Jane & Rog’s Balkans Tour

[Wanders from Glos]

We left Autocamp Blagaj very happy - a lovely site, right by the river with a little restaurant and bar, super friendly owner who gave away his friend’s wine as the drop of a (cooking) hat, free washing machine (all our underthings are now sparkly and white) and all for 10€ a night.

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First stop, Trenbinje. It had been hyped by our guide books as the most attractive town in Bosnia. Well, it was fine, but a little oversold. It did have a lovely central square, more Venetian than Bosnian, with a few local market stalls selling cheese, ham, herbs and honey.

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The old town was pretty too, and we shared an excellent Bosnian pizza at a restaurant where the main entertainment for everyone else was Flynn’s lack of hesitation in sharing his view of cats. (He’s not terribly in favour.) The pizza was good though - “dry neck” of pork, sour cream and egg were among the less Italian ingredients.

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We were left with 40 Bosnia blip-blaps to spend before we left Bosnia. What to do? Find a nearby vineyard of course. Winery Bojanić (footsteps.dependably.slouching) was a little room with stainless steel vats and a small table where the owner, Stevo Bojanić let us taste a white, a pink and a red wine - and very generously allowed us to buy two bottles of rosé and one of white wine, when we only really had enough cash for 2.87 bottles. He told us that his family set up the winery under Austro-Hungarian rule, and it has continued to this day, through two world wars, communism and the conflicts of the 90s. It’s only 2 hectares, too.

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The crossing to Montenegro was pretty easy and with a great view of the start of the Bay of Kotor.

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We hot-footed it to what looked like the best campsite, Autocamp Naluka on the Bay of Kotor. But at €30 with faded facilities and a push button shower, it’s not a patch on last night.

We ate indifferent pasta and risotto just down the road, but with this stunning view.

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Montenegro feels as though we’re back in Croatia - expensive and busy. I expect we’ll make good time to Albania now.

It’s probably 15 years since we visited Bosnia and Montenegro. We loved them both, so beautiful and with lively old towns. Montenegro was expensive then in our opinion, but great food. It’s great to hear the Bosniaks are still as friendly and kind.

 

[Jane And Rog]

We woke late and, after Flynn had been for his constitutional up the side of the gulf of Kotor, it was already 8am. We broke camp and hit the road or, more accurately the sea… our first leg was the roll-on-push-in-front-of-the-queue-off ferry across the Gulf of Kotor. €10 for a ticket from the grumpy Montenegran lady but worth it in time (and probably diesel). The world had other ideas for our travel time though. Off the ferry we immediately got into traffic. There was a queue of about 10km rising into the mountains caused by a traffic accident.

From there ever south past poor Budva: a lovely medieval fishing village now hemmed in by high rise hotels and apartments. The beaches were packed with loungers and umbrellas in neat rows. It was almost as if Montenego wanted to show us we wouldn’t like it.

But then… as we drove south, the villages became smaller, the coast emptier. Jane hurriedly consulted the books (no internet remember) and we left the road for Virpazar. A tiny fishing village on the banks of Skadar Lake. We were immediately brought back to reality: it is a lovely fishing village on the lake but it’s still overwhelmed with coach parties and the narrow roads choked with inconsiderate parking. We turned around and resumed our plan to reach Albania.

It’s long been an ambition to visit to Albania. I suspect it’s because when I was growing up it was a closed country. Somewhere nobody could visit.

At the border, the grumpy Montenegrisimo Polijca stamped our passports and demanded “cards for car”. 100m later the Albanian police were smiling and giving us the thumbs up. Maybe it was our attitude but Albania immediately felt friendlier. We stopped 10m inside Albania and bought data. The data was expensive but when the man at the kiosk saw our plates he told us about his brother: six years in Edinburgh. “I would love to see him again”. He brought his mother out who chattered and smiled at us for a brief, tenuous connection to her absent son.

Why doesn’t he come back? I asked naively.

“He went on a lorry. No papers”.

He is working in a restaurant for less than the minimum wage. I looked around at the beautiful mountains and lakes and tried to imagine an Edinburgh kitchen for £9 an hour.

We drove on, leaving the main road and heading up the valley to Bogë just on the edge of the conveniently named Bogë national park. The road looks fairly serious on the map but it’s narrow and twisty and your oncoming Albanian driver has a heavy foot. The last 20km took us 40 minutes rising towards the mountains and Boga Alpine Resort (///collapse.undergrowth.boundless)

After setting up we took Flynn out for a walk. My chosen route was fairly arduous but we were rewarded along the way with wild strawberries and amazing views. At the end of the walk, we popped into a bar for a drink. My Albanian is limited and although I can order my beer (“beer please”), white wine is more difficult. Eventually we made progress: “ah, vino for signorina” before pouring a pint of red.

We chatted to the owner of the village through a mixture of latin, Spanish, hand signals and Google translate: he has four children. They all left and are working abroad. The village school only has three pupils. It probably won’t rain tonight.


When we finally made it back to the camp, Flynn got his reward: a herd of pigs invading the camp site.

Pigmageddon over, we sat a while smugly swigging elderflower beer we’d picked up in Bosnia, looking out at the view before trotting up to the restaurant.

As we ate our baked pork and potatoes, there was an ominous boom and it started raining. Really raining. We didn’t feel able to brave the onslaught so we ordered another beer. And a raki. And a mountain tea because the raki was a bit generous.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Today’s map from Mundus. You can also use it as a foraging app - I’ve marked where the wild strawberries were! Also, our border crossing from Montenegro is ringed - it was a very easy crossing, I’d recommend it.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

What a great trip and travelog. We really fancy Albania but I’ve read somewhere you cannot get motor insurance in Albania and that you buy it at the border. How have you managed the insurance?

 

[MaidinDevon]

Thank you for this fascinating and amusing thread. I almost went to Greece, via Montenegro and Albania a few years ago, but got cold feet about the insurance and went to Sicily instead.
Which was lovely, and I made some lovely friends who i still meet up with
Maybe I will get to Bosnia some time, but have enjoyed it vicariously with you.

Karen

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[Grianan]

Really enjoying this blog. Nice to see some positive press about Albania and Albanians too!

 

[Gingernuts]

Gosh that’s pricey! We definitely wouldn’t have paid that (as my other half’s nickname is Tintin Tightwad!). ‘‘Twas a few years ago and pre Covid when we were there though so maybe they’re trying to make up for lost income now.

 

[Gingernuts]

TinTin Tightwad

 

[Stonemags76]

I follow a couple of Canadian full timers ( https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2023/06/portrane-cliff-walk.html#more ) who say that Albania is one of the countries they would consider settling in! There is quite a bit of info in their blog from last year.

 

[Jane And Rog]

What a great trip and travelog. We really fancy Albania but I’ve read somewhere you cannot get motor insurance in Albania and that you buy it at the border. How have you managed the insurance?

Our insurer is NFU, and we got third-party insurance for eveywhere except Kosovo.

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[Jane And Rog]

I follow a couple of Canadian full timers ( https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2023/06/portrane-cliff-walk.html#more ) who say that Albania is one of the countries they would consider settling in! There is quite a bit of info in their blog from last year.

Thanks - I follow them too, and even wondered if we might meet up when we were both in Morocco, but they spent a lot of their time in Morocco on side-trips and we had to cut our trip short too.

I do wish Kevin gave a few more locations for things - he’s good at the free overnights but I often wonder exactly where a trek is.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

Our insurer is NFU, and we got third-party insurance for eveywhere except Kosovo.

I rang them a week ago and asked if Croatia is covered fully comp as they are in the EU now and was told no!!
Seems strange why the still exclude them.
Took a chance last year by spending time staying there but wouldn’t want to stretch my luck by going back

 

[Jane And Rog]

I rang them a week ago and asked if Croatia is covered fully comp as they are in the EU now and was told no!!

As Jane said, NFU gave us free fully comp everywhere in EU and 3p most of the other Balkans except Kosovo which was flat “no, we won’t insure for Kosovo”. We also got free 3p green card for Morocco. I wonder if it depends on the specific agency…

 

[jumartoo]

I'm enjoying your travels into countries we've missed visiting. We used to travel with our sport, and went to many countries/places with it, Croatia was one, but Albania and Montenegro are unknown to us. Its great to read about your experiences. Keep them coming, please

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

As Jane said, NFU gave us free fully comp everywhere in EU and 3p most of the other Balkans except Kosovo which was flat “no, we won’t insure for Kosovo”. We also got free 3p green card for Morocco. I wonder if it depends on the specific agency…

I am covered 3p but it doesn’t give you much as in no fire or theft

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[Jane And Rog]

@Coastal Cruiser life is short. I don’t think vans get stolen when people are in them. I guess Flynn might lose control of one of the fires he starts in the van but we have equipped him with a fire blanket and bowl of water.

 

[Riverbankannie]

@Coastal Cruiser life is short. I don’t think vans get stolen when people are in them. I guess Flynn might lose control of one of the fires he starts in the van but we have equipped him with a fire blanket and bowl of water.

I like your way of thinking. Great blog, thanks for posting.

 

[Jane And Rog]

After a discussion with the owner of the campsite, (“It’s a shame you didn’t mention it, the German couple next to you have taken public transport to Theth, you could have hired a car between you.”), we decided the climb the mountain behind the campsite.

This was not as easy as it seemed, given the lack of relevance of our map to actual footpaths, and the sketchy nature of our instructions.

After one false start, we made better progress for a while, but then the path* turned directly uphill. The going was loose rocks and gravel too, not much fun. I’m still nervous after I sprained my ankle in the lakes last year.

*An area where there were slightly fewer trees and more rocks.

And then the weather came in. Dark clouds moved up the valley and our peak was covered in low cloud. We decided to stop for an early lunch (late breakfast) and give it a while to improve.

But then the sounds of thunder were heard in the distance and the cloud had become even lower. We started down.

Just as we reached the metalled road back to the site, the rain started. Once again, it appeared that someone in the sky was emptying and enormous bucket on us, over and over again. Thank goodness we had packed waterproofs.

Not much of a walk in the end but it was nearly 1,000 feet of ascent.

I suggested heading in Denby for the sunnier lowlands so that we could have our planned barbecue in the sun but Rog preferred to stay put. The whole holiday has been a tension between sunny, too hot, too crowded coastline and grey, wet mountains.

Then we spent a dull, thundery, rainy afternoon in the van reading. Rog got a good photo of the lightning on the GoPro though.

For a brief 45 minutes at 3:30pm, the sun shone, and we took Flynn for a fantastic little walk up the valley.

Unfortunately the path was just a shepherd’s access to his grassy fields and came to an end, so we returned, past the shepherd and his sheep, just as the clouds came in again.

It was too cold to sit outside so we ate at the camp restaurant again - this time the other dish, trout cooked in foil, which was excellently cooked. The menu may be small but the food is good. And comes with this view.

 

[Orinoco]

Many thanks for writing this blog Jane and Rog -we are planning to travel down to Albania , possibly Greece this summer. Lots of useful tips on places to stay and eat. We are a bit worried it's going to be too busy on the coast of Croatia so will probably head inland to Bosnia. It sounds like you had no problems getting insurance at borders and vignettes when you needed them ?

 

[Jane And Rog]

Many thanks for writing this blog Jane and Rog -we are planning to travel down to Albania , possibly Greece this summer. Lots of useful tips on places to stay and eat. We are a bit worried it's going to be too busy on the coast of Croatia so will probably head inland to Bosnia. It sounds like you had no problems getting insurance at borders and vignettes when you needed them ?

We were already insured third party for Bosnia and Albania, although we were offered insurance at the Albanian border.

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[Just smiffy]

We were already insured third party for Bosnia and Albania, although we were offered insurance at the Albanian border.

Do the borders ask to see your insurance../

 

[Jane And Rog]

Do the borders ask to see your insurance../

Yes!

 

[WESTY66]

Loving the trip it’s a pity you weren’t doing YouTube vlogs, they’d be good viewing material

 

[Jane And Rog]

Loving the trip it’s a pity you weren’t doing YouTube vlogs, they’d be good viewing material

You’ve obviously not seen the photos with our faces in!

 

[Jane And Rog]

We left Boga and drove on to Shkodër. The cultural capital of the north. So, Albania’s Rawtenstall. The traffic through town was awful but I think I blame Sunday and Garmin’s awful routing.

We eventually left the city proper and arrived at camping Legjienda (///hexes.sung.attention) which is a great site in the middle of an urban wasteland. That sound worse than it is, it’s lovely here, I’m writing to the sound of frogs making whatever noise frogs do and birds doing the same although bird noises, not frog noises.

It’s a small site designed by an architect which means a mad swimming pool and, right in the centre of the site, a tower or more accurately, steel spiral staircase with a fence around it. 30 years ago I’d have been up it in a flash. Now I’m older I was still up it in a flash but I had to hold onto the sides and didn’t quite make it to the top. I tried twice and admitted temporary defeat.

Our picnic lunch was followed by a delicious Trileque. Trelique is, as I’m sure you know, a baked pudding originally made from cow, goat and buffalo milk, now made from condensed milk, more condensed milk and uncondensed milk. Delicious and something we’ll be seeing much more of.

We took Flynn for a short walk to the river to cool off. As there isn’t any accessible river near the van it became a long walk via the river and then we thought we should visit the castle on the way back. Shkodër castle is big and impressive but like a lot of such things you come up here for the view of everything else and view the castle from the tower in your campsite.

One of those views showed us that there are still storms in the mountains.

We dithered over dinner. We really wanted to go into the city, see the old town and eat at a well reviewed traditional restaurant. But we’d had enough urban walking. 45 minutes walk to that 4.5 TripAdvisor score and some Bosnian sausages in the fridge made the decision for us. We skipped town and fired up the BBQ.

Later at night I went back and got to the top of the tower easily. Who knows if it’s aversion therapy, the dark or half a bottle of rose at work. Either way, great view.

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[Poms_from_Adelaide]

I'm impressed that Flynn will swim alongside the path without deciding to venture further out and take the person on the other end of the lead with him!

 

[berni109]

If we ever venture to Greece again I quite fancy returning via the Balkans and specifically Albania. Reading with interest.

 

[jockaneezer]

I climbed up the tower in the Cloth Hall at Ypres, the last section was an open galvanised steel staircase on which you can still see my fingernail marks !

 

[Jane And Rog]

Maps from last night. If you do stay in this campsite, it’s worth noting that it’s a reasonable trek to the castle (you have to enter the far side from the campsite) and a good 45 minute walk to the centre of town. Not as convenient as we thought.

 

[Jane And Rog]

We had intended to stop in Shkodra and visit the fascinating Site of Witness And Memory (flukes.graceful.massaged). This was the regional headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This innocuous name belies the persecution and terror that took place in this building for 45 years, under the communists. The storerooms of the former Franciscan seminary were used as detention cells and interrogation rooms for the Sigurimi, communist Albania’s secret police. Thousands of people passed through these cells before they were sentenced; they were then either executed or sent on to other prisons or prison camps such as Spaçi.

It’s now a museum explaining everything that went on, and we both really wanted to visit. But only opens from 8:30 to 14:30, so it was problematic with Flynn. We decided to park up and take it in turns, but as ever, it was nightmarish to park, so we gave up and headed for Camping Kolmani (soulful.restated.stiffened) - our plan is to overnight there and then take the ferry up Komani Lake tomorrow. This is supposedly one of the world’s great boat trips.

However, our trip there was beset by difficulties. First, what I had thought was an easy road winding up beside the river turned into a narrow mountain road with steep drops and a dreadful, broken road surface. I was in tears of fear after an hour of this - it was awful.

Here is Rog’s video

To give my poor nerves a break, we stopped at a rare café for coffee and a bite to eat. I did dither over this ice cream…

But then we realised that we were woefully underprepared for our Indiana Jones adventure. Only half a tank of diesel - probably OK. Unknown amounts of LPG - well, we can eat cold food. Only 80 euros in cash - hmmm, that could be an issue. It’ll be fine, said Rog the ever optimistic. They’ll take cards, and anyway it’ll only cost 40 euros or so.

At Camping Komani, they helped us talk to the ferry and see if there was a place for us. And told us that it costs €7 per adult, and €7 per square metre of our footprint - or around €110 in total. And no, they didn’t take cards. But, they did take sterling, and luckily we had £70 stashed away in Denby.

Lord Baden Powell would be ashamed, but we have both beaten ourselves robustly with our ever-present leather-bound copy of “Scouting For Boys” and we promise to be prepared in future.

Behind us, just up the hill, there was this tower. I thought that it could possibly have been built as a lock-in tower. Albanians have the concept of blood-feud in their society. This is where, if a member of your clan is killed by a member of a rival clan, you are duty bound to avenge that killing. The family of the man you kill (in such societies, women and children do not count) is then obliged to kill either you or – if that proves impossible – one of your close male relatives. After the killing, the murderer is incarcerated in a lock-in tower for two weeks, while his relatives and those of the dead man negotiate and try to avoid a blood feud by the handing over of money, goods or land. Blood feud died out in communist times, but is sadly, and stupidly, being revived, often over land disputes.

Anyway, after a lot of hanging around the campsite waiting for the boat’s captain to back from Fierze, and with him our ability to be booked in, all was OK and we paid our way in a combination of sterling, euros, leks and Matabele Gumbo beans.

We were then free to take Flynn for a walk down to the lake, and after that, the sun being well over the yardarm, to open the beer / wine. Luckily, a few days before, I had frozen a pasta sauce made from “fridge imminent demise” ingredients such as tomatoes, bacon, Bosbian green spicy peppers and the remains of an elderly Camembert. It was much better than it sounded.

We had very friendly Dutch neighbours with their usual envy-inducing skill at languages - i.e. they spoke perfect English and I know one Dutch poem about putting a paper hat in a glass cupboard, which I learnt in 1976. Sadly for my linguistic prowess, neither paper hats nor glass cupboards cropped up in the conversation.

The Dutch couple are here until Thursday, which was the first date that they managed to book online for a vehicle of their size (a Sun Living C class of a similar length to us but wider). We really did get lucky, managing to get on tomorrow’s ferry with so little planning.

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