The bust left from Budva to Shköder at 8.30 and there were maybe 15
people on board. The bus stopped at the capital Podgorica at
10.05 and set of again at 10.15 and the boarder we reached at 10.50 and it only
took 15 minutes on the boarder with a full bus of people (lots came from in
from the stop). Usually on these bus rides there had always been two people, one who is driving and the one who checks the tickets, takes care of the
luggage, boarder controls with all passports and when people are getting off. On
this bus there was only one. When we left from Podgoriga and were in the middle
of nowhere this Chinese old man goes to the driver asking Kotor, Kotor.. So the
driver stops, and tries to explain to him to go to the other side of the street
(neither of them spoke English) and just put your thumb up. So he was left there in the
middle of nowhere..
This one guy in the front of the bus agreed to
help the driver at the boarder to give passports back to people. He was joking
that choose which ever you want, welcome to Albania.. :D
When
getting to Shköder I spotted loads of cows and there were many people on normal
bicycles! The bus was supposed to go to the bus station to drop people of but instead this driver dropped us off close to this Razafa castle which we later
checked at 3.3 km from where we wanted to go. We got off around noon and that's when I met
this French-German girl Marie. We were at the gas station queuing to pee and I
was talking to this Turkish guy and when Marie came from the toilet she said
something about the bus leaving and the guys face just dropped. He had all his
stuff inside the bus cause this wasn’t his stop. He left running after the bus
and we don’t know what happened to him.. The bus was so much in front already
when he started running.
We left to
walk towards the center and all the coffee places on both sides of the street
were packed with men staring at us but not in a bad or flirty way (some of
course) but like curious way. We eventually found this big round about and the
first girls or women we saw there we asked for help and they showed us the tourist info but
that was closed. We went inside this big hotel next to it asking stuff and the woman
said it was some Muslim holiday so basically everything was closed (it was
Friday) and they would open on Monday. Great. We decided to find the hostel that we
had both searched and go ask if we can leave our stuff there for a while
(and pay of course), go walk around and the leave for Tirana the same day. The
hostel looked so nice (The wanderers hostel!) and they let us leave our stuff
there for a while for free. We went to change some Albanian money and eat pizza. One
pizza and two drinks costs us 5€.
After we wandered around for a while, saw
this big white mosque and decided it was pointless cause there was nothing.
Only thing we could have done was to rent bikes and bike to the famous lake
like 10 km each way but we didn’t feel like that at all. SO we went back got
our stuffs and left for a “bus station” which was one bus parked next to the
roundabout. We were there 15.05 and we understood from their sign language that
the bus would leave at 16.00. It cost as 2€ for a 2 hour journey.
At Tirana
again we walked at least one hour to find our hostel called D1 and arrived there
little after seven at night. Paid 10€ / night for girls dorm, took quick
showers and went to find some food. I ate lamb, salad and a big beer and paid
9€. Then we wandered around the main square which was set up as a football
audience place, walked to this market place with coffee places and bars. I
drank one glass of wine and Marie drank tea (it was really cold!).
We went to
hostel and I started reading about the next possible places to go. I had dumped
Durres earlier since I had understood it’s just like a port. I was planning on
going to Vlore when this guy at the hostel told that it’s also a port place and
a big place with nothing and that the only hostel is far from the beaches.
Great. Then this young British guy walked passed and overheard us talking and
told that they were going to Himara the next morning and that I could join
them. So Vlore changed into Himara in less than an hour. It suited me better
since I got to sleep a little later since we left at 10 am.
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