As I mentioned in an earlier post, buses in Albania are something of a dark art, and Vlorë was no exception. Armed with what could only be described as a treasure map, we decided we needed to establish two things. Firstly, where the buses actually left from and secondly, whether there really was a 7am bus to Pogradec the following morning.
So, armed with my trusty bloodhound, off we went. As Rachel is happy to tell anyone who will listen, my internal compass is broken and I tend to rely more on chance. This approach does not work for her.
We jumped on the Eco bus and headed into town until Rachel decided it was time to get off. The bus station, which wasn’t really a bus station at all, turned out to be little more than a stretch of road leading out of the city.
Rachel immediately began quizzing a couple of guys, launching into an explanation of what we were looking for, only to discover when she finally paused for breath that they were passengers too. After questioning a few actual drivers, we established that there really was a direct bus to Pogradec leaving at either 7am or 7:30am, depending on who you asked.
The following morning Rachel wasn’t feeling great, but assured me she would be fine, so we arrived just after 6am. We’d been told to get there early if we wanted a good seat.
At around 7:30am, after a few false starts, we were finally underway.
The bus had certainly seen better days. There was no air conditioning and, sitting directly behind the driver, I had a rather unnerving view of a dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree. Ten minutes into the journey he pulled over and lifted the bonnet, which did nothing to ease my concerns. He didn’t appear particularly worried though. He simply sat back down and lit a cigarette.
If I’m honest, that didn’t surprise me. Of all the places we’ve travelled, no one, and I mean no one, seems to smoke quite as much as the Albanians.
About three hours into the journey, Rachel, who is prepared for almost every eventuality, calmly produced a plastic bag and proceeded to fill it with what we later decided was the result of some bad watermelon. I didn’t even know you could get bad watermelon.
Nobody on the bus seemed to notice, or care. I couldn’t quite work out which.
Thankfully, about thirty minutes later the bus stopped and we were able to dispose of the evidence. The good news was that Rachel immediately declared herself to be feeling much better.
We eventually arrived in Pogradec at around 1pm after a bus journey I hope never to repeat. From there we made our way to our apartment beside beautiful Lake Ohrid, where the temperature had dropped considerably following the rain.
Later that evening, it was my turn to embrace the bowl.
Wow, what a day.
We’re laughing about it now, so it’s all good.
Dream Chasers 