Ludwig's Odyssey: Albania & Montenegro

A couple of days driving from the south of the Peloponnese took us to the Albanian Border.

We had no insurance to drive here and our insurance company wanted a stupid amount to cover us for the short time we would be there. I had read about buying a green card at the border so we took a chance and it turned out to be fine. For the princely sum of €49, we got a green card to drive through the country.

As I’d mentioned before, there wasn’t much that piqued our interest here so we only stayed the two nights.
The first night we stoped at Gjirokaster, an old Ottoman stronghold, with some old houses and a fort. It was interesting to see a bit of what Albania had to offer—aside from beaches or the Greek/Venetian ruins at the very south, near Corfu—but we didn’t hang around long in the town, the weather had turned quite dramatically bad in fact (if only for a day), it was cold and wet—a bit of a shock and no mistake after glorious sunshine and heat for so many weeks. We walked about for a couple of hours, ate some Burek, a very tasty sort of filo pastry meat pie, and went to a small campsite near by. They had a nice restaurant here, and so for a change that evening we ate out and had some traditional fare, a sort of smorgasbord of various meats, cheeses, some arancini type things, Burek etc…really quite nice.

The second day, we just drove through the country really, the roads are actually pretty good for the most part—well the main trunk road through the country is anyway, the mountain road we took the day before was a bit dodgy and very slippery.
The south part, beautiful in the mountains, the northern part, not so much in the plains, many ugly towns to drive through, built in that awful cheap concrete style that the communists preferred (apparently it’s the same in the capital Tirana, hence why we didn’t bother going), lots of people on the side of the road selling whatever they have to offer, the usual fruit and veg, alcohols etc..but the most unusual was a guy holding up baby domestic rabbits up to the passing traffic. There’s also quite a bit of Police presence on the roads. We were stopped and thought ‘oh oh’, but the policeman just reached into the van, turned the headlights on and smiled and said off you go.
That night we found a little campsite near the border, it was just us and a nice Czech couple with their dog. By the seaside, we enjoyed a wonderful sunset which actually looked like it set behind the sea, a rare thing to see normally as clouds or pollution spoil the view.

So onwards and into Montenegro (The Black Mountain), another country that we had to pay a green card for, this time though, only €15.
We had wanted to visit this country when we first looked at what route we would take, the mountains of course being the attraction but now in late September, early October it’s not the best time to go hiking as the weather can be unpredictable.
The contrast driving in was immediate, a bit cleaner (there was a lot of plastic rubbish in Albania, although northern Greece was not that much better), and the roads in better shape.

Our first stop, some 40 mins after the border crossing, was Stari Bar, (Stari or variants of, meaning Old in a lot of slavic languages). Not much there really, a few old buildings and a vast ruined fort complex with a wonderful setting and views of the mountains around and down to the Adriatic.
The next day, we stopped over to have a quick look at Sveti (Saint) Stefan, a posh holiday resort which was once just a medieval village on a rock. Very picturesque but off limits if you are not staying there, apparently Liz Taylor and Richard Burton used to stay there…
We quickly moved on to Budva, just 10 minutes away, which is a miniature version of Dubrovnik so the tourist guides tell you. On a pretty setting by the port, the old walled city doesn’t take long to walk around, but it’s a really nice place with boutique shops, pretty stone buildings and small alleyways to walk around in, which is in deep contrast to the modern Budva on the other side of the city walls, all big hotels and restaurants…
We then decided to head inland and up the mountain, we’d read about this small campsite situated down a small track, not easily accessible by the masses, so it sounded like our type of place, back to nature, fantastic views and not much else, save a cold shower and toilet. Apart from a couple arriving after dark with their tent, we were pretty much alone with the very sweet girl that welcomed us, she spoke great english so it gave us the opportunity to find out about Montenegro from a local’s point of view and we tried some delicious alcohols which her family made, always good fun to try the local liquor.

From there, we headed east briefly to stop at a village called Rijeka Crnojevica, a twisty drive down the mountain to the river and a good place to book a boat trip to lake Skadar, and also to dine in one of the best restaurants in the country apparently, that is if you like eel, carp and trout, trout ok but we’re not big fans of eel or carp really… We had a quick look around, took a couple of photos of the photogenic bridge and then headed back up and west to Centije, the old capital of Montenegro (it’s now Podgorica, which is of little interest, even the local girl from the campsite said don’t bother…)
There’s a couple of old royal buildings but mostly it’s a nice town to just be in and pretty much off the beaten track, mostly frequented by locals from Podgorica and around, especially on a Sunday lunch time.
Our journey continued through Lovcen national park, up up up we went through the mountains and when we got to the top we were rewarded with excellent views down to the Bay of Kotor, one of the most scenic and beautiful natural wonders in the Adriatic. Although not geologically correct, it looks like a fjord, you can stare at it for hours, which we did later on that afternoon.
We drove down some more, stopping over at a viewing platform in which we could just about see the old city of Kotor, and then a few kilometres later parked over for the night at the derelict Fort Gorazda, not really that derelict but abandoned enough to be deemed unsafe for the coach tours it seems. It’s a shame really that more people don’t get to enjoy it, it’s fun to scramble around it, some really dark passages with a few bats here and there, and then a spiral stone staircase that takes you to the top, so you can admire the absolutely stunning views over the bay. The sunset that night was just as good. What a fab day that was!

And so to Kotor the following day. A bigger version of Budva and with three cruise ships in town that we could see from our vantage point at the fort, it was going to be busy in there. We waited for the morning clouds to pass to get a few more photos over the bay with the sun behind us, but they didn’t budge so it wasn’t to be, which meant by the time we got into Kotor, so had everyone else. Being very close to Dubrovnik, many day trippers also tour here, not just the cruise ships.
Even so, it’s another wonderful place to walk around, if you like old walled medieval towns, cobbled streets, pretty stone buildings, which we do, so we did, even if a lot of what you can see today dates from the lates 1980s. There was a devastating earthquake here in 1979, a lot of the old buildings were damaged and had to be repaired/rebuilt.
We also enjoyed some more wonderful Burek from a bakery. We could have climbed up to the monastery and fort at the very top (for a fee), to look down over the old city but as we had already enjoyed such wonderful views the day before, we thought we would save our € for something else (more Burek maybe…)

Heading west out of Kotor and towards Croatia, it’s a wonderful drive, the road hugging the bay nearly all the way around. We stopped off here and there to just admire the views, also taking the opportunity to walk around another beautiful old town, Perast (apparently Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones bought a place here).

For our last night in Montenegro (it’s a small country, it doesn’t take long to get across it on the coast roads), we stopped over a place to park up for the night, again with cold showers and a a toilet but the views over the bay sold it.
We thought we would be alone, but just before dark, a German couple stopped over here too. We got chatting to Andi and Sanne and enjoyed a few beers together telling each other our life stories. They are such nice people and it’s always good to meet up with fellow rockers.

Well, it was a brief visit to these countries, perhaps we didn’t do them justice enough but we enjoyed them none-the-less.

Gjirokaster