Passing the Time

Day 562
My flight wasn’t until early evening so I had the day to see the city, or do nothing. I know that I had mentioned a 24 hour bus ride before. I looked into it some more and it was only an extra $30 to fly. That plane ticket was worth every penny.

I had breakfast at this small place run by two elderly women who only made some sort of stuffed and rolled crepe thing. I have no idea what was in it but they were really good and I ate about 4 of them. I also spend a lot of time on the internet. I’m sure that I was just screwing around though.

I ended up at the airport early and had to hang out for a while. The flight to Athens was painless as was immigration back into the EU. Greece is country number 60 and the last new one for me on this trip. The metro was really easy to use and in no time I was checked into my hostel.

The first thing I did was head to the bar where I met some people and spent a few hours chatting before calling it a night.

Nothing

Day 561
Luckily, I had met another American on the bus who was currently living in Albania. As it was still dark out the two of us went to 24 hour bar and got drinks while we waited for the sun to come up. When it finally did I got a cab to my hostel. I got lucky because not only did they let me go to my room at 6 am, but I was the only person in the room as well.

After a nice nap I went out to explore the city. There weren’t any museums that I wanted to check out and there really wasn’t much to the city. I basically just wandered around and took pictures of the various buildings around town. Eventually I got bored and ended up in a café called UFO working on my journal.

That evening I made dinner at the hostel and spent some time at an internet café. Eventually I went back and read until I fell asleep. I was very tired.

Change of Plans

Day 560
My original plan was to get up early and go to Ohrid. I had to cut it out though. Part of this was due to the day lost in getting to Kosovo, and partially because I just wasn’t appreciating cities the way I used to. I didn’t want to rush around so that I could be bored at another place. Instead I just slept in and then went to the bus station and got a ticket for that evening.

I ended up at an internet café for a very long time. I think that I did some typing and organized photos, but mostly just screwed around. Eventually I picked up food for my night bus and then, after hanging out at the hostel for a bit, I got a cab to the bus station. I guess the most exciting thing that happened today is that I stepped in a hole in the street and fell on my ass.

The bus was late, but that made me happy. It arrived to Tirana at a really weird time. The other people on the bus were incredibly annoying. They were loud and moved around a lot. Don’t people know that the others on a night bus want to sleep? I didn’t get any sleep at all and was dropped off in Tirana, Albania at 3 am!

Formerly

Day 559

I was up early and Hanka decided to come with me to Skopje, Macedonia. The ride was only about 4 hours long and was really quite scenic. At the border neither of us had any problems. Hanka had been worried because he had less than 6 months left on his passport, but no one noticed.

Hanka’s linguistic skills got us an ok price on a cab to the hostel. I had prebooked, he was hoping that there was space, there was. The hostel was ok, but all the rooms were in the basement and seemed a bit damp.

Skopje is actually quite a nice little place, although very communistic in its architecture. There was an earthquake here in 1963 and some of the buildings had still not been repaired.

We didn’t go into any of the museums and after a few hours of wandering we headed back to the hostel. Hanka had a friend and headed out with him for diner while I stayed at the hostel and played around on the internet. I tried to go to sleep early, but this didn’t last as some jack ass Slovenians came in at midnight, turned on the light and made a lot of noise. I will not miss hostels!

Exploring Kosovo

Day 558
Part of me has begun to wonder why I’m even doing this part of my trip. I’m tired of traveling, this just happens after a while. Before I took this trip and other long term travelers told me about becoming jaded I would reply that that would never happen to me. And maybe it took longer for me that it has for other people. At this point I can very easily say that I’m definitely jaded. Once this trip is over I think it will be some time before I backpack again. However I know I will at some point. My real answer for why I’m still going now is rather terrible, it’s all a number at this point. When I’m done I would have been to 60 countries.

Despite how sick of travel I was it was still rather exciting to be in Kosovo, Europe’s newest country.

Hanka and I decided to spend the day together. After breakfast and some internet time we headed to the History Museum. Apparently most of the collection is being held captive in Belgrade. It wasn’t very large, or even very good. Upstairs the focus was on the war. Nothing was in English and Hanka’s Albanian wasn’t good enough to read the descriptions. All I could understand were pictures and dates. So many of the soldiers had been born in or around 1981. When I was graduating high school and heading off to college they were fighting and dying for their country. One room was full of very gruesome pictures of dead and wounded people, including a father crying over his child’s coffin. We left the museum feeling rather depressed.

There wasn’t much to do besides wander the streets. The art museum was closed. We went by the unfinished Orthodox church built by the Serbians, Kosovo is a Muslim country. The national theater looked like it was covered in eggs, it was very strange. I also picked up some books for an upcoming 24 hour bus ride.

Eventually we ended up back at the internet café .

Pristina is very cheap (and uses the Euro) and we went out for a very nice dinner. This restaurant could have been in any major capital in the world and fit in. The food was amazing, especially because it was so cheap. After a few drinks we headed back to the hostel where we met our new roommate, I don’t remember her name but she was from Seoul.

I called it an early night because I had a bus the next morning.