Heading towards beaches in the south

Hi,

Long time since last blog. Let me summarize what's going on.

On sunday we visited the national art gallery which had very nice kommunistic paintings from the 70's to the 80's! Unfortunately "no kamera"... so no pictures here.

We also visited the mosque in the city center. It was nice, reminded of the one in Mostar (Bosnia).

After that we took the cablecart to one of the mountains surrounding Tirana. Quite nice view of the town.

Today we woke up at 6 to get ready for a bus trip to Drymades, via Vlora. It took us 7 hours to get here. The views from the serpentine road was unbelivably beautiful! Now, after a swim we head of to have something to eat.

Until next time,
Da-daa

- vostoknauts on the road -

Tirane around...

Hello,

Today has been realy an exhausting day walking around checking places in nearly 40 degrees celsius. We saw some mosks, museum of national history, Tirane university & polytechnic, some statues e.g. The unknown partisan and alot of the city streets. Huh.

We also noticed that Lek currency was a bit better than expected, 1e=132lek.

Yesterday everyone was out sitting in bars drinking whatever. There are numerous amounts of bars here, so it's just to choose one. I even heard, something that i tought was a Ferrari, but which turned out to be a mat black Porsh Cayenne with a rude sound!

Now we are waiting at Freddy's hostel to get our room, we had to change room.

... Yeah, we got it!

Now a siesta and then for dinner :)

- vostoknauts on the road -

Vostoknauts enter Tirana, Albania.

Hello, hello!

After a nice time in Ohrid we foun our way to Tirana. A bus trip that was supposed to take 3 hours lasted for 6 hours! Then the ride was spiced with a really poor music video in replay. Just imagine to listen to "pensseli setä" for 6 hours!

The first impression of albania was weird. Litter everywhere, every second car was a Mercedes and a lot of them had Italy plates! Hmm, make your own conclusions...

This place is like Ulan-baatar in 5 years. But hopefully mongolians take better care of litter than here.

Tomorrow it is time for some cultural stuff...

- vostoknauts on the road -

Vostoknauts reroutes and loose 40e

Terse,

We decided to go and check lake Ohrid. The plan was to catch our Tirana bus just before the border (Struga), but it seemed impossible to know when it passes the city. We decided to take the loss of 40e (buss tickets Skopje-Tirana) and stay one night here in Ohrid. We got a double bed private for one night, 12e/pers. To stay here was a good choise!

The town is nice, alot of tourists thou. It reminds of Split, but a lot cheaper!

Some Macedonia prices in euro:
- Skopkoje beer at restaurant ~1,10e
- pizza ~4,80e
- really good dinner (apetizer + mains)with wine ~10e/pers!
- half litre water from shop 0,33e
- Schweppes at shop 0,5e
- 'short' taxi ride 1e, ~25km ride 5e

So that's just a scratch on the surface.
+ no finns and swedes!

Now to buy some t-shirts. I stink... And black is apparently not the color for sunny places.

- vostoknauts on the road -

Vostoknaut strikes Lake Matka

Hello!

After Tuesdays dinner we bumped into this open air concert at the main square. It was some local artist...

Today we visited the Lake Matka and one of the >40 caves.

We walked along the lake, on quite rough trail that had collapsed at some points.

After this we took the boat to one of the caves, the only one available for tourists. It was quite nice experience. Among the stones and the clear water we could hear the bats "squiking", the guide told us that there is a huge colony of bats living in the cave.

Me and the cave.

This stone was called "the Christmas tree", apparently because of its form. The guide told that this "tree" grows 1mm/year.

We are able to update this blog randomly since the internet connections and mobile phone wi-fi works every now and then.

Tomorrow we'll head out for town Orhid, if we are able to transfer our bus ticket...

Until next time,

Ciao

- vostoknauts on the road -

Dinner at a commie style restaurant

Hello,

A little late to post yesterdays pics, but i had to do it.

We ate at a restaurant furnished with great leaders, such as General Tito, Che, Nicolaj Casecau. But the food and service were excelent! The restaurant name was "Kaj Marchalot".

- vostoknauts on the road -

Sunny and hot Skopje

Zdravo!

Today is culture-day. We have visited "museum of Macedonia", museum of contemporary art and "the castle". The museums were like stepping into a former sovjet concrete building. There were only one guard watching over the visitors, i.o.w we were the only ones. They even turned the lights on at the exhibition halls :) .

Now back to hostel to make travel arrangements.

- vostoknauts on the road -