Week #1

Mountains, Albanians, Aussies, Kotor, a broken phone and Game of Thrones

Kicking off the blog while on a ferry to the Island of Hvar from Dubrovnik. Last week I flew into Tirana, Albania to meet up with Alex where I got my first taste of Balkan driving from our taxi drive to Shkoder. My bulky and impracticable fan I insisted on bringing short circuited the second I plugged it in at the hostel which I took as a sign to throw it out. The next morning we ferried up Komani Lake to Valbone National Park and arrived at our stunning guest house that looks straight out of Skyrim.

We then hiked to Theth which took us ~6 hours (online said 8+ so you know we had to crush that). The Accursed Mountains as they are known are still very remote and felt that way. There was still almost zero government oversight until the early 2000’s where it was common for blood feuds and eye for an eye law. I’d say I learned more about Australian footy (AFL) than Albanian history in my first day from the sheer amount of Aussies traveling Albania. There was also plenty of trail pups who would follow you for a few minutes before realizing you were only give them food once. After the hike we hung out at a waterfall before heading back to Shkoder the next day.

In Shkoder we rented some bikes and biked along Shkodra Lake (Lake Skadar in Montenegrin) where I saw my first bunker. During the 60s-90s while Yugoslavia was enjoying relatively peaceful leadership from Tito’s effective ability to straddle the east and west, 173,000 bunkers were being installed across Albania under the leadership of Enver Hoxha. Hoxha was extremely paranoid and closed his country off to the world, even the Soviets and eventually the CCP (his last ally). Per Alex when communism fell in 1990 their were fewer than 2000 cars in the country compared the with countless of Mercedes (by far the most common car) you see today. The history in the Balkans is rich and recent. It has been straddled between the Europe and Asia and the Ottomans, Venetians, Romans, and Greeks all had turns in occupying it. The breakup of Yugoslavia and conflicts over Kosovo are still very sensitive subjects for most. More to come on the history but back to the lake. Apparently it is the most biodiverse area in Europe and we soon learned that when a snake approached Alex after I convinced him to swim.

The next day we went our separate ways for now and my solo travel began with a lost kindle and a rental car fiasco in the not so pretty capital of Montenegro Podgorica. Two taxis and many hours later I made it to Kotor, the first of two water front walled cities that I would be visiting in the coming days. I spent the next day eating seafood and lounging on the bay in a smaller town up the coast. That evening I climbed the hill above the city and per local advice climbed through a window in the fortress to avoid the 30 euro fee. The fortress had to be built to the east of the city to defend from the Ottomans which proved unsuccessful and fell in and out being a tribute state for many centuries. See one of the many local cats that hang on the streets which apparently saved the city from the plague:

After catching a bus to Dubrovnik, Croatia (Kings Landing) I arrived to a torrential downpour. The streets turned into rivers almost a foot high in some places while I was trying to find my hostel unsuccessfully. Apple clearly hasn’t worked on their water proofing despite their claims because for the next day by phone began working 2 minutes at a time. After paying a heinous amount for a cab I dropped my phone off at a very suspect shop. Being solo without a phone made every minor outing a quest to which I had to ask strangers for help. The next day I managed to find my way onto a walking tour which took me through the history of the area from Illyrians to the Slavic migration, and to the city’s bombing by the Montenegrin and Serbian armies. Refusing to pay for another taxi, I bussed to the phone shop where the owner wasn’t there. After eating a burek and taking a nap he showed up to tell me he hadn’t done a single thing to my phone yet and not so nicely gave it back. It was still broken and I started to accept it’s fate and booked a bus to Split to see if I could have more luck there. While out for food the phone suddenly began working to my great relief. In celebration I joined the hostel bar crawl and went to a a former UNESCO world heritage site turned night club..

Next stop Hvar and Bosnia!