, just beginning in WAW instead of KRK.

This was ok as KRK was a bit of an afterthought to fill in the two days. I had booked accom in KRK which became unrefundable about the same time all this was going on. I decided to just proceed to Krakow anyway as I like trains and still had time to spend the afternoon, evening and next morning walking around there.

It turned out the only flight that Finnair had cancelled was the KRK HEL leg and instead of popping me on LOT to WAW or HEL or asking if I wished to depart from somewhere else they just re booked the entire thing without consultation. I have sent in a complain and an email and still no response or acknowledgement.

If it was not for me doing a bit of research through the night and not taking no for an answer from QF call centre I would have been lumped with AY’s solution.