June 3 – Montenegro, Albania,
Kosovo..."Zdravo & Ciao"
OK...today was the craziest. We were traveling all day, and hearing different languages as most everyone didn't know English. It was very difficult maneuvering to our next destination, but with the help of some wonderful people...we did it.
We began in Donji Brceli Village, Montenegro by catching a small little bus to Virpazar, where we tried to catch a bus to Bar, but it never came, so we tried hitchhiking, but that didn't seem to work. We saw some interesting vegetation. I also saw the most beautiful yellow mushroom, but somehow I erased the picture as I was posting it here. :(
We walked about a mile to a little village to catch a train, but it had just left (the only one for the day), so then we started walking again and finally found a bus. Luckily Bagi was with us as she had decided to go to the city for the day. She translated for us and explained to the driver what we wanted to do.
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| It turns out she had gone to school with the driver. |
We made it to Bar and after waiting a while at the station (I walked to a bakery and got a pastry)...
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| Fattening, but very good with cheese in the middle |
We went aboard a small bus to our next destination. Somewhere along the line, we ran into Nick again. Remember him from an earlier post? He is from Columbia and this was the 3rd time we had caught up with him since meeting him in Dubrovnik. But, never fear...he will appear again in more posts later.
Then we came to the border of Albania. Rich was taking a couple of pictures, when he got highly reprimanded. I'm glad they didn't haul him off to the brink.
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| I look pretty tired, don't I? This day has just begun! |
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| The flag of Albania...crossing the border took awhile |
The bus was not able to go across the border, so we switched to a mini van which was packed with people. Some had to sit on laps. No seat belts here!
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| What's in store for us now? |
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| I hope this isn't a long ride! |
We eventually got to the city of Shkodra. We had no idea what to do next. Our destination was Skopje, Macedonia, where our next host was, but it didn't look too promising that we'd be there any time soon. We witnessed a terrible accident where a mini bus driver was standing at the driver's side of his vehicle, when a crazy driver zoomed by hitting the bus driver and hurling him onto the pavement. He popped back up, but was bleeding profusely from his head. Then he ran off. We never knew what happened, but I'm sure he would have had to get help.
Several private drivers came to us wanting to drive us to our destination. It looked like the buses were going to be a lot of money and take a long time, so we ended up accepting a ride from one of these private drivers. He told us he would only charge us 80 euros for the four hour drive. Rich asked for his papers and he kept saying he was not a cab driver. He spoke quite good English because he was in the United States for awhile. The drive proved to be very comfortable - such a relief to get out of the crowded buses and vans. He and Rich talked about the terrible strive between the Balkan countries and the better days of Communism. He also talked about when it all used to be Yugoslavia. He told of how the police in Albania are very corrupt. They stop people for no reason, give tickets, and demand money. There used to be no corruption during Communistic rule.
When we crossed into Kosovo, the driver, Ben, told us to tell them we were his friends if they asked and again reiterated that he was not a cab driver. I guess he would get into big trouble if he were. Our next couple of hours to Prizren, Kosovo, was very comfortable and the highway was very modern and state-of- the-art.
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| The highway was absolutely beautiful! |
On our journey we encountered.......
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| Castles that told a story. |
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| Hillsides with interesting netting to catch the rocks |
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| Beautiful rolling hills |
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| Terraced Hillsides |
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| Gorgeous Lakes |
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| Moslem Mosques |
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| Rugged and Rocky Mountains |
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| Interesting Power Poles |
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| Formidable Weather |
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| Beautiful Rivers |
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| LONG tunnels |
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| Vast Valleys |
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| Amazing Waterfalls |
We finally arrived in Pritzren about 6:00 p.m. We were going to have to find some place to stay for the night as there was no way to get to Skopje any time soon.
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| We tried to find directions from these HS students, but they just laughed at us |
No buses were leaving out of there until the morning. We went into a cafe and searched the internet.
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| Prizren, Kosovo |
The people in Kosovo turned out to be one of the friendliest people we have ever met. From the people in the store to the people in the bus stations to the people on the street....they were all very friendly knowing English well enough, and always willing to help. One of them showed us an economical hotel, another drove us to the place, and another family took us downtown to show us around.
The Shala family was the BEST! They offered to take us around, and when they found out we hadn't eaten, wanted to pay for our meal in one of the restaurants. We insisted that we could pay for it, but they were quite offended. They did pay for a cute photographer who came by to take our picture on an instamatic kind of camera.
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| The photographer took our photo on our camera as well. |
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| Baby Ursula is so very cute |
They told us that after the terrible war in 1999, nearly all the males in their village and outlying areas were killed. Only females were left, so when babies are born now, no one wants a girl - they all pray for boys. They, however, love their little girl. Who wouldn't?
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| The Turkish Kabob is very popular- and the flat bread was very good! |
We enjoyed the evening with our new friends. Genta is now friends with me on facebook and we share pictures. It's amazing how people are more similar than different when it comes to culture, age, religion, and language.
We found the Prizren Hotel very nice. It was less than $30 and included breakfast.
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| This was a great breakfast - we were the only ones there. |
The hot shower felt great and Kosovo will always be a country we want to come back to.
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