Friday, 4th of September, 2020.
Where the bus leaves me looks quite of a joke. It is at the edge of a cliff, but at the bottom part. So there is this very precarious metal stair that you have to climb up (in a what I can only presume it is a 85° inclination) to enter Kukes. There is this other boy coming also to town so he helps me with the small backpack. After the stairs, as if it was not enough, you climb up a hill for about 3 minutes.
At the entrance of the town, I check my passport and realize there is no entrance stamp for Albania. I walk into the Police Station, just ahead of me, and talk with an officer about. He surprisingly asks me what is it that I want. I answer that I want to make sure that I enter in the country legally. He says I am in the system but there is just not a stamp, no need to worry. I carry on walking in town. I am here more for the nice views of the river, out of town. So I ask this guy, who is sitting outside of a travel agency, which direction should I take to get to this bridge, which I know it leads to Shkoder, my next destination. He walks with me for a while, but when I see this seats under a nice shade, I just tell him I need to eat but he can point me the way. He says straight and left. He was wrong.
While I am having my breakfast, a few kids start disturbing me. Like passing many times in front of me and repeatedly saying “Hello!”. One little girl it is kind of cute though, and she speaks a great English! We talk for a few minutes. A few adults also stared at me a lot.
I get on move, just stopping to buy some food for dinner. I take the wrong direction after that, but luckily I get it right, and I stop to ask for some water.
Walking down to the bridge I realize I forgot to buy fruits for tomorrow morning. My plan now is just to get a lift to outside of town, anywhere in the middle of nowhere, so I do not need to worry about making my camping during daylight and I can rest through the afternoon. There is a beautiful point view behind this gas station in the middle of the road and I stay there for a few minutes. Down the road, a miracle: plenty of wild blackberries just ready to be enjoyed! Yay! Now I am glad I did not buy any fruit. I spend a long time collecting them and full fill my metal mug with it.
The view from the bridge is also really nice. The color of the river it is a clean turquoise right now. Right after the bridge, a good spot for hitchhiking.
I hold my “Shkodër” sign and in a few minutes a car stops. Two guy who ask me money for the ride. Laugh. The next car to stop is with Bera and Dina. They seem pretty cool and are going to Tirana, so they can drop me on the way to Shkodër.
I tell them my plan and they say it is OK for them. Bera buy some drinks and gives me this quiet nice Fanta, the Exotic flavor. They are both from Pristina but are going to spend just a few hours in Tirana, have some sea food and go back in the evening. So they offer me to come with them. They say they can drop me still in the direction of Shkodër on their way back, I will just enjoy a few hours with them at the capital and have a nice meal. I accept of course!
Dina just had a difficult time so that is also why they are going to Tirana to relax a bit. She is very young and much beautiful. In Tirana it is super hot. We have some fresh juice at arrival and Dina buys some shorts to refresh herself. While she is doing that, I am taking out my boots in the car, but carefully putting inside a plastic bag and placing in the back (because the smell it is not the better one). I also clean my feet briefly with some wet wipes and I put on some slippers. Much better!
The stop in Tirana was basically that. And then we head to the coast, to a nice sea food restaurant. We are the only clients right now because apparently everybody else is at the beach. I order just a mushroom risotto but they both order a few different dishes. Me and Bera have a beer. At the end I am super fool! The restaurant it is just a few minutes from the sea and I was hoping that after lunch we would at least just take a look at it, but no.
We are heading now to this “pigeon church” as people called. Apparently, this church was built several times but repeatedly destroyed. Until when sometime the pigeons started to rebuilt in this really high mountain, and at there nobody could destroy it again. The view from the top of the mountain is beautiful and the church is also pretty. Dina buy us all some candles and we supposed to light them and make one wish for each candle.
On our way back, Bera buys some more drinks and chocolates plus my first 3 leche in Albania. They have this delicious dessert which is simply a cake drowned in a mix of three milks and covered in caramel. It is amazing! And this one I had with them, it was the best I would have in Albania.
They drop me on the way to Shkodër, nearby where I can hitchhike next morning. Dina gives me one of her belts and say it is for me to remember her. I want to tell her I do not need anything to remember her but I do not want to hurt her feelings so I accept it.