2nd Day! 6:00 am: direction Albania. The plan was to arrive in Saranda at 7:30 pm. The information on the internet were expired. Our first stop was in Shkodra/ Shkodër, the arrival time was unknown. We had to go with the flow and the chaos. We took a dolmus (a small mini van), an antique one. We understood why the day before it was broken! The weather was quite cold and fogg, at a certain point we enjoyed a sunrise, sorry no time to stop and take picture! This time, we went through the mountain and out of the sudden reached Albania. At the customs, it lasted 1 hours as usual. Everyone in the bus had their passport back but me ! From far away I heart someone calling my name : Ingrid. I was surprised as it was one of the customs official. He was talking to me in French (!!!) so I understood that he wanted to show off! He just asked me where I was going and why and that was it… I got my passport back and we kept on driving to Skhoder. After 1 :30 ride we finally arrived where a strong lady picked us up. We did not have the time to think and we were already in the bus. Welcome to Albania! From our point of view, it looked like chaos but it is the Albanian system and it works.
We have a pleasant journey from Skhoder to Tirana but cold… no heater in the bus! Once in Tirana, we relived our experience of Skhoder but at a bigger scale. We were in the capital ! Unfortunately we did not stay, our next job was waiting for us in Saranda! Tirana- Saranda was even better as the sun warmed us up! We are in Saranda! Videos: the first one is Skhoder from left to right: on the way to Tirana - Entering in Tirana - on the road to Saranda
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Dubrovnic HR Once in Dubrovnic, we called The Lanisters up but unfortunately they had an emergency and had to dissolve a new plot J. We thanked them warmly and waited one hour at the bus station where it rained cats and dogs. We had few Kuna left, we decided to change them. Our next country to go is Montenegro. The first question was: which currency does Montenegro have? We checked on our favourite app: OANDA. No information. We went to the currency exchange service and asked about it. It would have been a great moment to record our expressions on our faces when the lady announced: EURO! Montenegro has got Euro as a currency. We had to trust her and exchanged about 70 Kuna that made about 10 Euro. After recovering from this shock, we had thousand questions crossing our minds and were aware that we did not anything about Montenegro. You, reader and follower do you any idea? Our friend Wikipedia was at that moment missing. What kind of questions: what is the mother language? what is/are the religions? Why does Montenegro have Euro? What role has the country with the EU? How big is the country and what is the capital? Etc.. We had to wait until we arrived in Saranda to read about it after two days travel. We did not have access to Internet. Driving from Dubrovnic (Croatia) to Ulcinj (Montenegro) by bus was the occasion to discover the landscape and to get our first impressions of this country. A small country that reminded of Chili as the coast and the mountain are very close and in between narrow roads are squeezed. Since Dubrovnic, it was raining and even pouring and it had not stopped until we arrived at Ulcinj. We could perceived that we left the EU as it looks poorer, buildings were not really in a good shape and the communism still left its mark. Unlike Croatia, Montenegro has mixed religions. We could see in some villages more churches and even orthodox one in other more mosques. Advertisements, signs were bilingual: Russian and Latin. We arrived exhausted in Ulcinj at 3:00 pm (9 hours travelling), we still had to find either the next bus to reach Albania the same day or stay overnight. We could forget the first option because the bus was out of order that day. Thus we searched for a hostel. It was easy as in front of the bus station there were ROOMS TO RENT. After negotiating the price and checking the room, we chose to go to town. It was around 4pm. We could not wait any longer to have a hot shower and warm meal but it we did so we would have gone to bed at 5pm! Ulcinj Municipality is the centre of the Albanian community in Montenegro and has a population of about 20000. The majority ethnic group in Ulcinj are Albanians, followed by South Slavic nations and Roma people. The largest spoken language is Albanian and the major religion is Islam. Since the creation of the town, Ulcinj's main ethnic groups were Illyrians and Albanians, with a large number of Black people and South Slavs. Like lots of cities in the Balkans, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottoman ruled in the region and also in Ulcinj. In 1880, Ulcinj became part of Montenegro. Ulcinj's old town is a very well preserved castle-looking community that is left over from medieval times. The old town sits atop a mountain overlooking the shore and is a tourist attraction on its own. As far as we are concerned, we had a short but a nice time. We enjoyed walking to the old town and in the old town. We had the same experience as in Korcula, no one in the street. We arrived on time for the sunset. What stroke us are couple of things.: it is usual that men stand in the street talking, smoking cigarettes or just being in the street whereas women were totally absent. I had a strange feeling…The main street remained named after Tito, it might be still a hero? People were at the first sight quite cold but once having a conversation, they were friendly. We had a nice meal for 6 Euro for two people: a goulash and a beef stew (home-made!) included water and bread. Finally around 8pm we were back to the room where we had a hot shower and a nice sleep until 5:30 the very day.
Monday, second week, third day off. Today on the program, visiting Korcula, a city located 45 km away from Vela Luka, about 1h15 min by bus. We were looking forward to it as Korcula is a mini Dubrovnic. When speaking of Dubrovnic, what pops into your mind, GAMES OF THRONES!!! I know what a cultural reference but that ‘s the way it is. Korcula is an old medieval city, has now about 3000 inhabitants. It was first mentioned in 10th Century by a Byzantine. Then later, Korcula was ruled by Venetians. Century after century the medieval town changed its style and had diverse influences: Gothic (14th century), Renaissance (16th century), Baroque (17th century), earlier in 1571 Turks tried to invade Korcula but never succeeded. In the first half of the 19th century, right until the Second World War, Korcula was a small provincial town. After the Second World War modernized and new residential estates were built. One of the legend says that Marco Polo was born in Korcula… Korcula here we come! The old city was emptied, no one in the street and nothing was opened maybe a couple of shops! Of course it is November, only locals live in Korcula. The church where we spent 15 minutes was closed for the rest of the day. We were kindly asked to leave the premises. This was a great opportunity for photographers! We visited two villages: Blato and Dub. BLATO "Unter den Linden street": Where are we Berlin or Blato???? We are in Blato Croatia . The main attraction is the Linde street which is the longest Linde Street after Berlin! Blato is a small town (about 4000 inhabitants), located in the middle of Korcula Island. DUB Dub is an abandoned village, inhabitants went abroad when one day bugs invaded and destroyed their wineyards. They did not have any other ressources to earn money and they left everything behind. On a sunny Sunday morning, we (all three volunteers) decided to go for a walk before breakfast. It was around 8am. On our way back, one hour later, we greeted and wawed at some people, who were sitted around a table. "Doberdan" They invited us for breakfast: sauerkraut with beef and wine. We could not refuse this spontanous invitation. We found out that they were fishermen and hunters. On that sunny Sunday morning, they caught a rabbit, we had got a rabbit tail as a gift! We could communicate to each other in English. Although we had to go back to the yurt where work was waiting for us, we ate, drunk and talked during three hours about Croatia, Europe, and even brought up a delicate subject the war The fishermen and hunters laughed at us as no one worked on Sundays!!! As a matter of fact, on that sunny Sunday, we did not work! After work and lunch (around 3 pm), we took some time to walk around either to the beach or up the hill. There is still one church where on Sundays people come to pray, it is about 30 minutes walk from Potirna. We just went on a stormy day! Markus, Franka and Foxa (the dog) welcomed us at the harbour! We were all ready for the new adventure in Potirna! We were enthusiastic about the idea to work in an organic farm and to live in a yurt in Croatia. Mongolian style mixed with European one. At the first sight, it is a cool concept. But we were very surprised since 5 cats and 5 dogs slept in the yurt while we slept in a leaking tent. The first days, it was 6 -8 degrees outside during the night and the next days very stormy. The wind blew around 40 km/h, 5 days in a row, it was very tiring! Until 1950, due to this wind the court in Dubrovnic was closed as people could lose their mind! A part from the difficult sleeping conditions, we had fun working in the garden: seeding peas, radishes, and salad, chopping wood, making fire, learning how to use a chain saw, making frames for the peas, ploughing. The garden jobs were not easy as it seems because the soil is very hard and it requires patience and lots of work. Two attractions in the farm were the two goats named after the hosts mother name and the 5 chickens. After work, we had two challenges waiting for us: the cold showers outside. It was invigorating!!! The second one was the puppies cute but not behaved and also the kittens who had their wild time. We also had a new culinary experience: Dutch cuisine (smashed potatoes with carrots and onions), crepes with melted cheese inside or apples. (You cooked the dough with the cheese or the apples. Delicious! ). Besides, our hosts experiment new recipes: pumpkin ketchup, pickled eggs, mandarins jams, feta cheese, bread and they also cook with organic vegs and fruits that make the cuisine tastier. It was a real pleasure to have diner or lunch. We added a French (crepes), Turkish (dolma) and US (burritos) touch to it. J The last but not the least, Markus used to be a DJ and we felt like home as we could hear a FunkHaus Europa music all day long. We discovered Korcula Island where we hiked a couple of times to Vela Luka and to the church up the hill. It was creepy and spooky as the wind blew us away. Thanks our hosts we explored an abandoned village and enjoyed a tea and hot chocolate in Vela Luka. We took two days off. One was by chance when we met locals (fishermen and hunters) after a Sunday morning walk, the second on was planned. We decided to visit Korcula, the Mini Dubrovnic. We had a good time and it was a good experience. Every experience is a matter of adapting! DOEI!! Doberdan Hrvatska! (Hello Croatia!) We are back in Croatia, hoping for the best. We left Mostar early in the morning (6 am) to arrive at 10 am in Split. Full of positive energy. Let s the journey begin! The journey itself was pleasant since we went trough the mountain and ended up travelling along the coast. We were looking forward to having a free guided tour at 12 and know more about the 1700 years old city! It did not take long to have our first disappointments . When buying the ferry ticket, and after in town, people were rude and unfriendly. We did not feel comfortable at all. We had to take the tour at noon, we stayed positiv. Unfortunatly, the tour never occured as the guide never turned up!!! So we decided to look up on the internet J about Split and take nice pictures ! In a nutshell : Split was Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, Hungarian and even French with Napoleon (Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy's and its Illyrian Provinces), Austrian Hungary. After WWI it was part of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and after WWII Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and finally got its independence in 1991. Mostar is well known for its old bridge destroyed in 1993 and unfortunately its 18 months siege. As BIH, Mostar is a mixed city with Christians and Muslims. You have as well as mosques and cathedrales. Unfortunately, Mostar is still affected by the war as lots of buildings are not restored or abandonned. We went up to the stadion searching for the Partisan cemetery but the park does not even exist, it is also abandonned. We had very good food at the Hidin Han for a very good price! We let TOTORO out ... YES ! Now you will also follow its journey :))) What is Totoro ????? The film, My neighbour Totoro, tells the story of two young daughters (Satsuki and Mei) of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits (Totoro) in postwar rural Japan. Thanks to MAYUMI to bring us a Totoro from Japan! We were exited to take the train to go to our next destination. It was an adventure.
We should have left at 7:07 but we left ten minutes earlier! The train, we got in, was a donation from the Swedish government: two old good wagons with no heater and one for smokers and the other one for non smokers. It did not make a difference really. :))) Despite the cold, the trip was fun.
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