Index
Day 1 - Random encounters
Day 2 - Unplanned delays
Day 3 - Driving to Montenegro
Day 4 - Montenegro
Day 5 - Back to Albania
Day 6 - More delays
Day 7 - Return
Montenegro and Albania: July 2018
Got up early in the morning to explore old town Berat along the Osum River. Quite compact and quite pretty as expected from a UNESCO World Heritage site, it proved to be the only stop of the day in Berat, as the planed vist to Berat Castle ended up in total fail. The main road to the castle was under construction, and the alternate route-- navigation data fail, again!-- ended in a brick wall well short of the castle.
Given that both Sam and I had flights to catch back in Tirana, we instead slogged through rush hour traffic (and yes, more narrow streets) to Bunk'Art in Tirana. One of the over 173,000 old bunkers built before the collapse of communism, it was described as an art installation inside a bunker... but proved to be more of a straight war/military history museum set in a bunker. Still kind of cool, and another solid history lesson, but not quite the art experience that was expected.
Dropped Sam off in Tirana to continue exploring, then dragged my butt off to the airport... where I then had yet another panoply of delays, causing me to miss my my connection (as well as every single alternate one! o_0 ). Thunderstorms over Croatia that migrated south to Albania, then an Albawings 737-400 blew a tire upon landing, which closed the runway until they could sweep it of debris.
After a very belated arrival in Frankfurt, I finally was directed to Lufthansa's massive customer care center, one floor above the check-in level, was (at last!) aided by a helpful customer service agent, and was rebooked and accommodated for a flight the next day. Was able to make the best of an unplanned night in Germany with a quick trip to downtown Frankfurt, with a glass of Beneditiner Dunkel and some quality lamb chops at Druckwasserwerk, right on the River Main.