写真

Albania is a beautiful country. I can't recall exactly what I was thinking when I decided to wake up at 5 am only to reach this ferry's daily departure time at 9. But I knew I'd rather want to do it this way than to go to Kosovo the easy way. I have no regrets.

First, I had to do a bumpy ride in a minibus - or furgon, as they call it locally - for three hours. Then this ferry ride and two more furgons before reaching Prizren in Kosovo.

I got a glimpse of these mountains from the other side the day before when I rented a bicycle from Shkod�r and cycled deep into a beautiful valley, to the end of the paved road. There I was invited to eat lunch with an American and his Albanian wife. She had many interesting stories about life in the valley before the socialist regime collapsed. A few years back, police wouldn't dare to come near the valley. They would be shot by local druglords. Things have changed since then, but they still felt there is a long way to go.

Now, back to the ferry ride. The mountains somehow reminded me of the Norwegian fjords. I was amazed. It's an artificial lake with tall mountains on both sides. For most of the two-hour ferry ride, the mountains were as impressive as this. I'd do it again anytime.

I remember last year, just after I returned from this trip, I saw a photo from ChrisJ taken at the exact same place. Surprised to see how similar they turned out.