Blog Albania – rollercoaster ride through potholes

The airport in Memmingen seems to be pure Bavaria. Outward journey through mountains, Leberkäs in the restaurant and even the WiFi is called Bayern-WLAN. But there is a contradiction to the traditional Bavarian style: the whole hall is full of Albanians and Germans with an Albanian background. Now it won't be difficult for you to guess where my Easter vacation is going. The title says it anyway.

The airport in Memmingen is smaller than Frankfurt or Zurich, but the atmosphere is the same. It smells of adventure, the pain of saying goodbye and cleaning supplies (except for the toilets). People greet or say goodbye to their loved ones, passengers nervously check their valuables or, stressed during the security check, try to get all the power banks and laptops out of their backpack as quickly as possible and not to forget their belt. Others wander around and can't find their gate. Luckily the ticket is checked again when boarding the plane, otherwise some Irmgards would probably accidentally fly to Lisbon instead of Oslo.

In the middle of this hustle and bustle are two aspiring teachers who are taking the next flight to Tirana. Apart from the extra legroom, our arrival was pretty unspectacular, except that Henrik tried to enter through the diplomatic queue and the water didn't work in our first Airbnb in the city. This is almost as stressful for two designated warm showerers as the ice-cold water for showering after rafting a few days later. But more on that later.

The next morning we picked up our car, a VW Golf (fortunately not a GTI, because you're probably familiar with the memes about GTI drivers). Then straight into Albanian city traffic, where traffic rules are creatively interpreted and, for example, B. there is pure anarchy in the roundabout. But over time I've learned that you just have to drive without fear and it'll be fine. The more ruthless one drives forward, so to speak.

At this point I would like to thank my parents, who always believed in me despite initial difficulties at driving school and ultimately made this performance possible for me. :D

Now I'll briefly leave the chronological order of my blog and tell you in general about the Albanian roads we drove on this week. These were presented as quite difficult in advance, which is why we chose fully comprehensive insurance for our car (it later turned out that this wasn't a mistake).

Herds of sheep or goats on the road, unpredictable road users from pedestrians to donkeys to bigwigs, inadequately marked construction sites and nasty potholes in impossible places are omnipresent. Anyone who signals left can also turn right and anyone who signals to the right can also turn left. People overtake even in the mountains, as if there were no tomorrow and there would be no oncoming traffic. A Gaul from around 50 BC. Chr. would probably say: “The Albanians are crazy”.

There were also a few police checks on the streets. Maybe they are already looking for the right Bayern coach here in Ulis Gnaden...

Google Maps is also not a good idea, because impassable slopes and trails are repeatedly shown as reasonable roads. But it all sounds worse than it is. The roads are often quite empty and you have a free ride with a great view of the landscape.

In Tirana I once again noticed that in a new country, some things seem unusual and special and some others seem familiar, but in a different way. In Albania, the different mentality between the big city and the country is noticeable. In the country, people fit the stereotype of helpful and warm people, while in the city many are more preoccupied with themselves.

Our first trip was by car to Lake Bovilla, just north of Tirana. The view is already breathtaking from a developed viewing point. We wanted to go even higher to the summit of Gamti Mountain, which turned out to be more adventurous than expected. I don't think we were ever on the hiking trail according to the GPS data and had to work our way up slopes with scree and unfortunately had to turn around halfway through because we couldn't continue up. We also had a nice view from here.

Things got quite adventurous back and we had to fight our way through the Albanian undergrowth and work hard for every meter of progress. We got closer and closer to the rock face and witnessed a rockfall live 50 meters in front of us. Pretty awesome. If we had had a break that was fifteen minutes shorter… well, whatever.

Eventually we found the way and didn't have to spend the night in the forest. When parking the car, which we had to reverse between two trees due to a lack of parking space, creativity was also required to avoid a scratch on the side. A jacket as a poster between the side door and the tree ultimately helped.

Afterwards we continued to Berat, including an overnight stay in accommodation in a castle and with a great view at breakfast in the morning.

Our hostel dad, who actually couldn't communicate with us verbally, but the first thing he said every time we met was "Piano Piano". Either he likes playing the piano or he thinks Germans are stressful people.

The next day in Berat, the third since we landed, we took part in rafting in the Osum Gorge. The journey there was in a van over hill and dale. You shouldn't get seasick quickly. There were two boats for the rafting and as a well-travelled Lisa (although not Australia) I can say that there are more challenging waters. But the view inside the gorge and the waterfalls were awesome.

We also met a group from Sweden while rafting. I think they also have a fun trip together, very nice people. Only on the dinghy they didn't look like real Vikings. :D

Everyone was also quite interested in a scratch I had on my hand. If I hadn't told the truth that I clumsily cut myself on the locker and said something like it was a crocodile that attacked our boat, they would now think I was as badass a rafter as I am. Oh well, next time .

The next day we wanted to visit a river, hot springs and an azure spring. However, this plan was ambitious in terms of a pure travel time of around five hours. That's why we leave extra early. After 1.5 hours of driving, my cell phone suddenly rang and the boss of our rental car company was on the line. What do you think he wanted to tell me? Please take a minute to choose the correct answer.

A: We won a competition and the prize was the rental car itself.

B: He wanted to accompany us on our trip.

C: We were about to go off-road, which would mean a €200 fine.

Of course you chose answer C and since the ref salary doesn't allow for unplanned expenses of €200, unfortunately we had to turn around and drive back another 1.5 hours. The rental car man recommended this decision to us in very eloquent but almost threatening English. :D

I'm going to risk the truth now, at the risk of him reading this blog too. We drove off-road an hour before he called and only turned back after the undercarriage hit rocks for the third time. It was probably so off-road that even their GPS recognition didn't notice.

Ultimately we had to drive back via Berat towards the coast and at the end of the day we were in the car for 8 hours.

When the advertised viewpoint on the Vjosa River, which we had great difficulty reaching in sunlight, turned out to be a gas station, you could have gone crazy that day. But we weren't and then we visited another great viewpoint.

A rebooking of the accommodation meant that we were still able to do everything the following day. Here I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Sounds strange, but in the end the wasted day in the car gave us a more relaxed day afterward, because we were able to visit the things there without having to drive too long.

Then we headed towards the coast to soak up some sun. On the following beach day we had the sunniest weather of the whole trip and over 25 degrees, things went pretty well. The sun was so good that I had funny patterns of sunburn in the evening. I'll probably never learn how to apply cream properly...

The beaches we visited were also quite beautiful, see for yourself. You could even find reasons.

On the last full day we were allowed to hike on the Llogara Pass. Climbing a few hundred meters for these views was definitely worth it. Although hiking shoes instead of running shoes would probably have been useful on the scree. My heels hurt a lot the next day. I packed very spartanly and somewhat wildly anyway. There was no room for proper swimming trunks, but there was room for a chess set.

On the last evening we visited what was supposed to be the largest gym in Albania, which couldn't really hold the expected size (smaller than the Happy Fit). But the receptionist was nice.

For the sake of completeness, I will finally present you with an excerpt from Luka's (and Henrik's) lifelong learning with stories that I can no longer bear to formulate:

• Caesar salad contains chicken and is not for vegetarians.
• Vegetarians in Albania primarily have grilled vegetables with rice, otherwise everything is very meat-heavy.
• The Albanian undergrowth is dense and unruly.
• Albanians think we love their traditional music and turn it on when we come into the restaurant and off when we leave.
• Comprehensive insurance is worth it.
• You can buy passports at the tourist market.
• In Albania you can hardly pay by card anywhere, but at the airport there is an EC device just lying around

We are just leaving Albania again and you look down at the landscape from the plane again and realize how privileged you are to be able to see these places. Well, lessons will be prepared again tomorrow. If anyone has a good idea on the topic of “comprehension of non-fiction texts”, please get in touch.