Albania, that’s the place where Dilbert and his co-workers get sent occasionally, right? Oh wait, that’s Elbonia. Well Albania is better than that. How much better? Do you want my advice? Go there and experience it for yourself. But I suppose you’re looking for just a few more details than that, so here you go...
We had to wake up too early for our free breakfast in order to catch our bus from Ulcinj, Montenegro, to Shkroder, so it was a good thing we picked a hotel close to the station. Donning our worldly possessions we walked the 200 meters (not yards, this is Europe after all) to the station and waited patiently. Then it pulled up. And by “it” I mean our bus. She wasn’t much to look at, and we might have taken a picture if we weren’t suffering from shock at the time. We boarded, grabbed a seat, and prepared ourselves for our Albanian adventure.
Now picture this: here we were in a moderately sized, permanently leaning bus, which, by the way, left the station with its cargo door wide open. We bounced through hills and over deteriorating bridges on tiny Soviet era roads as we got closer and closer to Albania. We peered around corners and anxiously awaited our first glimpse of a country we hardly knew existed before our journey when we were met with a fog. It was like Mother Nature didn’t want us to peek at what we were getting into. The suspense escalated. Then there it was, a border crossing not that unlike any other small border crossing. I’m not sure what we expected.
Our bus came to a stop and the bus driver said something in Montenegran, or maybe Albanian, we couldn’t tell the difference and everyone got out. We thought it best to follow suit. So yeah, everyone grabbed their luggage and proceeded toward immigration/customs. In the meantime our bus backed away and headed in the direction from which we had just come, effectively abandoning us at the border. No one else seemed fazed. We got in line with everyone else and saw our bus driver walk past security, wave at them, and proceed to walk out of sight. We didn’t experience any trouble at the border but I’ve never had to walk across one before.
It turns out there are some conflicts with insurance and taxes so it is easier for transportation providers - either public, private, or, like in our case, a combination - to switch vehicles. Anyway, where did our driver go? We followed our fellow bus-mates toward a pair of vans, or furgons, which we inferred were to be our onward transportation. Our driver stood next to one of the furgons and after he spotted us, the last of his passengers, started to get everyone on board. We were now in Albania. Oh, and the relative ease we experienced entering Albania? Inverse it and multiply it by lots and that should come close to the level of fun the people entering Montenegro were having. Cars were backed up for over a kilometer and were proceeding so slowly that some people were just pushing their cars forward instead of driving them. Yikes.
Onward we went. It didn’t take long until we came to the outskirts of Shkroder, but after the driver diverted from the main road and zigged and zagged through pedestrian, moped, and car-filled back alleys, or what we would consider alleyways, we had no idea where we were. He soon stopped and declared that we were at our destination, so out we went. At least they were kind and pointed us in the direction of the main square. I feel the need to share with you that during this walk we passed an ox drawn wagon blocking an intersection; I told you this street felt like an alley. Once we made it to the main street we easily found the main square and from there our hotel was in one of the four corners so finding it wasn’t too much of a challenge.
We checked in and jumped online to get some clarification as to the next morning’s transportation. To be honest, I had been relying solely on a guy I had contacted online (via Thethi-Guide.com) regarding our transportation and accommodation needs and now I was getting a bit nervous. In the time it took us to walk around the main square we had been approached by no less than four furgon drivers asking us where we were going. According to my Internet guy we were to be picked up by a furgon near our hotel at 7am. I was concerned as to whether or not we were going to find the correct furgon, but after an e-mail back and forth I was reassured that our driver would pick us up at our front door. The only catch was this hotel appeared to have two front doors leading down two corresponding alleyways.
Upon receiving our reassurances Katie and I decided to wander around the neighborhood for a bit to eat and for some much needed research into our trip’s other destinations. We even managed to find a hiking map of the Thethi area. After that we went back to the hotel and went to bed early to prepare ourselves for our 7am curbside pickup.
The morning arrived and even though this hotel’s breakfast wasn’t to start until 7am they graciously packed us a breakfast to go. We grabbed our gear and made our way outside the front doors and waited for our furgon. He arrived 10 minutes early in an orange beast of a van. Without question we jumped into this stranger’s van and sped away stopping a couple more times for small groups of people and to strap the luggage to the roof before making our way toward our destination, Thethi. The driver stopped every few kilometers, or 50 meters in one instance, to pick up and drop off random passengers as well as what appeared to us as random shopping. Some stops were just to talk with oncoming drivers.
Having started the journey on a major divided highway we slowly regressed in road quality to two-lane and then sort of two-lane to gravel to bumpy gravel to rocky before settling on barely discernable and at times almost impassable. Trust me on this though, what it lacked in drivability it made up for in breathtaking views. We twisted and turned and crawled our way up what resembled a road for over an hour before cresting. It was here that we stopped at an overlook/café for about an hour so the driver could have a coffee or two and we passengers could take in the sights before continuing on. After around 4.5 hours of our furgon journey we were dropped off at our guesthouse in Thethi. We had made it.
We couldn’t actually check in until later in the afternoon because the people that were occupying our room were waiting for our furgon to drive them back to Shkroder whenever it decided to return. It turns out they had wanted to catch the 8am furgon, which they were told would be available, but was full so they would have to wait for the next one. In the meantime we wandered through the village for a couple of hours until our lunch was to be served.
From my research into Thethi I learned that there were no restaurants in the area so when I decided on our guesthouse I made sure to include the three meals per day option. It wasn’t until after we walked through the village that we fully appreciated the remoteness of our location. Yeah, sure there weren’t any restaurants but it didn’t stop at that. There wasn’t a market. There wasn’t a gas station. There wasn’t a post office. Heck the whole valley’s electricity came from a small hydroelectric plant just a few kilometers downstream. And those random stops our furgon made on our drive were in fact random shopping stops for some residents of the village. The drivers are the courier service the village relies on! Food, paint, car parts, booze, anything and everything would be brought in by these drivers.
All meals were served in the large common dining room, just inside the front door, which contained enough tables and chairs to seat roughly 20 people. There was also a common sink where anyone could fill their water. The front door, incidentally, was always left open and therefore visits from small furry pointy-nosed scavengers were not uncommon; they might have closed it at night but I never witnessed this. From the dining room there was a door to a large guest room, a staircase leading up to the second floor landing, and a doorway, hidden by a curtain, to the kitchen. From the second floor landing there was access to a shared bathroom, two guest bedrooms, a private room, and the staircase to the third floor. Our room was the smallest on the third floor which also contained two other bedrooms. All of this fit comfortably into what appeared from the outside to be just a small stone cottage.
We made it back to our guesthouse for a 2pm lunch that was prepared for us and the couple waiting for their ride. Lunch consisted of baked peppers stuffed with rice and a small beef roast. Every meal we were to have would include phenomenal bread and freshly made cheese. Breakfast would include fresh strawberry, prune, and fig jams, cow and sheep butters, and freshly collected milk. Lunches and dinners would include some kind of tomato/cucumber/onion salad, usually a macaroni/egg bake, spinach pastry, and a sweet bread/cake for dessert. The typical dinner would also include a soup or rice main dish and always a homemade wine that varied nightly depending on what fruits finished fermenting. I’m not sure how Robert Parker might have ranked it according to nose, clarity, or mouth-feel but after a long day of hiking we always gave it a try. And besides, I’m never one to turn down free wine.
After lunch we checked in and, because it started to rain, we decided to catch up on some sleep. That evening we wandered downstairs and exchanged stories with other guests before dinner was served, around 8:30pm. Promptly after dinner everyone retired for the night.
The next day we started on our first real hike in Albania which was to be a visit to the “Blue Eye.” The “Blue Eye” is a natural pool, open to swimming, which formed at the base of a small waterfall. The water, being fed from a small glacier, was supposed to be really cold, around 9C, and because of the really hot temperatures it sounded like a good idea. Our walk started by following what appeared to be the main road through Thethi but it turned out to end at a guesthouse. Luckily the owner was very understanding and she pointed us over a fence and down a small cattle/sheep trail to where we wanted to go. That path eventually disappeared so we wandered over another fence and through a field or two toward the river. Once we made it back to the river we followed it downstream for a few kilometers, swearing we were lost a couple of times before we stumbled onto a pedestrian bridge that spanned the canyon. How we ended up right where we wanted to be still surprises us because, as it turns out, the map we bought left much to be desired. Heck, it didn’t even include the road on which we arrived!
We followed a road to the next town, and passed by the small hydroelectric plant, where we promptly followed the wrong road again. So over a fence or two and down a small trail until we looked hopelessly penned in a pasture. We were mere seconds from backtracking when an old man literally popped out of a corn field right next to us. He spoke both Albanian and Italian but that did us no good. We played charades for a couple of minutes before everyone was in agreement as to what we were looking for. At this point the man flagged us over a fence that crossed a stream and then graciously lead us all the way to the river. I mustered all of my Italian to say “grazie” and we headed up this river towards the “Blue Eye.”
We walked uphill for about 45 minutes in the blazing sun before we finally found another sign about 200 meters from the Eye. The path led us down one ladder, across a balance-beam bridge over a creek, up another ladder before we finally descended yet another ladder and came to a rest next to the “Blue Eye.” We ate our picnic lunch here and bought a drink from a local entrepreneur. Crazy to think that no matter how remote one is, one can always find a Coke. After getting our water bottles refilled we headed back downstream to the town where we caved in and paid for a ride back up to Thethi.
The remainder of the day consisted of chatting with other guests - we met a lovely British couple that lived in Romania, from whom we got great hiking advice, and a German couple who had the best hiking map ever (the Wunderkart) - and dinner before heading off to bed.
Early the next morning the British couple caught an 8am jeep ride to Shkroder and with a little, or maybe a lot, of translating help from another guest that used to live in Albania the German couple arranged a pickup at the same time for the following day and we booked him for the day after. Now we wouldn’t have to worry about missing our ride because of it being full. Or well, more full than the jeep currently was. And by full I mean they had 8 people in a, maybe, 6 passenger jeep with luggage strapped to the roof. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.
So our plans today were to tackle the Pejës mountain pass. This was a last-minute decision after talking with the British couple who had done this hike the day before and raved about it. We packed up our water bottles and picnic lunch ready to brave the 16 kilometer round trip hike.
The hike started off easily enough, it followed the river upstream with just a few twists and turns before it diverged up a valley to the right. Eventually the path changed from a dirt trail to rocks occasionally interrupted by a washout. At this point we weren’t sure where the path was going to take us because it appeared as though we were about to reach the sheer cliff walls of the valley. It turned out we would just have to go up. And up. And up. Switchback after switchback we climbed and luckily the path had changed into small rocks. By this point there were hardly any trees and, because we’re smart like that, it was around noon so the sun was beating down on us. There were times when the thought of turning back almost overwhelmed us but we continued onward.
Finally we saw it; a signpost and flag at the top. We finished our 900+ meter ascent, that’s right we climbed nearly a kilometer, and we came face-to-face with a landscape unlike one we had ever encountered. “Wow!” is all we could muster. It was a rocky landscape consisting of over a half dozen peaks but there was also lots of green from grasses and shrubs. There were a couple of trails that disappeared around a corner only to reappear a kilometer or so further downhill but otherwise the landscape looked untouched.
We wandered for a few minutes, enthusiastic because we no longer had to climb, took numerous pictures and settled on a ridge for lunch. After our picnic we took yet more pictures but realizing we would eventually have to leave as it was already 2 o’clock, we packed up and headed back down. Partway back we ended up running out of water so we gave our Steri-Pen its first workout at a small, cold, mountain stream.
On our last full day we planned on taking it easy. The German couple’s jeep ride came and went without incident so now almost all of our fears about not getting a ride to Shkoder and on to Tirana seemed put to rest. As for our hike, we had heard about a waterfall not that far downstream from Thethi and, having fumbled our way relatively near it on our first day, we were pretty confident that we’d manage to get there and back. We might have taken a wrong turn but we made it there fairly easily. The waterfall was pretty neat but the views of the valley were almost better. The hike back was leisurely as we followed a small waterway in the direction of the village which ended at an old mill. We also stopped and enjoyed a refreshing beverage before finishing back at our guesthouse.
As for the last evening in Thethi, we spent it exchanging stories with other guests, finalizing our bill, and getting our gear packed up.
We had to get up a little extra early for our last morning so that we could get a bit of breakfast in us before heading back to Shkoder on that mountain path of a road. Just before 8am a Land Rover showed up with a different driver that spoke a couple dozen words of English. We didn’t even bother to ask any questions, he just grabbed our bags, threw them on the roof, and we took off. You could tell the driver actually owned the vehicle he was driving because he took great care when we encountered the giant rocks and debris called a road. At one point there were words exchanged between our driver and the driver of an oncoming speeding furgon, with a passenger laying on the roof, who refused to yield to us at a passing area. All of the mirrors had to get pulled in, extending the clearance to maybe an inch or so, but the vehicles didn’t touch and nobody plummeted to their demise. We’ll chalk that one up as a win.
Having arrived back at the center of Shkroder just before noon we thanked our driver and found that the bus we were parked next to was going to leave for Tirana in five minutes. Score! We loaded up our bags and hopped onboard for a fairly uneventful journey.
Once in Tirana we got dropped off on what appeared to be just a random street. The driver told us we were in Tirana and this was our destination or we never would have known. Fortunately it didn’t take too long for us to get our bearings and head in the direction of our hotel. We came to the realization after just a couple of minutes that we weren’t going to find our hotel on our own. A helpful restaurant owner who read the looks of bewilderment on our faces came to our rescue and pointed out our building just up the next street/alley.
Our time in Tirana was fairly laid back. We washed some laundry in our hotel sink, took in the natural history museum, researched what the heck we were going to do in Turkey, and pretty much just wandered. It was good.
We had a 9am flight from Tirana to Istanbul so we made sure to get to the airport ridiculously early just in case. Our tickets said to be there three hours before departure for our international flight so we, being overly cautious, decided to comply. That turned out to be a waste of an hour and a half but that’s ok. We ate our breakfast and had a coffee. Just not a Turkish coffee. That would have to wait until we arrived in Turkey later that day.
Click on the collage to see more photos or you're missing out!
Now picture this: here we were in a moderately sized, permanently leaning bus, which, by the way, left the station with its cargo door wide open. We bounced through hills and over deteriorating bridges on tiny Soviet era roads as we got closer and closer to Albania. We peered around corners and anxiously awaited our first glimpse of a country we hardly knew existed before our journey when we were met with a fog. It was like Mother Nature didn’t want us to peek at what we were getting into. The suspense escalated. Then there it was, a border crossing not that unlike any other small border crossing. I’m not sure what we expected.
Our bus came to a stop and the bus driver said something in Montenegran, or maybe Albanian, we couldn’t tell the difference and everyone got out. We thought it best to follow suit. So yeah, everyone grabbed their luggage and proceeded toward immigration/customs. In the meantime our bus backed away and headed in the direction from which we had just come, effectively abandoning us at the border. No one else seemed fazed. We got in line with everyone else and saw our bus driver walk past security, wave at them, and proceed to walk out of sight. We didn’t experience any trouble at the border but I’ve never had to walk across one before.
It turns out there are some conflicts with insurance and taxes so it is easier for transportation providers - either public, private, or, like in our case, a combination - to switch vehicles. Anyway, where did our driver go? We followed our fellow bus-mates toward a pair of vans, or furgons, which we inferred were to be our onward transportation. Our driver stood next to one of the furgons and after he spotted us, the last of his passengers, started to get everyone on board. We were now in Albania. Oh, and the relative ease we experienced entering Albania? Inverse it and multiply it by lots and that should come close to the level of fun the people entering Montenegro were having. Cars were backed up for over a kilometer and were proceeding so slowly that some people were just pushing their cars forward instead of driving them. Yikes.
We checked in and jumped online to get some clarification as to the next morning’s transportation. To be honest, I had been relying solely on a guy I had contacted online (via Thethi-Guide.com) regarding our transportation and accommodation needs and now I was getting a bit nervous. In the time it took us to walk around the main square we had been approached by no less than four furgon drivers asking us where we were going. According to my Internet guy we were to be picked up by a furgon near our hotel at 7am. I was concerned as to whether or not we were going to find the correct furgon, but after an e-mail back and forth I was reassured that our driver would pick us up at our front door. The only catch was this hotel appeared to have two front doors leading down two corresponding alleyways.
Upon receiving our reassurances Katie and I decided to wander around the neighborhood for a bit to eat and for some much needed research into our trip’s other destinations. We even managed to find a hiking map of the Thethi area. After that we went back to the hotel and went to bed early to prepare ourselves for our 7am curbside pickup.
We couldn’t actually check in until later in the afternoon because the people that were occupying our room were waiting for our furgon to drive them back to Shkroder whenever it decided to return. It turns out they had wanted to catch the 8am furgon, which they were told would be available, but was full so they would have to wait for the next one. In the meantime we wandered through the village for a couple of hours until our lunch was to be served.
After lunch we checked in and, because it started to rain, we decided to catch up on some sleep. That evening we wandered downstairs and exchanged stories with other guests before dinner was served, around 8:30pm. Promptly after dinner everyone retired for the night.
Early the next morning the British couple caught an 8am jeep ride to Shkroder and with a little, or maybe a lot, of translating help from another guest that used to live in Albania the German couple arranged a pickup at the same time for the following day and we booked him for the day after. Now we wouldn’t have to worry about missing our ride because of it being full. Or well, more full than the jeep currently was. And by full I mean they had 8 people in a, maybe, 6 passenger jeep with luggage strapped to the roof. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.
We had to get up a little extra early for our last morning so that we could get a bit of breakfast in us before heading back to Shkoder on that mountain path of a road. Just before 8am a Land Rover showed up with a different driver that spoke a couple dozen words of English. We didn’t even bother to ask any questions, he just grabbed our bags, threw them on the roof, and we took off. You could tell the driver actually owned the vehicle he was driving because he took great care when we encountered the giant rocks and debris called a road. At one point there were words exchanged between our driver and the driver of an oncoming speeding furgon, with a passenger laying on the roof, who refused to yield to us at a passing area. All of the mirrors had to get pulled in, extending the clearance to maybe an inch or so, but the vehicles didn’t touch and nobody plummeted to their demise. We’ll chalk that one up as a win.
Once in Tirana we got dropped off on what appeared to be just a random street. The driver told us we were in Tirana and this was our destination or we never would have known. Fortunately it didn’t take too long for us to get our bearings and head in the direction of our hotel. We came to the realization after just a couple of minutes that we weren’t going to find our hotel on our own. A helpful restaurant owner who read the looks of bewilderment on our faces came to our rescue and pointed out our building just up the next street/alley.
We had a 9am flight from Tirana to Istanbul so we made sure to get to the airport ridiculously early just in case. Our tickets said to be there three hours before departure for our international flight so we, being overly cautious, decided to comply. That turned out to be a waste of an hour and a half but that’s ok. We ate our breakfast and had a coffee. Just not a Turkish coffee. That would have to wait until we arrived in Turkey later that day.
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