Tag 56 At the lake just before the Albanian border - Porto Palermo Absolute virgin territory

We are in a queue at the Albanian border. We are curious to see if they have anything to say about our copied insurance card. They still check here properly. Burki tries to speak Albanian Good day, I think we already had them on our side. A quick look at the license plate: Ah German, followed by a smile and the barrier goes up. Welcome to Albania, we will soon receive a flyer with the most important information about the country. I found that very nice. Now we dedicate ourselves to two important things: withdrawing money and getting a new SIM card. We drive to Gjirokaster, Burki stays in the car, I start walking. Soon I enter a Vodafone shop. A young girl serves me perfectly and after about 30 minutes I have 15GB for 3 weeks. Since Albania is not yet in the EU, it will be too expensive, for example with Aldi Talk. I feel like a king and look for a bank. The ATM did not accept my Visa card. So into the bank. A lady helps me and accidentally enters a pretty high amount with her long red fingernails. So sorry, but now I was rich 50,000 Lek. It sounds like a lot, but it's only 400 euros. Everything is done, we start to the Blue Eye spring. An absolutely tourist spot. If there wasn't: you want to see it if you're already here. We go separately. In Greece we met people whose car was broken into here. The special thing about the spring is the blue tones it produces due to the white limestone in the background. Yes, it looks really great. It's called blue eye because where the spring bubbles out, it's really dark blue. But as is often the case in such places, the many people are annoying. We think about driving to the coast again. We have heard several times that it has been built up now. But you always need your own experience. Accordingly, we eventually gave up the search and are not as nice this time. But this was already made up for this morning. I ran up to the old fortress very early with my gym mat. Wasn't far. There I meet a man with a few goats. He greets me, takes me to a fig tree, shakes and hands them to me. He can even speak a little German and teaches me the first two Albanian words. Then he shows me the fortress. I love such encounters. They are so valuable. On the platform of the fortress I can now do gymnastics and write a blog with a magnificent view.