Hotel Kristal Korce

... lady informs us that, if we wish, we can also take the ferry leaving that evening at 24:00 i.e. in one hour. We gulp and grab our tickets.

Departure procedure:
We find the quay of our ship and drive on.

ETA:
The ship leaves 24:00 on the dot

Passenger areas:
The ship is brand new, there are thick luxurious carpets on the floor and we just manage to resist the temptation to remove our dusty shoes. Numerous bar and lounge ...

Friday 21 August to Saturday 22 August 2009

Had a loverly sleep in this morning whilst my fantastic crew cooked birthday bacon and egg sandwiches which were AMAZING (pretty impressive given all cooking was done in the boat's 'kitchen'). We also had champagne and juice and hung up balloons and streamers all over our party boat. It was so fun. It was the most beautiful sunny day, but not too hot and we sailed along for a bit before docking at this random pretty ...

... wife were my only joy.

I had to pause, to see if I couldn't come up with at least four more good things about this Adriatic country. This sounded like a job for ... duh duh duh-duh ... the superheroic MODERN ODDYSEUS' TOP 5!!! Albania and all the Albaniacs had to be saved!

The Top 5 Worst Things About Albania! probably weren't going to help:


1. DARK STARES FROM GUYS -
One person told me young Albatrosses liked to fight.

2 ...

... starts to open the doors to the former luggage spaces with a large stick, and we're lucky with the second door. Out comes a creme collored dog who's so happy to be getting our, does a happy dance all around us, races to the end of the yard and back to us, more jumping and tail wagging. So we did it again, somehow the Animal Rescue Squad is our hidden profession, and as soon as we're travelling on call! This dog certainly would have died, had we not explored, so we were happy too!

... is especially good. Well Lelya still wasn't around, doing some business in another town actually, so I went with the girls to the market and then for coffee at a really nice hotel on the beach. The girls are really smart and ambitious - both Malvina and Aluna will start university, Malvina studying to be a doctor, Aluna a lawyer. It seems like Albania is on the verge of a change, with girls in their twenties and younger the first to have the chance to study and have ...

... dramatic setting. I liked it a lot better than Sv. Naum from yesterday. Walked a bit more through the Old Town and got some day time photos. Then I went back to Al's and had to hurry to get my bus to the Albanian border, about 10 km further south than Sv. Naum on the southern side of the lake. This was going to be my first border crossing on foot, and i was nerdily excited about that. My bus made a stop first at Sv. Naum, and I was surprised to be the only one staying on ...

... of the rocks. It must take great effort to transport all the materials, the tools and the man power to the top of the rocks to built them!






Aaaahhhh.... Please don't break on me, please don't look down, please let there be no strong wind... Haha, nope that wasn't us. It is only used to transport those people who are not able to climb up in the olden ...

We had a good visit to Lake Ohrid, both the town of Ohrid and the monastery of Sveti Naum on the Macedonian-Albanian border. Seventeen years ago I visited the monastery, but was unable to cross the border into Albania: at the time it was closed to Americans. This time, however, we walked across, past the Albanian border posts and concrete bunkers, to a hopping little Albanian resort town on the lake.

I walked to Albania yesterday. The bus from Ohrid drives around the lake as far as Sveti Naum. After that it's all walking. Ohrid is a crater lake between Macedonia and Albania, and Sveti Naum is on the Macedonian side of the border to the South of the lake. Albania is only a kilometer to the West. There are other ways to get to Albania, but Sveti Naum came well recommended: it's an Orthodox monastery of sorts. Something like Treskavec near Prilep, but more accessable ...

Buses leave at the crack of dawn in Albania. A nation of early-risers who like to get what needs to be done done as early as possible. Like old people, or parents of teenagers. A history of car-jacking and huge numbers of potholes means people don't like to venture too far after dark. So, we had to get up at 7am (how early!!!) to catch the morning bus to Berat. Actually, we missed the bus, so a man whisked us into the back of his Mercedes and drove us to the bus, free of ...