Route map

Our route in Google maps, including our campsites. Have a look! Just click on the map to open it.

Baltic Sea Impressions

Italian intermezzo

Of course we raced through Russia for only one reason; to get to Italy! We left our Lada with the drunken Brits on stagnight in Riga, flew to Milan, got chauffeured into an Audi-with-airco to lake Como, looked for George Clooney in Bellagio, but most of all: went to the wedding of little sister Carolien to her now husband Marc. All ultra romantic and relaxed, and a very welcome break from the Soviet wilderness and packs of noodles. Bad news: we had to fly out of this idyllic world to drive Lada home…

DRAMA!

Monday mornıng we left our lovely lake for Greece. What an utterly unınspırıng place! Flat. Borıng. Rude ınhabıtants… If ıt was not for all thıs old stuff scattered around the place (every pıle of stones ıs called an archeologıcal sıte – ıf only they would sıgnpost theır hıghway exıts thıs well!) ıts really not clear what thıs part of the world has to do wıth cıvılısatıon. Thınkıng of ıt, what ıs all thıs fuzz about allowıng Turkey to become an EU member whıle we dont have sımılar concerns about Greece beıng part of ıt? Greece out, Turkey ın, thats us happy. So anyway, we found thıs place on the map that summed ıt all up: a lıttle place called DRAMA! Some people mıght guess why Davıd just had to see the place… Of course ıt was as borıng and rude as expected – absolutely nothıng there apart from one hotel on the outskırts. And of course no one spoke Englısh (as ıf we were goıng to have conversatıons ın the fırst place).

Lady Lada found the place somewhat dırty too…

And after thıs of course ıt started raınıng…

But luckıly we never lost faıth. Jezus swıngs wıth us all the tıme. And just ın case he doesnt lead us the way, we have some more modern equıpment to never loose track of where we are goıng…

And the good thing was… again?

Ok, so one might think we were slightly negative about our Albanian experience (true!). But what Albania lacks in quality is compensated for in quantity. Military bunkers all over the place, weapons freely available, speedless limits. On the plus side: we forgot to mention the huge amounts of food served during our last stop before the border. For some 500 Albanian rupees (or what was it again) we got this huge plate with 12 fresh deep fried fish of some local sort – quite tasty actually. Really. And during one of our interactions with the locals (of course when asking for directions) we were answered in Dutch (jawel!) by a lovely bleach blonde who had lived in the Netherlands for a while. Didn’t ask why, but the road to Elbasan was immer gerade aus. Which was true in some sense.
The only reason for still going on about Albania is that today’s adventures are limited to next to nothing. We took a day off in Ohrid, Macedonia, to sample some local culture. Monasteries, icons, churches, that kinda work. Well and the rest/most of the day we slept and strolled along the lake. Beautiful. Anyone know the meaning of the word ‘balansdag’? Well one of those. Which reminds me. Dinner last night was great. We went to this restaurant called ‘BAD’ and guess what. Indeed! David went for the safe option: pizza! Ingrid tried some local specialty which looked pretty sound on the menu. It turned out to be some meat mix of undetermined destination with lots of salt added (een platgeslagen pond gehakt zeg maar, met allemaal van die smakelijke dingetjes erdoorheen om de vleessmaak te verbloemen). Yummy! So tonight we are going to try restaurant ‘GOOD’ and check out the local specialties there. Tomorrow hitting Greece. Ciao for now!

Macedonıan nıghts

Okay so we dıd fınd a GOOD restaurant ın thıs lovely place on the lake. You know what ıts lıke – try some fresh local fısh and add some wıne that goes wıth ıt nıcely. Result attached.
davıdenjoyıngfoodınmacedonıa

Friday the 13th: Lets go to Albania

Travelling through Kosovo did not seem such a good idea after all, even though Ingrid had just discovered the perfect shortcut (something to do with ‘politics’ in ‘that area’ as a kind lady pointed out with some gesture). And what else could one do on Friday the 13th than embark on a trip to Albania. Border crossing was quick and easy. The border consist of not more than a wooden barn. Pay some euros, get a smile and a stamp. But then.

The road was awful and the traffic hell. Every kilometer or so there was a small monument for a poor guy that had died in a road accident. All these heartbreaking monuments with pictures of the victims surrounded by plastic flowers did not stop any Albanian driving like crazy and overtaking without any sense of overview of potential trafffic approaching. Finding your way in Albania ain’t easy with hardly any signs or sense of direction, which is not helped by the fact that English is not spoken widely…. But then again, we had close encounters with the full range of Mercedes makes and types of the last few decades. The Albanian drives a Merc or a horsecarriage. Not much choice in between. Our Lada was not subjected to any speed controls by the way….

Right, so we managed to find a hotel which was more like a brothel, but hey it did have a bed. A big bed. With a big mirror.

It took us almost a full day to get out of the place. We ended up in Macedonia which looks like heaven compared to Albania and is actually quite nice! Beautiful lake Ohrid in the South, with a decent mix of culture and civilisation (see pictures). More later!

Two questions remain:
Why is 75% of the cars an old Mercedes?
Why do they all speak Italian and not English?

Anybody?

On our way to Albania in better times, how naive.

Albanian transport

Typical view along the way: Rubbish and concrete mushrooms

And all this just to find…
Civilisation and a Mac in Macedonia!

Swapping tires

Swapping the front tires with the back tires so they get equally worn. More important: see the universal magazine posters on the walls… No moslims then. Those ladies.

Sunset in Dubrovnik

Just outside the Dubrovnik city walls we found this cafe where one could watch the sunset over the sea, have a sip of something and reflect on hours of driving… It was as nice as it looks. No better!

Having a drink in Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik and surroundings