The Thrill of Uncertainty

Too Easy

Travel has gotten incredibly easy as well as predictable. Not boring, just perhaps not as adventurous as it once was, in the age before smart phones, comfortable on-time buses, budget airlines, coffee shops on every block, and volumes of information at your fingertips about every corner of the globe where one might travel.

I met three American hikers, college buddies now in their sixties, on a bus journey in northern Greece. Dave had several parallels to my travel life and we reminisced about our pre-internet travels days which had many similarities though they were in different parts of the globe.

When they asked how I was getting to my final destination that day (it was the first leg of three for me), I realized I had a bit of excitement in my voice when I said I had the first two legs figured out but had no idea of the final connection to Sarande, Albania, once I crossed the border in a remote area an hour from the city.

Welcoming Obstacles

On the map, the journey looked straightforward, but in reality the bus schedules and mountains got in the way which might have led to sleeping in a gas station at the border if things didn’t go well. Even my host in Albania had worked diligently on the problem, calling contacts and bus companies and van drivers, all to no avail.

I wasn’t worried, I was excited to face this challenge, just like the old days. After saying goodbye to the hikers, I bought my next ticket and boarded the second bus of the day, one that clearly had only local people on it. The driver stopped at the border and passengers filed out with their bags, so I followed them to the first checkpoint. The line moved slowly as the agent alternated between this new group of pedestrians and the long line of cars filled with more people and more documents to present.

By the time I was cleared to pass through – which took significantly longer than anyone else – everyone had disappeared as I entered no-man’s land between Greece and Albania. Carrying my backpack up a long hill in the hot sun, I finally reached the next checkpoint next to a large police bus with blacked-out windows. There were a few bus stragglers still coming up the hill in the distance behind me, but otherwise I was very much alone.

I breezed into Albania and saw nothing but a few cars, a gas station in the distance, and a man asking if I needed a taxi as if he had been expecting me. It was an expensive but well-worth-it ride over the mountains in the front seat of a speeding car with a driver who seemed to know every motorist we passed on the switchbacks.

For a few moments, I almost felt like I was back in Bolivia in 1990 – hanging on in a racing vehicle with nothing but mountains surrounding me, completely cut off from the world and having no idea what lie ahead. Then the driver told me to open my wi-fi settings so he could connect me to his hotspot and have me look up the address of my home exchange, and I was teleported back to 2026. Oh well, it was thrilling while it lasted.

Goodbye for Now, Greece

Predictable or not, I did enjoy the sites in the ancient city of Delphi and the out-of-this-world region of Meteora with its cliff-top monasteries and beautiful rock formations during my last few days in Greece.

My sister and brother-in-law headed home from Athens, and I was alone again after two weeks of having travel companions in Turkey and Greece. Later today, though, I’ll be meeting up with a group of hikers to take a week-long hike through Albania’s “Hidden Valley.” Maybe it will bring me back a few decades once again, but I’m sure by the end of it I’ll be happy to have the comforts and conveniences of our current times.

I can see Corfu just off the coast of Albania where I’m staying and am tempted to return to the island that was a highlight of my first Eurail trip in 1987. I think I’ll pass, though, as there’s plenty to see right here and I don’t want to risk spoiling those memories of an earlier time with whatever might have become of Corfu in the intervening years.

Delphi: The Center of the World

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Meteora: Heavenly Columns, Hiking and E-Biking, Endless Beauty

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Hello Albania!

I enjoyed a private tour with a couple from the UK to “Blue Eye,” a monastery where conquerors tried to erase history, two castles/prisons and the stone city of Gjirokastër.

And another day joining two young solo travelers, from Athens and Krakow, to explore nearby ruins, dip our feet in the Ionian Sea, and enjoy a meal and some local beer and raki! It’s actually rarely lonely when traveling alone. And even in this modern era, there are still plenty of adventures to be had.

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