Bus back to Tirana

Rain overnight, but we hoped that it would stop so that we could do a lakeside run.

In the nick of time it did, and we had a lovely run. I found it quite hard going but when we got back I noticed on Garmin that we were 700 metres above sea level, so maybe a bit of an altitude issue, or that's my excuse anyway.

After breakfast we had a few hours before we caught our bus and we found a beautiful bar and bought a beer.

This picture looks nice and I would have sat there for longer, but the chair was actually soaking wet and it took a couple of hours for my jeans to dry.

So tomorrow we fly home, and this is a summary of our trip.

We arrived in Albania, spent a couple of days there and then caught an hour and a half flight to Bucharest in Romania. 

It says on Google that it would take just over 13 hours to drive back by car, but it was considerably longer on our train and bus journey.

However we got to see much more of Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia our way.

Bus to Lake Ohrid

Up early this morning for a run along part of the Mother Theresa Way.

Mother Theresa was born in Skopje and there is a museum dedicated to her life and work. It is the most surprising shape with a giant baseball bat holding up one corner and a church on the top floor.

Then we caught a bus for a three hour journey to Lake Ohrid. This is also in North Macedonia, but is almost on the border with Albania.

I was excited because Darren had booked us a really nice hotel room, as it has to be said that some of the accommodation on this trip has been 'challenging'.

Unfortunately after climbing to the top of a very steep hill, it turned out that they had not processed our booking properly, so we got our money back and trudged back down again. 

It all got sorted out in the end and we are now in a different hotel with good views of a roundabout.

Setting off to explore we climbed right to the top of the highest hill to see a fortress and the beautiful North Macedonian flag.

It seems to be a bright yellow sun with sunbeams on a cherry red background.

However, the best discovery was the 13th century Church of St John on a rocky outcrop by the lake.

All around it was fantastic views of the lake and this was my favourite.

Just don't try and open the gate as there is a huge drop on the other side.

Bus to Skopje, North Macedonia

We caught a bus from Sofia this morning and set off through the Bulgarian countryside for the border with North Macedonia.

After a couple of hours we stopped for coffee and toilets in a little village with a beautiful tiny church and a storks nest on the top of a street light.

Then it was on to the border where it took about half an hour to get out of Bulgaria. Then 100 metres across no man's land and off the bus and through customs. We all made it through very quickly apart from one passenger who had a problem. 

In the end we waited for about 90 minutes and then the bus set off again, and I think that they were left behind. We set off into North Macedonia which - interesting fact -only became North Macedonia in 2019.

Straight away you could tell that we were in a different country as the houses looked more modern and the gardens were full of flowers, which were definitely lacking in Bulgaria.

In another couple of hours we reached Skopje, and into a different world.

In 1963 there was a terrible earthquake and almost all of the 18th and 19th century buildings were destroyed. In 2010 a huge initiative was launched to build new, earthquake resistant central Skopje in the neoclassical style.

Some of the buildings wouldn't look out of place in Las Vegas, but it is amazing and great fun.

There are giant statues everywhere, and one of the comments on Google is that they have overdone it a bit and 'less is more', but why not?

It is also full of cafés and bars, this one with a giant desk lamp.

It was all so unexpected, and totally different to the rest of our trip - and I mean that in a good way.

Trabants and the Great Gatsby

Sunday morning in Sofia and the roads are very quiet, apart from the area around the church that we visited yesterday.

The main road was closed by the police, and a huge car rally was taking place.

Hundreds of cars were polished and on show, ranging from Jaguars and Mustangs, and then best of all, a row of Trabants.

They all sparkled like new, and one with it's bonnet up showed off a cute little engine with very few moving parts.

We went round to the back of one car to check out the boot and found that it was actually a mini kitchen.

In the afternoon we went to a matinee of a ballet called The Great Gatsby at the national theatre.

Lots of people in the audience had dressed up in glamourous outfits and I was disappointed not to wear a nice dress that I had brought with me, but it was very cold and rain was due again, so I dressed down.

A strange pose, but in my mind I am doing a sort of Charleston.

The ballet was fantastic, so many dancers and all wearing beautiful costumes. Obviously it is based on the famous book, but we couldn't follow it at all, but it didn't matter at all.

Sofia, Bulgaria

Such a romantic sounding capital city, and we did see a beautiful rainbow from our room.

However, the fairytale then fades, because the surrounding area is pretty run down, although clean and with lots of people around.

The bus from Ruse took about five hours and the rain poured down, and in a de ja vu from yesterday, we thought that it had
stopped, went out to explore and got soaked again.

They do have an excellent metro system, and our line is a tasteful mint green.

Just before the rain set in we managed to get a quick snap of the Patriarchal Church of Alexander Nevsky. 

Lots of people were going through the front door and we followed them in, just in time for the start of the service. 

It's a Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Patriarch of the whole of Bulgaria conducted the service. His name is Danii and succeeded the previous Patriarch who died earlier this year.

He is right in the middle of the photo, has an amazing grey beard and carried a metal holder full of insense that he shook around him. He walked around the whole church, stopping at various icons to shake his holder, while a beautiful choir sang from a balcony high above us.

It was very beautiful and I feel privileged to have been there.

Bucharest to Ruse, Bulgaria

Arrived at Bucharest train station this morning and the timetable looks quite complicated.

Fortunately we had visited yesterday and already had our tickets.

We were travelling to just over the border in Bulgaria, and our carriage looked quite attractive with all of its graffiti.

Not so good from inside as it was difficult to see out of the window, and the ancient window also didn't open so it was also way too hot.

We had to stop at the border and the guard disappeared with our passports, and lots of other people's for nearly an hour, but eventually we got them back and the train finished its journey at Ruse.

Ruse is in Bulgaria and on the river Danube, and there is no other way of saying that the walk from the station to our room was a bit rough looking.

Later in the afternoon and in the middle of quite a violent thunderstorm,we set off to explore the town. 

It has some very dodgy areas, but also some glorious old buildings in need of a bit of care and attention.

Maybe also a change of colour.

Eventually we made it down to the Danube, which looked pretty grim in the rain, but then we found a riverside bar and things started to improve.

Once the rain slowed down other people appeared, and a Friday night vibe was possibly gradually making an appearance.

Found the town sign which is always a favourite of ours, and I have absolutely no idea why it says Pyce instead of Ruse.

After a very tasty meal at the Happy Bar we got back to our room and Darren made us both a coffee using the white liquid that I bought from the supermarket. I thought that it was milk, but surprise surprise, it tasted like vinegar.

I really don't think that Starbucks will start selling it anything soon.

Bucharest, Romania

We are currently staying with Darren's lovely cousin Melissa in her home on the outskirts of Bucharest.

Yesterday was a complete washout as it rained all day, so we stayed in and I made friends with Rio the dog, but annoyingly she much preferred Darren to me.

The weather was back to normal today so we set out on a massive tour of the capital.

We hopped off the bus and walked round a lake to the Arc de Triumph. This was built to commemorate Romania's victory in the first world war, and the traffic around it is as busy as its Parisian namesake.

Then we went to the Palace of Parliament, which is supposed to be the heaviest building in the world.

It has over 1,000 rooms and lots of them are absolutely unbelievably massive.

Apparently the dictator Nicholae Ceausescu visited North Korea in the 1950s and got the idea of creating an enormous building to show off his power and influence.

Almost all of the materials, and all of the workforce were Romanian, but the Communists were overthrown before it was finished so it was never used for its original purpose.

Today it seems that they can't think what to do with these massive rooms and corridors, so they are empty, but spotlessly clean.

Moving on towards the city centre I was very impressed with the ponds and fountains along the main road and in the middle of a huge roundabout.

All that I needed was a glass of wine and some peanuts and I could have spent the afternoon there.

Unfortunately there was not a bar nearby, but in the distance you can see the Palace of Parliament.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around Bucharest looking at beautiful buildings.

We also found a great spot along the river and I was very jealous of this bike.

Day out in Tirana

Good start to the day as we ran through the city centre to the artificial lake on the outskirts.

There is a 5k running and cycling route around it and the whole area is full of cafes and people relaxing.

It was a 10k run, I was really tired and hot by the end, but then we ran right past the hidden entrance to our hotel and an extra kilometre before we realised our mistake.

After a nice long break we then visited the Bunk Art 2.

This is a very strange and interesting place that tries to tell the story of the last 100 years in Albania.

It is set in an old underground nuclear bunker right in the centre of town, and was built in the 1960s.

The background to this is all the idea of the dictator Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albania from 1946 until his death in 1985.

He ruled with an iron fist and allowed no Albanians out of the country and almost no foreigners in. He turned the whole country into a police state and encouraged the citizens to spy on each other and report any transgressions.

There was lots of ingenious ways of spying, and this set up showed two neighbours with a hole drilled in the wall and listening and camera equipment to gather evidence.

Many thousands of people were tortured and murdered and an art installation showed a brain imprisoned within a barbed wire cage to show that no independent thoughts were allowed.

Enver Hoxha believed that all of the neighbouring countries were planning on invading and he had over 160,000 bunkers built all over the country. This one had a decontamination room that was extremely claustrophobic.

The military rule ended in 1991 and since then Albania has changed massively, but this exhibition wants everyone to look forward, but also to remember the past.

It was a relief to come back up into the fresh air and daylight again.

For dinner we decided to go to a restaurant that I saw yesterday, as I was impressed with the happy looking people drinking wine and watching the people pass by.

The menu looked a bit difficult and I chose ravioli while Darren went for sausage in cherry sauce. He did happen to notice that the menu used to have an s on the end of sausage, but that had been rubbed out.

Our wine arrived first and it was the smallest amount of wine in the largest glass that I have ever seen. Huge disappointment, but I sipped it slowly to try to make it last and then Darren's dinner arrived.

One small sausage in a very cherry sauce. Nothing else. It was quite funny really, but surely the waiter could have asked if he wanted anything else with it when he ordered??

Not our most successful meal, but we will be wiser next time.

Actually the photo makes it look bigger than it actually was.