Think I might have used that title before!
It was a surprisingly quiet night behind the motorway service station. The only noise came from two stray dogs who escorted every lorry in that came to park up – they barked themselves hoarse every time it happened!
We seemed to make really fast progress up to Shkodër this morning, then turned left on a new route for us, to the border crossing at Muriquan.
A bit of a queue and not too pleasant, as beggars were knocking on the window. Haven’t seen them anywhere else in Albania other than at border crossings – women in traditional dress sit in the street and send their children to beg from the people in the cars. Then, a fight nearly broke out as one car rammed into another in his eagerness to move forward. 😬Goodbye Albania, hope things improve soon.
We stopped in Ulcinj on the coast for lunch as it had a stari grad (old town). The streets were a little hair-raising to get through – lots of double parking and overhanging balconies. The stari grad was set inside an old fortress on a headland but there wasn’t really much there – we seemed to keep walking into hotel courtyards. Down by the beach, a lot of bars and restaurants had already closed for winter, including the ‘Big Ben’ Brit bar 🙄🤣
At this point we decided to try and get up to Kotor, where we know our friendly carpark man will squeeze us in. The coast road is spectacular but it feels a bit like being on a roller coaster for most of it. All the resorts here have a real Russian flavour too and are just a little bit brash – especially Budva.
Got here around five and unbelievably the car park is nearly full! The owner was pleased to see us and couldn’t work out how we were here again two months later. He’s very kindly given us the WiFi code for the cafe we are parked behind so we’re now re-connected with the outside world. 🤣
