I am lost and confused today. For the first
time in almost five months, I am in an English speaking country!!! I flew into
Dublin, Ireland this morning, and am now on a train on my way to Galway, where
I plan to be ridiculously lazy for the next few days, before meeting up once
again with Ali. Unquestionably a more energetic and knowledgeable traveller
than myself, Ali will no doubt inspire me to get out and see Ireland (and then
Germany), however I do intend to make the most of the next few days to sit back
and relax, soak up the few rays of sun the current gloomy weather will let me
have, and of course… eat!
_______________________________
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| The road to Lake Koman |
Up bright and early, I was in for a day of
adventure, as I left the chaos and congestion of Shkodra behind, and set out to
conquer Albania’s Lake Koman Ferry crossing. Having read about the ferry
crossing online, I was surprised by the lack of information provided to
tourists in the area, but assumed (being Europe), everything would be very
easy, self-explanatory, and comfortable. How wrong I was!
Transport timetables, prices and information
in Albania (and most of the Balkans) don’t exist online, however with the few
pieces of information I had picked up from travel blogs and forums, I found my
way to the 6am ‘bus’ to Lake Koman, and settled in for the ride. The journey
started out quite comfortably with only 4 passengers in the old bus/minivan,
however comfort rapidly declined, as the poorly ventilated bus filled to what I
assumed was capacity. How wrong I was again! With all the seats now taken, 3
young guys hunched in the small walkway, and an old lady perched on an
upside-down milk crate (with a skateboard board duck-taped to one side as a
backrest) just inside the door, the bus then pulled off the road into a paddock,
where it then became obvious the local bus is also the local market
transporter! We were all herded off the bus, as dozens of crates of fresh fruit
and vegetables were packed beneath our seats, bags of fresh bread and rolls
were tantalisingly hung from the ceiling, and my luggage was removed, to be
replaced by six 20kg bags of rice. With every available space now taken, we all
jumped back on-board (my luggage now tied precariously to the roof of the
bus/van/truck), and began the entertaining journey to the lake, in which every
turn would cause yet another zucchini, tomato or apple to fall out of its
crate, and roll/fly around the vehicle! Thank goodness Albanian markets don’t
sell seafood!
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| Lake Koman - waiting for the ferry. |
Lake Koman, built as part of the Fierza
Hydroelectric Scheme in 1978, stretched over 30km from Koman to Fierza. My ridiculously
slapdash plan was to get breakfast at the lake, and then get on-board the QE2
style ferry, which would carry me in utmost comfort all the way to a waiting
lunch in Fierza. Yet again I was wrong! The wharf is in the middle of nowhere,
with a café that serves coffee, but no food, and a small shop, which
specialises in car air-fresheners and windscreen wiper blades. Just what I
needed! While waiting on the wharf for the ferry to arrive, a small, derelict,
barge style boat putted up, and began to unload yet more fruit and veg,
livestock and goods into a row of waiting trucks, cars, and the bus I had just
arrived on. Thinking how ridiculously unsafe the boat looked, and what poor
condition it was in, it was with absolute horror that I then noticed how many
passengers were now getting on. This barely floating, old barge, in terrible
condition… was the ferry! Seating about thirty people on seats that ranged in
condition from poor, to had the stuffing ripped out, and you now
sit on the bare springs, the boat was not what I expected! As I warily
boarded, my luggage was stowed in the hold below the waterline (I was already
saying my emotional goodbyes to the iPad and MacBook!), and I made my way to my
seat, to watch as three old German men somehow managed to wheel their flashy
BMW Motorbikes across the single plank in which the boat was loaded – and I was
worried about my iPad!
The 3 and a bit hour journey from Koman to
Fierza was absolutely spectacular, with the ferry passing through humongous
rock canyons, past small rural villages, and through some of the most beautiful
scenery I have seen in Europe. I have heard that in summer a tourist ferry does
this route, however the local ferry provided an absolutely unforgettable
experience – and somehow managed to stay afloat! A couple of the passengers
spoke enough English to briefly explain where we were, and point some things
out along the way, and one particularly drunk old Albanian man gave me more
than I bargained for, when he came up to me and slurred “I always wanted to
kiss an Australian girl, and now I am running out of time. You’ll have to do”,
before planting a sopping wet, alcohol and B.O. smelling kiss smack-bang on my
lips. Yet another tick off my bucket list!
With stomach now rumbling from hunger, and
the fumes from my not-so-passionate Albanian kiss no doubt making me drunk by
the minute, it was with great relief that the ferry pulled into Fierza.
However, as was quickly becoming the theme of my day, I was far from prepared
for what the town had to offer, and with no shops, no food, and no relief for
my hunger, I found myself wondering how I was going to get out of town. My plan
at this point was to get on a luxury tourist coach with Wi-Fi and cappuccino
machine from the wharf, and spend my afternoon reclined in my leather seat as
the coach drove along the Scandinavian engineered smooth roads of rural
Albania. However, reality came to get me again! The wharf was an unsealed pile
of dolomite (which made the reverse unloading of the BMW’s a VERY
interesting/scary process!), which led to an unsealed road, with no bus stop,
coach station or taxi in sight.
Not even knowing how to say ‘hello’ in Albanian, let alone ‘how do I get from here into Kosovo, including
going through an Australian-traveller approved border crossing?’, I luckily
came across a woman who spoke some English, and she took me to a waiting
panel-van down the road, where she negotiated me a price to get to a local
town, and sent me on my way. Fortunately the panel van driver was not Albania’s
version of Ivan Milat, and I made it to the local town, and to a waiting bus to
cross the border without too much trouble. With two more bus changes, half an
hour spent on the side of a highway, and my most troublesome border crossing to
date, I finally made it into Pristina at 8pm – and 18.5 hours into my day, it
was finally time for breakfast!
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| Pristina City Centre |
Pristina is the capital of Kosovo, a country
which has over the last hundred years been through both Balkan Wars, the rise
and fall of Yugoslavia, and the Kosovan War of the 1990’s. In 2008, Kosovo
declared independence from Serbia, however this remains a contentious issue,
with Serbia refusing to recognise Kosovo as a country, and today, Kosovo is
only recognise by 91 of the 193 countries in the United Nations. This not only
makes border crossings into Kosovo a complicated business, but has also left a
range of social issues, with some citizens still calling themselves Serbs,
Albanians or Montenegrins, even though they live in Kosovo – an idea I can’t
even comprehend, coming from my island home of Australia.
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| Bill Clinton Statue |
I spent two nights in Pristina, CouchSurfing
with David, yet another teacher from the US, in his apartment on Mother Teresa
Boulevard – the city’s main street. The city is a vibrant mix of cultures, with
Turkish kebab shops separated by Albanian cafés, Greek restaurants and Serbian
market stalls. I spent my first day walking the city’s three main streets – Mother
Teresa, George Bush and Bill Clinton Boulevards – with bustling shops and
cafés, and Albania’s approach to driving and traffic, and checked out
Pristina’s own Statue of Liberty, and the city’s biggest tourist draw-card, the
Bill Clinton statue. I’m not sure if it is coincidence, or someone being funny,
but the Bill Clinton statue is directly next to the Hillary store. Monika’s must be hiding around the
corner?
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| An abandoned church in Pristina |
I spent the afternoon heading out of town to
the Gračanica Monastery, which I am sure was beautiful – if only I hadn’t been
wearing shorts, and been refused entry (what a scantily clad hussy I am!) –
before going out to dinner at a revolving restaurant, overlooking the city for
the first part of the meal, and then the corrugated iron covered mechanical
workings of the restaurant for the sunset. Probably should have started on the
dodgy side!!!
From Pristina, I made my way to Prizren, a
town in the south of Kosovo, where I spent the next two days wandering the old
town and river, stuffing my face with greasy, amazing European food, and giving
up an attempted climb of the Kalaja Fortress when my shoe broke, and decided to
have a second lunch instead. The town surrounds the Prizrenska Bistrica River, and
with a 15th century Ottoman Bridge, town baths, and a number of
beautiful churches, there was plenty to keep me busy!
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| Ottoman Bridge |
Leaving Prizren behind, it was time for a
slightly less troublesome Kosovan border crossing, as I made my way to Skopje,
the capital of Macedonia. One of the most interesting, diverse, and unusual
city’s of my travels so far, Skopje has a population of almost 700,000, and is
a hodgepodge of new and old, new that looks old, old that looks new, and just
plain random. The city, which is the birthplace of Mother Teresa, has had an
interesting history as a central trading city between Athens and Belgrade, and
became the capital of the Republic of Macedonia, on its declaration of
independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
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| Alexander the Great Fountain |
After checking into my hostel, I ventured out
into the city, walking the main streets, the old town, the Vardar River, the
old bazaar, and checking out the slightly kitsch, yet still impressive Alexander
the Great Fountain, and the city’s various unusual statues, buildings and
quirky art instillations. The city is half way through the ‘Skopje 2014’ project, in which
the Macedonian Government aim to spend €500 million to give the city a more
‘monumental appearance’, and development at a grand scale can be found all over
the city. It is incredibly unusual to walk around a city with so many brand new
buildings, statues and fountains, yet has been completely developed in line
with the city’s ‘traditional’ architecture.
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| Skopje, Macedonia |
Arriving back at the hostel for dinner, I had
every intention of a nice early night, so was quite pleased when I found out
the only other guests staying the night were two 70+ year old women from New
Zealand, Pat and Leila, and one of their daughters Fiona, who has spent the last ten years
living in London. Meeting up in the kitchen just after dinner, we got chatting
over a cup of tea about travel stories, plans, and lives back in the southern
hemisphere, before the ladies decided they were going to ‘hit the town’, and
left me to spend my Saturday night alone (what a loser!). However, as with
everything lately, my plans didn’t go to plan, and before I knew it, it was
2am, I had been into town to enjoy the nightlife, the Skopje Busking Festival
which conveniently coincided with my stay, and was yet again sitting around
with my new-found kiwi friends discussing everything from teens dropping out of
school, to world politics, to religion, to soviet history! And I thought I was
doing well if I made it to see midnight on a Saturday night!!!
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| Memorial House of Mother Teresa |
Rising late the next day, I joined my kiwi
friends to visit the Memorial House of Mother Teresa, learning about the life
and works of one of the most recognisable women of the 20th century,
the history of her family in Macedonia, and the legacy she has left the world.
After a stern lecture about how I should have sent my grandparents a postcard
by now, we made our way up to the Kale Fortress, where it was definitely time
for a cuppa, before exploring the old town and the bustling bazaar.
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| The Millennium Cross |
Exhausted from trying to keep up with two 70
year olds, I opted for an easy afternoon, taking the 3.5km cable car up Vodno
Mountain to The Millennium Cross – the tallest cross in the world. The cross,
which stands at 66m, can be seen from throughout the city, and was built in 2002
to celebrate 2000 years of Christianity in Macedonia. The views from the top
are absolutely spectacular, looking down over the city of Skopje, and the
countryside beyond the Vodno Mountain range.
After a leisurely walk back down the hill, it
was time to hit the sack to recover from the antics of the previous night, and
to prepare for the last stop of my Eastern European adventure – Bulgaria!
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