Kotor to Tirana... in one piece.

It feels like it has been a long time since I wrote my last entry in Kotor but I think that may have more to do with the dramatic change of locations and crazy encounters that Jade and I have had over the last few days than anything else. In Kotor, I felt like I had nothing to write and that really this was turning out to be an unplanned relaxation holiday... oh yes, famous last words.

After I finished writing, Jade and I went home (like a couple of nanas)and made our dinner - on a whim we decided to get a little dressed up (comparative to the rest of Kotor) and see if we could watch the fashion show, which we had seen being set up earlier in the day. Not only did we see it, we managed to get a table at a cafe pretty close to the runway. We then decided to go and find one of the funky little cafe/bars we had seen on Saturday and settled down at one playing some pretty good house music. After a misunderstanding over which bar we were actually sitting in, the manager came over and asked us to come stand with him. (I maintain that this was because he quite liked Jade.) This was the started of a pretty cheap night, as everything was on the house! (Good one Jade!) He did then ruin all his hard work by asking us if there was something wrong with us... something about being 28 and 27 but not being married - the icing on the cake was when he asked us if we had seen a shrink... apparently they are pretty cheap in Montenegro. While we stood there, trying to make polite conversation, (which got a bit harder after his inferences about our mental health), we heard some people talking English. It was a group (Aussie, Saffa, Israeli and Englishman) who were working on one of the massive super-yachts moored in the fjord. We ended up going to Maximus (apparently the best night club in this part of Europe) and danced the night away to Yugolslav pop. Very funny night - photos are up on Facebook.

The next day we were planning to travel down the coast to Ulcinj, which is a holiday resort full of people from Albania and Kosovo. We had packed up and went to say goodbye to the old lady, who we were staying with, when she demanded to know who we were staying with; we had planned to just find someone at the bus station. She insisted that she write down the name of a sea captain, who she used to teach, stating that everyone in Ulcinj knew him... needless to say Jade and I were a bit dubious about this. The trip to Ulcinj was very pretty. We drove along the coast, between steep mountains and pretty, sandy beaches (and a few ugly built up resorts).

When we got Ulcinj we decided to try and find captain - when we showed the piece of paper to the ticket lady, she laughed and gave us an address (so far so good). The taxi took us to the address (a school) and then the driver asked a random person on the street... who knew which house. (So everyone does know this person.) We knocked, he looked at the paper and instantly knew we had come from Kotor... but he didn't have any rooms (by which point Jade and I began to doubt if he did actually rent rooms out in his house), so he sent his son to ask all his neighbours (which was just embarrassing). After his wife had given us some juice, his son offered to take us to find a room... which he did... and then we got taken to a great beach (called Ibiza), with the offer of a day on a boat and a night out. It was one of the most bizarre things to have happened to me (and to us)... I guess we were pretty lucky to have a) stayed where we did in Kotor and b) to have accepted that piece of paper.

Ulcinj, to be honest, was a bit tacky - lots of souvenirs made out of shell. (I hope nobody wanted a shell lap-shade.) The main beach was jammed with umbrellas and a lot of sunburnt people. Jade and I went to the old town on both nights we were there and it was pretty neat to see so many people out but we were quite glad that the place we were staying (while a bit odd - it used to be a weather station!) was further out. We spent our one day in Ulcinj at a very pretty private beach (yip, we went back to Ibiza)... turns out Jade is a tan-orexic. (I got bored in the end, because I was trying to avoid a repeat of my previously mentioned mega-burn, and went into town to sort out a few things... like how the heck we were meant to get to Albania!)

The 'bus' to Albania (well, its actually a mini-van) leaves from a carpark above the old town, at 6(ish)am. I spent quite a bit of time trying to nail down an exact time, place and cost... pre-purchase of a ticket was asking WAY too much. So we woke up this morning at 5am, the taxi picked us up at 5:30am and we waited around at 'the old bus station', as it is widely known. A guy came over and showed us where to go... but it turned out you had to book in advance, (thanks tourism centers!). We were then approached by a taxi driver offering to take us to Skohdra (just over the boarder for 30 Euros) - there was another girl there who looked less than impressed by this and we got the distinct feeling this was a bit of a rip-off. Another guy came along so in the end we all chipped in for the fare.

The taxi turned out to be another piece of good luck - after a very near death experience, involving an overtaking manoeuvre on a blind corner, Jade hiding her head and me squealing (and swearing) at the same time, we started to talk to the other girl. She was from Albania and was going home to see her parents for the day - she offered to help us find a money changer and to talk to the bus driver so that we didn't get ripped off paying for our ticket to Tirana. (Also, the taxi driver seemed to have friends who worked at boarder control, so not only did we get to jump the queue, we didn't have to pay the 10 Euro that Lonely Planet had talked about. Ah, corruption!)

So Albania... turns out that it is pretty ghetto. The countryside is lovely and seems to be full of opportunities to take photos of donkeys and carts and other equally rustic scenes. The towns and cities seem to be pretty nothing.. except insanely crazy. Tirana is very flat, with only few buildings taller than five or six floors. Added to this is the fact that the roads are full of potholes and the people drive like mentalists... and the main rule for crossing the road is just to walk out... yes well, it is pretty fun. We are staying at a new hostel, close to the centre of town and so, after a nana nap (Hey! We got up at 5am!), we walking into the centre, stopping for an amazing traditional Albanian meal (more about this later - but it was huge and only 4 pounds each!), and then had a look around the History Museum. It was pretty interesting because there have been so many layers of culture and civilisation in this area for such a long time. (I did, however, notice they had mis-labelled a Julio-Claudian bust as 3rd century BC rather than 1st century BC/AD - geek, I know, but really!) There were only a few labels in English (which was a bit disappointing) but it may have given me enough scope to start a new obsession - insurrection leaders of the Balkans!? Karageorge and Skanderbeg?

So a quick note on food... I am getting pretty sick of eating carbs, carbs and more carbs and am now at the point where I will never look at tomato, cucumber or any variety of pasta in the same way again. I am having a great trip but, at the same time, I really just want to get home and eat some chickpeas!!! Like I said, we did go out for an amazing Albanian lunch today. I think I may enjoy eating in Albania a bit more - they cook a lot of vegetarian food here and you order the meat separately... so no more funny looks (hopefully).

We are hoping to go to Kruja tomorrow for a little day trip, (hopefully with out the drama of my trip to Novi Sad), to look at some Ottoman houses. We are planning to spend the day after 'exploring' Tirana - but who really knows... we may leave, stay, or get run over.

Will keep you up to date... but probably not before we get to Macedonia on the weekend.

Rose x