This morning I was leaving Macedonia and travelling across the border to Albania. Trying to find online information about how the make the crossing was problematic. Yesterday I had been able to buy a ticket for today from the nearby town of Struga 12 km away. 

As I left my hotel early on Sunday morning the church bells were ringing across Ohrid. I had left the guesthouse at 730 to leave plenty of time to get to Struga for the 930am bus. 

 















 
I walked back to the main street to see if I could get a bus or taxi to Struga, but at 730am on a Sunday it was deserted. An older man was standing on a corner and asked me something, so I replied Struga. He ushered me over to his waiting car. 

A younger guy was with him so I tried to ask how much, remembering my Serbian "koliko" for how much/many. He replied "shipp" which I didnt understand so the younger guy showed me a 100 MK note ($2). 

 

We got to Struga in about 12 mins so I had given myself plenty of time for the 930am bus. As I made my way to the bus terminal many stray dogs were roaming outside making it difficult to go in.    

 

The terminal was deserted so I still had my doubts about this bus if it even existed as there was no mention of it online. Towards 830am a couple of tourists arrived. You can tell they were western backpackers as they were so obviously dressed in their attire. 

One left the door open allowing the stray dogs into the terminal. The other two were counting out their coins, paying half in Dinar, half in Euros, when the counter clearly displayed a credit card sticker. 

 

Towards 9am more backpackers arrived all in similar backpack attire. I have a sports bag so not as obvious and a target for scammers. As usual I was ignored thinking I was a local when the tourists started introducing themselves to each other. 

I got chatting with a couple who also had problems finding online information about a bus. All that shows up in searches is a bus at 4AM!! Why such a ridiculous time and how are you supposed to find it that early?? They had asked about it but found out it had already stopped running for the season. 

 

The 930 bus kept us waiting, wondering if it even existed. Since others had bought tickets we cant all be wrong. It arrived by 950 as actually its comes from Skopje 3 hours away so might be off schedule. 

The seats were numbered and mine was near the front as I bought my ticket yesterday while all the foreigners who just bought tickets had numbers in the middle. I went and sat towards the back and nobody was checking seat numbers anyway. 

 

We reached the border in 20 mins and went thru border controls with no problems this time. No singling me out as the sole 'arab looking guy' named 'Ahmad'!. In the Albanian countryside were many of the famous domes built into hills to warn of invasion. 

I'd always heard Albania was 'the poorest country in Europe' but the roads were actually very modern in good shape.  The hills reminded me of the Korean countryside. 

 

We arrived in Tirana at 2.15pm by the main square as I didnt actually know where the bus was going to drop off. I needed to exchange money as I had no local money and needed to eat. I exchanged all my Macedonian money but got ripped off as this was the only place open on a Sunday. 

The hotel was easy to find and had a nice terrace overlooking the main street below. I had made the Albanian border crossing which had been giving me a lot of anxiety researching along with the Greece crossing into Macedonia. I passed thru the two worst case scenarios with no mishaps so could now relax for my time in Albania. 

I enjoyed my second visit to Macedonia and will try to squeeze a visit again on a later Balkan visit. 

 
 
 




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