Border issues

We are up seriously early, making the last use of the lovely shower.

One of the advantages of the pass being blocked and us not being able to get to Thethi is that instead our bus will take us via Kosovo.

The bus goes at 07:15. We are pretty much packed, but there are the necessary rituals we have to go through in the morning. Last night we surreptitiously took the kettle from the kitchen so that we would be able to make coffee, trusting no-one would want a tea or coffee late at night.

We also got the restaurant to pack our breakfast, but this will probably become lunch.

We head out at 06:50 and head for the road, but we are a bit early so we start walking down towards the restaurant, maybe we will see DogDos one last time!

The bus doesn’t turn up until 07:30 making us quite nervous, it is Sunday after all. This will be the first of many bus journeys today.

We get to the next town down the valley, Bajram Curri, where we have been told there is a bus to Kosovo. We want to get to Kosovo’s second town, Prizren. Probably if we had waited around we could get a direct bus, but we panic and hop onto a small minibus. It takes only half an hour but it isn’t going to Prizren, just the other side of the border. We get our passports stamped at the border and get chucked out at the next town, Dakovica Gjakove. The bus to Prizren doesn’t leave for an hour. Time for an iced coffee for Susana and an ice cream for me.

We don’t stray too far from the bus station, it comes in and leaves on time, we are at Prizren an hour and a half later. It is still before midday. Our last bus of the day to Tirana leaves at 15:00 giving us three hours to see the town.

It looks clean and fresh.

Lots of mosques.

A lovely mirror, not sure if this waterwheel is really generating anything or not.

And lots of these historic houses, which have been over-restored so they all look new.

This is compounded with the fact that the new buildings are made to look like the old ones. Why do they have to do this. It destroys the integrity of the original and creates Disneyland.

It is more developed than Albania, but could still do with a lot of render.

As we get towards the town centre things start to get more lively.

Loads and loads of coffee shops, restaurants and bars.

There are many people going to mosque, so we will try and pop in there later.

It would be nice to see the castle though.

It takes a while to find a route up there.

I am sure we have crossed this bridge several times.

It is really hot and muggy as we climb the steep slope to the castle. But the views of the town are lovely.

The higher you get, the better they get, but the clouds are starting to close in. This seems to be a popular place on a Sunday afternoon.

We find a nice quiet spot to have our lunch, well breakfast anyway, and then it starts to rain, the castle empties of people, and we find some shelter under some restored arches.

The rain clears.

The American embassy is financing the restoration of the castle, they have made good progress, but there is still a lot to do.

We head back to the town.

Time to check out the mosque before heading off.

Lovely stone bridge.

And this other strange building, maybe religious.

Places for washing feet, but wasn’t sure what it was for.

At the bus station a furgon is due to leave at 15:00. He has some strange pipes strapped to the roof. We head off early, only us as passengers. It is all a bit strange. He stops on the way out of town to pick up a bag of grain and then continues. Perhaps everything is OK.

They are three of them, the driver, and two friends who joined on the way. It may be women’s instinct, or just that I am more pessimistic than Gary but alarm bells start to ring: we head off before the time , we are the only tourists and he hasn’t waited for other passengers; this is definitely not an official bus . Him and his friends talk about us and laugh. I tell Gary my worries, “do you want us to get off?” “How if they don’t stop?”  I keep an eye on the route.He takes the motorway towards Tirana. Ok. So far he goes towards the right direction. SM.

At the border, things begin to unravel. The customs don’t like the look of the pipes, maybe his papers aren’t in order. He wanders off, but it soon becomes apparent that this is going to take a long time to get settled, if it does at all.

I think he also realises this and tries to get us on a bus also passing through border control. This would have been a great solution but the price was €30, I think our furgon driver was hoping for a cut knowing we wouldn’t be paying him. We get off the bus and start looking for ourselves. Eventually the border police come to our rescue, This is no bus station, they say, but then persuade a motorist to give us a lift.

He is such a nice guy, he is driving to Italy where he installs solar panels, but has to leave his wife and children behind.

He speaks a little English so he tells us a little about the situation in Kosovo. He mentions that Spain is one of just  a few countries that does not recognise the independence of Kosovo, we would later find out that this is because of the Catalans and Basque regions fights for independence! And what has that got to do with Kosovo?

I have no idea. This is all bloody politics. If the Spanish central government recognises the independence of Kosovo, the Catalans especially, as the Basque country is pretty much independent these days, will have an excuse to moan. Pretty stupid, pretty childish. How do I feel about nationalisms? I don’t give a shit. However, I think that the first thing that Catalonia has to do if they want to be independent is sorting out their large debt with central government, and only then, they can talk. SM.

He also says his heart is with Albania, I wonder if many of the Kosovars’ in this area feel like this and would prefer to be part of Albania?

After a good hour he drops us at the coast, where we pick up another furgon heading to Tirana. We head back to our crazy hotel, but this time opt for the large room with numerous beds. A lovely meal at Era, highly recommended by our guide, but we head back to our room early, we are shattered.

Early the next morning our hotelier and taxi driver once again takes us to the bus station.

We think the bus to Gjirokaster leaves at 8:00, but we don’t know how long it takes, we think it is between 4 and 6 hours! We need to be there to pick up the Ioannina bus at 14:30. Actually  the bus goes on further, to the border. This is even better as we know there are more buses than the two a day from Gjirokaster.

The bus takes four hours to get to Gjirokaster and then we are sheparded into a taxi for the last half hour to the border. We spend our last few leke on some pastries and walk through border control. The other side it appears the next bus is at three. We haven’t saved any time after all, and now have an hours wait. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

The bus eventually turns up and we head off. A couple of kilometres on and a couple of people flag down the bus. As they get on, half a dozen more come out of the bushes and also board the bus. They are just so obvious it is almost comical. The next town along and sure enough the police get on, removing all the Albanians, who have no official documentation.

We would like to have more sympathy with these guys, but really, as illegal immigrants go, these ones are not the brightest, It did make our journey entertaining though, better luck next time!

Dora is waiting where we left her. The owner of the car park doesn’t want to charge us for the extra days, Greeks are not good negotiators! He eventually charges us an extra €10 for the extra two days. We fill her with water and head out of Ioannina for the last time, heading back around the lake.

GDR