Monday, April 15 – transit from Kotor to Shkoder, Albania

This is my 150th Journal Entry. Kind of a milestone, I guess? Whoo hoo!

I’m taking the bus this morning to Albania. The departure is 8am, so I won’t have time for breakfast. The hotel provided me with a takeaway bag though. Thank you!

And this time, in order to get the best views, I planned ahead and sat on the correct side of the bus. Brilliant!

We then boarded the bus, drove for a minute, and got off again for the check at the Albanian border.

The bus trip from Kotor to Shkoder took about 4 hours, of which 30 minutes were spent at the border crossings. The cost of the trip was €19. I was kind tired after my active last two days; the bus ride was a nice break.

The “bus station” in Shkoder is no station at all, just a designated spot to pull over on a main boulevard in the city center. (I shouldn’t be condescending though, that’s the same process used by Badger Bus for the trip to O’Hare from the UW Campus!)

I arrived too early to check in to my hotel, so I ended up strolling over to a nearby park to relax. It was a nice day, and the park was pretty crowded – all the benches in the shade were taken. I ended up finding some cover under a tree.

Conveniently, my hotel was a 5 minute walk from the park…

And per my routine, I did a little walking around this evening…

Travel Note: It is recommended that foreign visitors do not drink the tap water in Albania.

Sidenote: The Olivier Awards (the West End equivalent of the Tonys) was held last night in London. And coming as no surprise to me, Sarah Snook was named Best Actress for her one-woman performance of 26 different roles in The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Well deserved! (there are rumors that the show will be heading to Broadway; could a Tony be in her future as well?) And I was also fortunate enough to attend a performance by the Best Actor winner, Mark Gatiss, in The Motive And The Cue.

Trivia: For those of you who are fans of the TV series Sherlock that starred Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Gatiss is a co-creator of the show. He also portrayed Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft. And if you’re not familiar with Sherlock, I recommend that you check it out!

Tuesday, April 16 – Shkoder

After a leisurely breakfast, I headed out on a one hour walk to visit Rozafa Castle.

On my way to the Castle, I came across a…

Here are some views of the surrounding area from the Castle…

Shkoder Lake is the largest lake in the Balkan Peninsula and, as you’ve seen in my posts, is located in both Montenegro and Albania.

I ended up walking around a little bit, but was honestly feeling a little tired. I did make one (actually two) stop on the way back to the hotel…

It was nap time when I got back to the hotel! And when I woke it was raining; a perfect excuse to stay in and work on a journal entry.