K C Murdarasi

It’s easier to get to Tirana than it used to be, now Lushnjë has its wee bus that shuttles from the village of Karbunarë in the south to Plug in the north and back again. Previously you had to either get yourself out to motorway on foot or by taxi, or catch the bus that leaves from Lushnjë train station at 7am 🤢

A slow day, which is just what I need. I had a nice long lie until… half six. But as I’m still functioning on Greek time, that’s like half seven, and therefore a lot later than the last couple of days.

Today I am going to Albania for the first time since 2019, when I completed a rather enjoyable tour of Albanian wineries. Like in Switzerland, here there’s no free roaming and they don’t use euros. Unlike Switzerland, though, where that left me feeling a bit at sea, in Albania I know what I’m doing.

I do not like early starts at the best of times, but imagine my horror on finding that all the remaining coffee sachets in the hotel room’s wee bowl were actually sugar! I had to start my day with tea!

After yesterday I really didn’t feel like a long walk today, so I decided to take the bus (yes, there is one as it turns out) to a village on the north side of the island called Therma (hot springs).

Samothrace (Samothraki) is the final one of my three key locations, and the furthest point of my journey, so I suppose you could call it my destination. To come all the way to the eastern edge of Greece overland (and sea) has been quite an experience, but not as hard as I thought it might be.