The forb(h)idden path to Albania

The medication worked so that Albania could be the next target and I  could make the road by walking:
Menahan Street Band - Make the Road By Walking

As I wrote in a former post, some Serbians don't like the Albanians and sadly the same applies also for many Montenegrins. I was warned several times that Albania is extremely dirty, people are violent, everybody would try to rob me... These predictions are so ridiculous but people really believe in them although that they have never been there. This is not only crazy but also very dangerous: Lack of knowledge is in most cases the reason for wars!

I took a bus from Kotor to Bar via Budva. Bar is the final station of the magnificent railway line from Belgrade and also a kind of border town inside Montenegro. The reason is the district of Ulcinj which is mainly populated by Albanians. The street signs are therefore bilingual (Albanian and Serbo-Croatian). Montenegro gathered this district from the Ottoman Empire during the Congress of Berlin.
Compared to other Montenegrin destinations there are much less buses to Ulcinj and the people in the Bar bus station warned me not to go further than to Ulcinj. They also said that there is no bus or rail connection between Albania and Montenegro. I thought, OK, then I can take a taxi but the taxi drivers refused to drive to Albania. They only wanted to drive to a place 2 km before the border and then I should work. I did not trust them and therefore took a bus to Ulcinj to find out more. And there are 2 buses a day between Ulcinj and Shkodër. They are more expensive than other buses but much cheaper than a taxi in any way.

The tension was mounting more and more. What will happen at the border and how will Albania look? The road to Shkodër crosses a very exciting landscape that is definitely worth to explore if one has an own car! Close before the border we had to leave the bus and were seated in several old minibuses. That was a bit strange because suddenly also some beggars appeared who were quickly scared away by the border police. Eventually, one comes to a normal border station and except of some beggars the first impression of Albania is that you are in a normal country like the other Balkan countries. The minibus ended a bit outside of the center. There were no street signs with directions nor any tourist signs so that one is forced to ask the people. This was the first lesson to learn:
Albania is a country with lack of written information – you have to communicate directly by talking and asking.

My first hotel in Albania. Its is cheap, clean and you
have a nice view over the city and at the Albanian alps.

According to the gentle woman at the reception the interior of
the rooms is the original one from communist times. It is a
bit spartan but consists of all that one needs.

View to the Sheshi Nënë Tereza.

View at out of the window to the Migjeni theatre and the Sheshi Demokracia.