albania and montenegro

13-14 august
Sitting in our camp chairs with a nearly full moon above and a smooth glass of Montenegrin cabernet in hand, we laughed about the road through Albania. It wasn’t so funny as we were driving it. It took us 5.5 hours to drive 95 miles. As we drove, we tried to come up with ways to describe it. He said it best: it’s like a service road out in the mountains somewhere that is closed to the public. At the end of it, is a radio tower or something like that. People walk on it on their way to hiking trails. Another attempt to describe it is that it’s like a road that you drive when you’re looking for your mountain campsite. Or it’s a hiking or goat trail. We didn’t actually drive over the pass. We drove along the edge of the pass, no hard shoulder, no barricades. This is why we were warned not drive at night. This is a national road, by the way. At least Albania doesn’t try to charge a road tax for such a thing like Bulgaria does. The road improved slightly after Tirane because we were out of the mountains. But it deteriorated quickly. There were more patches from filled potholes then road.

the albanian national road. it is the main road to the border with montenegro. i drove this bit. paul's section of road was far more harrowing. we don't have any photos of that because it was all we could do to drive!

pill boxes. we read about these and wondered if we'd see any. paul took this photo just after the border into albania. no need to stop there though. they are everywhere. who would invade albania?

tirane has tried to make their soviet block apartments look better. i think they've done a good job.

this pill box has been turned into a tattoo parlor.

We stumbled onto our Montenegro camp site, but couldn’t have made a better choice if we’d searched all day. It’s near Budva, the most popular section of coast in Montenegro. We’re just outside the village of Sveti Stephan, which is on an island. When we arrived yesterday, we set up camp and made our way to the water, down a winding path. We landed on a stretch being used by very fit, naked men. I enjoyed it, but Paul set a steady pace up the beach to where there were families. Oh well. Our camp site has its own small beach with a bar and beautiful, beautiful water.

our camp site beach

There is no sand, just small, smooth pebbles and clear, clear water. We went into Budva today and saw the walled city, and went to the beach near the island, but our camp site had the best beach. We expected crowds, but it was quiet and easy to find space both in and out of the water. If you like beach holidays, go to Budva.


sveti stephen