Balkan 2: Durrës

7:40, Rooster hostel

We woke up rested. The air conditioning had run all night, and although all six beds in the dorm were taken, everyone minded their own business. The plan for the day: another look at the market, then on to Durrës, the second largest city in Albania.

The market was full of tobacco. One merchant offered us a whole kilogram at a low price. I declined three or four times, and he assured me each time that it was good for me.

15:40, our apartment in Durrës

Getting here was an adventure of its own. We found no information online about how intercity buses work. All we knew was that they leave the station every 30 minutes. We left the hostel at 11:00 and asked the receptionist, who explained that local buses have no timetable and are not marked: you ask the driver, say "Terminal?", and if he answers "Terminal", the bus goes to the bus station, from where buses leave for Durrës.

Before leaving we went through the centre once more, looking for postcards. The post office clerk spoke English but did not know what a postcard was and offered us a catalogue of stamps. We walked on, passed a souvenir shop without noticing it and had to walk back. The merchant did have postcards, kept out of sight at the back of the shop. We left happy, if a little tired.

The second bus driver we asked was going to the Terminal. On the way we saw buildings of very different eras standing next to each other and plenty of litter beside the road. (Tirana is known for its mix of Ottoman, Fascist and Soviet-era architecture.)

At the Terminal we learned how it all works. Tickets are not bought in advance or from the driver, but from a conductor who rides along, once you are seated. The "Terminal" itself is an unfinished concrete shell that has stood in an overgrown field for at least twenty years, and the actual stop is the car park next to it, full of buses and taxi drivers touting for customers. Traffic lights show a countdown, but a fair share of cars ran the red light anyway.

The first bus we boarded was full and we had to leave after about fifty metres, because standing on the steps was not allowed. A taxi driver then told us the last bus to Durrës had already left, although it was barely noon, and quoted 5000 Lek (about 40 €). When we declined, his price dropped to 3200 Lek.

A calmer driver stepped in, led us away from the others to the right bus and apologised: "Sorry, it's a big problem in Albania, our people doing this." The bus cost 150 Lek per person, ten times less than the taxi.

The bus took an extra 15 minutes because it had to drive to the nearest roundabout to get onto the right carriageway. The route to Durrës was fine. From the window we saw more unfinished buildings among industrial sites and fields of sun-scorched grass. Between Tirana and Durrës, 46 km apart, there was hardly any stretch of road without buildings, which is quite different from Slovakia, where towns and villages are clearly separated by fields.

In Durrës I bought a "hamburger" at a run-down restaurant. A word of advice: this is rarely a good idea on a trip. This is what it contained:

By the time I ate it, the fries had gone soggy. It was edible, if not enjoyable. First, though, we had to reach the apartment, about 1.2 km from the bus station. It was 12:30 and very hot, which made the walk feel longer than it was. At the point marked in the Booking.com app there was no such place.

After circling the same building three times we asked an elderly man, and explained what we were looking for with gestures and pictures. He walked us all the way there. The apartment, called Top view, did have a good view, mostly of the back of the local archaeological museum, and cost about 14 € for both of us for the night. I took a shower and ate my hamburger on the balcony.

The rest of the day

In the afternoon we went to the beach. For dinner we picked an Italian restaurant precisely because it was the only one with no guests. The food was good, the service less so. We walked along the beach until dark, when it grew crowded, and my sister told me I could not compose a photograph. Coming from an artist who studied composition, that was fair.

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