The Balkans

Albania

As we waited to board the ferry from Corfu to Albania the local Police turned up with a shifty looking guy in handcuffs. They escorted him to the boat, took the handcuffs off, jumped back in their car and took off leaving the rest of the passengers exchanging uneasy glances...

What made matters worse was when our sweaty chain-smoking deportee decided to sit right next to Eve! Thankfully, he spent almost the entire trip smoking in the luggage room.

Albania – Definitely a candidate for World's Coolest Flag!

We got to Sarande just in time to walk along the waterfront, find a local that spoke passable English, find the bus “station” (I use that term loosely), and get on the only bus to Gjirokaster that day, all with about five minutes to spare.

Gjirokaster: the Ottoman-era architectre is amazing

When we got to Gjirokaster we shared a taxi with some locals from the bus stop to the centre of old town and found some really cheap (or so we thought) accommodation in a stunning old Ottoman era house, overlooking the town. That night, thinking we had kicked a goal on the accommodation front, we set off to explore the old town and castle/museum. The museum was quite interesting with a large collection of captured Italian and German weapons (including artillery) and an American plane publicised as a captured spy plane by the government at the time. In reality, it was just a training flight forced to make an emergency landing, but when an opportunity for propaganda presents itself...

The infamous "spy" plane

We checked out of our guest house the next morning and were surprised when we were asked for more than we'd negotiated. As it turns out, we had fallen victim to the Albanians' (quite annoying) habit of shaking their head “yes”, and nodding their head “no”... After some discussion we chalked it up to cultural differences and split the difference (about 15 euros). In hindsight (having recently booked our accommodation in Venice and Rome – Ouch!) we should have just paid him the extra money with a smile...

The bus to Tirana was bumpy and slow – the roads in Albania are shocking, with massive potholes and half finished road works everywhere. It didn't help that halfway through the trip, the skies opened and we ended up driving through one of the most impressive thunder storms we've ever seen. All in all, the roughly 200 kilometre trip took just under five and a half hours so when we arrived, we were more than ready to get off the bus and stretch our legs.

We quickly found a room at a budget hotel and went in search of sustenance. We found a revolving restaurant in one of the tallest buildings in Tirana (a whole six floors!) and had a couple of drinks while we watched the sun set over this unusual city.

You could probably describe Tirana as having come out of the closet since the fall of Communism – there is not much in the way of “new” architecture; however all the old buildings have been flamboyantly painted pink, green, yellow etc; some are painted in stripes, cubes, and squiggles, while others look like Warhol or Art Deco paintings.

Once our retinas had adjusted to the explosion of poorly coordinated colour we wandered off to the “trendy” Blloku district for dinner – Rob had no say in the choice of restaurant (welcome to marriage, I guess?) as Eve insisted on eating at the restaurant that shared her initials – ERA. Rob was quite embarrassed that Eve made off with a handful of the printed paper napkins stuffed in her handbag!

In Tirana we enjoyed our first decent bottle of wine since leaving New Zealand, and fell in love with one of the local dishes; a grilled tomato stuffed with cheese and egg – Amazing!

After dinner we wandered around for a bit trying to find a bar recommended by Lonely Planet (on George W Bush Street of all places) but when we found it we were obviously a bit early so we found a place nearby called the 'Playhouse' (get your minds out of the gutter) which was a bit like Playschool, but with alcohol. There was a group of guys playing Uno in one corner when we arrived, and they even had a dedicated Monopoly table...

We sat on the balcony overlooking the street to enjoy the city at night and noticed a large crowd gathering near a building down the street. There were blue and white flags everywhere and cars were zipping up and down the street, horns blaring, with people and flags hanging out of windows and sun-roofs. We asked a local what it was all in aid of: sport or politics?

As it turned out, our arrival in Tirana happened to coincide with the result of a vote recount in an incredibly close-fought mayoral election battle – The Democrats narrowly edged out the incumbent Socialists after something like 11 years... Naturally, Rob needed to be somewhere near the middle of the celebrations to snap a few photos.

We have since learned that Albania was almost plunged into a political crisis as a result of the election with allegations of fraud and a large number of ballots being “misplaced” - the irony of George W Bush Street was not lost on us...

Montenegro

The next day we crossed the border into Montenegro. We were amazed at the change of scenery from one country to the other: Albania was scrubby and dusty, Montenegro was lush and green with orchards and olive groves everywhere. It had spectacular mountains and a dramatic coast line – imagine a smaller, more condensed New Zealand with beaches like Perth...

Passing through the aged resort town of Ulcinj, we made our way up the coast to our first overnight stop, Sveti Stefan, which is an old settlement on a tiny island just south of Budva. It is connected to the coast by a narrow land bridge, but unfortunately is now entirely a luxury resort so we couldn't go for a wander through the old streets.

We had called ahead to reserve accommodation in a small hotel and restaurant overlooking the island but were told on arrival that they had double booked us and there was no other rooms available – I think that makes us 0 from 3 attempts at pre-booking accommodation? What made matters worse was that they made no attempt to find us a room somewhere else. After “generously” offering to store our bags for us while we searched the busy resort town for a room at 5.30 in the evening, we were sent on our way...

After an hour or so of stomping up and down through the town we eventually found a budget room at a budget hotel. We also found ourselves a different restaurant because we weren't giving those b@stards our money. We had an excellent grilled fish which, along with a carafe of local wine and a pleasant sunset, did help to cheer us up a little.

In the morning we had some luck and were able to flag down a direct bus to Kotor, a couple of hours further north. Kotor is an dramatic old town on a bay surrounded by three different mountain ranges. As we were enjoying a coffee in the middle of the old town our serenity was shattered by to two different wedding processions (one Serbian, one Croatian), each seemingly intent on being louder than the other as they strutted through the city. It was entertaining watching the ladies tottering (staggering?) over the cobblestones in their ridiculous heels – Eve's Louboutins would not have survived.

We grabbed a picnic lunch (the healthy combo of burek and beer) and climbed the 1300-odd steps up the hill to the old fort to enjoy our lunch with beautiful views of the terracotta tile rooftops and mountains.

The view

The reward

After surviving the walk back down (Eve was savagely mauled by a beetle – evidently they do bite, Rob!) we cleaned ourselves up and shared a pizza in one of the squares near the Cathedral, and were treated to a free choir performance...

The beetle that bites (apparently)

The choir...

Croatia

The next morning we caught a (very) early bus into Croatia, and finally had a win with our pre-booked accommodation in Dubrovnik. We found our room nestled in a pleasant little cove right under the walls of the old city and about two minutes walk from the main city gate. We stayed two nights in Dubrovnik and had an amazing time wandering the narrow streets and catching up with John, a fellow traveller we met in Athens. It was a perfect opportunity to relax the purse strings a little and forget the budget for a day or two...

On the first evening, we found a great Bosnian restaurant and afterwards headed straight for a little jazz bar we had found earlier – during happy hour, naturally. The saxophonist was incredible, if you can call what he is playing a saxophone? Maybe a bent clarinet? Anyway, here's a sample...

Eve and John obviously weren't as impressed as Rob – that's them chatting in the background!

The next day we coughed up fifteen bucks (each!) for the privilege of walking around the old city walls, which is extremely expensive when you're counting pennies, but absolutely worth it. The views were spectacular in parts, although not so good in others...

A spectacular view...

Not a spectacular view... Although Eve insists that it depends on your point of view.

On the second evening we shared a massive seafood platter overlooking the old harbour and headed back to the jazz bar. The saxophonist wasn't there so we left after one drink and grabbed a gelati on the way back to our room.

We had hoped to catch a ferry from Dubrovnik to Split, but unfortunately the timetable didn't suit our plans so we caught the bus instead. The bus trip was pleasant enough – at four and a half hours it wasn't the shortest trip, but the amazing Dalmatian coast kept us interested. The road is flanked by the beautiful clear turquoise water on one side, and epic grey and green cliffs on the other!

The tower at Split

Gregorious of Nin – he's a wizard (you can tell by his sleeves)

The daily market in Split had all sorts, from berries to baseball caps, skirts to snails...

We spent the next day and a half just chilling out in various cafés and bars inside the old city walls of Split, before catching on overnight ferry to Ancona in Italy. We snatched a last minute on-line deal for a 2-berth cabin for about half the price we had been quoted at the ferry office, so we were pretty stoked... The ferry left Split as the sun was setting so we grabbed the obligatory sunset photos before grabbing a bite to eat and settling in for the night.

Split Sunset (sounds like a cocktail)

On that note, we're off for a drink! Next update from Italy.