Albania!

We woke in the morning, after maybe 2 hours sleep, deep inside Albania! We couldn't believe we were finally here. The bus rolled into Tirana, dropping us off near the heart of downtown. We were so short on time now that we had to start exploring immediately if we were going to see the capital.

The first thing we found here was that Albanians are really nice. We stopped in a cafe, ordered a coffee, and after some debate, reluctantly asked the waiter if there was any chance of leaving our huge backpacks there, just for a minute, while we searched for a place to stay. "No problem" was the immediate answer, and they disappeared behind the bar. Later, the guy wouldn't even accept a tip.

Our first mission was to find a way to get from here to Croatia and get some reservations and tickets. After visiting endless travel agencies and bus companies, all who looked at us in disbelief that we were even thinking of trying to go west, we were recommended to an agency that could maybe help us. They quickly determined that they didn't have anything to sell us, but then the Albanian hospitality kicked in. They helped us figure out that if we could get to Sckodre, in the northern part of the country, we should be able to get a bus south into Montenegro, where there might be busses north to Croatia. A roundabout route, but there was a chance it would work. Then, they let us store our backpacks there for the day in their tiny office so we could go to the beach. That was unbelievable luck since we'd found no place to stay yet.

We explored the rest of downtown, the headed to the local bus station to ride down to Durres, on the coast, less than an hour away. On the way we visited a market, basically a street that they had closed to traffic and covered with an aluminum roof for quite a distance, as it winds back between buildings. For some reason, they sell enormous numbers of shoes. I mean, there were shoes as far as you could see, on the ground, on tables, hanging from every surface.... Albanians must really love shoes.