Am I in heaven? I see a beautiful bay right in front of me, steep rocky mountains surrounding me, little villas with red tile roofs, warming sun rays, birds singing – oh, and there is a cruise ship, like, right in front of me. LOL. Actually, its quite interesting to see and watch. This is the view from my apartment in Kotor, Montenegro. It is beyond description, because it is just a feeling. I feel so totally relaxed here and could watch the bay all day mesmerized by its majestic beauty. Naturally, I took hundreds of photos already. Church bells once again ring and on the backside of my apartment is also a series of mountain tops with a fortress and church (2000+ steps) that I plan to visit. At this point in my journey I feel like a billy goat and can walk or climb any mountain. LOL. I don’t think I’ve walked so much for this long of stretch in my life, even when in India, and I’ve notice how effortless it is to me now. I feel I deserve this view after yesterday’s transport experience.
Yesterday I took a bus from Tirana to Kotor, which started at 6am by minibus and was suppose to be a 5 hour ride. I knew it would be a long day because nothing goes as planned in this part of the world, and sure enough 20 minutes in, we had a flat tire. OK, it gave me an opportunity to get to know some of the passengers and take photos of the farm fields. One man is a naval engineer for the Turkish government and another young lady a classical violinist from Tirana but living in Germany. She travels the world playing music. After 45 min, we are off again (the jack was broken so the driver had to call someone to help). Eventually we get to the border leaving Albania, then entering Montenegro. A boarder patrol guard comes on board and yells abruptly and sternly “Turkish” several times. Finally the Turkish passengers realize that he wants them to come off bus and follow him. Yikes! There were about 7 Turkish passengers, so they get off the bus with bewildered looks on their faces. I hear the guard outside behind the bus yelling at them, “Where are you going”, “Why are you going”, etc. After about a half an hour they get back on. Apparently they wanted to check their luggage and bags. Something about contraband, drug smuggling, etc., which is strange because they were leaving Albania, not entering. We then proceed to the Montenegro boarder with less hassle. After about 45 min total we are on our way again. Then the young musician translated from the bus driver to the Turkish that they would have to pay the bus driver 15 Euro total because that is what the guard wanted in order to let them proceed at the boarder and not search all their bags. That my friends is corruption, which is what most Albanians complain about. The Turkish were outraged and the one naval engineer was furious and definitely going to take it up with his government. He has a special government passport, which makes him even more furious. Supposedly the bus driver had to pay the Montenegro boarder patrol only 5 Euro. So sad! That is how is works in some countries and until they fix it, they will be at a huge disadvantage in the world. The musician said that is why many Albanians immigrate out of Albania.
So on we go, finally to Bulva which was one town over to my destination Kotor. But, the bus driver said he’d get me another bus ticket to get to Kotor. He didn’t say why, but I assume because they are seriously behind schedule and I am the only person left on the bus. So I wait 30 min for the next bus and it’s a bus that makes many stops, so I was delayed another hour. Total trip took 9 hours vice 5, but those are the adventures of travel. I was happy to meet the people on the minibus who were all interesting and fun, expect for the Naval engineer – he was pissed off the whole ride from the border incident. BTW I never have issues with an American passport. They all seem to love Americans. In Kosovo the boarder patrol said “Welcome” to me, but not to others on the bus.
No comments:
Post a Comment