We’d just driven down scenic M-22 after camping at the Betsie River campground just outside of Frankfort, Michigan. We had a few days in Grand Rapids before we were to drive to Saint John’s, to spend some time with grandpa on our way to Waynesville, Ohio, to see my mom’s side of the family, coming […]
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Nobody rides Balkan trains, and for good reason, too. Remember that fantastic scene in Casino Royale when James Bond meets Vesper on the train through Montenegro? It has fantastic dialogue but the idea of this actually being a train in the Balkans is completely implausible. In the Balkans the trains are old, slow, uncomfortable, and […]
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The ferry from Fierze to Koman goes down the man-made Lake Koman, cutting through the mountains, which makes for spectacular scenery. The boat was pretty full when we got on, with people sitting in the small seating area and everyone’s bags piled on the front of the boat. I found a place at the front […]
Continue reading →The furgon from Valbone to Bajram Curri leaves every morning at 7:00. There’s only one furgonper day and I don’t know why it leaves at such a ridiculous hour. It’s not a long drive, only maybe two hours. It’s probably the case that there is literally only one furgon that makes the drive and it […]
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I kept going down the hill and eventually the boy on the horse caught up with me and passed me. He said his house was just a little bit further down and I told him I’d see him there. This village was not Valbone, but Rogam, the tiny village that you come across just before […]
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I started hiking around 7:30am. I was a bit concerned about how I would fare, as I haven’t done a lot of big hikes like this. I walk a lot in Istanbul and I’m naturally athletic, but I was afraid a seven hour hike might be a little bit difficult. But I figured that having […]
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The furgon (minibus) I would ride was an old, battered, orange Mercedes. The roads up to the villages aren’t passable by regular cars; the only vehicles that can make it up there are 4x4s. I climbed in and joined the crowd in the minibus and we set off bouncing along and made a few […]
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I was Shkoder bound. I didn’t know much about Shkoder, except that it has global recognition because of the blood feuds that still happen in northern Albania. Shkoder is perfectly fine to travel to, as it’s in the northeast, a major city and easy to travel to, but the travel books I’d seen in the […]
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On the bus from Berat to Tirana I was glued to the window. I remembered on the bus in to Berat we had passed a house that was designed to look like a boat and I wanted to get a picture of it. Unfortunately, though, I didn’t see it again. So I gazed out the […]
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I boarded the bus in Sarande and was Berat bound. It’s roughly a 250km journey. Though cities in Albania are never far apart as the crow flies, bus travel between them can be a trying experience. I wanted to be on the 8am bus to Berat as I was informed the bus journey is a […]
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