Pretty nervous we entered the car and started our journey towards Albania. We are not afraid of Albania but everybody has scared us about the traffic, the road conditions and how hard it is to drive there. It couldn’t be more wrong an and the roads where in mint condition. On our way towards Albania we stopped in a national park, besides bullet holes in the road signs it kind a ironic that this park was the most contaminated place on the whole trip, plastic bags and garbage everywhere. To bad cause the nature was really beautiful with some mountains and green forests and it is kind a cool to look down at the clouds.
We also stopped in the small city of Ohrid, located close to the border and right beside a big like it gave more vibes of an greek village close to the Mediterranean than anything else. But now its an small Macedonian village and after some food and walk around the city center it feels like they live on tourism and selling pearls. I’m not the kind of guy wearing pearls so no shopping for me and instead we headed up the mountains to cross the border.
Just outside Tirana the newly built highway ended up in just an ordinary tiny road and from two files (which means four cars driving beside each other) we all had to go over and drive in a line, it was a mess and because the pope were in town a lot of streets were closed which made it even worse. I saw the drops of sweat on Pers head before we finally found a hotel where we could park our car and finally exhale and relax over that we didn’t hit anything or anyone. Our trip may be a bit stressed but that we should arrive in Tirana at the same day as the pope, without knowing it. What are the odds for that? A quick shower later and while we are walking down the streets in central Tirana we suddenly see a crowd of people, curious as we are we walked over and guess what. The people were waiting on the pope and a few minutes later he drove by in his pope-mobile and I can check see the pope from my bucket list.
