A Balkan Round Trip

The last week before Christmas me and Stine went for a "little" Balkan round tour week. The purposes of this trip were many. We had to leave Serbia because of visa regulations, but we also wanted to see and experience some different parts of the Balkans. We started Sunday night - one week before Christmas - with the night train to Montenegro.

We had a pretty amazing view out the window when we woke up.

The train takes about 8 hours if its on schedule, but like trains here usually it arrived more than two hours late (We got some extra rest, I'm not complaining). I had a three bed cabin which I was sharing with two other guys. It was pretty good, and all over an interesting experience.

One of my roommates enjoying the view

Stine and one of her roommates

The house we stayed in, in Herceg Novi

The view from the balcony. If you found a boat and sailed straight into this picture, you would arrive in Italy.

A little bit of Herceg Novi

We arrived in Podgorica, the capitol of Montenegro, but we went straight on with bus to Herceg Novi. Herceg Novi is a beautiful city along the Montenegrin coast. We stayed here for two nights at the place of two American missionaries, Jan and Elizabeth. They were great people and helped us get a great tour of the area. Monday we spent in the city an resting a little at J&Es place.

Elizabeth and Stine in one of the old streets in Herceg Novi

A rather morbid tombstone in the courtyard of a monastery in Herceg Novi.

Dubrovnik - An amazing city. The part closest to the camera is the old city, as you can see its all surrounded by an old wall.

Tuesday we went for a short day trip to Croatia, or more exact Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the Balkans. The main attraction is the old part of the city. Its surrounded by a great wall and inside there is a large area with autentic old houses. Usually this place is crawling with tourist, but we didn't hear anyone speaking english or otherwise have the appearance of a tourist. We even walked around the city wall (a tourist Must) without meeting a single tourist. We had some icecream on the wall and it was in all an amazing place.

The old narrow alleys in Dubrovnik has not managed to stay completely authentic.

A seagull is enjoying the view from the city walls.

The city wall is surrounding all the old city along the cliffs.

Along the wall.

Enjoying ice cream on the city wall.

Stairway

Through the window
On the way from Herceg Novi to Kotor. The two islands on the fjord are a Catholic monastery and an Orthodox monastery.

Along the bay of Kotor

Also Kotor has a old city

Wednesday morning the journey went on to the beutiful city of Kotor (which actually is on the UNESCO list of world inheritage places). Also here we spent some time in the old city, before we went up the hill to the old castle.

On the beginning of the way from the old city to the fortress. There where a LOT of cats in this city.

A curious goat on the way

In this old castle we actually met a guy who claimed to live there. He had made some "bed" In a little hole in one of the fortress walls. On the top waited the majestic view of the fjord of Montenegro and the Mountains surrounding it.

On top of the fortress

The magnificent view from the top

Me and Danijela

Danijela

Wednesday evening we spent in Podgorica - the capitol of Montenegro. Where we met Tanja and Danijela. We also met Goran and Ivan, but I will tell more about them later. We went to a cafe and relaxed a little bit before Tanja and Danijela brought us to a service in their church.

From the church in Podgorica

In the church we met the pastor Vladimir and a team of Englishmen from Samaritan Purse (an organisation which are sending Christmas presents to children around the globe). Vladimir helped us to find a reasonably priced hotel and also helped us organizing the transport to our next target; Albania. We said our goodbyes to the team and the people from the church.

Thursday morning Vladimir came to the hotel an drove us to the bus station. We said or goodbyes and left with the bus. Destination; Ulcinj, a city close to the Albanian border along the coast.

On the way to Albania. Too early in the morning.

View from Ulcinj bus station

These sheeps are on their last journey. On this Muslim holiday (think its called Bayram) every family slaughter a sheep on the traditional way.

This Thursday just happened to be one of the biggest Muslim holidays and only small amouts of public transport were working. But with Vladimir's help we got connected to Majka, an American missioner traveling to Tirane this very same day. We first travelled by car together with two German colleges of Majka and their child, to a city in Northern Albania.

The Montenegro - Albania border

As soon as we crossed the border in to Albania, one could easily see that this country was very different from Montenegro and Serbia. Houses and things were not well maintained and garbage were literally floating everywhere. From the city Shodar in north Albania we took a minibus to Tirane.

The German couple we were driving with and their son Tobia

Downtown Tirane. Tirane International Hotel in the back

Majka and Stine in Tirane. Waiting for Zev

Around two o'clock we arrived in Tirane. A highly interesting city. We were met by Zev, the Secretary General of IFES - Albania. We got some hours to look around in the city by ourselves before we went to a cafe and restaurant visit, with some of the members of IFES - Albania. It was really great to meet all this people and we had a great time in Tirane even though we didn't stay to long.

Me and Tosi, one of the members in IFES - Albania

There were fireworks everywhere and fires on the streets because of the Muslim holiday

The Albanian restaurant chain Kolonat. Does this remind you of something?

A mosque in Tirane. Even though Albania is a Muslim country its highly secular. Apart from mosques and architecture styles there is little that reminds one about Islam.

Islam or not, Christmas decorations are everywhere. But my impression is that they decorate for new year and not for Christmas.

Garbage is everywhere!

The cars in Albania is a story for itself. Every second car you see is a Mercedes and I guess I saw about 20 Hummers during my short time in Albania. Most of this cars are supposedly crossing the Albanian border as a part of insurance fraud.

Downtown

Tirana Christian Center

The distinctive Albanian flag is everywhere. Rumor has it that Albania is one of the most nationalistic countries there is.

We spent the night in Tirane Christian Center (can recommend this if anybody needs a place to stay in Tirane, cheap and good). Next day at 12 o'clock we were left alone with some Albanian phrases on a piece of paper and some basic instructions of how to get back to Montenegro.

It so happens that public transport in Albania is very seldom and almost non existing. So getting back could become a challenge, considering that we didn't know the language nor do many Albanians speak English. We started by going to Tirane International Hotel and ask for directions to the place the private minibuses were leaving for Shodar. Despite our expectations of a highly challenging journey, things turned out more easily then I ever expected.

Along the road

There is a lot of really fascinating mountains in Albania.

The guy sitting next to us in the minibus where going to the same place as us, and the minibus drove all the way to the border, where we paid a guy 15 Euro to drive us the last kilometers to Podgorica.
From Podgorica we took a bus with destination Nikšić.

Nikšić was our final destination before heading back to Serbia, but we were going to stay there from Friday to Sunday, something we looked forward to after our rather hectic traveling schedule. During our time in Nikšić, I stayed at my friend Gorans place.

Mimi is a funny Serbian guy working with the church in Niksic

Mileva is a EUS student which for the moment is living in Niksic

At Marija and Buba's family's place. Marija is in Bergen now as a Hald student.

Ivan

We had a great time there and met a lot of great people. We also got the opportunity to attend a youth meeting (the average age was probably around 24, but they still call it youth meetings) in church and also to visit an american family living there and working with the church in Nikšić. During the Sunday service in church there where some visitors, and once again we got the opportunity to meet Vladimir and the team from Samaritans Purse. And once again we said our final goodbyes.

Stonehenge Niksic

A woodpecker in the Niksic forrest

Martina (Danijel's girlfriend) is "obstructing "the view of Niksic

Me and some girl at a cafe

Peter and Goran

Amy - the daughter of the American pastor

In the Sunday evening (23. December) a change of plans occurred (not very suprising) and we ended up leaving earlier for Podgorica to attend the church service there, and yet again we got the opportunity to meet and say goodbye to Vladimir and the team! After the service we took the night train back to Belgrade. We finally arrived around 8 o'clock in the morning of Christmas Eve. All over I had a really great, but busy week!