Albania

Once we left the ship and passed through immigration to Albania, we hit the road. Our destination was Berat. It was only 60 miles, but the trip took us nearly two hours. That gives you an idea of what the roads were like.

It wasn’t that the roads were filled with potholes, necessarily, it was that we had to drive through all the little towns and a jillion roundabouts. Plus, the speed limit was ridiculously slow, somewhere between 20-45 miles per hour. Still, it was mostly an easy drive.

We had a nice day for driving and along the side of the roads, farmers were out selling their crops. We were fully stocked, but were very tempted to stop for leeks. Every single stand had some. They came in bunches of around 20 and were about three feet tall. The leeks were so neon green, Steven thought they might be seen from space. We could certainly see them from a fair distance. We never did get any because who can eat that many leeks?

Once we reached Berat we had a choice of two campgrounds and a parking lot in which to stay. We, naturally, chose the one furthest from town and hardest to reach. I mean, it wasn’t hard, per se, getting there required driving through a construction zone and then on a very busy road that, for the most part, had room for only one vehicle. There was precious little room to pull over, but somehow we made it up there.

We had told ourselves that if we weren’t happy there we would move to the other campground, but we loved it. The view was gorgeous and the price was right at €10 including electricity. Plus, a BIG plus, the washer and dryer were free. The dryer, surprisingly, was the best one we have found in all our European travels, hands down.

So what is it that brought us to Berat? Good question. It was a dentist. I mentioned in a previous post that our travel friends at travelwithkevinandruth.com had spent a few months in Albania both before and after they took possession of their motorhome, Max. While there last spring, their Airbnb host introduced them to Dr. Ervis Qalliu when Kevin experienced a dental issue. Things evolved from there, but there were a couple of reasons we decided to follow in their footsteps.

First, it was easy for us to get to Albania. It had never been on our radar, but Greece certainly has been for a long while. There wasn’t much difference in taking a ferry from Italy to Greece than taking a ferry from Italy to Albania and then driving into Greece. And, we’d add a new country to our European travels. What’s not to love?

Second, with only three weeks at the ranch, it was difficult to get appointments for both of us and then subsequent one(s) for additional work. As much as we truly love our dentist in Abilene, it is very difficult to get an appointment with him with short notice.

Third, and probably the biggest draw, was cost. We weren’t sure what work needed to be done, but at the time I thought I had cracked a crown. Turns out it was just a surface issue, which was buffed right out. Whew. Between us, Steven and I each had an ultrasonic cleaning and the familiar polish, both done by the dentist himself. I then had a second appointment where the dentist removed and replaced two old filings. I also had a full mouth X-ray, the kind where you stand up and the machine whirls around your head, the results of which were immediately emailed to me. The total cost of all of this was just under $90.

I know, we are still shaking our heads. The office was modern, clean and professionally equipped. The dentist was very friendly and knowledgeable and we are thrilled with the outcome of our trip to see him. One thing he doesn’t waste money on is heating, we nearly froze in the waiting room. The room where the work was done is nice and toasty, though. He has only one assistant and she wasn’t there for both appointments. From a Covid standpoint, we were exposed to only the dentist himself, and of course he was masked up. I can’t speak to his vaccination status, though. If you ever find yourself in or around Albania looking for a dentist, let us know and we’ll pass on his contact info. 🙂

For the remainder of our time in Berat we went into town nearly every day. I decided to see if I could replace the prescription sunglasses I lost in Tuscany when I took a spill off my bike. We went to the optical store and were told to return the next day to see the doctor, so we did. I got the eye exam and picked out the frames. I did end up buying them, but not the lenses. Turns out it would have taken two weeks to get them and we didn’t want to stick around for that long. The doctor’s visit and frames cost $56. Now I just have to find a place to get the lenses.

After a very productive week in Berat, we took off toward Greece with one more overnight in Albania in the city of Gjirokaster. The town looked interesting and we had hoped to do a bit of exploring, but that got sidelined once we decided to eat in the campground restaurant. We arrived around 1:30 in the afternoon and literally parked and walked over to the place. I mean, we might have been fifty paces from the front door. The very nice campground guy told us they were not serving a full menu, but that we could choose chicken or pork with roasted veggies. That sounded great to us, so we said we’ll take one of each. Steven got a glass of wine and we sat down.

After about ten minutes the guy gets in his car and leaves. His father came in and sat at a table, I guess to keep an eye on us. Campground guy was gone for probably 30 minutes, and when he returned, he had his mother in tow. She was carrying groceries. Apparently they had to go buy the food they were going to serve us. So we have been sitting in the restaurant for 40 minutes and Mom is just now heading to the kitchen to cook. About 20 minutes later, the sister shows up with salad ingredients. We can see the lettuce in her bag. She drops all that off to Mom in the kitchen and takes off. It was probably another 20 minutes later before the campground guy brought napkins and flatware to our table and another five or so before our salads arrived. We murdered those salads and when the chicken and pork finally showed up we fell on it like a couple of trenchermen.

When you think about it, it was incredibly kind for this family to prepare this food for us, believe me, we were very grateful. But it was still weird. A little heads up on the timing would have been nice, there were lots of other things we could have done while we were waiting, like showers. Of course, we could have asked, but after a “normal” amount of time had passed, we felt committed and didn’t want to seem like we were complaining. The next morning we were locked in the campground and had to wake the guy up to let us out. We were the only ones there, so I guess we should have told him we were leaving early.

We were about an hour and a half from the border into Greece, so we wanted to get there as early as possible. First, we had to check out of Albania. We rolled up to the window and after a couple of simple questions and passport inspection, we were sent on our way. We didn’t get far, though, maybe 10 meters, when we were stopped by a customs official. Out the front window we could see that a passenger bus had offloaded all the people who then retrieved their luggage for inspection. There were multiple customs officials rifling through their stuff. Customs guy walks up to us and starts asking questions. He thought it was funny that we came to Albania to see the dentist. He had Steven open the bay doors, then came aboard Bijou and checked her closet, bathroom and did a cursory look around the cabin. Unlike the poor bus passengers, we were soon waved through and sent on our merry way.

Soon we came to the border of Greece. We rolled up and could see a big operation in the center of all the lanes where people were lined up to get a Covid test. The border was not busy, most lanes were wide open, but those passenger buses were full and so they had to offload a bunch of people for tests. We honestly could not figure out what was going on or what was expected of us. We were at the front of the line for passport control, but could not move because of the people in line to be tested.

Finally a border lady came to our window and informed us that we were required to have a rapid antigen test FROM ALBANIA before we could enter Greece. I am stunned, because right there in front of us many people were getting tests, FREE tests! But she wanted us to return to Albania for our tests. “What’s wrong with those tests?”, I asked, pointing at the boxes of Antigen tests on the table right in front of us. “Oh!,” she said, “you need a test at both borders!” You can imagine the look on my face as I am trying to process this information. “You mean, two tests, ten minutes apart?” She smiled and confirmed that I understood her correctly.

This is one of those border situations that makes absolutely zero sense, but I have traveled enough to know that it doesn’t matter if it makes sense, the border guards have the ultimate power and you do as you’re told. The problem was, we could not see a way to return to Albania. You know what a country border looks like, right? Concrete barriers, barbed-wire, lots of scary guys with weapons.There are no U-turns at the border. I said, “How am I supposed to get back to Albania?” And she said, I kid you not, “Just back up and turn around.”

I contemplate what she has just told me, and as I understand it, I am to turn around and drive the wrong way on a road (oncoming traffic, anyone?) so that I can re-enter a country that I just came from by driving past customs and immigration INTO the exit from said country. I am to drive INTO the exit. The absurdity of all this was blowing my mind, but what choice did I have? I literally backed out of the passport control lane at the Greece border, turned around and drove the wrong way back toward Albania. I knew I couldn’t just rock up to the customs and immigration exit and expect to be let back into the country. So just before we got to customs, I did a 180 and turned Bijou back around to face Greece and then I parked and waited for the sirens to go off. Nothing happened. We were in No Man’s Land between Albania and Greece and nobody cared. So Steven and I got out and literally just walked by all the bus people, still in customs, and across the border back into Albania and over to the testing facility. The customs guy recognized us from afar and waved at us, so we figured at least we might not get shot. We hollered at him that we were going for a test and he gave us the thumbs up (!!). Thirty euros later, after we got our negative results, we walked back across the Albanian border, got into Bijou and headed for Greece. No one paid us any attention.

Once back in line at the Greece border we were again at the front of the line. We got out to get our passports scanned and get another (!!) Covid test, but after a while there were still so many folks from the passenger bus that the same border lady who insisted we needed two tests told us we could go. We did not ask questions, we got back into Bijou and sped off. Finally, we had arrived in Greece, me, still in my pajamas.

And last but not least, another art contribution from Steven. This is a scene from Marrakech when we visited Morocco at the beginning of 2020. Little did we know what lay ahead that year. The light was striking in the city and he wanted to capture the unique atmosphere of the place in a painting. If you would like to keep up what he is doing, you can follow him on his Visual Art Facebook Page here.

NEXT UP: Meteora