Train ride to Pogradec, Albania
Trip Start
Nov 09, 2007
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Trip End
Ongoing
Pogradec, Pogradec, Albania
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Our trip starts with a 6-7 hrs train trip to Pogradec, which is situated on Lake Ohrid which is a natural border between Albania and Macedonia. Some of the foreigners in Tirana have either already taken this train ride or want to do this trip during their stay here, however the Albanians in Tirana just shake their heads and wonder why on earth we would want to? Even our taxi driver (5.30 AM) who tries to convince us that we should take the bus instead. When we say that we really want to go to the trainstation, he actually makes a phonecall to ask if the train actually will leave, as there's talk of discontinuing the trains to our destination. However, we manage to catch that train and have been reassured that the trip is still on!
The train to Pogradec leaves once a day, at 5.55 am in the morning, so it's an early wake up call for us! The train ride will cost us 295 LEK each (less than € 2,50 each), and the maximum speed will be 50 km/hr at the most.
We follow some of the locals into the trainstation, which has 4 dead-end tracks and a few old German or Greek trains. We hop onto the train and start our search for a good place to sit to enjoy the scenery while we zoomed by. You'd think that was an easy search, however not ONE window in the entire train was NOT cracked, and it was hard to be able to look through some of the severely cracked windows.
Leaving Tirana, the train was almost empty, however in Durres (first major sea front city of Albania) it filled up. We made many stops in tiny villages or in the middle of nowhere, and more and more people got on and off. More people getting on, meant more and more stares for us (the only foreigners on board), and the more uncomfortable Kirsten got. One young couple in their 20s were sitting a few rows ahead with their back toward us, however they maneuvred themselves in the best way possible to stare at us for the duration of their trip... which was three hours!! During those hours a family had gotten on board and the 14-year old boy spoke English well and started talking to us, which was a lot of fun. He pointed out things for us to see and translated many questions that the people surrounding us had. So by the end of the trip the whole compartment knew who we were, what we were doing in Albania, where we were going etc. The fun aspect of the conversations with this boy was that he was scratching his privates non-stop the entire time! ;)
The train ride itself is also quite entertaining. The driver loves hugging his horn, which is also a serious part of his job as the train track is used by sheeps herders, and anyone else, as it often is the quickest road from one village to another. As trains only pass about twice a day, the tracks at least get a decent use! At some point the train really had to stop as the track through a village was used for the local market and people first had to take their wares off the track before we could travel on!
The scenery you pass is stunning, mountains everywhere, some still had snowy peaks, mountains lakes, little villages, shacks along the tracks, and with the tracks having been laid on the mountain rims, sometimes the steep mountain slopes are abit scary! Many tunnels have been dug through the mountains, the longest of which is just before arriving in Pogradec, and is approximately 3 km long.
Pogradec station is out of the town and therefore we take a mini-bus (shared taxi) into town. Five minutes later we've arrived and find a hotel on the lake front within half an hour. In the mean time we are the main tourist attraction as we are the strangers carrying backpacks, which you don't come across much in Albania.
Pogradec is a small city that has a lot of potential of turning into a beautiful tourist destination. Their lake shore is very green, with a beautiful boulevard along the lake through most of the town. People actually use the trash cans, therefore it's clean and you get to enjoy the plants and trees which were blooming while we were there. Furthermore they have an old section to the town, cobblestone streets, old villas and smaller houses, some well hidden churches and fresh water springs where the locals get their personal water supplies! Sadly their sewage goes right into the lake and therefore when you walk along the lakeshore, there's a strong smell, which stops you from ever wanting to stick your big toe in the lake! People do swim there in the summer however many people suffer from skin rashes and itches afterwards.
On our wanders around town in search of a fish restaurant (never found!) we are stopped by the sound of an animal yelping while we are passing an old-and-no-longer-functioning bus which is parked on a large plot of (private) land / yard. We walk around it, peek into the open doors, but don't see or hear anything. We start walking away but again hear the sound and turn back and actually trespass to have a closer look. Stefan starts to open the doors to the former luggage spaces with a large stick, and we're lucky with the second door. Out comes a creme collored dog who's so happy to be getting our, does a happy dance all around us, races to the end of the yard and back to us, more jumping and tail wagging. So we did it again, somehow the Animal Rescue Squad is our hidden profession, and as soon as we're travelling on call! This dog certainly would have died, had we not explored, so we were happy too!
Comments
To my beloved travel companion :-)
Krispy, you tell it well! And I love travelling with you - saving dogs and turtles all over the Balkans, and avoiding Portuguese Men of War ;-)
Bisous xox
Stefan
Way to go Kirst!
Hi Kirst, your story shows once again that we shouldn't travel all the way to asia or africa to end up in interesting locations, there is lots to happen in good old Europe!
It makes me again more curious about your new country, I will keep on reading it!
Take care,
Es
Very cool!
Hello you two! Greetings from Canuck land! Wow, they stared at you for three hours??? Good greif! at least you could talk to someone, explain and answer questions..yeah, I'd be nervous too. Great pictures and they certainly look inviting!! BUT I'll have to pass for now...chat you up later, from Nicole
ps...always a place for you two here!