Still Trucking!!!

Well, we had made it as far as Dubrovnik, Croatia during the last post. We ended up having a good weather on our second day and were able to go through the old city...which is pretty much a really well preserved ancient city that consists of narrow alleys, huge plazas, marble streets and long, rising stairs all of which are surrounded by large castle walls and look out points hanging precariously to the cliffs just above the ocean. The blue and turquoise bays that surround the walls are beautiful and there are tons of footpaths to hike up into the trees to overlook the entire site. We really enjoyed the afternoon and the rest of our stay in Dubrovnik. The next day we caught the bus from Croatia into Kotor, Montenegro. In the last post I had commented on the natural beauty of the Croatian coast...well, the drive coming into Kotor took it up another notch. You have huge fjords with mountain rivers running into the blue waters. The gigantic grey mountains rise vertically so drastically that appears to have no slope at all, and they run directly into the waters. It was something truly amazing to see. Small towns dot the road as you make your way along the coast to Kotor. There was no camping in Kotor...but a lady at the bus station named Sandra took us to their house/rental apartments and we were able to stay there for the night for a really good price, so that worked out well. We spent the day climbing the ruins of the old fortress, which zig-zag their way up the mountain side, providing spectacular views of the city, the mountains and the ocean. The entire experience reminded us of climbing Macchu Pichu, very similiar weather and feel to the whole thing. At night, the entire path gets illuminated and it provides and incredible backdrop for the city. (We wish we would have climbed up prior to getting lodging, as I believe you could camp within the ruins and no one would say anything...pretty laid back set up) Again, we had great weather, so that was good. Our next stop was Budvha, Montenegro. Unfortunately, the heavy rains had set in again. We arrived in the early afternoon and decided to head for the Jaz Beach Camp, which was described as "a swampy campground" and, considering the weather, we figured this description would hold true. We took a local bus down the highway a few minutes and were dropped off at the end of the road. We walked towards the beach and came across the dilapitad and flooded camp sites of the Jaz Beach. It mainly consisted of abandoned campers with the windows busted out, a few empty buildings and a single, sagging tent set in the middle of the field with the poles falling in all directions. It was one of those things where you wonder if the people were still inside the tent....and had been for a couple of weeks. Overall, you got a sort of abandoned-small town-bad horror film kinda feel to it. (Dead things Mikey, dead things!!! name that movie) So we walked up the beach to where there were some more buildings and found a small restaurant with people inside. The owner said that there was no camping but that if we went down the street to the white house that we could camp there. So, down the street we went where we encountered a man and two women who said we could set up camp in the backyard. They had bathrooms and a shower, so it worked out really well. During the night, there was all sorts of loud wildlife noises coming from the fields behind the house...but there were a lot of cats around so I figured that it couldn't be anything too big. We awoke the next day and caught a break in the weather. We packed up and attempted to hitchhike back into town. We had read that hitchhiking was very common in Montenegro, we didn't see any signs of this in our experience, but, nevertheless, we made it back to town and caught another bus to Ulcinj. We took a taxi to the Velika Placa, the big beach, and found camping in a secluded, relaxing place owned by a man named Tomi....a good ol farmer type. It was a cool and beautiful night, and you could finally see the stars...yeah! We spent the next day under the sun at the beach, just relaxing. It was a good day. We then moved on to Albania. Albania was a communist country for 50 years until 1991. It was a country without private cars until that point and many of the buildings still have the very Soviet concrete look to them. Things are slowly changing, but going from a Communist nation directly into a democratic nation is an intense transition and it is still taking place. There are a ton of Mercedes Benz's around, which resulted from the huge black market for stolen cars during the initial free for all of Democracy. Yet, Albania is a beautiful country that is really fascinating to me, and the people are incredible. And now, the rest of the story...the same taxi drive took us across the border, yet he stopped at the last gas station and dropped off his taxi sign, apparently taxis can't cross the border. He dropped us off in Shkodra at the Furgone, minibus, station. Funny thing about these stations is that they seem to be in a constant state of flux and move from corner to corner, so you can't really pin them down, but the taxi drivers seem to know where the last stop for that day is. We took the furgon to Tirana, which is jam packed with cars and chaos. We were able to to travel from here to Berat, a mountain town that is on the Unesco World Heritage list for its preservation of Ottoman homes that climb the mountain sides. They are really beautiful. We hiked up the hills to overlook the city and to see the castle walls, which still house 200 families. We met some very friendly locals that liked to chat and just relaxed for the evening. We eventually made it down to Dhermi, a beach town in the south of Albania...it was a long journey but we got there. Luckily, some nice locals helped us during our journey, as when we got to Vlore, a city that we had to change buses in, no one knew where the next Furgon to Dhermi would leave from. A local "taxi driver" or guy with a car, took us to where he thought he last stop was. We sat there for a little while, speaking Italian, more or less, and watching things like cows wandering into traffic and what not(funny thing is that I have used Italian more in Albania than I did in Italy!). He kept saying that a bus should pass by, then his daughter called from the local university, so we went to pick her up cause she needed a ride, we then stopped to get lunch at a local Burek/Sandwich place, and then drove back to the waiting point. A bus passed us on the other side of the road and the chase was on....unfortunately a large truck was blocking the road and we couldn't catch the bus. So he drove us all the way to the other side of town, where his brother owns a restaurant to wait there as it is the only road out of town heading towards Dhermi that the buses would use. (all this for 2 bucks) By this time the sun was shining and we could sit by the ocean while waiting. He then offered to just drive us to Dhermi. We crossed through mountains, stopped to take photos and made it to the beach. We stayed practically on top of the ocean for the night, we got a really good deal because there was no running water at the time. We were able to watch the Inter Milan-Barcelona match with the locals at the hostel. The water and beach were pristine and we were able to sleep with the sound of the ocean just outside our door. The next day we hiked from the beach back up to the main road and waved down a passing furgone that took us to Saranda. The drive consisted of beautiful coastline and turquoise waters. We meet two locals on the bus that invited us to lunch when we got to Saranda and helped us find a place to stay for the night. They talked with the owner of the restaurant who got a friend to drive us to a place to stay for the night. The two guys who bought us lunch were from Vlore, far north from Dhermi, and asked if we had been invited to stay with any locals yet. When we said no, they assured us that if we were in their home town we could've stayed with them. Albanians are genuinely friendly and helpful people, truly warm. Tomorrow we are going to hang around town, maybe go to Ksamil, where you can swim to some islands, and then we are heading to Greece. The weather has been great and we are looking forward to some Greek sun and relaxation. Not too long before we get to cruise around Ireland with the Lowry Clan.....looking forward to it. That's all for now!