Honeymoon in the Western Balkans

Here is my journal that I kept during our honeymoon trip to the Western Balkans.  I actually just kept a cheatsheet of events that happened and filled it all out when we got back.  Warning, it’s pretty long, but it’s full of useful information and great stories from our adventures in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania.  Yes, I said that correctly, we went to Albania!  That is actually how this whole trip started; I had read a book called Bad Lands about places that no one visits and Albania stuck with me as a place I wanted to go to.  Jaime was easily convinced and I went to work on our itinerary from there.  I’d definitely recommend the Western Balkans to all travelers!

Day 1

Our flight plan was to take United to London overnight, have a couple hour layover, then take Croatia Airlines to Zagreb, Croatia, and then onto Split, Croatia.  The trip had an interesting start.  When boarding on the United flight, a nice Indian businessman offered to trade seats with a young man in the middle seat so the young man could sit with his significant other.  Apparently the Indian man had already been requested to move from his original seat in the back and because of this the flight attendant literally flipped out that he moved again.  While all parties were trying to explain that this move was voluntary, she kept saying that everyone should move back to their original seats.  When no one moved, she went and got the head of the flight attendants.  This is where it got interesting.  She came back and started yelling at the poor young man about his “refusal to obey orders” from the first flight attendant, even though she never actually told them to move.  Me and the British guy next to me, as well as some others around us, started talking about how rude she was being.  Suddenly the guy next to me got the woman’s attention and said she was being rude and that she should apologize.  She refused and said to mind his own business, so of course he demanded her name and said he’d be filing a complaint.  Needless to say, she did not take this well and said she going to talk to the captain and stormed off without giving her name.  Jaime commented that at least this was British on British fighting and gave me the stay-out-of-it look.  Ten minutes later the head attendant came back with some kind of captain’s assistant.  She pointed at the guy next to me and one in front of him and said “these are the two that were telling me how to do my job!”.  This lady clearly wanted to just calm everyone down.  She listened to everyone’s side, let the young man stay where he was, upgraded the Indian man to business class, and then we were off to London.

In Zagreb, we got off the plane, bused to the airport, went through security again (where I left my liquids bag, oops!), waited ninety minutes, and then got back on the exact same plane to Split.  Upon arrival in Split we took the Croatia Airlines bus to the old city.  This bus is strangely not mentioned anywhere on the plane or at the airport, but I read about it in my Western Balkans guidebook and asked around when we landed.  We get into the old city around 12:30am, just in time to make the last ferry to Brac Island at 1:00am where our timeshare resort is located.  We walked to the first ferry terminal and there are about ten people all stumbling around drunk joking with their friend in the terminal booth.  This is when I knew I’d like Croatia.  We break through the crowd and ask the woman for directions to which ended up being the next ferry terminal down the coast.  After a nice relaxing fifty minute ferry ride to Supertar, Brac Island, we get hounded by taxis.  It’s almost 2:00am so we opted to take the cab even though we knew he inflated his prices for the obvious tourists on a seemingly locals-only ferry.  We checked into the Kactus Hotel, a sister hotel for our Waterman Resort, and they took us by golf cart to our apartment.  We collapse almost immediately.

Day 2

We slept like rocks.  At one point, there’s someone knocking on the door but we both refuse to move and then fall back asleep.  Some time later, probably a couple hours, someone is knocking again though much louder this time.  I begrudgingly get the door and it’s the front-desk man from last night asking for Jaime’s passport to complete the check-in.  I stumble over to check Jaime’s watch and it was 2:30pm.  Holy crap, we slept over 12 hours and had to be forced awake!  We quickly get ready, complete the check-in, and catch the 3:30pm ferry to Split after a quick beer and ice cream “breakfast” in Supertar.  While we lost half of our first day, we realized we had zero jet-lag, so it was most likely worth it.

We get into Split at 4:30pm and begin wandering around Diocletian’s Palace which encompasses the entire old city and is full of shops, restaurants, bars, and even about 3,000 permanent residents.  The 4th century palace is so beautiful and well-preserved.  Well-preserved in the historical sense, not in the restored sense.  Everything was left as it originally was and there were cobblestone alleys with crumbling walls all around us.  The weather was gorgeous so Jaime suggested we find a place to eat outside to take advantage of it.  She used this reasoning with every meal “in case it rains tomorrow.”  We had perfect weather the entire honeymoon so we never actually ate indoors, which was really easy to get used to, and hard to give up after coming back home.  That first full evening we ate dinner in the Republic Plaza just west of the palace and it was our first real meal in over two days.

Over dinner we were trying to figure out how to see everything we wanted with only one more full day in the area.  The hardest one to plan was a side trip to the World Heritage Site of Trogir about 30 km away.  All of the travel agencies we saw around town were geared towards locals going on vacation.  Trips to Paris, Vienna, Venice, but nothing to visits the local sights.  We got desperate and started going door-to-door asking for trips to Trogir.  Most people said to just take the local bus in the morning, but if we did this we wouldn’t have time to go to the city of Bol on Brac Island.  Finally, we got lucky.  I walked into San Diego Tours while Jaime strolled along the stretch of other tour agencies.  I asked the man at the counter if he offered tours to Trogir, and after some back and forth with the pronunciation (it’s actually pronounced Tro-GEEr), he said yes and asked if we wanted to go right now.  I chased down Jaime and asked her if she wanted to go right now, and her reaction was “What?!…How much?”.  After agreeing to a price, the man shut down his office, locked the door, and drove us himself.  During the drive our new guide, Ivan, asked about our time in Croatia and the rest of our itinerary.  When we said we were going to Bosnia he warned us not to go out after dark.  We we mentioned Albania, he repeated it, saying “Albania?!” and then asked if we were Americans.  When we said yes, he said “I knew it!  All Americans are crazy!”  He proceeded to tell us that it was extremely dangerous even though he admitted he’d never been and he didn’t actually know anyone else who had been there either.  Jaime suddenly regretted leaving the entire planning process to me and spent the next couple days reading everything she could about Albania until her nerves were settled.

Trogir turned out to be a great idea, and I think it was enhanced by seeing it at night all lit up and devoid of tourists.  It’s actually a 13th century walled city on an island with the 15th century Kamerlengo Castle keeping watch over the town.  The castle has the stereotypical multi-pointed guard tower on the corner, and the walls were cracked at several spots showing the castle’s age and fragility.  Ivan then took us on a tour through the walled city, stopping at several great photo op spots along the way.  He seemed to know all of the crazy back alleys like the back of his hand.  It was great to be able to get seemingly lost while knowing that Ivan would eventually get us back to the car.  During the ride back, Ivan talked proudly about any and all Croatians that made their way into American sports.  Neither of us are really sports fans, so it was a lot of smiling and nodding.

When we got back to Split, we wandered around some new areas of the palace.  It was a totally different experience at night.  A lot less people (read: no tourists), darker alleys, awesome lighting, and an overall better ambiance.  As we wandered around, you could hear voices everywhere but you couldn’t see anybody.  I was trying to think of what it reminded me of, when Jaime volunteered that it sounded like a prison to her!  We ended up at Teak Caffe for a few beers at the end of the night and just soaked it all in with the locals.  We caught the last ferry to Supertar again but braved the walk this time.

Day 3

After sleeping in for way too long yesterday, we set an alarm to wake up early and get back on schedule.  We asked the front-desk what the best way to get to Bol was.  He suggested we take a taxi but it was 40 km away and would probably be expensive.  He then recommended that we rent scooters and drive over ourselves.  Jaime entertained this idea for a while but after we found a public bus schedule in town we decided to go that route, and we were very glad that we did.  The road was up and down mountains, through very tight small town streets, and around countless hairpin turns.  Picturing ourselves attempting this drive on scooters turned into an inside joke that we laughed about the whole trip.

Upon arrival in Bol, we walked down to the famous Golden Cape.  This sandy peninsula is featured on a large majority of travel advertisements for Croatia.  It was definitely a sight to see.  The path out there was a wide stone boulevard that is meant to handle the usual hoard of tourists though it was relatively empty for us.  Again we patted ourselves on the back for missing the official tourist season by a few short weeks.  The walk is very scenic and relaxing.  There are several paths from the boulevard to the beach and we went down a random one so Jaime could get her feet wet.  The beach we chose had stacks of chairs out and no one around, so I set up two of them and took some pictures while Jaime hiked up her pants and walked into the Adriatic Sea.  After about 20 minutes, Jaime came over to lay out with me when someone walked over to us.  The man asked which hotel we were with and when we said we were staying in Supertar, he said we had to pay 50 kuna ($10) for each of the chairs.  I refused and he said we could stay for an hour for only 35 kuna ($7).  Jaime quickly put on her shoes and we left.  We should have known free chairs on a tourist beach were too good to be true.

When we checked the bus schedule in the morning, there was a 1:00pm bus back to Supertar but it had an asterisk by it.  We determined it meant that it didn’t run on weekends or holidays.  Since today was neither, we aimed back towards the bus station, even though the bus driver on the way out said there was no 1:00pm bus.  We got there a bit early and stopped at a bakery.  Neither Jaime or I eat beef, but it was a lost cause when I tried to ask the poor local girl what meat was on the sandwiches.  I asked if it was cow, beef, pig, etc.  Jaime urged me to give up and stopped me just in time — I was one step away from mooing.  We get back to the bus station and were surrounded by a ton of kids with backpacks.  Suddenly the reason why the 1:00pm bus doesn’t run on weekends or holidays came to us.  This was the local school bus.  We had to wiggle our way onto the bus to get the last seats available but we made it.  This bus went a different route and made many more stops.  It was 20 minutes longer than our ride out and we almost missed the 2:30pm ferry to Split.

When we got into Split, I headed straight for the Cathedral of St. Duje which was closed to the public the previous day (being a Sunday).  Jaime and I went straight for the bell tower stairs but we were stopped and forced to pay.  Jaime’s slightly afraid of stairs, so this was just the out she needed.  She opted to wait in the courtyard while I made the climb.  The climb was a bit rough but completely worth it.  The sweeping views over the city were amazing.  At the very top, about 180 feet up, I couldn’t even pick Jaime out of the crowd below.  On the way down, I passed the only other person in the bell tower, and not knowing his nationality, I just said the universal word “beautiful” and kept walking.  We then took a self-guided tour of the palace basement.  It was simply massive.  Huge archways, 15-20 foot high crumbling ceilings, and rooms that could accommodate hundreds of people.

Afterward, we started wandering around to some other new areas of the palace scoping out places for dinner.  We walked by one place and someone says to us “it was beautiful.”  I turn around and notice a couple sitting at a table, with the man being the person I passed in the bell tower.  We stopped to chat for a minute, were invited to join them, and ended up talking for about an hour.  They were Terry and Ellie from Minnesota.  They were touring the area for their anniversary.  Ellie wanted to go to Greece and Terry wanted to spice it up with some other countries along the way.  It turns out they were taking almost the exact same route we were through the Balkans, though they were a day ahead of us so we didn’t run into them again.  We traded travel stories for a while, exchanged information, and went on our way.  We hope to keep in touch with them after the trip is over.

We ate dinner in another plaza; almost the same meal as the day before (chicken filet for Jaime, pizza for me).  We wandered around some more to hit the last unseen quarter of the palace.  Along the way, we picked up more ice cream, which we noticed was quickly becoming a staple food for us in the Balkans.  This trend continued and we didn’t go a day without ice cream.  After hitting all of the areas we wanted to go to, we caught the 8:30pm ferry back to Supertar so we could repack before our early departure to Bosnia-Herzegovina the next morning.

Day 4

We said goodbye to Supertar and caught an early ferry back to Split for our 9:30am bus departure to Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  We drove along the coast which has new beautiful views around every turn.  We got stopped at a “random” police checkpoint for about 15 minutes, and then half an hour later we stopped to pick up the passengers from a broken down bus.  We kept wondering what the next delay would be but luckily there were no more.  The area around Ploče is amazing.  Lots of lakes with bright blue-green water I’d never seen before.  Shortly after Ploče we got to the border crossing.  The Croatian immigration person just took a quick glance at our passports while the Bosnian one saw the “United States” on the cover and just handed them back without even opening them.  We were really looking forward to new passport stamps and this wouldn’t be the last time we would be disappointed.

Inside Bosnia, the landscape changed almost immediately.  Bosnia was almost entire farms, at least along the road we were on.  We hit the first city after about 10-15 minutes.  The city itself looked like many others we’d already passed but the thing that stood out here was that all of the Serbian Cyrillic (one of Bosnia’s two official languages) was spray-painted out on all of the road signs.  You could feel the tension in the air and it became clear that Bosnians hadn’t forgiven the Serbs just yet.

We arrived in Mostar and took a taxi to our hotel.  After showing a map to the taxi driver, he said he knew where it was and drove us to a narrow stone alley that was full of people.  We thought it was the wrong place, but the driver kept pointing down the alley and nodding, so we took our bags and started walking.  After half a block or so, Jaime spots a sign for our hotel attached to a building full of bullet holes and pockmarks from other munitions.  We go down a steep path and find someone to check us in.  The Kriva Cuprija is in an amazing location.  It is an old millhouse that overlooks the Crooked Bridge (which it’s named after).  This was coincidentally the exact hotel that Terry and Ellie from Split had stayed in two nights before.  We were upgraded to an apartment suite just as they told us they had been.  Jaime commented that this place was so nice that she’d look for something just like it if she lived in Mostar.

We hit the town to look for some lunch.  It turned out that the famous Stari Most (Old Bridge), the main historical, cultural, and symbolic sight in Mostar, was on the hotel alleyway less than a block away and we would end up crossing it a dozen times in our short stay here.  We found a bakery where the woman working didn’t speak a single word of English.  We pointed at a couple things and I handed her 5 euros.  She struggled to find change and kept handing me various amounts and then gesturing for me to wait.  After I got the equivalent of 2 euros back, since it seemed like the 3 euros was a fair amount to pay for the two large pastries and 20oz soda, I started to walk away and she gave up and went to the next customer.  We ended up going back there the next morning when I had a lot of smaller denominations of change.  After picking out a similar amount of food and showing her a handful of change, she took less than 1 euro.  Oops!

With lunch in hand, we wandered the large Tepa Market area just east of Neretva River and came upon a sign that said “Best views of Old Bridge” with an arrow to a small courtyard.  The path led to the Koski Mehmed pasa Mosque, built in 1617, which allows visitors to climb the minaret for a small fee.  Jaime decided to take on her fear of stairs and we quickly made the ascent to the top.  The views were simply amazing.  Our favorite pictures from the entire trip were taken at the top of this very small minaret overlooking Stari Most.  After our much slower descent, we continued wandering the various side streets on the way back to the bus station so we could buy our tickets to Dubrovnik the following day.  We criss-crossed bridges on the way back to take in all the views and see various war-damaged buildings.

We get back to the hotel and decided to have dinner there since Terry and Ellie spoke so highly of it.  They warned us that there were no menus and no prices so we decided to just have fun with it.  The nice young waiter suggested the fish, Jaime said “yes.”  Next he suggested the cheese plate and got another quick “yes” from Jaime.  He left for a couple minutes and then came back to recommend a salad.  Yes, of course.  House wine too?  Sure, why not?  As the food started coming out, we knew we made the right decision.   Everything he brought us was so delicious and fulfilling.  The cheese plate itself, complete with fresh donuts, was probably worth the cost of the entire dinner.  In all, it ended up costing more than the room itself, but we’re so glad we did it.  It is our honeymoon after all, so we’re allowed to splurge a little bit!

After dinner, we decided, against the advice of our Split tour guide Ivan, to venture out at night for a few drinks.  In the Western Balkans guidebook there was some recommended bar nearby, but of more interest to us was the sister bar on the rooftop known as Atelje Novalic.  We arrive shortly before sunset and get the perfect seats along the railing.  Stari Most behind me and the mosque we climbed right in front of me.  We were literally in the center of it all and loving every minute of it.  We had a few local beers while the sun set and took a few great night shots of the surrounding area.  Everything was lit up beautifully so we sat there for a while and soaked it all in before finally stumbling back to our hotel.  And to think we were originally going to visit Mostar as a short daytrip from Dubrovnik.

Day 5

We had one more morning in Mostar so we took a look at the map to see what we had missed.  While there wasn’t a single particular destination we wanted to go to, we did notice that the old front lines of the war were all on the west side of the river, an area we hadn’t walked yet.  We set out, made a quick stop at the same bakery from yesterday, and then started walking the previous front lines.  It was quite devastating and depressing.  Some buildings had be rebuilt, or were currently being worked on, but there were entire blocks left untouched and completely destroyed.  There were a lot more modern buildings that were ruined which makes you realize how recent the war was.  The nine-story bombed-out Ljubljanska Banka Tower was the most ominous one since it towered over the rest of the buildings in the area.  It was also near the end of our route, so we headed back to the hotel afterward and packed our bags.  After some quick shopping in Tepa Market, we walked to the bus station to catch our 12:30 bus to Dubrovnik.

The bus arrived at 3:15pm, though the bus station is pretty far from the old city, so we had to catch another local bus to Pile Gate.  Pile Gate is the main gate located on the west side of the old walled city.  We decided to find our apartment first before any stops or pictures to get rid of our backpacks.  I paid a dollar to use a phone right inside the gate, but our Apartments Amoret contact Branka didn’t answer.  We ate a quick lunch at a restaurant next door while deciding our next move.  After lunch, we decided to try to find the apartment ourselves and see if anyone was there.  Jaime sat with our bags while I went looking.  There were a couple addresses listed, so I set off to find the first one.  It had Branka’s name on the doorbell, but again no answer.  I went to the second one and the doorbell was a large box.  I hit the over-sized button and it actually called her cell phone!  How ingenious!  I have no idea how these aren’t more widespread.  Branka answers, says she knows I’m at the apartment, and arrives five minutes later.  We both walk over to find Jaime waiting patiently and head back to the apartment.  Branka gives us a quick tour along the way back then hands over the keys.  The apartment was really nice and there was even a shared rooftop terrace across a small bridge over the back alley where the main entrance was.  Branka gave us a small map and pointed out some more attractions nearby.  She pointed to where Jaime was waiting and says “that’s where we picked up your wife.”  Jaime had a quick double-take and thinks “wife, huh?  oh yeah, that’s me!”  She is still getting used to it as of this writing…

After settling in for a few minutes, we hit the town.  Dubrovnik is amazing.  There are awesome alleys with unique views at every turn.  The north half of the city is up a relatively steep hill, so there are a lot of stairs up the centuries-old alleys, some overgrown with vines and bushes.  The city is split east-west with a wide boulevard called Stradun that we later renamed tourist-row because of the sheer number of tourists and the overpriced shops awaiting their business.  There are shops and restaurants everywhere and down every alley, and they are guaranteed to be cheaper than anything you’d find on the main, and only, road through town.  That’s not to say you should avoid Stradun completely.  It has an old monastery and huge fountain on one end and a beautiful clock tower on the other end, so it’s great for wandering around, taking in the views, and imagining yourself back in its hey-day.

We backtracked to Pile Gate to take some pictures we skipped earlier and noticed a large fort on the water overlooking Dubrovnik’s old city.  We had to check it out.  We started up the stairs of St. John’s Fort and took in the various views along the way.  We get all the way to the door to find out that it’s closed, but it was still worth the climb because the door has probably the best free view of the city.  We ran into other tourists up there and took turns taking each others pictures before the long descent.  We then walked around the north side of the walled city from the outside.  There isn’t much to see there; it’s just a busy road and some administrative parking lots, but it is nice to get away from the tourists for a bit.  We stopped at the local Konzum grocery store outside the East Gate for a $3 bottle of wine and then headed back to the apartment to drop it off.

For dinner, we went with Olivia’s Pizza, which was recommended by the guidebook and another magazine Jaime had.  It was a good decision.  The pizza was delicious and I’d definitely recommend it to other people visiting Dubrovnik.  We then strolled around the south side of the old city, aiming towards another place Jaime read about: Buza Bar.  What makes Buza Bar unique is that it’s outside the city walls on the water side, meaning you are actually sitting on the rocky coast of the Adriatic Sea.  Unfortunately, they said they were closing right when we got there at 8pm.  Not sure why they’d close so early, but it was in a remote location and it seemed like most of the city’s tourist business was from cruise ships in the day time, so that may explain it.

We wandered around some more and stumbled upon Dolce Vita, an ice cream place that was recommended by the guidebook too.  The ice cream was great, there was a lot of variety, and the prices were literally one third of what you’d pay on Stradun.  After the sun set, we revisited some of our favorite spots because they were completely different at night with all of the buildings lit up.  We made our way back to the apartment to open our bottle of wine and enjoy the night on our rooftop terrace.  The wine was what you’d expect for $3 but it will still a great way to end another perfect day.

Day 6

Today we had a full day to relax in Dubrovnik.  We slept in, well as much as we could, and then walked over to the nearby morning market.  We picked up a couple pastries for breakfast and a small bag of figs to snack on later.  It’s definitely cheaper to pick up food at a local food stand or grocery store, but we’d been finding it more challenging to find a place to sit and eat.   A couple of coffee later and we found a place to sit along a courtyard to eat our pastries.

The main plan for the day was to walk the 2km around the city walls.  We got an early start and went up the main staircase next to Pile Gate.  The views of the city and the surrounding areas were absolutely amazing.  There were different views every five feet!  Needless to say, we both took a lot of pictures from up there.  Unlike most walled cities, these walls were very uneven.  We’d go up a large staircase, and then down the ramp on the other side.  By the time we made the climb to the last, and highest, corner, the sun was at its peak and we were exhausted.  We finished and stopped at a place called Sandwich Bar before retreating to the air conditioned apartment.  It was the first and only meal we ate indoors the entire trip.

While we were walking the city walls we saw a steady stream of boats circling the waters beneath us.  We had seen the port yesterday so we decided to see how much a short trip would cost.  We thought we were walking into a tourist trap, but were shocked to find out that it was only $7.50 each for a 50 minute boat ride.  The joys of competition.  There were no less than eight companies all vying for our money, so prices were rock bottom.  They all have slight variance in where they go and we went with a company that took us around a nearby island and showed us a hidden cave on its far side.  The views from the water were simply stunning, and combined with the gorgeous weather, the boat ride was well worth it.

Following our normal M.O., we took a look at the map to see what we had missed during our aimless wandering.  We then went to stop by the third oldest operating pharmacy, which looked like it could have been the third most recent pharmacy.  After some getting lost we hit our other target, the second oldest synagogue in Europe.  It was in very nondescript building with just a small sign on the entrance door.  We ended the evening with dinner at Nishtas, the first vegetarian restaurant in Dubrovnik.  The food was very good and surprisingly hearty.

Day 7

Not knowing the bus schedule back to the main bus station, we left the old city early to make sure we wouldn’t miss our 10:30am bus to Kotor, Montenegro (pronounced Coder).  Shortly into the drive, we hit a border crossing into Bosnia and then a few miles later another border crossing back into Croatia.  The Bosnian ‘corridor’ to the Adriatic is actually north of Dubrovnik on all the maps I’ve seen, so I’m not sure what that was, but I know it’s a touchy subject so I didn’t ask.  We arrive in Montenegro about 30 minutes later and get our first passport stamps of the trip!  The last hour of the drive was around the Bay of Kotor fjord.  The drive was amazingly scenic and makes us want to come back and spend more time in Montenegro.

The Kotor map I had was essentially just the walled city, so we were surprised to find that the city is actually quite big and the walled city is just a small part of it.  The bus dropped us off in a rundown part of town, but a few short blocks and we entered the south gate of the old city.  The south side is all residential and it’s a nice slow introduction to the town.  Looming high above the town at the top of a mountain is Kotor Castle.  It’s 1,355 steps to the top.  There are multiple paths that zig-zag up the mountain to reach the summit.  We found a map of the steps and they were color coded and safety rated.  The bottom third were considered “relatively safe” but beyond that, everything else was dangerous and highly not recommended.  I wanted to go up just a few steps for a better view of the city, but I was stopped by a guy at a desk collecting admission and decided against it.

We wandered around the city, discovered some hidden courtyards with old churches, and ended up in the main plaza by the Sea Gate for lunch.  This is where all of the tourists come to.  We noticed that a lot of tourists were walking around with their backpacks just like us.  After the usual beer and ice cream, we stopped at a second place for pizza and the world’s largest croissant sandwich.  We did some more walking around outside the city walls along the bay with its amazing views.  There is a massive abandoned hotel right on the water, either a sign of better days or someone overestimating the tourist draw of the city.

At 4:30pm, we were due to meet our driver from Elite Travel to take us to Tirana, Albania.  Jaime points out a van in the parking lot with an Albanian bumper sticker, so I casually stroll over and find it empty.  A few minutes later, a nice man walks up to me and asks if I’m Ron.  Turns out that this was Elvis, the owner and my contact at Elite Travel.  The driver he had arranged for us was suddenly unavailable and his backup driver didn’t speak any English so he decided to come along for the ride to stay in touch with his customers.  This turned out to be a great thing because Elvis spoke perfect English and gave us a lot of local insight along the way.

After passing the larger-than-expected border city of Ulcinj, the roads became very narrow and winding through small towns.  These roads seem like they will be the biggest hurdle to expanding tourism into Albania.  The border crossing itself was very large and about eight lanes wide so they just need to work on the rest of the route.  The border guards seemed very confused with two tourists coming into their country by land, but Elvis sweet-talked them into letting us through, though again without passport stamps.  There was an immediate change after crossing into Albania.  At first it seemed similar to Bosnia with all the farms, but then it went further with kids doing the farming on old horse-drawn plows and carriages.  Elvis made a crack that the kids shouldn’t be wasting their time with that “old World War II equipment.”  There’s definitely a cultural divide between the younger crowd from the big Albanian cities and rural life that seems to be stuck in the past.

The first Albanian city we hit was the border town of Shkodra.  It’s very dusty, dirty, and seems extremely poor.  After slowing crossing a long wooden bridge, Elvis has the driver stop for a photo op at the foot of a mountain with the 200 BC Rozafa Castle at the top.  Almost immediately, kids surround the car begging for money and at least one looks like he’s trying to sell drugs to the driver.  One of the beggars thought we were Italian and was actually talking to Jaime in Italian asking for money.  After a short time of this, I tell Elvis that we have enough pictures and we can leave.  He shoos away the kids and tells me to take my time.  He says the kids don’t realize that they live in a relatively expensive house (3,000 euros) and shouldn’t even be out here begging.

Back on the road it’s more farmland all around us.  One side of the road, for the entire route, was a mountain range with the occasional view of the Albanian Alps behind it.  Once we got to within 50 miles of the capital Tirana, wide boulevards were being built in anticipation of future traffic.  We’d be driving down one completed side while they were working on about four lanes on the other side.  Closer to Tirana the highway was lined with large buildings for every major business, car manufacturer, etc.  Elvis said Coca-Cola was the first building in the area and then everything else sprang up following them.  There’s still ongoing construction everywhere.  Tirana is clearly trying to be a first-class city with all this buildup.

We get into Tirana around 9pm and the city is alive and bustling.  There are cars and people clogging the streets and sidewalks.  There’s lots of honking and people walking between and around cars.  It’s pretty chaotic.  We find the hotel relatively easily considering it was down an alley without any signs.  After checking in, I’m ready to hit the town but Jaime looked white as a ghost.  She admits to being a little freaked out so we wait ten minutes before tip-toeing into the insanity.

It was actually perfectly fine once we got used to the hustle and bustle of Tirana’s nightlife.  The crowd was very young and trendy.  They all seemed to be wearing designer clothes.  We got dinner at a random place along one of the main roads that let us pay in euros and get our change in leke, the local currency.  While wandering around, we noticed the streets littered with small placards that seemed to indicate some sort of protest and then we saw some people with picket signs.  I’m not exactly sure why, but we decided to follow them until we got to the outskirts of the main protest.  There were banners over the street, a stage set up, and people everywhere.  We have no idea what it was about, but it was certainly an experience.  We saw something about it on the news the next day.  Not wanting to break tradition, we located an ice cream stand and had to indulge.  It was actually the best ice cream of the trip, and a place we’d revisit a couple more times during our stay there.

Day 8

Today was a full day of exploring Albania.  We “slept in” until 8:30am and ate some baked goods we bought in Kotor for breakfast.  The guidebooks had warned us that Tirana skipped the whole “build a bus station” part of city planning, but we decided to give public buses a shot.  It really was an adventure.  Buses depart from many different areas of the city without any schedules or stations of any kind and then they go up and down side streets picking up more people until they are full.  We asked the woman at the hotel’s front desk where the bus leaves for Kruja and she said to go to the train station.  Next to the train station, we find the first “bus area” with about 15 buses in a normal parking lot.  Each of them had signs for what I could only assume were city names, but none of them listed Kruja.  I found a guy yelling out a city name for what looked like the next bus to depart.  I asked him how to get to Kruja and he couldn’t understand me.  Jaime brought over the guidebook and I pointed at the name.  Apparently it’s pronounced similar to “Korea.”  He pointed to a locals’ market next to the parking lot and kept saying “hary boom pop.”  I took this to mean we had to walk through the market.  You can tell Albania doesn’t have many tourists because there wasn’t a single souvenir for sale there.  There were a lot of shoes, clothes, electronics, coffee, vegetables, and much more.  We walked down this seemingly endless market at least six blocks before finally seeing a much smaller parking lot with about five buses.  Again, none of the buses had our destination in the window.  I spotted a man wearing a whistle and asked him.  He pointed at a bus and tried to tell me a time of departure.  I couldn’t understand him, so he grabbed my hand and put my finger at the 10 on his watch.  Great, it was leaving in 15 minutes!

The bus cost 100 leke ($1) and took 90 minutes.  The local back roads were in horrible condition and we passed a shanty town where the people were still wearing fancy clothes.  Once we got into Kroja it was pretty clear where to go.  We went to visit the semi-ruined citadel which was half way up the mountains overlooking the city.  We wandered around a bit and took some great pictures from up there.  There were a series of mostly empty restaurants going up the mountain too; another sign that they were ready for mass tourism.  We decided on the one right at the edge of a cliff and had some great pasta while enjoying the scenic views.  After lunch, we took the long way back through a market and bought a small marble bunker and a magnet with the Albanian flag.  The lady told us she had a sister living in Detroit.  It seemed like everyone we met in Albania had a relative living in the States.  Our waiter at lunch told us that his father was living in New York and Elvis from the day before has a relative living in Lincolnwood, a suburb of Chicago.  We get back to the area where we were dropped off hoping to figure out how to get back.  Luckily, Jaime spotted the exact same bus just as it was leaving so I jogged after it and they stopped to pick us up for the ride back.

Since we had such great luck with the bus “system” we decided to try it again for our next destination: the Dajti Express cable car up Dajti Mountain.  The guidebook gave a general area of departure and said to look for the bus to Porcelean.  We find a bus with that town listed and I asked the ticket collector if it stopped at Dajti Express.  He didn’t say anything but gave me a wink and a point which I took to mean yes.  The bus was going through Tirana’s eastern suburbs for quite a while and Jaime was wondering how we’d know when to get off.  I was hopeful that the ticket collector would let us know and sure enough he gave us another wink and a point about five minutes later so we got off.  We started walking in the direction of the mountain and saw a sign for Dajti Express about two blocks away.  Following the signs, we made a few turns and ended up walking about 20 minutes mostly uphill before finally seeing the base station.

The cable car ride cost $7 each and it was a lot more fun than either of us expected.  The views were incredible the whole way up.  We saw at least 20 bunkers along the way.  These bunkers are one of Albania’s quirks.  There are literally 750,000 of them scattered throughout the country as a result of the country’s former extremely paranoid leader.  We get to the top and walked around a bit.  There were a lot of locals that drove up and were picnicking or playing games.  There were even a few horses for some reason.  We stopped at one of the two cliff-side restaurants for a drink and sat right at the edge overlooking Tirana.  The view was insane and we enjoyed ourselves there for a while.  On the way out, we found a bunker!  We were very excited to see one up-close and took a lot of pictures with us standing on it.  The ride down was just as fun but this time we were stuck with other people so we didn’t take any more pictures.

Since we barely remembered where we were dropped off and had no idea when any buses would come back, we were pretty much resolved to taking a taxi back.  Just when we see the corner we started from, a bus drops off more people and turns to drive away.  Shucks, we almost made it, but even though we found the spot, we have no idea when the next one would come through town.  Jaime then noticed that the bus was stopped about a block away.  We both took off running full speed and I poke my head in to ask if they were going to the city center.  Sure enough, it was the exact same guy and he answered with another wink and a point.  We got a bit lucky but I still say we conquered the mysterious Tirana bus system!

At night, we went to a restaurant named London; fitting since we’d be in London the next day.  The restaurant was in the back of the building and only had maybe ten tables.  We were the only people there, but it sounded pretty rowdy upstairs at the bar so I assumed ex-pats were enjoying a sporting event.  The food was great, but what stood out more was Jaime’s insistence on trying the local spirit called Raki.  When she asked the waiter for some Raki, he gave us a weird look and said “do you know what that is?”  We took that as a sign to just get one glass.  It was a transparent teal green color and tasted like pure grain alcohol.  We took turns sipping it down with twisted faces, but we did it!  Afterward, we walked down to the old politicians’ living area known as Blloku.  It’s now the hip, hotspot of the city with all kinds of bars and night clubs.  We stopped at a bar on one of the many pedestrian crossroads to do some people-watching.  Strangely, they only had Becks and Heineken on draft so we couldn’t even enjoy a local beer.  Still we enjoyed sitting outside for a drink and discussing all the misconceptions that people have about Albania.

Day 9

For our last morning in Albania, we decided to do a walking tour of all the places we hadn’t seen yet.  This was the day we acted like tourists, hit all the popular sites, and took lots of pictures. We briefly stopped at the Enver Hoxha Pyramid.  The former dictator’s daughter built it as a museum to his legacy, but as the people began to remove his legacy from the rest of the country, the pyramid turned into the conference center it is today.  Despite being relatively new, the building is already deteriorating and looked generally run-down.  Next up was the area where the protest was taking place on our first night in Tirana.  It was apparently too early for the protesters but not for the police.  There was a staging area that was overrun with cops.  We tried to avoid the area but all of our escape routes were blocked off so we put away our cameras and cautiously followed some locals around the stage.

Our last major destination was Mother Teresa’s Square which was quite underwhelming.  I’m not sure what we were expecting to be there, but it was just a large open area with a dried out fountain of sorts in the middle.  It was very communist-feeling and was slowly starting to return to the elements with grass coming up through the long stone benches built for the masses.  At the far side of the square was a nondescript building with a grass banner at its foot that said “Nene Tereza.”  Right above the banner, there was graffiti that said “President Obama – I Love You.”  I had heard that Albanians were fond of Americans but this was the only direct sentiment that I saw affirming it.  We desperately sought after George W. Bush Blvd for further confirmation and though it was on several maps, there wasn’t a single street sign or plaque around that area.  Next, we went back to the Blloku area in the daytime to stoll the more residential areas.  This is where the communist elite lived and it was completely offlimits to the commoners.  It just felt suburban to us, and not even rich suburban.  That would be our last stop in Albania.  We then headed back to the hotel to relax for an hour before our next public bus adventure to the airport but we found the cleaning ladies already hard at work so we just grabbed our bags and caught an earlier bus.

The flight to London was uneventful with a brief layover in Vienna.  Upon arrival, we went straight to the Tube and found it very difficult to pay over $10 for the ride into town when we’ve been paying mere fractions of that the rest of the trip.  Begrudgingly we paid it and made our way to the easyHotel in Earl’s Court.  This is the backpackers area I’ve been staying in lately when coming to London.  It’s very cheap and easy to get around.  The hotel was a bit cramped, but it’s advertised as such so it wasn’t a surprise.  We had to get up at 4am for our early flight home, so we just went to a nearby pub full of tourists for some good ole fish and chips.