Kotor and Albania 1 - Shkodra

It was with a heavy heart that I dragged myself away from Greece, however our next destination was one we've visited before and we returned there just to see old friends.

We visited Kotor, in Montenegro, in 2017. We stayed in a fabulous apartment run by a lovely woman. We got on really well with Zoja (pronounced Zoya). She showed us around and we had a few dinners together. Zoja's husband was a sailor and he was always away at sea. Even though we stayed with Zoja on two separate occasions that trip, we never met her husband and it became a bit of a joke that he didn't really exist.

This time, we flew to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, then were picked up and driven to the apartment. They have a great car service here where a couple of you can get driven to places for not much more than the cost of a couple of bus tickets. The traffic was pretty bad and it took us 1.5 hours to drive 90 kms. We were accompanied by a spectacular sunset though. One interesting thing about our driver was that he was a border policeman and he did this driving to earn extra income. We got talking about the Russians and it turns out that Montenegro has no sanctions against Russians so a lot of the wealthy ones have moved to Montenegro to escape the war. Wealthy Ukrainians have done the same. Apparently they get on well in Montenegro!

The previous few days were catching up with me and I was exhausted by the time we arrived. We caught up with Zoja then crashed in the comfortable apartment.

Kotor is stunning. The old town sits at the end of a long fjord-like bay and a defensive wall runs waaaaayyy up the hill behind it. If you look closely at this photo you can see the wall running right to the top of the hill.

Pretty houses are scattered along the water's edge making an impressive scene. The views from our balcony were unforgettable.

The weird thing is that huge cruise ships pull in right to the harbour in the centre of the town, towering over everything around them. When the cruise ships are in. the old town is a nightmare. Crowds surge through the narrow lanes, selfie-takers block paths and expensive ice-creams get eaten by the truck load.

Over the next few days we did some wonderful walks up crazy steep hills and explored the area but there was nothing we didn't see last time. The difference between the two trips was the traffic. The only downfall of Zoja's apartments was that they were on a busy road and now that road was twice as bad. We heard stories of locals taking three hours to drive 12 kms. Unfortunately, the geography that makes Kotor so spectacular is also its downfall as there is nowhere else to put roads. Tourist busses come right into the town and block traffic. I guess there has been an increase in population from the Russians and Ukrainians too. Sadly, I don't know what the answer is, although banning the tour busses would be a good start.

Zoja wasn't the only person we had made friends with here on our previous trip. Across the road from the apartments was a grill joint and we got on really well with the owner. Unfortunately, he had sold the business so we couldn't catch up with him.

The other person we got on well with last time was the guy who sells the local cheese and prosciutto at a spectacularly located shack part-way up an enormous hill behind the old fort. We slogged up the hill again and he was still there! He doesn't speak much English so we tried to tell him we had visited before. We ordered a couple of sparkling waters then he brought out some cheese then a potent rakija for John. We went to pay and he wouldn't accept anything! He must have remembered us I guess. He was such a character.

The steep walk to this guy zig-zags its way up a hill behind the fort. We looked directly at the back of the fort from his shack.

From the shack you can walk across to the old fort walls and climb in through a hole in the wall to get inside the fort. John didn't want to face the crowds inside the fort so he returned to our room and I went to the fort. The views on the way were amazing.

Inside the fort I could look down on the old town and the bay.

Bells of the old town still ring.

The old town was really busy but it wasn't crazy. Clearly, the cats weren't perturbed. This one hung out on an anchor......

..... while this one was fast asleep inside the bowl of an old water pump!

The cats are apparently descendants of cats that came here with sailors years ago.

The old town was still very pretty with narrow lanes and old buildings, however every square metre seemed to be used by shops selling stuff to tourists. I've picked some of the quieter spots in these pics.

It was my birthday the day after we arrived in Kotor. John organised takeaways and invited Zoja over for dinner. Much to our surprise her legendary husband turned up too! He entertained us with amazing stories of his adventures at sea and we had a terrific night on our balcony overlooking the gorgeous harbour.

Zoja even made a delicious fruit salad!

Another walk took us up a hill on the other side of the bay. The lovely track was lined with sage in places.

It was great to come back and see our friends again, however we don't think we'll return in the future. This lovely town is a victim of its own popularity. The roads are overcrowded, huge cruise ships invade the beautiful space and tourists crawl over the old town. Something's got to change.

When the driver took us to Kotor, he offered to also take us to Albania when the time came. He gave us a very reasonable price so we accepted. He picked us up and, fortunately, the worst of the traffic was going the other direction. We passed long lines of cars banked up trying to get into Kotor.

We drove along the Montenegrin coast. It was lovely but the beaches were lined with hotels and umbrellas. They weren't our scene at all. This quieter stretch was nice though.

Apparently real estate on this little island is hugely expensive!

We approached the border and wondered how the crossing would go. We needn't have worried. Officials from both countries shared the same building. We drove up to one window and the Montenegrin official just looked at our passports and waved us through. At the second window the Albanian official asked the driver where we were from. He said Australia. The guys just nodded, stamped my passport and handed them back, even though John's passport was his Irish one!

The most obvious change that we noticed after we crossed the border was the rubbish. It wasn't terrible but it was there. As we approached Shkodra, or Shkoder as it's also called, we saw this sign to a campground!

We drove into Shkodra and found our apartment. I thought the apartment was wonderful. It was huge and was in a great location. All for the bargain price of about $65 Aussie a night. It wasn't until we went to bed that we realised the first of the apartment's problems. It was so noisy! The walls were paper thin and we could hear everyone coming home and going to bed. A pressure pump was sited in the stairwell, strangely, and it echoed up to our bedroom. Soon we also realised that the drains stunk in the bathroom and then the hot water died. Oh well.

The owner was a really interesting guy. He and his three brothers ran several apartments and restaurants. He was only 26 but he was very switched on. We ate in his restaurants every night. They were so good! One in particular was hugely popular and the food was delicious! One of the most interesting dishes I had was diced beef and sour cheese from a sizzling pot. We loved the way that the owners' mother had hung strings of garlic and colourful flowers outside the restaurant to ward off the evil eye. Clearly, traditions still run strong here.

The town itself was quite rough around the edges. We haven't travelled in a country like this for a while and we actually like it. It reminded us of travelling years ago. Obeying traffic rules seems to be optional. Pedestrian crossings are the safest place to cross the roads but there is no guarantee that drivers will stop for you. Bicycle lanes are common, which is a huge bonus to all the cyclists, however it makes it more challenging to cross at a pedestrian crossing because we need to remember to look one way as we cross the first lane, then the other way as we cross the second lane then look both ways as we cross the bicycle lane, which occasionally has motorbikes in it! Potholes are everywhere and put ours to shame. Footpaths are higgledy-piggledy with uneven pavers and water sits at the end of pedestrian crossings forcing us to leap across the puddles.

Many people ride bicycles - an indication of lower incomes here. When it rains, they just ride with an umbrella.

We needed to organise a rental car for the remainder of our time here (five weeks in total). Through our apartment owner, we looked at some cars. We needed a 4WD due to the rough roads we want to go on. One of the car guys picked us up and took us to the car yard which was on the outskirts of town. Along the way he told us about places we could visit. Each time he thought of a place he would scroll through his phone and find images for us - while he was driving. He did it again and again. At one stage he slowed right down to show us something on his phone. The car behind didn't toot, it just quietly started to pass him. Just as it was about to pass, our guy finished showing us the photos and sped up. Still the other driver didn't complain. He just slotted back in behind us. Impressive.

We needed to buy some maps. For some reason paper maps and google maps are never accurate here. You need a few different references to have the best chance of getting the right information. Our car guy was being really helpful (clearly we paid too much for the car, lol!) and took us to a couple of map shops. Each time he just double parked outside the shop and everyone just drove around us.

Even the cyclists look at their phones wile riding sometimes.

The car we ended up with is a very well used 2007 Pajero. The lining is hanging out of the seats and its body has been patched up multiple times. Let's just hope that it's mechanically sound! We had allowed a few days here to find a car but we now had one before we had even unpacked our bags so we set about seeing the town in the coming days.

First up was Rozafa Castle, a huge castle on the town edge. We explored it in the drizzly rain. We had expected Shkodra to be hot but it was quite mild. Typically of this part of the world, the castle was taken over by a succession of raiders over the years. What remained now was quite lovely.

The sign in the foreground says to not climb on the walls. Clearly the person on the wall at the back either didn't read the sign or chose to ignore it!

The walk there and back was interesting. We passed through streets with nice shops then obviously poor areas where stray dogs roamed free and rubbish littered the streets. 

Just near our apartment was a really lovely area of restored 19th century buildings. It was quite touristy here and restaurants lined the paved streets. It was very pretty.

There were lots of lovely doors to keep me happy :)

In this lovely part of town we ate an ice cream and soon heard lots of tooting. Someone had left their car blocking a single-lane road while they did their shopping. Traffic was backed up for a block while the car owner picked something up. People actually got cross that time.

It was with some trepidation on my part that we visited a special museum the next day. The Site of Witness and Memory is housed in one of the many prisons and torture chambers from the communist era. The museum is dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives or freedom during the 45 or so years of "communist" rule. 

After WW2, Albania was in a shambles. The new PM, Enver Hoxha, was a dictator who became more and more paranoid. He did everything possible to limit exposure to outside media and soon began to shut the country down. Everyone was under suspicion. Religion was banned and Albania is the only country in the word to have declared itself as atheist. This was despite the fact that many Catholics, Muslims, Orthodox and others lived there.

During this time there was no freedom of speech, religion or political leaning. Religious leaders or anyone seen as even remotely opposing the communist party were imprisoned, tortured and often shot. Shonky trials were held and evidence was manufactured. Torture was a common way to get "confessions". At the museum, we saw the dingy cells where people were kept and I glanced quickly at the torture room from a distance but didn't go in.

Just some of the 5,500 people who were executed under the communist regime. Nearly another 1,000 died in prison and tens of thousands were imprisoned.

Incredibly, Albania didn't really rise above its terrible past until 1997 when a series of events ultimately created the democratic country we see today. I thought all that government suspicion was a thing of the past but we were talking to the owner of our apartment and he told us that even today he would never publicly comment on anything political on Facebook. He was born in 1998 so he has never experienced the full horror of what went on yet he still doesn't feel safe making public comments about the government.

After this sobering experience, we visited a place that couldn't have been more different if it tried. We visited is the Shkodra Venetian Mask Factory! Yes, Venetian masks are made here then taken to Venice to be sold. When you think about it, it's quite logical. The wages in Albania would be a fraction of those in Italy and Albania is very close geographically. We got shown around the small factory where eight or ten people sat making the masks out of paper mache then painting and decorating them. One man painted 18th century Venetian scenes on some, using a painting as reference as I doubt he would ever have been to Venice. I loved looking at the different colours and styles. Interestingly, even though they are traditional style masks, modern trends like the art of Klimt (he's all the rage at the moment) made their way onto many of them.

There were many sizes and styles.

There were even cats!

Some pieces were paper mache figures, not masks.

On our last night we said goodbye to our lovely waiters at the restaurants. They were such nice guys and it was actually sad to say goodbye to them.

Shkodra was a good introduction to Albania. We are now looking forward to hitting the road and exploring the rest of the country!

Heather and John

Poland and Greece

We had previously rented our car from Krakow, in Poland, and had driven straight into Slovakia with it. We now turned around to return the car to Krakow. On the way we visited Vikolinec, a somewhat remote village that still looks like it did hundreds of years ago. We had to pay to get into the village. I don't recall ever having to do this before but I think it's fair enough as there needs to be some compensation to locals for having people wandering around their tiny town taking photos.

Most buildings were well-maintained, complete with colourful shutters and flower boxes.

This barn and some houses were kept in their natural colours. The shingled rooves were cool!

There was only one place to eat and we tried the local sweet dumplings. These large dumplings were filled with plums and had gallons of poppy seeds on top! They were so big that we couldn't eat one serve between us.

Heading back to the highway, gorgeous churches stood tall over pretty villages.

There were so many castles!

The main road went straight through many villages. It must be horrendous to live there with trucks and cars racing past your front door. Some of these villages still had a few old houses like the ones we saw earlier in Vikolinec.

We crossed the border into Poland and it was daylight as we arrived in Krakow this time. We dropped the car off and ubered to the centre of Krakow where we would be spending a few days.

I had no idea what to expect of this town but it was surprisingly lovely. Trees lined the streets and a ring of parkland encircled the old town. Walking and cycling paths ran through these parks creating a wonderful traffic-free way to get around the centre. 

People were friendly here. English was widely spoken, a pleasant change after Slovakia. 

The old town was full of lovely buildings. The main square was one of the largest in Europe.

There were so many tourists though! Horses and carriages lined up to take them around.

Krakow is a very multicultural city. The happening scene was at the old Jewish quarter where restaurants and bars now filled the cobblestoned streets. We ate wonderful food here. In the centre was an old market where people sold Middle-Eastern falafels, Greek gyros and enormous American hotdogs. We bought very spicy falafels here one day. John got talking to the owners, who were from Jordan, and we ended up with complimentary cups of sweet tea, very much like Indian chai. There were stalls selling vintage bits and pieces. I could have looked there for hours. It was lovely.

While we ate our falafels, I watched a busker. He was dressed all in black like a coal miner and stood dead still, pretending to be a statue. The problem was that he was too good and many people just walked past him without noticing. One lady seemed to think something was unusual about him though and she peered closely at him many times, screwing up her face in the process. Still the man didn't move. It was really funny to watch.

We had a really lovely apartment here, perfectly located between the old town and the Jewish quarter, the two places where most of the things we wanted to see were.

There were many things to see in Krakow but we targeted three of the main sights. At one end of the town sat Wawel Royal Castle. It was hot wandering around looking at it and it was hard to escape the crowds. We checked out some of the palace rooms but we felt it was all a little underwhelming considering how popular it was. The ceiling decorations in some of the rooms were amazing though.

Buildings from many different eras sat inside the old castle walls. It was really crowded (look how many people there are in the photo below!) but the gardens and the whole setting were lovely.

Next was Schindler's Ceramic Factory. I've never seen the Schindler's List movie and found I couldn't get it on Netflix in Poland, sadly. I did find a good documentary on the man and his deeds though so I had a bit more understanding of what he did before we went to the factory. The old factory had been updated and contained a museum on Oskar Schindler, Jewish life in Krakow and some of the atrocities that happened to the Jews during the war.

Surprisingly, Schindler wasn't always a good man. He was a spy for the Gestapo. Yes you read that correctly. It was only when he started seeing what was happening to his Jewish employees in his ceramic factory that he started doing things to save them. He made his fortune during the war by both selling ceramic cups and plates to Hitler's forces and by profiteering from the evacuation of the Jews. By the time the war ended however, he had no money left. He had spent it all on food for his staff (they were only allocated two slices of bread and two cups of black coffee per day by the Nazis) plus on the bribes that were necessary to keep his workers in his factory and out of concentration camps. 

The museum inside the factory was amazing. Room after room was filled with photos, information and displays. There was a whole cinema showing modern-day interviews with people that Schindler had saved. John and I got separated while we looked at displays and we both emerged about 1.5 hours after we entered which is very unusual for us! It was one of the best museums I've even visited. It was informative and interesting without being too horrific.

The next day we visited the ancient city that lies beneath the current one. Under that huge central square, another entire city with markets and cemeteries was laid out. Again there were some very good displays. After they finished the excavations, they put a concrete roof over the whole area. I understand they're trying to protect it - there are thousands of tourists wandering around the huge square above it after all - but seeing ancient roads and buildings under a concrete roof was a bit weird.

We went looking for a guide book and found ourselves in a really amazing old bookshop. New and used books lined the walls and people sat around reading, drinking coffee or hanging out on their laptops. The books we needed to look at were high up so we had to climb a rickety ladder ourselves to check the books. It was so cool!

Finally it was time to leave Poland and return to Halki, our heaven-on-earth island in Greece. For those of you who aren't familiar with this island, John's cousin's wife is part Greek and she has a family home on Halki, off the larger island of Rhodes. It was Val's 60th birthday so many of their friends came to the island to celebrate.

We flew to Rhodes first and stayed overnight in the ever-gorgeous old Rhodes Town. The ancient city with its cobblestoned laneways and shady squares was as wonderful as ever. It was really hot though!

It was so good to be back in Greece again! We just threw our bags into our room then headed straight out because we had an exciting event on our radar - we were meeting up with our niece and her new husband! Maddy and Ash had been travelling around Europe for their honeymoon and it was so good to see them again. We had a great dinner then all caught the ferry to Halki the next morning. The morning glow on the old city fortifications as we left Rhodes Town was stunning.

Halki was wonderful. Each time we visit it's a little busier but it's still not crazy at all. It was great to catch up with old friends there - both tourists and locals. We stayed in our same apartment with Greece's best swimming spot right in front (in our humble opinion).

Maddy and Ash just chillin'.

There were about 20 or so people there for Val's birthday if you count both people who came just for the party and friends who were already there. We only had 6 days there this time as Aussies can't stay for more than 90 days out of 180 in Europe and we were pushing the limit. As usual, it was a very social time with drinks and dinners often had as a group. They were good people to spend time with.

Maddy and Ash were great company and this will go down as a special trip for all of us I think.

We visited all of the nearby beaches with the group. We had a girls' day out at Pondamos Beach for Val. Some of the ladies brought floatie rings and we bobbed about in the warm water for ages.

Another day we all went to Chania Beach where chairs and tables sit under tamarind trees at the water's edge. One of the other ladies took this gorgeous pic of Maddy and Ash.

One night we had a family night in and ate cheese platters on our balcony while watching the sun set. It was a really good night.

The next day we got up at 5.30am to climb up to the Knights of St John Castle, perched high on one of Halki's craggy hills. The sun rose before we got there but we still beat the heat.

Getting closer to the castle.

Ash checked out the amazing views from the top.

It was fun and somewhat thrilling to scramble along the high walls.

Two Aussies sitting in the thrones of the ancient Greek gods, Zeus and Hekate.

On another walk we explored the old windmills that sit on the hill behind the town.

The town is one of the prettiest in Greece with its pastel Italianate buildings and bougainvillea dripping over paths and doors. 

Eventually, the night of the big party came. Taxis were organised to take us to Kiki's restaurant, which is the only restaurant out of the village. It's spectacularly located up on a hill in an ancient ruined village beneath the castle. Kiki and her family are good friends and it was wonderful to see them again.

Tables were set up under the evening sky.

The night started with a bang when we didn't all fit in the taxis and Maddy, Ash, Val and another friend and I were left to wait for the taxi to return. Somehow we ended up in the nearby cafe/bar with ouzos. The taxi returned quicker than we expected and we had to knock the ouzos back quickly. Maddy got Abba playing in the taxi and by the time we arrived at the restaurant, Val made a spectacular entrance to Dancing Queen!

I won't go into details of the night but it involved a lot of singing, dancing and drinking. Kiki was concerned about our safety a few times ("Stop dancing on the walls!"), some of the women made a photo frame out of flowers, a gust of wind flipped the last of the chocolate birthday cake down a guy's white shirt and we entertained Yorgos (but not his wife) with "Livin' next door to Yorgos". At one point Maddy ended up on Ash's shoulders while they danced to Mr Brightside so John put Yorgos on his shoulders. John's description of Yorgos yelling, "Yiannis! Yiannis! Put me down Yiannis!" is hysterical.

I've only added a few photos in here as there are already enough incriminating photos circulating on Facebook!

The headgear was actually the table runners!

The tipping point came when someone produced a two-litre bottle of ouzo at the end of the night. It was gone in half an hour. Somehow it was time to go home. Maddy and Ash caught a separate taxi to us but both our husbands had to get us home. It was very late the next day before I could safely get out of bed let alone eat anything and I certainly wasn't the only one. Every morning, quite a few people would meet at the cafe for coffees. John went down that morning and only two other people turned up. It was such a fantastic night and well worth the next day's pain!

Maddy and Ash left a day before us. We had such a good time with them. They were such good company and they left with wishes from many people that they would return.

Leaving on the ferry.

We left a day later. Our Belgian friends came to see us off.

Farewell beautiful Halki. We'll be back!

We returned to Rhodes and stayed at a small hotel above a fish restaurant at the port. It was surprisingly nice there with a tiny beach with lovely swimming. We ate dinner right beside the water. It was lovely.

I couldn't leave Greece without one last orange pie, even if it was for breakfast!

I felt our time on Halki was too short. In fact our time in Greece was way too short. We'll have to fix that next trip ;)

Yamas!
Heather and John