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Welcome to my travel log! You will find here a lot more than in the travel reports, stripped from political correctness. Enjoy! 
Jun 21, 2010 06:00 PM Tirana (AL) - a capital without a major sight...
Weather check: Tirana - mostly cloudy with brief bright moments (forecast almost entirely accurate).
My first, and most important point on the agenda in Albania's capital was to find out about transport to Pristina in Kosovo. My plan was to move from Tirana to Shkoder, and then from Shkoder to Pristina. A couple of ladies at a local travel agent advised me that it might be very challenging to move from Shkoder to Kosovo. I therefore went on discovering the method how to transport myself from Tirana to Pristina instead. The ladies at the travel agency did not know, my hotel receptionist did not know, the consierge at the four star Tirana International Hotel did nor know, their travel office did not know (they had airline tickets available for that route), the travel agent advertising coach travel Tirane -Proshtine did not know. I was about to give up, when I stumbled upon the Tourist Information Office, right next to the UFO University. I struggled with the locked glass door at the beginning since the opening hours were clearly stated Mon-Fri 9am to 7pm, Sat-Sun 9am to 4pm. But the lady, who worked there quickly found me and unlocked the door. I followed her in and she helped me a lot. It turned out that the Pristina coaches were leaving from the front of the office, everyday at 6pm. One of the coaches was still there. We confirmed with the driver that there was no way of getting to Prishtina from Shkoder. So, I immediately made plans to return to Tirana from Shkoder. The question was weather I should go to Shkoder only for a day and be back for 6pm, or would that be too stressful, and I should just take it slow. Late afternoon departure meant that I would arrive in the Kosovar capital at about 11pm at best, they said. Looking for a hotel at night was not the plan, though. And yet again, I have been reading in publications that the coaches were arriving in Prishtina at 6am. Now, from a hotel looking point of view this would not be a problem, but an entire night on an old coach was!
Anyway, the lady at the information office was very friendly and helpful and spoke English very well. She gave me information packs for Tirana (current one - for January-June 2010) and Shkoder (an older one she had for 2007, but said I could get a new one there). That was cool!
Ulqini Petrit Kotorri Bar & Restaurant just across the Tirana International Hotel was empty when I came in at about 5:30pm for an early dinner. The very young waiter seemed to speak English, but from my enquiries about certain dishes he understood that this was all I wanted to order. But I managed to stop him at one spaghetti bolognese (300 leke) and one lasagna (300 leke), which I ate both and watered it down with two bottles of Korça (130 leke each). The food was good and it arrived very quick.
Tirana was reportedly the only place in Albania with any reasonable nightlife. I was gearing myself to sample this fir sure. I heard about two Jazz Clubs, one called Imagine, so I put them on the list. We will see what happens...
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Jun 20, 2010 06:00 PM Gjirokastra - Apollonia - Fier (AL) - bad weather day
Weather check: Gjirokaster - rain (forecast accurate); Apollonia - rain with sun break.
I was supposed to get up at 6 a.m. for the 07:00 coach to Fier, but two things happened. First, there was some rumbling at the hotel at 05:45, which threw me out of my sleep. Then, I could hear hard rain, so there was no point getting soaked on the way to the bus station. I waited in bed until 07:30 in bed until I could hear no rain anymore, and felt significantly guilty about wasting a day in a foreign country!
I got 500 leke discount from my hotel bill for the rumbling, I guess. I did not complain. And lugged myself to the main intercity road. It started raining again just as a driver called me into his minibus (aka furgon) having shouted Fier. I was on the road by 09:00.
By noon, I reached Apollonia, some 10 kilometres from Fier. The driver insisted that he took me there. It was good for him, because he then could charge me a taxi fare Fier-Apollonia-Fier, for which the normal price was €20, including one hour waiting time. I did not mind that, as I budgeted for that. The total ride from Gjirokaster to Fier and a return to Apollonia cost me 3,500 leke (€25).
Apollonia had little to offer. The most striking, and I use this word rather loosely, sight was a small odeon, dating back to the 3rd century BC. This musical theatre (that's what an odeon was in ancient Greece) was heavily restored. I had to wait 15 minutes for the torrential rain to stop. When it did, I noticed that there was a hole in the clouds and the sun came out for about 15-20 minutes. I call it luck!
Back in Fier I waited about 20 minutes for the minibus to get full, so I could depart for Berat. The road to Berat was in a terrible state of disrepair! It took an hour and a quarter.
I arrived in Berat at 2:45 pm. It was sunny. At 3:00 pm rain with thunders broke out. It rained cats and dogs!
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Jun 20, 2010 06:00 PM Berat (AL) - charming little town, old!
Weather check: Everything! Strong sunshine, showers, downpours, clouds, thunderstorm (forecast almost accurate). 30C-20C.
Berat is charming! It is reportedly Albania's oldest town and it boasts stone-base little white houses with light brown tile roofs and dark brown windows built on a slope of a hill topped with a large castle, overlooking a rapid mountain stream, and facing south! 'Stunning' is an understatement.
I arrived in full sunshine! As soon as I found my hotel (Mangalemi Hotel) based in one of those houses, hell broke out! Raindrops the size of pigeon eggs fell from the sky. It was amazing, because the sun did not stop shining! But that did not mean it was time for sightseeing. It meant time for lunch. When I finished my very lousy shashlik, in Albania called shish-kebab, Portugal was scoring their seventh goal against North Korea (I'm sorry - the Democratic (sic!) People's Republic of Korea) and I felt rather ill-at-ease about it. Not about my lousy lunch, but about the Northkorean team. I had a terrible feeling that they were going to be executed as soon ad they fly home, due to putting their country to shame. Joking aside, I seriously thought this couls be the case!
Anyway, I was in Berat. The rain stopped, and just because the clouds managed to avoid the disc of the sun so far, it didn't mean it was going to stay like this all the time. I made a quick decision to go on exploring as the sun was shining. And I loved the town. There was this magnificent little suspension bridge, catering for pedestrians only, which offered unparalleled views of the old town and the white & brown facades. I snapped and snapped.
When I got tired of pushing the button with my forefinger, I stepped into the Palm Bar, overlooking the town. A bottle of Tirana lager kept me happy. Heavy clouds finally covered the sun and it became windy. Wisely, I took my €120 rain jacket with me, which I bought on my last trip to Berlin. Thunders were growling in the distance, not because of the price I paid for the jacket, but because of the electric discharge in the clouds. Storm was approaching. It was obvious. My bendy €180 Silhouette shades (growl!!) suddenly became obsolete.
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Jun 19, 2010 06:00 PM Saranda & Gjirokastra (AL) - hello Albania!
Weather check - Kerkyra, Sarande: cloudy, humid, 25C (forecast was correct); Gjirokaster: mostly cloudy with frequent sunny spells, 26C
It was raining badly and thunders kept growling for a good part of the night. I needed to get up early for my 09:00 departure to Albania. A quick grab of breakfast (black tea, orange juice and brioche-like cake), a quick €15 taxi ride to the port, a rather chaotic immigration procedure and I was sitting inside a small hydrofoil boat, called Dolphin. Very strangely, a guy at the quay took people's passports as we entered the vessel. He claimed that he needed them to do the passenger list. Well, I never feel comfortable parting with my passport by surrending it to a stranger, even if it is at a hotel reception. Fortunately, I have more than one passport now, which a little bit comforting in such situations.
The Dolphin was almost full. I thought it was strange that there was only one departure a day to Sarande from Kerkyra. It seemed that there was enoygh demand for more. Uh, I was pleased with myself that I purchased my ticket a day in advance. The departure terminal was very basic, I did not see any travel desks and I would have no idea where to begin looking for a ticket office. I did arrive at about 08:35 and had litlle time to do any last minute sightseeing around the port. Anyway, since the immigration scene was so chaotic, the boat was still at the harbour 15 minutes after its scheduled departure! I hate being late. Fortunately, there is an hour time difference between Greece and Albania. So, I was going to arrive in Sarande before I had departed from Kerkyra, I thought to myself.
At Sarande immigration post, it was obvious that I was in a different world. Queueing was not a concept to be grasped there. People just swarmed the two very basic booths with holes, and threw passports through them. There was pushing and elbowing! Not a pretty picture at all. The immigration officer did not even look at people's faces. If a passport looked genuine, it was good enough to grant an entry to Albania.
Saranda was not a terribly pretty place. A tiny stretch along the beach pretended like it might have a minor cosmetic surgery, but it just did not do it for me. It seemed at that point that I made a good decision not to stay there overnight and make a move to Gjirokaster. The trick was to find the bus station. Well, as it turned out, there was not an obvious bus terminal. Coaches to Tirana departed simply from, what it seemed, a completely random street in Sarande, near a large brown sign advertising the Apex Casino Roulette. There were a few departures to Tirana, most going via Gjirokaster and Fier, and some via Berat. Tickets were bought on board the vehicle.
I hopped on a rather dated Mercedes coach with a Tirana sign on it, as the driver promised to stop in Gjirokaster. The 10:25 service actually departed at 10:37, after a few complaints from some passengers. The road was in a fatal state. The maximum speed achieved was about 25 km/h. Furthermore, the driver stopped at a random spot only about 25 minutes into the trip, to do something mysterious. I didn't know what it was, but eventually the passengers started shouting again and we resumed the journey. I'm glad they did, as I hate moving so slowly. I love travelling, but as soon as they invent teleporting, I'm using it! En route, we passed a Tirana headed coach, which had had an accident. It had happened at a bend, and it looked like it had been a front-front collision with a large vehicle coming in from the opposite direction. Perhaps a truck. Another reason to long for teleporting, I'd say.
Clean-looking streams, beehives, uncultivated land, abandoned and ruined houses, rubbish and disposed electric household appliances - this is how the Albanian landscape between Sarande and Gjirokaster looked like. Well, in addition to many hills and valleys, actually.
At Gjirokaster, I had no clue where to stay for the night. I just threw myself at life on the main road, walked towards the old town uphills up up up, expecting to find a hotel. I actually passed a few hotels, which did not appeal to me much. But when the beads of sweat kept dropping from my forehead and nose like giant raindrops, I decided that it was time to drop my bags somewhere soon, and before the streams of sweat reach the cheek divide down my back. So, I did.
To the old town and the castle, there was still a considerable climb to complete. This stretch however, was easier. I only had my camera to carry. The size of the castle was impressive. Most impressive! It was a ruin, but the giant chunks that remained were massive. It was some sort of military museum (entry: 200 leke, which included a paper towel to wipe the rivers off my forehead and neck; courtesy of the ticketing lady) with cannons, little tanks, and armoured vehicles. The town's panorama from the ramparts was spectacular!
Then, I descended for some food. As I ordered my pizza, Paraguay scored their second goal against Slovakia. It was definitely time also to park for some people watching and refreshments. Gjirokaster did not have a square, where a string of cafes or bar would have their terraces and tables on the pavement. That would have been a perfect place for a snooze over a cold beer. But, I found a roof terrace bar on top of the Hotel First. The bar was called The First. It was located on the seventh floor and the view was breathtaking. Both of the castle in the east and the mountain in the north. And they had real Albanian beer there, called Korça (150 leke for 0.33l bottle).
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Jun 18, 2010 06:00 PM Kerkyra (GR) - small place, small place
Weather: nice; sunshine, few white clouds, 32C, light breeze.
I started late. I didn't sleep well with my arm still bothering me. I was 5 minutes late for breakfast, which ended at 10am. But the ladies from the kitchen let me have a little something before they cleaned up.
Then, I embarked on finding Ionian Cruises, which operated the superfast ferries to Sarande in Albania, so I could get a ticket. I took the Blue Bus just outside the hotel (€1.30, every 15') and got off in the centre of Kerkyra.
Then, following my instinct (rather than my poor sense of direction), I wandered off to the old town and the harbour. It took me about 15 minutes to find the right ferry office. I was being served by a good-looking but über serious twentysomething guy, who had a nasty scar on his left arm. I started noticing scars on people, and comparing woth my own, brand new scar. His was wide, and must have been old. It looked like he might have overdone it woth physiotherapy, growing his muscles too much, hence expanding the scar. He wanted to see my passport, but I had a feeling this was not necessary. I think he just needed it to type in my full name into the computer to print the ticket correctly.
By noon, I was sitting at the Apollo Restaurant & Cafe, at Odos Solomou, a little square by the massive old fortress. I was downing large jugs (just over a pint) of Myrthos beer from tap. It was delightfully cold, served in frozen glassware. Life was good again!
I started chatting to a Polish guy, who was working with a travel agent, taking care of tour groups from Poland. It was rather amusing to exchange arguments against organised travel with him. We agreed on most points. Surely, there were pro's for going on an organised tour, particularly for Poles, whose multilingual skills were useless in the western world. For the West did not speak Polish, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Croat... And although there would be many Poles, who could converse in those languages, one person in all of them, they would find it hard to meet a Westerner, who could do it in one of the languages. Anyway, the temperature climbed to 35C, so we just snoozed over beers served in frozen jugs, over mousaka, Greek salad (locally known as the peasant salad!), grilled fish and shrimp saganaki. I thought that at some point, I ought to go back to town and 'discover' it properly. I did. I managed to go on wandering for about 45 minutes and my system was running low on fuel - a cold beer. So, I chose a spot near the Asian Art Musem, where I could fry my nose in the sun, and ordered a large draught Myrthos beer. And life was good again!
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Jun 17, 2010 06:00 PM South-West Balkans - the plan amendments
Given the unfavourable weather forecast, whether believe it or not, and which can still get better or worse, there is a certain element of flexibility in my plan. The only difficulty can be the transport options in Albania. If, because of weather, I decided to go somewhere else, there is often no public transport to take me there. I already made a change in the route, and added an extra stop on the itinerary, moving the overnight stay from Sarande to Gjirokaster. The latter seems like a more interesting place, and the buses going north from the former would have to pass that way anyway. Well, at least some of them, because there is a route along the coast, but it takes longer. I still hope weather will be fine, and if it rains, it does only for a while, and then the sun returns.
The latest version of the plan looks like this:
18 June - London, GB - Kerkyra (Corfu), GR
19 June - Kerkyra (Corfu), GR
20 June - Sarande, AL - Gjirokaster, AL
21 June - Fier & Apollonia, AL - Berat, AL
22 June - Tirana, AL
23 June - Kruja, AL - Shkoder, AL
24 June - Prizren, KO - Pristina, KO
25 June - Skopje, MK - Ohrid, MK
26 June - Ohrid, MK
27 June - Ohrid, MK - Skopje, MK - Thessaloniki, GR
28 June - Thessaloniki, GR - London, GB
I booked accommodation in Corfu and Thessaloniki only, as I will be arriving at both places very late. And these two cities will not change their position on the plan, due to my flights. The rest is totally flexible.
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Jun 17, 2010 06:00 PM On the road again - South-West Balkans
Gatwick Airport is Britain's second busiest airport, and the busiest single runway airport in the world. It is also the ugliest, the most traveller unfriendly, the smelliest, and most confusing.
I am sitting at the Garfunkel's Restaurant at the North Terminal, tucking in to very English fish and chips, before I embark on discovering the Albanian, Kosovar and Macedonian cuisines.
I arrived at my hotel at 2am, three hours late. Well, easyJet decided to give away the aircraft I was supposed to be travelling to passengers, whose aircraft developed a fault, which could not be fixed.
At least the €20 taxi ride from the airport on Corfu to the hotel was quick, and the taxi driver did not take me for a ride. I mean that he did not cheat. I was preparing myself for some unpleasant discussion at the end of the ride, and it was totally unnecessary. The hotel Maltezos, based in town called Gouvia was small, but squeaky clean, had a pool, bar, wireless Internet in the lobby, and the receptionist shook my hand, when arrived. That was a very touch! My room (#11) had two single beds, air conditioning, a small balcony with two plastic armchairs, a phone, a minute old TV set suspended from the wall, tiny desk, a chair, and a small toilet-shower room. All for €21 for the Friday night. Saturday night was €9 extra.
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Jun 15, 2010 06:00 PM South-West Balkans - the budget
The magic number is £538. This works out approximately £48.90 a day, including accommodation, ferry from Corfu to Sarande, buses and minibuses, trains, taxis, food and drink, clubbing and nightlife, and sightseeing involving entry fees. This estimate is balanced, considering spending on unsophisticated local food and allowing a conservative budget for clubbing, which will be used only if there is a good nightlife to be enjoyed.
Three different currencies will be needed for this trip: the euro (EUR) for Greece and Kosovo, the Albanian leke (ALL), and the Macedonian denar (MKD). The stipulation is that the breakdown of the £538 should be: EUR 243; ALL 36,653; MKD 7,866, according to today's spot exchange rates.
I will obviously have a buffer for any unforeseen expenses, or for alternative, more flexible or quicker modes of transport and a higher class of accommodation should I decide that my holiday would benefit from those changes. I am not keen to exceed the estimated budget, but anything can happen, particularly when travelling alone. In the past I managed to spend more on holiday than originally estimated, but also have experience in returning home with spare funds. As an exercise, I will monitor costs of the South-Western Balkans trip, if only to satisfy my curiosity.
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Jun 14, 2010 06:00 PM South-West Balkans - the weather forecast
Having just experienced how deceitful and misleading weather forecasts could be, it is perhaps getting a little ahead of oneself when checking what weather should be like for the forthcoming holiday. Poznan looked promising last weekend, and it turned out that weather was rubbish. Instead of sunny weather, there was rain and heavy dark clouds.
I have just checked weather for Corfu, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Thessaloniki in Greece, and it looks particularly unfortunate for Albania. It seems that I am planning to visit places in Albania on their worst weather day of the week. I cannot really change my plan that much to follow weather, and after what happened to me in Poznan, I am not sure I actually should change anything. This weather forecast for the Balkans can be a pile of rubbish as well. Yet, Rafal (Luis) reported in his travel story and travel log that weather in Albania in June does not necessarily mean sun, and in fact it can be raining badly.
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Jun 12, 2010 06:00 PM Poznań (PL) - after the years ... Day 2
As I was turning from one side to another at 5 a.m. the sun was shining! It looked like it was going to be a lovely, bright day. Just like foreseen by the weather forecasters. Yet, by the time I rolled off my bed at 7 a.m., weather broke down. Heavy grey clouds covered all of the sky. And the day became dull. Such a pity, as I was hoping to take a few nice shots of the lovely old town.
I strolled about the still sleepy Old Square, the Saturday's night fever enthusiasts, completely inibriated, rested on benches overlooking the lovely Townhall. I ventured onto the Ostrów Tumski, an island on the Warta river, steeped in history. It is assumed that the island was the site where in 966, the Polish Prince Mieszko the First was baptised to mark Poland's official state adoption of Christianity. Two years later a large Romanesque-Gothic cathedral was built there, and it stands on the island to this day. It is always humbling to stand by a building over 1,000 years old, I find.
Then, I visited the Emperor's Castle and the University of Economics, where I used to study in the 1990s. It has not changed, apart from the main building's facade having been cleaned.
Another visit to the Old Market Square for tea with rhum and the ramming of goats on the Townhall's main tower clock, and a stroll around the centre and it was time to get myself organised for the flight back to London.
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