Macedonia

Macedonia was next on the list. Again, I was expecting the Albania/Macedonia border crossing & transport arrangements to be bit of a headache. What I hadn't counted on was some knights in shining armour. Basically I got to the place where minivans south are meant to depart from. It's not like a bus station or anything, literally just the side of a street that the guy from my hostel told me to go to. Waiting there were a group of 3 Albanians, who were seeing off their 2 Macedonian cousins who were returning home. Luckily for me, 1 of the Albanian guys spoke English, which was pretty rare! The 2 cousins were going to the same place I was, Struga, which is the first town in Macedonia after the border. They basically took me under their wings, & the guy who spoke English gave instructions to the cousins to make sure I got to Ohrid OK. It was a good thing really, because the minvans didn't even have the destination on them, & getting on the right one would have been bit of a mission, let alone sorting out how much it cost! They insisted I wait at a roadside cafe with them & bought me coffee which they wouldn't let me pay for, insisting I was a 'guest of Albania'. The minivan went as far as the border, & we went through the border on foot. There was a long line but these 2 guys obviously cross quite often because they took me right to the front of the line where they were greeted like old friends by the border police! The police then talked to the driver of a station-wagon who only had his wife in the front with him, & more or less demanded that they give us a lift the remaining 15 km to Struga! In Struga they then put me in a taxi, which already had 3 others in it, for the remaining 10km to Ohrid. They even paid the taxi driver for me when they put me in it. I had given them my remaining Albanian Leke, which was only a couple of quids worth, but they wouldn't accept any other money from me. The taxi took me right to the door of my guesthouse.

Ohrid was lovely, a UNESCO listed place with a gorgeous walled old town set on the banks of one of the oldest lakes in the world. My accommodation was also great, the family live on the ground floor & rent out rooms on the other 2 floors. I had a lovely big 3-bedded room to myself, which also happened to be the only room with its own balcony. Not bad for 10 euros a night! I had 2 nights here. The first day I spent wandering around the very cool old town, while on the last day of my holiday I topped up the tan on the lake shore. All good things must come to an end, & the next day involved a bus to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia where my flight was leaving from. I flew Skopje to Ljubljana, had about 40 minutes in transit, then it was Ljubljana back to Gatwick. I eventually arrived home at around midnight. The only hassle I had on the entire 4 week trip unfortunately happened on this last day of travelling. The airport in Skopje is about 25km out of the city centre & no buses run. I was unlucky enough to get a rather dodgy taxi driver. He was a bit TOO nice on the trip out, trying to chat me up (in his limited english!) & asking if I wanted to go for coffee or to a restaurant instead of straight to the airport. This was all harmless enough, but when he tried to put his hand on my leg I got a bit peeved off with him. Once we actually arrived at the airport he then tried to rip me off, wanting to charge me over double the fare that he had originally quoted when I got into the taxi! After a fair amount of arguing & with me asking to speak to his boss, he finally let me get my pack out of the boot & walk away. I couldn't have paid him that much if I wanted to, since I was leaving the country I physically didn't have that much money on me!

So there you go, another summer adventure over... It must be about time to start planning next years trip...

Mad, bad, Albania

Having left Nicola in Dubrovnik, I made for Ulcinj, back in Montenegro, where I spent 2 nights. There was nothing I particularly wanted to see there, it just happened to be the closest town in Montenegro to the Albanian border which I wished to cross. It was actually OK. The main town beach was pretty hideous, wall-to-wall people & beach umbrellas, but I walked further round the coast & found some nice rocky beaches. I was expecting it to be a real hassle organising my transport to Tirana in Albania, but the father & son who owned the apartment I was staying in were absolutely brilliant. Basically, a lot of people travel using private minivans called furgons. These leave from pre-arranged places, usually just the side of the road somewhere. The father was great, he rang up the driver to find out where it was leaving from, then personally walked me there at 6am. This furgon was heading to Shkodra, the first town over the Albanian border, so he also gave strict instructions to the driver to make sure I got on the right furgon to take me from Shkodra to Tirana. He also got the driver to swap some of my money for Albanian leke, so at least I had some local currency on me! The driver of the furgon to Tirana was also great. They don't get many foreign travellers, so a big fuss was made of me. He insisted that I sit in the 'best seat' of his minivan, which happened to be the only one with a window that could be opened!

Albania was pretty crazy, as soon as I crossed the Montenegrin border it was like stepping back in time 50 years. Very rural with donkey & carts sharing the roads. The country is riddled with concrete igloo-shaped bunkers, a legacy of their paranoid former dictator, Hoxha, who apparently had 750 000 of them built! Tirana was unbelievably hot, it can't have been much off 40 degrees. It was also dirty, dusty & frantic. I stayed the night in a fairly recently opened backpackers right in the city centre. 3 Hungarians & 1 Swedish girl were the only other people there. The city centre has the widest boulevards imaginable, another throw-back to its Stalinist days. There was also the biggest police presence I have ever seen in a city. Nearly every second street corner had a policeman on it. I didn't actually see any of them do anything apart from lounge around! One thing that is pretty cool is that the current mayor of the city has encouraged people to paint buildings in bright colours in an attempt to brighten the place up. Concrete communist-style architecture is rather depressing really...

Croatia (mostly)

Gidday,

Croatia was the next country on the hit list. We had just over 2 weeks here so I'd bore you all silly if I went through it all in great detail. Instead I'll try to be pretty brief about each place... Yes, I know brevity isn't exactly a strong point but I'll do my best!

Zadar: We had 3 nights here. Getting there from Piran in Slovenia was bit of a mish, involving a taxi ride, 3 coach journeys, & then a local bus out to our hostel. We had a couple of good beach days, & also did a full day boat trip out to the Kornati Islands national park.

Split: Just the 1 night here, but we managed to have a really good look around the old town that evening & also the next morning. It was lovely, our hostel was right next to the walls of Diocletian's Palace, with some nice Roman ruins. The highlight was dinner at a restaurant recommended by the Aussie girl running the hostel. Very good cheap food, & 1L of extremely drinkable wine cost less than 4 quid!

Hvar Island: Absolutely stunning, one of our favourite places. We had 4 nights here & it could easily have been longer... A lovely medieval town centre with no cars allowed. Lots of stalls selling jewellery & all manner of lavender products (for which the island is reknown). We had loads of swimming & sunning action on the rocky beaches, & also did a day boat trip out to the island of Vis. Discovered our favourite restaurant in the whole of Croatia! Delicious fresh seafood at very very reasonable prices, & more good cheap wine. We ate there 3 of the 4 nights!

Kotor (Montenegro): A HUGE travelling day getting here, we left Hvar at 11am, & arrived in Kotor at 11pm with no idea where our hostal was! Luckily we talked a very nice man at the bus station into giving us a ride there for a few euro... We had 2 nights here & it was another lovely place. Lonely Planet describes it as a big secret. A UNESCO listed old town, overlooked by a fortress up on a hill & surrounded by city walls, at the head of southern Europe's deepest fjord.

Dubrovnik: Back to Croatia to what is known as the 'Pearl of the Adriatic' for 5 nights. There is so much hype about this place, but it really is stunning. I'm sure most of you have seen that classic picture of the walled old town, surrounded on 3 sides by the Adriatic. It is a glorious sight. Walking the 2km or so all around the city walls was a highlight. We were actually staying about 10km out of town, near the beach. This was some of the best accommodation of the trip. We had a twin room with private bathroom & our own balcony overlooking the Adriatic, all for about 12 pounds a night! Again lots of swimming & lazing around on the beach... One of the more surreal moments was spending the day at the most beautiful beach, in the shadow of a huge, bombed out, derelict & abandoned hotel. While here we also did a day trip to Mostar in Bosnia-Hercegovina. This was fascinating, a place I have always wanted to go to since I saw the opening celebrations of the new bridge on TV a couple of years ago. The old town has almost totally been restored thanks to UNESCO funding, but you only have to walk a few streets back to see the scars of the war. There are bombed out shells of buildings everywhere, & some buildings look OK until you get a bit closer & see that the walls are covered in bullet holes. It's pretty scary thinking it only happened 13 years ago.

So there you go. At this stage I left Nicola & struck out on my own for the remaining 5 nights of my trip. The plan was back to Montenegro, then Albania & Macedonia, where my flight home leaves from. More about those adventures later, this posting is quite long enough already...

Slovenia!

Gidday,

As you have probably realised, I didn´t quite get around to updating my blog before leaving on my travels... Mostly because I had in my mind that I was flying on Wednesday, when in fact I was actually leaving Tuesday night! Just as well I checked my ticket in time... I´ll write bit of an update of what I have been up to, but you will have to wait till I get back to England for the photos...

I arrived in Ljubljana Tuesday night around midnight & spent my first night in Slovenia sleeping at the airport. I then caught an early morning bus to my hostel & spent the day wandering around the city. It is a lovely place, the old town reminds me a bit of Prague. My friend Nicola arrived Wednesday night.

Thursday we spent the morning in town again before catching a late afternoon bus to Bled. Bled was simply stunning. A resort town based around a gorgeous lake & surrounded by mountains. We ended up staying 4 nights there, & could easily have stayed longer... On the Friday we did a half-day hike out to Vintgar gorge which was beautiful. We then walked up to Bled castle which offered stunning views over the lake.

Saturday morning I got to watch the rugby! The tri-nations game between the all-blacks & Oz. I am so impressed that no matter where in the world I am, I can usually hunt down a pub that is prepared to put on the rugby for me... That afternoon we hired a row boat & went out to tiny Bled island in the middle of the lake. There is a church on the island & local custom has it that if you ring the bell & make a wish, your wish will come true... We shall see... The rest of the afternoon we spent swimming in the lake. It is beautiful to swim in, crystal clear water which is 24 degrees!

Sunday we caught a bus out to the Bohinj region, which is another gorgeous glacial lake. Today was a hiking day, we made it up Mt Sija (1880m) & then Mt Vogel (1922m). It sounds impressive, but I must admit, we did get the cable car a fair way up! In total we probably did about 5 hours of walking. The views from the tops of the surrounding mountains were stunning, you will have to wait for the photos... We got the bus back to Bled & cooled off in the lake before refuelling at a local pizza place & getting an early night.

Monday we were up early for a big travelling day. We had to get the bus from Bled back into Ljubljana, then carried on to Postojna where we toured through the world-famous Karst caves. They were pretty amazing. It was then another bus to Piran which is a gorgeous little seaside town on the Slovenian coast. We are staying at an incredible hostel, it is more like a hotel really. Check it out at www.hostel-val.com It is only about 20m from the sea front & even though we didn´t arrive till after 6pm, the temperature was still in the 30s. The first thing we did was talke a dip in the adriatic. It really was gorgeous, more crystal clear water, & really salty so you are incredibly buoyant, similar to the dead sea. We are staying tonight here as well, then tomorrow we are heading further down the coast & into Croatia.

Slovenia really has been fantastic, I would recommend it to anyone. It is a beautiful country with a huge amount to offer, & some of the friendliest people in the world. I´m sure that I will be back!