Crushin' It in Krujë

The next day we woke to the heat of late-August Albanian sunlight and the clamor of a hundred backpackers packing up and shipping out. We devoured our free toast, jam, and instant coffee with minimal complaints and after drinking real coffees we purchased at the bar, we hit the road. We still had about 4 hours of driving and we were determined to wring one more Albanian city out of our trip before heading to the airport: Krujë.

We couldn't resist stopping here to capture a few more shots of the seaside mountains. What I wouldn't have given for one more day, to sit around and just soak this in. Alas. It was at this stop that we thought to document our valiant chariot. Behold, the Opel Corsa:

Just a lovely country lane. Also a national highway.

Passing Fier, making progress, taking in some Albanian hotties.

Finally, in early afternoon we found ourselves in Krujë. We made it! Our timing was good! We even had time to wander through the famous-for-its-souvenirs bazaar in the town. We parked the Corsa facing downhill, wondered briefly if that was a bad idea, put on the parking brake (an absolute necessity in the Balkans), and headed off to shop.

The Krujë castle in the distance. After we'd done our part for the local economy we headed back to the car, ready to make our way to the airport. Once again we hadn't sent our postcards but otherwise we'd done almost everything we had set out to do in Albania and we were feeling pretty good about life. And then: disaster. Or: almost disaster. I'll let the email I sent my parents relate the harrowing tale,

I have one story to tell you guys I want to get down before I forget... Jo and I went to the town of Kruja, where the national hero Skanderbeg was born [edit: not true, and I don't know why I was laboring under this impression] and where there is a very impressive bazaar full of souvenir goodies, and when we parked we did so facing downward on a hill behind a pretty nice-looking Mercedes. We realized our mistake as soon as Jo pulled in behind it and we took a minute to wonder if we should move the car then but decided instead to go to the market with the hope that the car would move by the time we got back. 

It didn't so when we returned and Jo tried to reverse away from the car we found that our little hatchback's engine just didn't have what it took and we were rolling closer and closer forward, toward the car. We didn't know what to do so we thought maybe if we let it slide as gently as it could into the Mercedes we might be able stabilize enough to back away and so with a VERY upsetting crack, Jo let it roll into the back of the Mercedes (I was outside trying to give her an idea of how close she was). Thankfully both of our bumpers were plastic so there was no damage but we were pretty distraught to find that even resting against the other car the Corsa just couldn't get back up the hill in reverse. So we both stood there, kind of devastated and at a loss, until an old man who had been walking by and had turned to see where the noise of our collision came from, walked back around and very calmly picked up a big rock from the side of the road and put it in front of our front wheel. So simple. In retrospect, so obvious. But so completely crucial in getting us out of that bind. And so Jo was able to back the car up, let it rest on the rock, back it up, rest on the rock, until Jo could pull it out from behind the Mercedes.... 

For both of us it was just a very memorable thing because this old man who had no stake in our fates showed us such a simple but completely life-saving trick that got us out of a mess. We had several encounters kind of like that. People who didn't need to helping us in ways that completely saved the day.

This is why I'm gonna go back to the Balkans. This is why I'm not done with Eastern Europe, and it's not done with me.

We made one more terrible mistake that day: we returned our car to Hertz, which was in walking distance of the tiny airport, before we mailed our postcards. We realized our mistake when we got inside said airport, where I think it was totally reasonable to expect there to be a post office, only to find that not the case. We flirted with the idea of one or both of us tempting fate some more and taking the bus back into Tiranë to mail them, but we realized we'd probably just about used up that day's portion of luck. That didn't stop us from feeling a little bitter about our mistake, though, especially when the airport taunted us thusly:

It sure did have some fancy chandeliers, though. 

So we settled in to one of the three cafes and ordered some mediocre sandwiches and whiled away our remaining hours in one of the most frustrating, beautiful, HOT, and incredibly generous places I have ever traveled to. Soon enough our flight appeared on the board and we headed towards the security check. I can't speak for Jo, but for myself, I felt that the trip was winding down and that surely our adventure in Krujë had been our last. Milan had other plans.

Where are we again? Vienna? Vancouver? Verona?

At last, my travel buddy Joanna arrived in Milan! Though our meetup ran into a couple hiccups we did eventually find each other at the central train station, wherein I rushed her onto a train to Venice! She had wanted to see the cathedral in Milan and although it was a bit slapdash we did get a chance to see it at the end of our trip. But for the time being I had only one mission: get the hell away from Milan. So after some train station/ticket-buying confusion (WHAT is the point of a ticket machine that will not accept a DEBIT card, seriously?) we managed to get a standing room only ticket for the next train, leaving at approximately now, to Venezia. Venice. A city I'd heard plenty about. A city where I could not find a Couchsurfer host within the city, and where a "hostel" (Hotel Astoria, a "cheap" hotel that packed multiple people into every room, had no common area, no coffee/tea/breakfast/any service, and whose windowless bathroom was a toilet and a showerhead, directly next to it) set us back an amount of money that did not correspond to the quality of the place. But I'll give them this: the location was good. We were just one or two bridges away from what felt like the center-ish of town, San Marco Square. They gave us beds. The beds had blankets. There were doors. I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel of nice things to say about the place, though.

For that small bonus, I will also add: they locked their front doors at night, and when Jo and I tried to leave bright and early the next day, at 7 AM, which I think is a totally reasonable traveler time to be up and out, we were pretty dismayed to find ourselves locked in the hotel. We had to wait until about 7:20 before the guy working at the front desk finally showed up and let us out. I guess you can say we got what we deserved considering the place has a 62% rating on Hostels.com and is consistently rating badly for most of the reasons I just listed, but for those who are thinking: eh, it's just one night. I'll survive. I say to you: not if you're leaving on an early-morning train or bus, you won't.

Thankfully we weren't

Anyway, by the time our train got to Venice we had stood most of the way (around two hours), we had backpacks, although being a novice at the backpacking thing mine was a lot heavier/bigger/unwieldier than Joanna's, the sun was viciously hot, and we were starving. So we stopped at the first pizza place we saw and relaxed for a bit.

FYI: This is the size of my beloved companion, Big Boy Blue, when completely empty. Just for reference.

There we ate our first of multiple pizzas, soaked up that sweet, sweet wifi, and figured out how the hell to get to Hotel Astoria from the train station. This is me going from digital back to analog, because I am a Luddite.

After finding our abominable hotel and ejecting another couple pounds of clothing from my bag, Jo made our way into the city to see the sights. I know this post is sounding pretty whiney, and that is because I was not that in love with Italy. It was expensive, it was hella crowded, the service people (aside from Ostello Bello!) were either not helpful/friendly or were that weird, overly fake friendliness. Of course the city is beautiful, but there are lots of beautiful cities in the world. I don't regret stopping there at all, but I was definitely to move on the next day. The being said:

Cheesin'.

  

Beautiful things to be seen!

Crazy Pizza. I feel like this place can be taken one of two ways. First: we have so much pizza here, it's like crazy pizza all day every day. Too much, one might even say. Second: This pizza is insane. You're not gonna believe it. It is some crazy-ass pizza. I'm a fan of both interpretations.

So many shops like this, everywhere. Enough masks to disguise that small nation's obese, prompt and knife-wielding army from my last post!

I do not even really care about shoes outside of their comfort, but... I wanted those purple shoes. The shop keeper was NOT happy about my taking this photograph.

Dusk looks quite nice on Venice.

Very cool astrological clock, I believe this was in San Marco Piazza.

Probably one of the more famous places in Venice? I think, judging by its crowdedness? The Rialto Bridge.

The view from said bridge. Lovely, although this vacation and the results of my attempts at nighttime photography were what finally convinced me that my FujiFilm FinePix A500 (from about 2004, I believe) was really no longer cutting it. We had a good journey together, little FinePix, over several continents and multiple countries. Good night, sweet prince.

Some jokester did this with a bunch of the signs leading to various landmarks. It should only have one arrow. This obviously makes it a lot more difficult to navigate throughout Venice. Italy, so welcoming!

Gondolier checking his phone. So romantic.

San Marco by night.

One of several jazz bands playing outside. This was pretty lovely, I have to admit.

Masquerade, paper faces on parade!

Like I said, Jo and I were up and out bright and early the next day, after our hotel unlocked our front doors and released us into the wild. It was then that we discovered something that held true for most of the rest of our trip. Extremely touristic places are the practically empty first thing in the morning. I'm not even talking sunrise. These photos were all taken between like, 7 and 9 AM.

No one.

Ghost town.

Crickets.

Empty and quiet enough that the cats and birds were freely congregating around overflowing trash cans to rummage together for their breakfasts.

The same alley could not be seen the prior afternoon; it was a never-ending stream of people.

We had enough time to stop and have a leisurely coffee/croissant breakfast, explore one or two squares and tourist market areas we'd wanted to see, and still be at the bus stop with plenty of time to spare. It was a nice morning. Although, sadly, I bought a gloriously tacky fan (everywhere we went was hot and having a fan ended up being worth its weight) I ended up losing it on the next leg of our journey...

I would also like to say at this point that although Jo and I researched about a half dozen different ways to get from Venice to our next destination, Ljubljana/Postojna, Slovenia, we finally ended up paying a little bit more for the convenience of a GoOpti shuttle that took us directly from Venice to the caves/castle/park in Postojna. I would seriously strongly recommend this to anyone trying to get from Italy to Slovenia. Although there are buses and trains, each one is complicated and requires are least one or more transfer. There are some more direct routes to Ljubljana but even a lot of those require transfers. Plus our driver was on time, very nice, let us know what was happening each step of the way (we stopped to pick up some people at the airport and at another location), and the van was clean and air-conditioned. Even though I was disappointed not to take the train because I love traveling by train, in this case it was 100% worth it because we were on a schedule and this shuttle let us get to the caves quickly and then onto Ljubljana in the same day (although that was a bit more of an adventure since we took public transit). Anyway, GoOpti. This is my very strong recommendation for their services. Go GoOpti!