Up early ready for the bus down to Albania. Its strange, almost without exception everyone we have told about going to Albania from Berlin down has immediately given us a strange look as if to ask if we were joking then laughed and repeatedly said “Mafia, mafia, mafia”.
We are hoping “Mafia” is an Eastern European word for “great place” or “lovely beaches” and not just Cosa Nostra.
So the bus down to the South of Montenegro was another interesting experience. We were heading towards Ulcinj where we were assured there would be a connection to Albania. All of a sudden the bus driver stopped and told us to get out and pointed at another bus. We followed his lead and jumped on the other bus. As we got on the next bus which was still only half way towards our destination we were asked for another complete fare to get us to our destination. After a confused couple of minutes of back and forth in English and Serbian we found no middle ground and definitely no common language. We were then rescued by two girls from New York who shouted at the guy in fluent Serbian and put him straight and then told us he had been trying it on and thought he could stitch us up because of the language barrier. We then told the New Yorker / Montenegrins that we were headed down to Albania and they looked at us as if we were slightly deranged and said “Mafia, Mafia, Mafia” and told us to make sure we hide all of our money and never show anything valuable in Public.
After changing buses again and meeting some nice Hungarians, Germans, Brits and Australians we got on another bus and headed towards the border. Just before the border the bus stopped for a ten minute break and we sat under a tree as chickens pecked around us and the driver tried to kill the chickens by throwing litre bottles of water at them. Luckily the chickens were a fairly spry bunch and managed to avoid all of the driver’s chicken crushing attempts. We also met “Fred the Albanian” who was a very helpful chap and told us all about life in Albania and where to stay in the Capital.
Back on the bus after crossing the border and playing the swap the passport game again we met a lovely German couple called Francisca and Herbert. They were heading in the same direction as us and we got talking. They weren’t your typical backpacking types as they must have been knocking on the door of their 70th year. We found out that they were due to have gone away to Brittany for a caravanning holiday but Herbert had decided at the last minute that was a bit boring and had found his old rucksack and persuaded Francisca that backpacking around Eastern Europe would be much more fun. I think Francisca was still not 100% convinced on this but they were certainly getting into the spirit of things turning up in Tirana the capital of Albania with no room booked and searching for a cheap hostel dorm room. We all found a hostel and stayed there but Jo informs me Herbert’s snoring was rather loud in the bunk next to her.
The snoring meant it was just like being back on the Camino and the hostel was very similar. We got the last two beds available and ended up with the top bunks as always.
Tirana is a lovely city and has a lovely feel to it. Everyone just seems to be out enjoying themselves and having fun. There wasn’t an edge there of any feeling of anyone trying too hard, just loads of people enjoying their new freedom and feeling like their city is on the up. If the number of Mercedes, Porsche and BMW are anything to go by it is. On the other hand maybe it was “Mafia mafia mafia.”
We enjoyed a coronary challenging meal of different shaped beefburgers stuffed with cheese cooked on a grill. These burgers varied in size from matchbox size to side plate size. All washed down with the local beer – Korca and then onto a few cocktail bars for Tirana’s finest interpretation of cocktail classics.
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