Some stupid dogs and a very confused rooster kept me awake half of the night, so I didn't really want to get up and only actually left the hostel around 10 am. Even for hitchhiking that's quite late, especially considering that I would have to get through the center of Tirana, the capital, somehow (there's no road around it, yet) and then cross a rather unpopular border crossing.
But anyway, no risk no fun! :D
After I had found the bus station in the center of Shkodra, I asked a girl wether there was actually busses to the Rozafa castle, which marks the end of the city. She was super helpful and told me where to get off a hundred times, but I went to the final stop anyway :D
From there I walked a couple of hundred meters, got out my warning west, and waited for 10 minutes until Uilson picked me up. Of course he spoke Italian, like almost everyone does here, but well.. I didn't.
He dropped me in the center of Lezhë, where he asked a friend working in a shop to help with translating. Said friend spoke excellent English and has had an Austrian girlfriend, whom he met in Greece, for 3 years. He explained that Uilson had to turn right here, but that the city wasn't big and I could easily walk to the other end of it.
That's exactly what I did, and after I had enjoyed my cheese burek that I had brought from the free breakfast at the hostel, I decided it's time to stop and wait for cars.
After 10 minutes a minibus going to Tirana stopped and, lazy, I asked how much the ride would be. The driver signaled me a 3 with his fingers and the young guy sitting next to him said it was 300 (a bit more than 2€). I said that I don't have 300 Lek (which I actually thought was true), and then waved them to continue, saying that I was hitchhiking anyway. There was an argument going back and forth between the young guy and the driver, then the guy said: "Come in, free of charge, you're hitchhiking!"
Okay then :)
The guy's name was Emigen, and he made the drive a very short one, because he instantly recognized my Deathly Hallows-tattoo and therefore was a really cool person. He grew up in Greece, but returned to Albania to study, and is now looking for a steady job as a hip hop-dancer. Also, if you're looking for a sugar boy, I think he would be quite worth it (fb: Emigen Cenaj) :D
He had told me that he actually no money and was living from one show to the next, but when we got off the bus in Tirana, I saw him paying much more than seemed reasonable. He paid for me, and would accept "only love" as repayment. I wasn't sure if that was an invitation, but I had to move on anyway :D
The highway around the city still wasn't finished when I arrived, so I started walking. The ice cream on the way put a huge smile on my face, and I even got to take a selfie in front of some important guy on a horse.
After 40 minutes, I reached the highway out of the city. Imagine having to walk through Vienna or Berlin just like that!
There I stood at a bus stup for 15 minutes, which felt like much longer for some reason. But then a tiny car with already 4 persons in it stopped, my backpack was somehow maneuvered in between the driver and his wife, and I squeezed onto one of the backseats. The guy next to me spoke some bits of English, and the driver tried with some Italian, but most of the time everyone was listening to some very beautiful acoustic songs in Albanian. We had a coffee break (I had tea, because my throat didn't feel too well), and then continued on the road to Korçë.
We were stopped by the police at least three times, but either seatbelts are not mandatory in Macedonia (I was the only one using it) or the driver was really good friends with all of them (he seemed to know everyone, maybe he was a policeman himself?).
They dropped me in Pogradec, the last Albanian town before the border, in the very south of lake Ohrid.
The street I was heading to, according to my map the main street around the lake, was completely abandoned. I wasn't allowed to use the toilet in a café because I wasn't a customer. My mood dropped a bit, after all it was almost 5 already and I hadn't actually booked a bed.
I started walking on the abandoned road ("alley" would be more suitable), but after some cars had passed me, Agim pulled over. He only had to go to a village closeby, but kindly drove me the extra 3 km to the border, after failing to convince me to stay on the Albanian side for the night.
I crossed the Albanian border by foot and already wanted to ask one of the cars waiting in line, but then remembered that it would probably be better to walk to the Macedonian one and wait after it.
Everyone seemed to be grumpy at the Macedonian checkpoint, and I really had to pee, so I felt like everything was happening unbelievable slow. At least 6 cars passed me, because they were either completely full or just ignorants. I was really impatient in this case, because everyone would have to pass the place I wanted to go to. Waiting can be really frustrating in situations like these.
Anyway, the car that actually had arrived at the Albanian border the same time that I had, finally slowed down for me. Bork and Silvana were of course going to Ohrid, and insisted on dropping me ff right in front of the door of the hostel.
Now the final risk: would they have a bed available? I rang the bell. Nothing happened for a moment, then Jonny opened the door.
"Hey, do you happen to have a bed available?"
- "Yes, we do, we're completely empty. You can have your own room!"
Sounds like Christmas to me guys!!
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