Some
days nothing seems to go right but today things worked out perfectly. When we dropped the car off at the Podgorica airport I didn’t think we had a chance to make it into Albania today. But our taxi to the bus station arrived
just in time to catch the bus to Ulcinj, where Lonely Planet said we could find a bus to Albania. No bus but we shared a taxi with Dave
to Shkodra, just across the border, where a mini-bus was waiting to take us all
the way to Tirana, the capitol.
Dave lives in Vancouver but has been staying in the Czech Republic for
the past few months teaching English.
He’s traveling to Greece to meet up with some of his buddies for a
sailing holiday.
In
Tirana Dave headed south and we set off to find a hotel. When I asked a young woman if she knew
of one, Eralda offered to show us a nice, inexpensive place in the “student
district,” even though it was nowhere near where she was headed. While I went to the ATM Connie got
Eralda’s history. She is a 19
year-old pharmacy student from Pefhkopia, near the Macedonian border. She is a serious Muslim and though cute
as a bunny, doesn’t have time for a boyfriend.
She
ushered us onto a crowded bus and even paid our thirty-cent fare, insisting
that a taxi is a waste of money.
Several stops later she led us up a maze of cobbled alleyways to Hotel
Studenti, then negotiated the rate so that we wouldn’t be charged as
foreigners. The room was dark and
the toilet seat is missing but otherwise it is quite OK. It has satellite TV with several
English channels and handful of porn stations, too. We still don’t have a clue where we are but it will be fine
for one night.
If we had gotten to the bus station in Podgorica a minute later none of this would have worked out!
