Eastern Europe Begins...

So, we arrived in Dubrovnik a few hours later than we had anticipated – plane delays and traffic hold ups etc, welcome to traveling (it's not a holiday) – but Pearce, having been there before, fancied himself as quite the local and took us on a whirlwind tour of the Old Town in the limited time that we had. We located our hostel and headed straight to the first hole-in-the-wall bar, a beautiful little spot where we sat on the rocks outside the wall, looked out over the Adriatic and drank beers as the sun set, while we congratulated ourselves on making it through the first (and probably least daunting) part of our journey. We continued to explore the old town sampling oysters, pizzas, local beers and alcoholic concoctions served in little buckets. As we'd arrived too late the night before we decided we'd catch the later bus down to Kotor the next day and walk around the wall in the morning, but alas, it was raining! Not ideal weather for explorations so we packed our stuff up and arrived at the bus station just as the skies cleared into a gorgeous day. Never mind, have to leave something for next time and when we arrived in Kotor, Montenegro, we were glad we had left early as greeting us was possibly the most beautiful place I have visited in the world so far.

By now we had befriended a guy on our bus who was also staying at our hostel and headed out for a bite to eat – Stuffed Squid a la Montenegro I decided upon, and wasn't disappointed. Beers were getting cheaper the further south we headed, but when the bill arrived we had no Euro so I set out in search of an ATM, I eventually arrived back from the opposite direction after getting myself lost in the cobbled streets of Kotor Old Town. The next couple of days disappeared in a blur of swimming in the Kotor Fjord, beer “tasting” as I like to call it, exploring and getting lost in the Old Town, delighting in the delicious delicacies, climbing the fortress surrounding the city and drinking in the gorgeous views every which way we looked.

It was then time to head to Albania, we had about four different bus changes along the way but decided to skip two and splash out on a cab to cross the border. One of the more scarier experiences to date, we traveled across a back road which was more like a lane and were constantly screeching to a halt as trucks and other cars came hurtling round the corner and into our path – no worries, just put your hazards on and reverse while you are honked and screeched at in Serbian. Border crossing time – it is utter chaos and completely random; would you like some figs with your border crossing today? No, just my passport back thanks – as I watched it disappear (and came back safe and sound) with whom I could only hope was a border control official.

Holy Nene Tereza!! With my eyes now really starting to open we were in Albania, donkey's and all, and twenty minutes later we were dropped on the side of a busy road in Skhodra and told by our taxi driver “here bus ten minute, then ten minute, then ten minute”. Oki doki. After many curious looks (they stare a lot in Albania) various cars, vans and buses stopping we eventually hailed our furgon (think 70's transit van in terrible condition) heading to Tirana. It was already overflowing but after instructions from the driver which I can only assume were “you move, you move, you stand, you sit, you sit, you sit back down” we were jammed in next to another twenty bodies in the 30+ degree temps for a couple of hours. We arrived in the mid afternoon heat, completely disorientated, hungry, parched, without any leke (much to our drivers disgust at having to take payment in Euro) and with no idea how to get to our hostel. We sussed it eventually though via a slightly corrupt “taxi driver” and various locals and spent the rest of the afternoon doing a spot of sight seeing, sampling Albanian cuisine (it's a carnivore's dream!) and beer and staying up until ridiculous hours being patriotic enough to watch the NZ team walk out in the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

The next day (I have lost track of what day is what now) we jumped on an overcrowded bus and headed to the picturesque town of Berat. It's only 120km down the road but this managed to be stretched out to four hours of driving – we are getting used to it. We found our cute as can be hostel then headed up to roam around the oldest still inhabited castle grounds in Europe. More Albanian cuisine for dinner followed by some people watching from a bar on the main street – they have this bizarre tradition in Berat and every night all the locals walk back and forth the main street socialising and catching up with one another, we joined in for a lap or two, though no one wanted to talk to us. Pearce had also read that it is not uncommon for there to be no women at a bar and after about half an hour he realised that I was, in fact, the only female in the bar that night. Awkward.

Time for some relaxation on the beach so we got up early and again crammed our way into an overcrowded furgon for the six hour drive to Saranda. Once we arrived we were greeted by a very warm and welcoming Tomi for whom everything was “no problem”(at Backpackers SR, Becks and Christian, definitely recommend). We stayed here a couple of days and swam in the ocean, sunbathed, continued to drink every beer that Albania had on offer (drank the supermarket out of Tirana beer (favourite) on our last night) with new friends, explored ancient ruins in Butrint, and of course tried as much food as we could! I even managed to flag a truck driver down and hitch us a ride on the back from the ruins to the beach we wanted to go to.

Albania has been truly fascinating and a very under-rated country as far as tourism goes. For transportation that seems chaotic (and it is) it actually works really well, you basically flag down the furgon or bus you want (the drivers actually stop and ask us as we are very obviously foreigners looking for our ride) and then tell the driver when you want to get off and he just stops, usually in the middle of the road no matter how busy while the cars behind honk their horns – I think more as a reaction than in actual annoyance, no one is in a hurry, (I could never drive over here). The roads are a shambles, hence taking so long to get everywhere, and the rubbish is absolutely astounding, but you can get to absolutely anywhere you want to go easily and cheaply if you are prepared for it to take a little while and to be relatively uncomfortable during that time, especially if Hoxha is having his revenge. The people are extremely lovely (well I think they are, hardly anyone speaks English) and not once did we feel unsafe, despite all of the Albanian stereotypes that you hear. I was in heaven with the food although I am unsure how they actually have an animal population given that everything on the menu was made from the young – veal, piglet etc.

We have ten days in Greece next, the weather has been stunning and the travelers tan is shaping up nicely! 

P.S Apologies to anyone who is trying to contact me via my live.com account – MSN has decided it is a good idea to block both of us from all our email accounts, not to worry though, it's not frustrating at all... 

P.P.S I've changed the way I send this out. As always, you can follow the link on FB but if you want a copy emailed straight to your inbox reply to me at kaytee390@gmail.com If you don't want to receive it and currently do reply with Unsubscribe and I will refrain from sending you any further updates and consider myself cut from your life.

Hole-in-the-wall Bar in Dubrovnik

Kotor Montenegro

 Climbing up the fortress behind Kotor Old Town

Church ruins outside of the fortress - Kotor.

Thank goodness numbers are universal otherwise we really would have no clue!!!!

The Bell of Peace in Tirana, Albania. Made with bullet casings picked up by school kids in 1997.

Me sitting a top possibly the worlds ugliest building - The Pyramid, Tirana, Albania.

Every second house in Albania is unfinished and looks like this, they are huge but sometimes have one floor completed that is inhabited.

Berat, Albania - town and Castle walls.

The nightly Xhiro in Berat - walking and socialising along the main street.

The Theatre at Butrint.

Hitching a ride with an Albanian local.

Ksamali Beach

Traditional dinner made for us by our lovely hosts in Sarande - fish, rice and salad, delicious, washed down with Tirana beer in a 1.5L plastic bottle - class!