Normally I add my transit to another country as a side note in one of my posts. But I don’t think that will do this transit justice this time.

I always knew that when I left Italy that I wanted to travel by boat to the next country. Originally, I had been planning on going to Greece next, but getting sick in Italy and then deciding to take my time to explore meant a change of some of my plans. One thing that I was determined to not have change though was how I was traveling to the next step of my journey. While I’m not sure I’ll be able to always do it – I’m attempting to do as much as I can without flying. Even though it takes less time and is relatively cheap, I’m not in any rush and enjoy the slow travel.

In this instance, it meant taking a ferry to Albania from the coastal town of Bari, Italy.

Bari

I really don’t have much to say about Bari. I spent one night there – though due to the time my ferry left I had an entire day to spend. I did explore the city a bit, but it’s a smaller town that has a focus on the port. After wandering around – getting some food – I headed back to the hostel to work on my blog for a while. I knew that in Albania I wanted to take some time for myself (see my Slowing Down post) and knew that I wouldn’t want to think about my blog for a bit. So I spent some time in Bari prepping everything I could for 2 weeks out. Everything was scheduled and ready to go.

Then the real ‘fun’ began.

Getting to the Ferry

I left the hostel around 5:30pm. I could begin checking in at 6pm and GPS told me it would take about 30 minutes to walk to where check-in was. While that seems really early for a ferry that wasn’t leaving until 11pm, I figured better safe than sorry – and thankfully I did!

It all started to come crashing down when I got to where the GPS was leading but found no pedestrian entrance. And maybe there was one and I just didn’t explore enough – but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t one because from what I saw it’s more of a place where the ships are stored and it sure isn’t a place where people can board the ships.

So I tried again – heading to another place that is listed as a check-in counter. Keep in mind this was a 45 min walk. I did not walk it though – I jumped on a local bus and took it the majority of the way. With all my stuff, I didn’t feel up to walking that far, though the time it took was about the same. I finally arrived at that port entrance around 7pm, and thankfully there was a pedestrian entrance so I felt a lot better. I followed the signs to the check in counter – only to be told that my check in wasn’t there and I needed to take their free shuttle bus to the right area.

At this point I’m just laughing as it seems to me that where I need to go is at the entrance to this port that I passed to get to to the ‘check-in counter’. It took 30 minutes for the shuttle bus to make it’s way to me and I take it to the next stop like the lady at the check-in counter told me. I get off and take about 3 steps before the driver is yelling for me. I turn back and he asked me if I’m going to Albania. When I say yes – he tells me next stop even though I can see the ship I’m supposed to take. When I point at it, confused, he explains I still need to go to the next stop to check in.

So back on the shuttle I go….to the very place that I started at but couldn’t find the pedestrian entrance if there is one. Once there, I get off and check in, only to be told I need to get back on to the shuttle to be taken to where the ship is. Still a bit confused, I head back to the shuttle and confirm with the driver who says “yep I’ll take you back to the ship” – though with much more Italian exasperation for the clueless American.

Once back at the other side of the port – I was directed by another person to go to where my ship was. This person wasn’t a worker there, but instead a passenger who had been there all day. Since I figured he knew, I started that way but took a route that brought me by the bus. The driver saw me and asked me what I was doing – when I explained someone told me that I needed to go that way. I swear he let out the biggest sigh and then explained I had to go through the building in front of me first and then I would walk over to that ship.

I’m giving him a lot more exasperation than he really had – outwardly at least, who knows what he was thinking or what he told his coworkers and friends later. He was actually super nice and helpful to getting me where I needed to go. So I went into the building he directed me to – I trusted him a whole lot more than some random passenger – and found that yes, I did need to go that way because it was passport control.

To recap. I left the hostel at 5:30pm. I did not get on the ship until 8pm. It took 2 hours of misadventures around the Bari port to finally get there.

Moral of the story? Trust your gut and walk it earlier in the day when you have plenty of time, but definitely leave as much time as possible to get to where you need to go. Also moral of the story? Be slightly annoyed at ferry companies that don’t have instructions about where to go on their website or in the confirmation email. Oh and sometimes the administration of things make no sense, it would’ve been much easier on everyone involved if they had just opened the existing kiosks in the building that passport control is in for check in. Oh well.

The Ferry

After taking 2.5 hours to go what I thought was going to be 30 minutes. I didn’t have much else that I needed to do for the night. I got aboard the ship, figured out what cabin was mine, and settled in. I booked a single berth in a cabin rather than trying to get comfortable on a chair in the main area of the ship. It was a little more expensive but not hugely so and it came with no guarantee that I wouldn’t be sharing the cabin. Thankfully, I ended up having the cabin to myself which was great.

Once I was settled – I headed out to get some dinner and see what all there was on the ship. It’s definitely bare bones since it’s a ferry not a cruise, but there were plenty of places to eat and plenty more to relax. With a cabin to myself (hopefully at this point), I took my time eating then headed back to relax in silence. Once it hit 10:15pm – 15 minutes after last boarding call – I knew I had the place to myself and got ready for bed.

Early, especially for me, but I wasn’t about to pay for internet access on the ship when I would be sleeping for the majority of it. I was asleep by midnight – the gentle rocking of the waves lolling me right to sleep. I was reminded of my time on Semester at Sea and how well I sleep on a ship. It was great to see that this still holds true.

Durres to Tirana

We arrived in Durres just before 8am and I was through passport control by 9am. I had a friend who had been in Albania for 6 weeks at this point. I met him in Slovakia and I had been in touch with him in the days before I headed to Albania. He had told me ahead of time that one of the first things I should do is get some cash. Albania is a big cash country.

Understanding this, my first stop was an ATM. My second stop was the bus terminal. My friend had been staying in a Hostel in Tirana, and he highly suggested it. Considering he had been there when I had stayed in the Hostel that shall not be named in Budapest, I knew I could trust his judgement on a good place to stay. Plus he had been volunteering there for weeks and had gotten me a great deal if I stayed 2 weeks. More about all of that when I eventually write about my time in Albania.

Once I got to the bus terminal. I had no idea what I was doing. I was armed with Google Maps, but honestly – that didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things as I wasn’t sure how to manage the bus system in this country yet. It’s not a straight forward as other countries with no clear signage for anything. While I was wandering around, I was approached by many people asking if I wanted to take a taxi. I kept declining since I really didn’t want to pay a big fee to go from one city to another but I was weaking as I also really didn’t want to deal with public transit at 9am – no matter how good of sleep I got on the ferry.

Eventually, I spoke to one of the people asking me if I wanted a taxi. After agreeing to the very cheap price of 30 Euros, we were off. He was very talkative, though he had very limited English skills. He also wasn’t an official taxi, though I didn’t figure that out until we were on our way. He was a firefighter who did taxiing on the side and he showed me his official ID. I never felt unsafe, and over the years I’ve grown to trust my gut while I’m traveling. By the time we were nearing Tirana – he was suggesting that we meet up and he could take me to other places around Albania. He was also asking a lot of questions about who I was meeting (as I made it clear I was meeting up with people in Tirana early on) and what we were going to do. I eventually lied and told him I was meeting up with my boyfriend.

I typically don’t lie about being in a relationship, even while solo traveling, but I was in a car with this guy for an hour and as time went on, the conversation went from telling me about Albania and teaching me a couple of Albanian words/phrases to him asking me a lot of questions about what I planned to do while here and he began to get a bit more instant that I take his number to call him for a taxi. I was able to put a stop to that pretty easily, even before. But it’s an undeniable but sad truth that men tend to care more when you say you’re taken. The other thing I did was actually give him the address to a nearby hostel associated with mine, but not the actual place that I was staying. Once I realized that he wasn’t an official taxi – I figured better safe than sorry.

I arrived at the Hostel at 10am, got checked in. And settled in to enjoy the sun while waiting for my friend to wake up.

So now I’m in Albania! Relaxing, meeting people, and (to be honest) ignoring the outside world for a bit.