Trip to Balkans

So I leave my friend Mathilde after a week in Vienna, Austria and then head to my stopover to meet two other friends in Budapest, Hungary.

Sometimes the hitchhiking is easy, but to get out of the big cities, it’s a real hell (and this was confirmed with Vienna). From the first spot, I manage to find a car for the airport (after 2 hours of waiting), then once there, I find another car (after a good hour of waiting) but we misunderstood each other, so back a little further north. Wait an hour and a half, walk half an hour and then return to the first spot! A little loop that lost me five hours! Real happiness ❤️ , as my luck turns because I finally manage to get dropped off on a motorway area in the direction of Hungary. And then I find a car that goes to a city about an hour’s drive from Budapest, I’m saved! They have to make a short trip before heading back to Hungary. The little trip? Retrieve a dog crate (because there were 2 dogs in the car, one that smelled very strongly of excrement). When people say, « Oh, it’s not far, it’s a 30-minute drive, » it really means, « It’s a two-hour drive back and forth. » Anyway, it was a bit frustrating but after three good hours of driving with these 2 ladies (a bit crazy in passing) and the 2 dogs (who really smelled bad, remember), I arrive in a city and after this hard day I decide to take a train to the Hungarian capital to meet my friends. Not every day is like this (thankfully I wouldn’t be hitchhiking otherwise) but there are days when it would have been better to take a train or a bus.

So I meet a lot of people in Budapest, mostly former volunteers from Bratislava and we take the opportunity to take a walk around the city. The next day, February 22, we leave for Szeged, a town in southern Hungary with Emma and Emma. One is Finnish and the other Scottish. They’ve never hitchhiked (or camped for the Finn) so it was an opportunity to revisit and try. After a complicated start (out of the city you know), we find nice Hungarians who will eventually drop us off in the city. Why would you tell me Szeged? Well it’s a city in the south of Hungary (so on our way) and because I have a former colleague with whom I worked in Spain who lives there so it’s an opportunity to see each other again 2 years later! So I spend the evening with her and then back to the campsite for our first night in a tent!

The next morning we left for the hostile-Serbian border. We are taken by a nice lady who will drive us to the border point but were very surprised when the police forbid Emma (Scottish) to enter Serbia. Apparently it is a border only for Serbs and EU member states (so not the UK). I don’t know what that changes but it’s pretty annoying because you’re going to have to go to the other border, a few dozen kilometers further in order to change country. Vroum vroum, we arrive at the gas station on the highway leading to the border. The stop is very complicated here and everyone tells us to walk along beside the trucks to the border (there were kilometers of trucks waiting to cross the border). After a good hour of waiting at the station, we decide to go anyway. So we pass the trucks on the highway, cross the first border (no problem), then we walk again to the second border (to enter Serbia) and then try to stop. Again, nobody stops so we continue on the highway to go to the next gas station (about 1km). Once we arrived, luck smiles on us and we find an incredibly kind driver who will drive us to the center of Belgrade while telling us the history of the country and lots of other anecdotes. Camping in big cities is never a good idea, so we decided to book an airbnb for 2 nights, while visiting the Serbian capital. It is a large city rather « classic », with the largest Orthodox church in the world (fun fact). There are also very good pizzas (we eat local 👌).

Then we take the road to Montenegro and to the coast! We move pretty fast and we meet lots of really nice people! We get cakes, tips, stories and our last driver (a rather fussy monk) drives us to Prijepolje, a town not too far from the border. Before leaving he offers us noodles, a beer and some chili (do not try to understand). We find a little grass for our tents behind a furniture shop and the next day, the same store invite us for coffee and rakija (pronounced rakia) in the morning. (local alcohol quite strong at 8am, nothing like that to start the day !). But it turns out that this day is going to be a hell: we will spend the day hitchhiking, changing places regularly but no one will stop. Exhausted by these attempts, we finally manage to find someone who goes to Montenegro! He’s a little weird, but let’s make it with what we have!

We’ll cross the border without a hitch and spend the night in a motel in a mountain village. We have better luck the next day and we manage to find drivers all the way to Budva! The loop is closed for me because I was already there for the New Year! We’ll spend the night on the beach. (watch out for the tides 😉) then visit Kotor the next day. They are very nice small towns but also very touristy. You can see all the tourist trap shops and hundreds of buildings/hotels. It spoils the landscape a bit 🙃

We continue our descent to the south with a stop at a small but very nice waterfall.

We arrive in Bar in the late afternoon and stay with a guy from Couchsurfing (he’s on a trip to Egypt, but leaves us his apartment). We will stay 2 nights because of the bad weather and we were starting to feel a little sick so we preferred to rest a bit. We’ll be back on the road to Albania this time! I have heard a lot about it, from Albanians, travellers, Serbs… They all tell me their opinions and they’re all different! For some it is a dangerous country, the stop is hard to see impossible, the Albanians are mean… In short, it was necessary to go and see in person this country with a thousand questions. We stopped in Shkodër, Krujë, Vlorë and Sarandë. For me Albania is one of the most beautiful countries I have been able to visit so far. There are mountains, canyons, beaches, in short the country is beautiful! At the level of cities, nothing fancy and there is not much to do. We have never felt insecure in Albania, and I would even say that it is a very safe country: the Albanians are of a kindness that I have seldom seen! The hitchhiking was incredibly easy (less than 10min wait in most cases, when there were 3 of us), and on a budget level it’s the cheapest country I’ve been able to do so far. If you have the opportunity to go there, I recommend Albania at 200% !

We spend the night next to Vlorë (in an absolutely amazing campsite and next to a nature reserve with pink flamingos 🦩). On the last evening it was a bit cold so a person from the campsite made a fire and we came with him to enjoy the heat source. We don’t speak the same language but with the help of a few words and sounds we get to understand each other and we spend the evening chilling around the fire. We take the road to Sarandë where we spent our last night together as the 2 Emma’s left north for Tirana. So we split up on Friday March 8th and then I get back to hitchhiking to go towards the Greek border. After two hours of waiting in the city, I decide to take a bus to at least get out of civilization. I take the first bus I find and I find myself in the middle of the Albanian countryside in the small village of Delvinë (5700 inhabitants in 2011). Night is fast approaching, I start looking for a place to pitch my tent and during my walk I meet Andrea, an Albanian grandpa. He invites me to go for a walk (all in a mix of Italian, Google Translation and gestures). I explain (by the same means) that I am looking for a nice place for my tent. We’ll see several spots, but everything’s wet. Andrea takes his mission very seriously: we go to see a neighbour, the police and we meet at the village hospital (the only hospital in the department). He talks to them in Albanian, but I understand he’s asking if I can squat here for the night. The Chief Medical Officer is coming. (he speaks English wow!) and tell me no problem we have free rooms. So I find myself in a hospital room and I’m glad I didn’t get seriously ill in this country! The doctor will explain to me the next day that the hospital and medicine in general in Albania is a little abandoned. In short, I have a very good night and the next day, after coffee with the doctor, I get back on the road!

Being in the middle of the countryside, there are not many people passing by (1 car about every 40min) so I decide to walk. The road turns into a dirt road but I keep telling myself that I’m in Albania so it’s normal. I walk for a little while when all of a sudden, a car arrives!! Luckily she stops and takes me to the next village! The village in question consists of a few houses dating from the last century and the road is in the same condition as before (not brand new). I’m walking again but this time I won’t see any cars during my 2 hours of walking. I finally get to a real road with more traffic and I find 2 Albanians who lead me to the border village. From there I’ll get to the Greek border!

What will happen in Greece? Does the stopwatch work in this country? How will Cedric survive? Why can’t dogs and cats get along? Lots of unanswered questions… At least until the next episode!

Ciao !

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