Got woken up at 22:30 by a bunch of kids shouting and running up and
down the corridor - phoned reception to find out what was going on,
receptionist was apologetic, said it was some kids - which I knew, but
wondered if it was guests or trouble. Sounded like a school trip.
Got up at 05:25, downstairs and waiting at 06:20, mini bus turned up on time to our great relief.
Got
joined by some others then left the city. The custom in Albania is for
people to wait by the side of the road and flag down passing transport
for a lift. We were joined by an old guy who went about 1 km, then
stopped at a small village and picked up a bloke and his 3 kids. As we
continued on, saw quite a few donkeys pulling carts and a guy taking 3
cows for a walk.
The bus travelled up and down hills, around a lake,
and some of the roads were pretty rough and it was slow going at some
points. Song pointed out that there wouldn't be a normal bus service,
the roads were too bad. Even though it was slow, the bus was owned by
the ferry operator so we knew we wouldn't miss it. Actually it turned
out that the bloke and his 3 kids were the owners, the bloke the
captain.
The radio was on and we listened to some of my favourite Albanian tunes.
The
road wound around the hills, skirting a lake, presenting some great
views once again, the early morning sun striking the hills and
reflecting off the still green water of the lake.
It took 25 minutes
to go the last 10km over very rough roads. We came out of a tunnel to
the ferry terminal which was a very small jetty packed with cars parked
all over the place, with a cafe and shop, and a very small ferry waiting
to board passengers and cars, a mixture of tourists and locals.
As we got off the bus, the cold hit us - it was about 7c, but the sun was shining so we hoped it would warm up.
Song
spent a lot of planning getting us here - today was the first day after
winter that the ferry runs, so she did a lot of scheduling and
rescheduling to get us here today.
We hadn't had breakfast so went
into the cafe but they only did drinks. There was a small shop that sold
crisps and nibbles so we bought some junk food just for something to
eat.
The ferry was packed, lots of nationalities.
I won't spend
much time describing the journey, I'll just say it was really special.
If you've been to Milford Sound it's like that, only a lot better. 3
hours of travelling on still green water between sheer cliffs, tree
covered hills, stunning scenery. Got chatting with a young couple, him
English, her German. They were in their mid twenties and both had
travelled extensively - Albania was his 49th country and he only started
travelling 4 years ago. It's taken me 45 years to do that.
Took
loads of photos, Song and I agreed the scenery is better than Canada.
There were quite a few houses on the hillside, I've no idea how they
live there, it's so isolated. They were farms, and we saw a few
gravity-defying goats walking on the steep slopes. Every so often there
would be a small boat unloading people who piled gear onto donkeys and
headed up a narrow path to one of the farms.
The couple mentioned they were travelling to the same place as us - Prizren in Kosovo.
When
Song was researching this leg, the travel was a bit iffy. It's quite a
way off the beaten track. There are a few blogs and Tripadvisor forum
posts, but no bus timetables as such.
The plan was to get off the
ferry at Fierza, where there are mini buses waiting to take people to
Barjam Curri. From there we would get another bus to Djakovica. Get off
that one and onto another to Prizren. Only about 90km in total, but
probably looking at a 2-3 hour trip depending on how often the buses
run.
Got off at Fierza, which was basically a bit of land for the
ferry to stop at, with a small cafe and several cars waiting to get on -
no buses waiting to take anyone. OK, that's sort of a problem.
Song spoke to one of the
locals from the boat who dashed into the cafe, and got the owner to call
a taxi, said it would cost 50 Euro total. We spoke to the couple who were more than happy
to share.
Taxi arrived in about 5 minutes, an old Volkswagen, but
big enough for all of us and our luggage. The driver didn't speak
English but knew where we were going.
After about 30 minutes we came
to the border with Kosovo - the guard asked if we were ok to have a
stamp, which was good of him. If you go to Kosovo you might have trouble
getting into Serbia because they don't recognise it. We were through in
about 5 minutes.
Just over the border we encountered a man taking
his horses for a walk in the middle of the road. The driver put the
radio on and we listened to some of my favourite Kosovan tunes.
The countryside was mostly flat with snow topped mountains in the distance, and it looked a bit poorer than Albania.
When
we got to Prizren the driver nudged me to ask where we wanted to stop.
'Avtobuska Stanic' I replied, having read the sign in Kotor. He had no
idea what I was talking about. I pointed to a coach - 'bus. Avtobus.
Avtobuska. Autobus'. He nodded and proceeded to follow the bus.
Oh well, I hoped the bus was going to the station. Luckily the others saw the bus station so we told him to stop.
Had
a nice chat with the couple, parted ways at the bus station and went to
buy tickets for the next day, but were told we buy them on the bus.
We
hadn't booked a hotel so needed to find a cafe with internet, plus
food. The first one had wifi but just cakes. The second had food but no
wifi. The third was a pizzeria that had wifi. Yay.
Sat down in the
empty restaurant and the 3 staff looked at us as if they didn't expect
anyone, so I asked for the menu which spurred them into action.
I
looked at the menu - Pizza Normale - OK, boring. Margerita - yep, know
what that is. Tuna - easy. Suxhuk - we'll come back to that. Somun -
nope. Lamaxhun - not a clue.
Song ordered tuna, I took a gamble and
went for the Suxhuk. If it was sheep's eyeballs I'd decline. Luckily it
turned out to be salami.
Meanwhile the restaurant suddenly became
the most popular in Prizren as 13 people turned up (and most started
smoking). But they all had coffee then left after about 10 minutes. So we had 2 decent sized pizzas, a coffee, a can of iced tea, they gave me a juice without me asking, and I also had 2 scoops of ice cream. Cost 5 Euro, which was $7. SEVEN DOLLARS! Amazing.
Used the wifi to find a hotel that was close and looked decent, just turned up and luckily he had about 40 rooms free.
Walked
into the old town, very small and busy, there was an old stone bridge
and a few mosques, some churches and a fortress on top of a hill. Having
climbed the hill in Kotor yesterday we decided against it. As we were
taking photos of the bridge the couple we'd shared the cab with
appeared. Had a brief chat then parted again, we wandered around. Tried
to get into the churches but there was police there not allowing
visitors in. We'd read there was an advisory that terrorists were going
to target Christian churches in the Balkans over Easter, so probably
just as well.
Walked back to the hotel and collapsed.
We were
going to spend 2 nights in Prizren but have decided to leave tomorrow
and onto Skopje in Macedonia. 3 countries in 3 days, a record for us.
Once
again Song booked a fantastic trip, somewhere I would never have
thought about. The ferry trip was just incredible scenery. I'd certainly
recommend it, but you need to be up for a bit of uncertainty and mild
discomfort, it's not 5 star travel, and I don't know if we were lucky
with the taxi or they are always available.
