2018.10.17 – Budva (Montenegro) – Tirana (Albania) – On the way to bus station, we stopped at a bakery for snacks to help appease any potential craving during our 5h long bus ride to Tirana. We knew we were clearly venturing off the tourist path when we boarded the small bus at 8:30am with only two other (Asian) passengers. For almost two hours, it felt like we had our own private bus driver. The bus climbed from the coastal road to the top of the mountain plateau. We finally picked up a dozen more passengers in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. At the Albanian border crossing, we were switched buses for the remainder of our journey. Half the passengers stepped off the bus in the town of Shkodër while we continued on to Tirana, the capital of Albania. We walked from the bus station to our hotel. We were very pleased with our spacious and modern room at the small boutique hotel located in the city center. After reviewing some restaurant options, we set out to find a Chinese restaurant. We struggled to find this newly opened restaurant after asking many locals on the way for some directions. We quickly discovered that English was not widely spoken or even understood. It felt most of the time we were playing a mime game.

2018.10.18 – Tirana (Albania) – It was nice once again to enjoy a complementary breakfast in a hotel. As our hotel was right across from the main square, it was quite easy to start our sightseeing day. Beyond some museums and art galleries around the main square, there were not a lot more to explore there. We opted to walk a few kms south to a lake with some nice walking paths. The area seemed to be favored by the locals. We enjoyed the vibrant vibe of Tirana as we walked on its streets. Late afternoon, we decided to take the city bus to the regional bus stations as to familiarize ourselves with the commute as we would be leaving from there next day. It was an interesting experience to see the ticket agent collecting the fee on route. It was pretty amazing that they could identify any new passengers that had recently boarded the bus. After briefly visiting the regional bus station, we confirmed that there were no ways to reserve seats on the bus. The buses simply left the station whenever they were full. We opted to walk back and stopped along the way for a great evening meal – for half the price of our previous Chinese meal.

2018.10.19 – Tirana – Berat (Albania) – After our breakfast at the hotel, we walked to the nearby bus stop. We had downloaded to our phone, an image of a large eagle sculpture that stood in the center of the road round-about where we needed to get off the bus. As we flashed the eagle image to each bus driver that went by, they consistently answered “Institute”. After less than 15 minutes at our bus stop, we boarded the “Institute” city bus and we were reminded where to get off. As we arrived at the chaotic regional bus station, a bus with a sign for Berat was already waiting for us. We boarded the rather comfortable bus and it left the station shortly afterwards – full to capacity. The bus ride to Berat, a Unesco World Heritage site, was only two hours away. From the Berat bus station, we took a city bus to the city center – some three kms away. We checked into our rustic hotel that reminded us of some Tibetan hotel with its decor. We had lunch at a nearby fast food restaurant. After a good rest in our room, Jenny recommended a restaurant for our evening meal based on her on-going YouTube travel reviews.

2018.10.20 – Berat (Albania) – Our hotel’s complimentary breakfast offered us a close-up of the typical Albanian breakfast. After breakfast, we took a steep walk up a cobbled path to the Kala neighborhood atop a nearby hill. The neighborhood, still inhabited by locals, was located within old castle walls. We visited a museum and most of the ruins in Kala. Back in town center, we stopped at our hotel for a good rest. Late afternoon, we enjoyed some coffee along the main pedestrian street. We had our evening meal near our hotel. The temperature in Berat had been much cooler hovering in the high teens. The locals were all wearing warm jackets while I was still walking around in shorts and t-shirt!

2018.10.21 – Berat (Albania) – Ohrid (Macedonia) – Ah! Today was meant to be one of our most challenging commutes as we expected to deal with three bus connections. Although we had encountered more complex commutes in some of our past travels, we had never dealt with a border crossing at the same time. The day started very well. After breakfast, we loaded our backpacks and walked to the nearby city bus stop. As we arrived at the bus station, our bus to Elbasen, our first travel segment, was already waiting for us. The ride to Elbasen took two hours. As we had arrived shortly after 10:30am, we thought our chances of catching an early bus over the border to Struga, our second travel segment, were pretty good. Our chances took a bad turn when we learned that the next bus would only be coming at 3:00pm. The bus station manager was quick to offer us the possibility of arranging a taxi instead of waiting for the bus. By then we had been joined at the station by a Taiwanese traveler who was heading in the same general direction. The bus station manager kept on encouraging us to split the cost of taxi. Unfortunately, the cost of the taxi was significantly more than anyone of us wanted to assume. Hence, the waiting game started. We enjoyed spending time sharing our respective travel experiences with our new traveler friend. As time progressed, our group’s resolve started to erode as the bus manager kept telling us that the cost of the cross-border bus would be only slightly less than the taxi. By 1:00pm, we finally agreed to hop on a taxi for our second segment. We bid farewell to our Taiwanese friend shortly before the border as she was heading further south and staying in Albania. After being dropped off by the taxi driver at the fairly deserted Struga bus station, we finally bargained another taxi for our last travel segment into Ohrid – as opposed to try to locate a city bus stop. We connected with our apartment host shortly after 3:30pm. Our travel commuting pain was nonetheless rewarded with the nice surroundings of Ohrid. We were reminded after our evening pizza meal how different a world could be after a border crossing. We noticed that English was well understood and spoken here. And unlike in Albania, we could start using our credit card again.

2018.10.22 – Ohrid (Macedonia) – We had a modest complementary breakfast at a bakery. The weather forecast for the past few days had warned us that our stay Ohrid would likely be very wet. We were pleasantly surprised when we noticed that the ground was still dry. After breakfast, we packed our rain ponchos in our day pack and headed out to visit some key areas of interest outlined by our host. We spent a few hours visiting an ancient theater, a fortress and several churches. After a well deserved coffee break, we returned to our apartment mid-afternoon for a further rest. In the evening, we took a long walk along the water front before stopping at a restaurant for our evening meal. A very lovely (and cooler) day in Ohrid.