Greece, Albania, Kosovo & Macedonia

Hi everyone,

Well I'm not posting from Albania, and I didn't get to Montenegro, but I have travelled quite a bit. After my last entry I still had half a day in Israel so spent it visiting the City of David. It was interesting enough, with some nice views across the decrepit Arab side of Jerusalem, but the real highlight was Hezekiah’s tunnel. This was (according to the Bible) created around 701BC to provide Jerusalem with water during the Assyrian siege, but it wasn't the history that impressed me…it was the childlike pleasure gained from wading through waist-high water in a 530-metre narrow and claustrophobic tunnel. I regretted it later though as I had to fly with sodden, smelly trainers. Before I boarded however, I had to pass through ridiculously stringent security. Between entering the airport and taking my seat on the plane I was questioned three times, x-rayed twice (shoes and socks off), had my passport checked by seven different people, my bags scanned twice then both opened and emptied with each small item double checked (the security woman spent two minutes rigorously scanning a packet of cotton buds). In total it took over an hour-and-a-half to get from check-in to the departure lounge, and I didn’t even stop to buy a Toblerone.

In Athens I stayed with couchsurfer Asterios in a very nice flat. I spent two warm and pleasant days exploring the sights of the city including the impressive Acropolis, the National Archaeological Museum and Ancient Agora, where Socrates philosophised to the gathered crowds below. My favourite moment was watching the sun set over the sprawling city from Lykavittos and tucking into a souvlaki. I spent the next morning wandering the coast at Piraeus and the afternoon on Aegina Island. When I got home in the evening I received the timely email confirmation for my Tel Aviv-Athens flight. On Friday evening I caught a fifteen-hour overnight bus to Tirane and at the Albanian border I was forced to pay an extortionate one euro entrance fee.

We drove through the dynamic, cold and misty landscape towards the capital and I really began to feel that I was back in Eastern Europe. Tirane is unusually colourful however, as when Sali Berisha came to power in 1992 he gave free paint to all residents to revolutionise the grey Communist-era developments. If it wasn’t for the sinister red and black two-headed eagle flag peering at me from every direction I would have felt very welcome. I stayed with couchsurfers Miranda, Mark and Jeff and on the first night they had a Bon Jovi themed party. Unfortunately I hadn't the foresight to pack any tight jeans or vests for my travels so my costume consisted rather lazily of putting a bandana around my head...something I don’t think Jon actually ever did.

On Sunday the four of us went to Kruje. This is a beautiful hillside town with an incredible antique bazaar; you could make a fortune buying stuff here and flogging it back in England. Miranda bought a couple of Russian ration cards from 1912 for one dollar apiece, and I saw a pristine gramophone from a similar period for fifteen quid! Above the market there are some pleasant castle ruins with some nice views where we stopped to watch an Albanian wedding in progress below. On Monday I got up at the ludicrously early hour of 5.30am to catch a minibus to Shköder. This is because I planned to catch a 9am ferry to the Korab mountain range for the day, but upon discovering that the buses to the Koman ferry port weren’t running I decided instead to spend the day hiking above the lake. The views of the town below were spectacular, especially from Rozafe castle, and you could see pill boxes peppered across the landscape; they were built during Enver Hoxha’s regime to avert internal revolution or external invasion. When planning this part of my trip I had considered heading to nearby Ulcinj in Montenegro and travelling from there to Pristina, but to save me carrying my bag around I had scrapped this idea and decided to leave from Tirane.

On Tuesday I explored the city, which is home to some interesting statues and museums. The National Art Gallery was deserted so I wandered around the poorly-lit rooms by myself, slowly getting freaked out by the hundreds of life-sized statues staring at me with their pupil-less eyes. I also went to visit a beautiful statue of Mother Teresa. Incidentally, after national heroes George Skenderbeu and MT, the most popular figures in the country are George W. Bush (due to his role in Kosovo) and Norman Wisdom! The latter is so widely known in the country as he was the only Western actor whose films were allowed to be shown during the Communist dictatorship. When the England football team played Albania in 2001 his presence even eclipsed that of David Beckham! On Tuesday evening I caught an overnight bus to Kosovo, slightly disconcerted as upon boarding all the locals bade me "good luck".

I arrived in Pristina at 6.30am on Wednesday and walked to couchsurfer Enis’ place. It was immediately obvious that he was a little odd, but I had absolutely no indication of what was to come. I spent the morning exploring the Turkish bazaar and at 11am there was an annual parade to commemorate the death of Adem Jashari, commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Due to the country's newly declared independence there were hundreds of posters and t-shirts with Jashari's image and the slogan "Bac, U Kry!" (“Uncle, It’s Done!") I spent the rest of the day wandering around the city and returned to the house in the evening to find Enis watching porn on his computer with his mother and two sisters in the same room! I was a bit thrown by this behaviour but managed to convince myself that perhaps this was normal practice here. That evening Enis took me to a theatre production that he claimed would have subtitles in English...it didn’t. Consequently, I sat in the theatre like a chump for an hour and a half, watching the audience guffaw at the antics of the Up Pompeii-esque performance on stage. The most entertaining aspect of the night for me was hearing people fart loudly and unashamedly throughout the show. On the way home everything I said was interpreted by Enis as a homosexual innuendo, even when discussing innocuous and unrelated topics like my journey or his university work...it was like hanging around with an especially immature eight-year-old. Back at the house his relatively normal sister spent a while explaining the new Kosovan flag to me; the six stars are supposed to symbolise Kosovo’s major ethnic groups (Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Gorani, Roma and Bosniaks). However, having spoken to people from other areas of the Baltics before and since, it is almost unanimously believed that they are actually representative of the six territories that most Albanians want to fashion into a Greater Albania; parts of Montenegro, Serbia, Greece and Macedonia to be added to Kosovo and Albania.

The next day I left the house before anybody else was up and caught a bus to Prizren. The town is very pretty and I decided to walk up to the castle ruins above the city. At midday all the mosques begin their call to prayer and from the peak it sounded like a choir. Back in the town I tried to enter several Serbian Orthodox churches but found them closed by Kosovan troops – I hope this is not censorship since the independence. From Prizren I caught a northerly bus to Peja, but it was gone 4pm by the time I arrived. I just had time to walk to Patrijaršija Monastery, the "Sistine Chapel of the Serbian Orthodox world", but was turned away by the troops at the gate. Oh well. On the bus back to Pristina a bloke came and took the seat next to me. I apologised for taking up so much room (my legs were spilling over to his side) but, gesturing to the woman in front, he replied "it’s fine, I just didn’t want to sit next to the nigger!" I immediately asked him to let me out, stood up and took a seat next to the woman in front. I felt all political and righteous (like a white Rosa Parks) before the woman started shouting and trying to push me off my seat. I had to slink off and find another spot.

In the evening I went to a bar with Enis and two of his friends. I struggled to make conversation for a couple of hours with people I had nothing in common with, but what I thought had been an awkward evening became a lot more so when we arrived home and Enis tried to kiss me. When I backed away to explain that I wasn’t interested he plunged his hand down my trousers, at which point I angrily pushed him out of the room. He ran upstairs calling me a homophobe and I paced around, wondering what to do. My obvious instinct was to leave but it was 2am and I had nowhere to go. In the end I hung around in the room until 5.30am then walked to the bus station to get the first bus to Macedonia. I left a note explaining that not wanting to have your cock fondled by another man isn’t homophobic, it simply isn't homosexual. I haven’t heard back from him.

On arriving in Skopje I met a couple who immediately restored my faith in the community. Kristijan and Nina fed me breakfast, set me up a bed so I could have a mid-morning nap then took me to the pub with Kristijan’s brother Daniel, who happens to be a kind of football Rain Man (he knows every score from all the European leagues this season – even Doncaster Rover’s results!) In the evening we went to a house party and I was introduced to (and became firm friends with) the local beer. Afterwards Kristijan, who was very drunk, drove us home. It’s strange how you just accept the norm in different cultures – there’s no way I would get in a car with a drink-driver in the UK.

I spent the next couple of days seeing the surrounding area. We took Nina’s dog for a walk along the dams at Lake Matka on Saturday, and on Sunday Kristijan and I went hiking up Mt. Vodno. The mountain overlooks Skopje and the huge cross on top is visible from anywhere in town. The walk was very pleasant and the views across the city and its suburbs are amazing. Kristijan managed to turn a potentially healthy day into a long drinking session – we had rum at the top, stopped for beer on the way down and were on the whisky at a live music bar in the evening. Yesterday I caught a bus to Ohrid, three-and-a-half hours south of Skopje. As you walk from the station to the centre you gradually discover the small Old Town of winding narrow cobbled streets and quaint gift shops. At the end of the main street you come across the huge and dramatically beautiful lake, with snow-capped mountains plunging straight into the water. And as you walk along the lakefront you come across more and more scenes of beauty – stunning small Macedonian Orthodox churches perched on jutting rocks and old city walls. High above this all there is a large fortification which, though closed, has lovely views across the red roof tiles of the town below. In the evening I sadly said goodbye to my new favourite town, but certain that I will return.

Today was very rainy so I didn’t go out very much. I haven’t experienced very good weather in Macedonia but at least it’s reasonably mild; the country is notorious for their extreme seasons, with temperatures having reached 46˚c in summer and plummeted to -27˚c in winter. I did manage to nip out for a couple of hours earlier this afternoon to see some sights and stumbled across a betting shop called ‘Wil Hil’, using half of the William Hill logo. The laxness of copyright laws has been noticeable throughout Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia, with an internet café in Tirane called ‘Yahoo!’ (using the famous logo), an orange drink in Kosovo called ‘Tango’, and ‘fotokopje’ places on every street corner (it’s cheaper to copy an entire library book than to buy it new). McDonald’s refuses to launch in Albania because of two copycat chains – ‘Donald’s’ (written in the same type) and ‘Koronin’ (which uses a yellow M logo on a red background).

Tomorrow morning I head to Sofia, Bulgaria. I will do my best to post a little sooner next time – four countries in one post is mildly ridiculous.

Take care,
Joe x

PS. I was very annoyed to hear about the earthquake in England right after my last post. I’ve travelled halfway around the world to have this amazing experience and I could have stayed at home. I have now scrapped future plans to go to South East Asia – I’ll just plonk myself down on a beach in Cornwall and wait for the first tsunami to hit.