Paris

A sort of bitter-sweet final destination to my roaming around europe, and parting ways with Andreanne. Super sweet since it's Paris for god's sake!!! Romantic setting with loads to see and do but bitter cause Andre would be heading back. And also my friggin awesome cousin Alex and his chiquita Lina took me in for 5 days, and showed me around some really cool spots. Paris kicks ass!!!!

Andre stayed in the latin quarter in a hostel and it was a really cool area....nice to check out with all of the pedestrian areas and kiosks and stuff. It was cool to check out Paris again, but better this time with Andre....it was rather relax and cool just to walk about and share this with her. We checked out Notre-Dame, and the Louvre (pic left). Louvre is cool but too much to see. You can't argue with all of the priceless art though (pic right). After 4 hours, we had more than enough.

That was pretty much it with Andre. We only had 2 full days together in Paris and then she had to go home...... It was weird cause the inevitable deed had finally come and even though we had known this day was coming for months, it still took us by surprise and it didn't make it any easier.

Atleast we stayed together the last night and I accompanied her to the airport. It really sucked just waiting there for a couple hours just talking about not seeing each other for a while. It's been kinda hard so far thinking about her, and I know it ain't easy on her side either, but atleast now we came to the understanding that we can't keep thinking about it and forcing anything, so live with it for now, and we'll find each other in May. It is weird but you kinda have to or else you go crazy thinking about it. We are both busy and really enjoying ourselves and meeting new people so we're just livin'it up on each our ends and then we'll see how things go when I get back.. I'm having such a good time in Chamonix and it really is continuing my trip cause I be trippin'!!! I think Andre and I also appreciate the time to ourselves; trying to use the beak as a positive personal gain I guess. I wanted to do this trip alone in the beginning and Andre was a great addition and wonderful discovery, but I am enjoying my individuality once again, and I really appreciate the fact that she understands that.

Well then.......I stayed another 3 days in Paris and checked out the town with Alex and Lina. The red light district (pic right of sweet ass chair), Pigal area (moulin rouge), with the St Luc church (pic left).....I think that's what it's called. There was such a great view from up there too (pic left). Checked out Les Galleries Lafayette and various areas.. It was really cool to get shaperoned around and Lina really wanted to show me as much as possible...really sweet !!! There was also one night where we went out with the same crew that I had met in Munich and had a really great time at a super small, super smokey, super jam packed bar with a chansonier who was a great actor and really into his stage character, but he's quite the character anyways. It was just such a good vibe to check out this nowhere place with locals while sipping a little glass of Beaujolais Nouveau which had just come out that day. Super cool !

So once again, my cousin spoiled me, gave me everything I needed and I never had to ask. Now that's a top notch bloak!!! Un crisse de bon Jack !!!!!

Je t'adore mon cousin !!! Merci tellement Alex et Lina !!! vous etes merveilleux !!!

and I was now set to embark on my seasonal adventure in the Alps


Chamonix baby !!!!

Took the night train in and started handing out CV's right away. Checked into The Vagabond hostel since it was the only one open in Cham, and the rest is history, and also quite a blur since I'm partying so much!!! This place kicks so much ass !! The people, the mountains, the ski to come.... that's right! It is rather shitty weather so far but Feb and March will be insane....We're not worried. There's so much to see and do here that I'm never bored one bit.

It feels like I'm continuing my trip cause it is rather hostel style in my appartment. We are 4 guys sleeping in the same tiny room with 2 bunks, but atleast we have a kick ass living room with fold out double bed.......huh! huh! anyone who wants it come on down!!!! Seriously !!! get your asses here and enjoy this awesome place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and heck out my pics so far on snapfish.

Turkey

What an amazing country!!!! We had such a good time on the final leg of our travel experience. Turkey is way up there on my list! So much to see and do and the culture is so different and cool....just like Marocco....I gotta tell ya, them muslims get a bad rap 'cause of the extremists, but they are such welcoming and friendly people. Some of, or the nicest people I have met. And you can't be the Turkish breakfast which is usually included with the hotels.

It's weird, Andre and I both (and most other people I imagine) had the preconception that Turkey was always warm and sunny, but we showed up on October 31st, and it was winter there. Rather cold, but awesome.

So we took the ferry from Samos, an island part of Greece, travelled 1 hour and a half and hit Turkey. At customs, we had to get a visa and it was 45 euro. Kinda pricey, and even the dude we paid tried to screw Andre over by not giving her the 5 euro change....a kinda shitty introduction to the country, but it didn't last. I forget the name of the town we disembarked in but we went straight to.......

Selcuk

You can see flags (left) and pictures of THE MAN, Attaturk. He is THE MAN in Turkey as Attaturk means "father turk" and he made it the republic and actually fromed the country. I loved the pictures of him everywhere, it really gives a cool vibe, in a non-communist or dictatorship way.

Selcuk was really nice, and most people come here because of the neighbouring village ruins of Ephesus. It was such a beautiful place (left). Well preserved. Of course when I found the latrines, I had to test them out and see what it felt like back then (right)....kinda cold on that cement. Good thinking place though, and by the look of things, it was probably a great place to catch up and gossip with the other villagers.

I found me a whirling dervishes hat outside the ruins. I really wanted one and it didn't take long to find it. I had to get a picture with the Stop sign which is of course different there (left). Works pretty good in french, and could be short for DURKA DURKA !! We also saw our 1st cotton fields on the way back to town (right). I love seeing all of these indiginous produce and goods of all kind growing everywhere.

We also met exactly what we needed, a friendly fellow couple. They were super cool and we ended up seeing them again all the way through our Turkey trip. Simon, a brit, and Fionna, an aussie, had met in Japan, where they were teaching english. We had a lot of fun with them. It was cool cause we didn't follow each other at all but we were doing the same trip kinda so we met up frequently and had some good times.

After Selcuk, we hit.....

Pamukale

Just for a short day visit but well worth it for the salt mountains......holy shit is it ever beautiful !!! Upon entry into the park, you have to take your shoes off, and a nice (but quite slow) man offered to take our photo, we agreed and he then went on to have us pose (with his broken english and positioning us physically) exactly, EXACTLY like this (left)....the thumbs, the distance between our arms.....everything.....it was quite hilarious and of course the picture has much more value for it.

This place is awesome. It looks like a big snow mountain but everyone's in shorts, and the water is 35 degrees celcius. So of course you can go bath and relax in the super warm water....we didn't bring our bathing suits cause we thought it would be colder. but still got into our knees...soooo cooool. This was also our 1st re-encounter with Simon and Fionna(right).

After that, we took off overnight for the most wonderful and majestic place I have ever seen.......


Cappadocia

This whole region is insane. You couldn't even imagine a place like this if you wanted. It is just a natural wonder!!! Go check out snapfish ! It is a series of various rock formations everywhere that were formed because the rougher volcanic top layers haven't eroded as fast as the bottom soft layers to form various funky rocks. Some are called ferry chimneys with the sort of mushroom tops, and the cool part is that most of them were inhabited. Kinda cool hey! Just decide hmmmm, I think I'll live there, let's dig. Major appartment building in this bottom pic on the right.


We set up shop in Goreme, the main town which is the best base to discover the rest of the area. We showed up at 5 am, and there was someone there from the tourist office waiting to receive us and show us the hotel options. You can stay in a cave or ferry chimney but we opted for the cheaper warmer normal room which was still in rock. Not expensive and our own bathroom.....it was so huge (pic right)....PIMPIN' ! We finally got to taste some narguile, or if you rather shisha, hooka, or water-pipe with the flavoured tobacco (left).

It was amazing just to walk around and check out the area.

While in Goreme, we took a tour to Mt. Nemrut in the eastern part of Turkey. The tour was 180 euro each, but it was cheaper, better, faster, and more interesting than doing it by ourselves. All accomodation, and meals were included and damn do you eat well. It's weird cause they bring the food almost all at once....soup, salad, and main course so you feel too full cause there's no time in between the dishes. And then, of course, tea.....great turkish tea.....that was always nice! The cool part wasn't just Mt. Nemrut but all of the cities, villages, and everything else we saw and the info our amazing guide Seyno gave us. We were the only ones on the tour along with two Manitobans....imagine that.....It was a really worthwhile experience.

We went and had the world famous ice cream in Kahramanmaras. You eat it with a fork and knife, and it was the best ever ! So creamy ! Then we slept in a little pension at the base of Mt. Nemrut.....huge rain storm, no electricity, but there was lots of beer and Raki (the turkish ouzo, sort of Pastis, or liqueur d'anis).

Then we went up in the major fog and mild rain up to the summit of Nemrut by car at 5 am so that we could see the sunrise, but..... it was still shitty weather (left) so we saw nothin' except the major reason why we went up....the massive head sculptures that fell off their bodies and just stare off into the distance. An ancient king had organised these sculptures on the highest point to be closer to the gods and thus had sculptures of the gods along with himself since the king is considered as a god. We also got our first taste of.......try to guess......SNOW.....in frigging Turkey ! It snows quite a lot supposedly and it was quite cold too during our entire visit. And check out our famous guide with his rain gear.....he just pulled out a friggin plastic bag and poked some eye-holes (left)......he was quite the character; really intuitive, super sympathetic and super funny.

On the way back from Nemrut, we stayed a night in the holy town of Sanliurfa, the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed. It was really nice to see the architecture (pic of holy pool and small mosque ) and get that influential vibe of the heavens. We also stayed in a proper 3 star hotel....quite nice. In the hotel, we decided to take our muslim marriage photos.....Ahhhh, such a nice couple.

We also visited the town of Harran with the bee-hive mud houses. That was also cool (right). At this point, we were only 12 km from the Syrian border. We could actually see it from atop a little hill.

Then back to Goreme for 3 more days. This is when we met up with Simon and Fionna again, and went on tours of the Cappadocia area. A cool walking tour with lunch, and then to the underground city....That was amazing too....52 metres deep and 8 stories. There was a 9km tunnel that connected to another underground city, in order to escape if ever attacked. The scenery felt like Quebec sometimes and Andre and I enjoyed the romantic stroll at the bottom of a canyon (pic left). And the surrounding mountains on the tour really fill in the backdrop nicely (right).

The whole Cappadocia area was just amazing. Surpassed any of my expectations for Turkey. What a cool discovery, and I was so happy to do it with my little sweetheart pony/ninja Andre. It was super chillax and awesome to have our own room all the time and have friends to discover the area with.

And then........night bus to.......one of the most rockin places on earth.........


Istanbul

This place is just so huge and there's so much to discover that we would most certainly need to go back some day. The mosques everywhere, the other palaces and museums, the shops, the crazy market place that you could spend a full day in (pic from in the market), and the fact that it separates europe and asia. The Bosphorous strait is the defining border. That's what's really cool about Turkey is the asian influence in the goods.

Of course we checked out this guy (left)...the Blue Mosque, only mosque in the world with 6 towers....and just across from that the Aya Sofia. We just had lots of fun walking around and seeing the differnt areas and went across the Golden Horn river to see the "new town"...Oigloo I believe it's called. The only disappointment is that we didn't go to a hammam cause I kinda wasted some time and then we ran out of it.

Well folks, that was our last "travel"destination but we were headed to Paris to enjoy our last 2 days together before Andre flew back to montreal. It was rather weird cause it really set in now that we weren't going to see each other for the next 5 months or so. I really was getting attached to this girl (2 and a half months, 24/ 7 will do that to you).....not too hard to fall for her.....what an awesome chick.......beautiful in mind, and body!!! Not a bad spot to enjoy together though, the romantic setting of Paris. I was also going to meet up and stay with my crazy cool cousin Alex.

well my friends....You are only 1 month behind now.....we flew to Paris on November 14th.

love all y'all

Greece

Sorry......I'm about a month and a half late on the last two parts to my saga (Greece, Turkey and Paris)...I will be rather short in my words since it was all a while back and I will not spend more than a few hours to quickly summarize the whole bit. It's weird, now that I'm permanently stationed somewhere and working, I don't have the time at all for internet. There's so much to discover here (you'll find out where later) and so much good partying going on with all of the other seasonnairs. so...................

Athens

Well first thing we did was test out the gyros at the eventual best and cheapest place in town, just around the corner from our best and cheapest hostel. I love these sandwiches normally and it was really cool to get them so cheap, and full of tzizaki. HMMMMmmmmmm !!!!!!!!

Athens is rather smoggy and super hot, even in late october, but the vibe of the place is really cool. All of the history and life in this massive metropolitan are a good mix to keep you busy for a while. I don't have any pics to put up since I had to transfer off of my camera but you can go see everything on snapfish.....

The Acropolis is everything it lives up to be, you really feel something while you're there. All of the monuments are just insane !! And just walking through the various areas is cool. A lot of tourists obviously, but the city itself is just so huge !!!!!! half of the Greek population lives in Athens and its surroundings.

Andre and I had a great time but only stayed 2 days cause the ferries were getting very scarce for the islands. So we took off for Santorini.

Santorini

Just friggin amazing. Talk about a perfect romantic place for couples, this place is majestic. The old stucco white houses, and blue roofs and the whole scenery is just beautiful (go check out the pics on snapfish!). We showed up at 11pm and werent sure where we would stay, but there were hotel guys waiting for us, and whisked us into the main town Fira. We snagged a kick ass room with double bed and private bathroom, and kitchen access, all for 35€ a night cause it was low season......ROCKIN' !!!!!!!!!

From Fira, you can go all over the island with the buses. So we checked out everything possible. The volcanic rock black beaches, also the red and white beaches, hiking up the mountain to see the whole island shaped like a crescent, and took a tour to the active volcanoe island which sits within the middle of the crescent.......AWESOME !!!!!

Although low season, there wasn't many people and we didn't go out much but we had such a good chill time enjoying the area and each other....

Then we stopped over at Mikanos for a day because of the ferry scheduling. Not so good because of the weather but again we chilled a bit and it was bound to rain at some point....we'd been full of shit with the good weather all summer long. Nice town and island anyways. But again, low-season and rather dead. I atleast have 1 pic from here........the sunsets from Santorini are supposed to be the best and it was quite nice from Oia at the northern tip of the island, but this sunset can't be spit on neither.

Then we went via Samos to Turkey on the last day the ferries were running.....kinda lucky cause we didn't know till the day before that it would be the last day, Oct. 31st. After that, it is officially winter in Greece and all of the ferries to Turkey stop.

so....next time will be Turkey with some pics!!!

Croatia

Well, it was a perfect arrıval ın a new country 'cause the ferry came ınto the port ın Split at about 7 am (check out the vıew..... pıc left), and we had plenty of tıme to grab another local ferry out to Hvar island, just 2 hours from Splıt. We were so rev'd upto see thıs amazıng coastlıne and gorgeous ıslands. Hvar ıs "the" ısland to see supposedly (pıc rıght) and we were not dısappoınted one bıt; just the opposıte.............


Hvar Island

Stari Grad

Sımply GORGEOUS!!!!!! The prestıne crystal blue waters, and pebble beaches, and sun galore.....early october and stıll over 20 degrees every day. Can't beat that!!!! SUCKERS back ın Quebec !!!

Well, our ferry touched down ın the vıllage of Stari Grad, whıch lıterally means "old town", and ıs actually the oldest town ın Croatıa.....founded around 370 BC. Once we hıt the shores there's a platoon of lıttle ladıes and people of all kınd welcomıng you and offerıng accomodatıon. We were actually bankıng on that and the prıces were very good sınce ıt was out of season. 20$ each a nıght for a double room ın a sweet plant fılled courtyard locatıon, wıth a kıtchen and everythıng, and sınce there was no one else, we had the whole place to ourselves. Really romantıc and super cool to have some alone tıme fınally wıth my sweetums!!! Really perfect cause we were checked ın, and off to check out the town before noon.

We were surrounded by cıtrus trees, pommagranıte trees, and kıwıs, the fırst tıme I ever saw the latter two......pretty exotıc....and we actually were gıven some rıpe good ones by our lıttle croatıan lady hostess. It's really cool cause the kıwı vınes are used as fıller on mesh ceılıngs to gıve shade and ıt looks and feels so fresh and natural (pıc rıght).

Starı Grad ıs a quaınt and perfect relax lıttle fıshıng vıllage (pıc left), and the stone houses really gıve you a feelıng of antıquıty and humbleness (pıc rıght). There are, of course, beaches lınıng the whole place..... It's a frıggın island! Of course we went to explore a bıt, and took a swım (pıc left.....what a smıle). Usually there are resorts and people stealıng all of the space but agaın out of season, we had our own spots. It gave us plently of tıme to check out the wıldlıfe (pıc rıght). It was so relaxıng to fınally kıck our feet up and actually do nothıng but let the shrımp tıckle our feet ın the water. We both needed to chıllout, stop runnıng from cıty to cıty, sıte to sıte, stay sedentary for a few days,and actually get some vacatıon tıme. We also bought some fresh fısh of the day and Andre cooked up a delcıous storm.......We were ın heaven!!!

And a major hıghlıght, we rented a scooter for a day and went all over (pıc left). We went down the nearby fınger-shaped penınsula whıch offers many secluded beaches. The road gıves you a 360 degree vıew of the clear blue water on both sıdes of the penınsula, and the whole way ıs a contınuous money shot (pıc rıght). The road ıs just dırt and rocks thus hard on the scooter, and arms, but we made all the way to the end of the path and were compensated wıth thıs to ourselves (pıc left). We also saw the bıggest and juıcıest spıder ever. I was about to walk ınto ıts web, goıng for a pıss, and the colours screamed out at me (pıc rıght); ıt was about the sıze of a can of coke.....no joke......

We even took the scooter out to Hvar cıty, the more tourısty town, to see what we were mıssıng. The town was really nıce, but the rıde there and back was the greatest adventure. We went up through, and around the hılls, seeıng a great sunset (pıc left) on the way to Hvar, and a dark yet ınterestıng rıde back at nıght. Really cold, under dressed, takıng a guess for the dırectıons, but we were alone ın the world......scootın' along...... and ıt was awesome........

After 3 nıghts of pure pleasure and contentment, we took off for.........


Korcula Island

Korcula town

Another perfect pıck. A beautiful island that caresses the mainland so you have a gorgeous mountainous backdrop view from everywhere. There is also an old town part to Korcula which is I guess part of the attraction but we were mostly interested in the coastline and prestine water again and again and again........always and always ...

We had a great room for cheap.....another little lady met us coming off of the boat again. Check out the view of the old town we had from the terrace (pic left). The mountains in the background are the mainland. It was really cool at this place'cause it was all dark wood panel and it felt like a sweet charming winter chalet.... and it had a fat kitchen, with a really funky old carpet (pic right) , which was actually on the wall.......how do ya like that picture! Of course we had a lot of fun with the carpeted wall..

Korcula was another great place to relax and walk along the coast and just bask in the wonderful scenery, and little creatures everywhere, and you just can't beat this moment (pic left). My sweetheart's content and heartwarming smile just makes me so happy, I melt in her eyes, and I loved being in such a chillax place with her........we both really needed the time off, so to speak. It's hard not to jump around everywhere when everything is so beautiful and unchartered for you.

After Korcula, we set off by ferry again towards the mainland, to Dubrovnik. This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and every traveller that had given us their thoughts really sold it as just that.


Dubrovnik

appartments....I don't know why but I was attracted by a younger guy and we went with him....the house he was letting has 2 rooms, a huge kitchen, huge yard and nice roof terrace..we lStepping off of the ferry we were met by another arsenal of locals looking to rent out theirucked out cause we got a sort of suite room, there was nobody else at all, so we had a full house to ourselves for 3 nights....big double bed......washing machine......great view from terrace....made great cheap seafood......and all for $16 each a night. We found a pretty sweet hat in the house that was perfect for a little introduction to the town, and of course created a friggin sexy skipper! n'est-ce pas????

So Dubrovnik has an extenive old town which incredibly beautiful and well upkept, but it is pretty touristy. From just outside of the town, you can see the mini peninsula-like old town stickin' out (pic left). The other main attraction is the collection of beaches all around the town. We finally had our first day, well half day, at the beach since we started travelling together. Small, sorta private inlet with crystal clear water, a pebble beach but clean sandy floor. It was sunny, and still super warm in the middle of October. A little dip, soakin in some sun, doin' a little readin', and a gorgeous sunset to finish it off (pic right).

We just loved every little bit of Croatia. We wouldn't ever say no to a return visit, and the chance to discover more of it!

The next challenge was to get to Greece. We were told time and time again that the best way to get to Greece was to take a 8 hour ferry back to Italy and then another overnight to Corfu or Athens or wherever, and that going over land through Montenegro, and Albania or Macedonia would be really hard and not recommended.....so......we decided "FUCK THAT !!" We came to europe to see the countryside, and live a few challenges, and why not see some of these formrt Yugoslavian countries and get to discover something rather different....the off-beaten track...so to speak.

First we took the bus from Dubrovnik, and went down the Adriatic coast all the way until the town of Budva in Montenegro. This ride revealed the most beautiful natural scenery I have ever seen!!! Stuff that you only see in movies and don't realize how wonderous it is. About 3000m mountains right at the edge of the water, and little villages lining them all of the way; a long bay that twists and turns and everywhere you look, you're surrounded on all sides by water and mountains. Rather spectacular!! You have to check out pictures on the net or something of the town in this mountain surrounded bay called Kotor, there must be good pics.


Budva (Montenegro)

We stopped here cause it looked to be a nice beach resort town with some nice old part again, but in this time of year, it's not a resort town at all. It was pretty dead but that's just fine cause we appreciated the tranquility and low-season prices!

We went to check out a place with a girl that met us at the bus station and it was a room in her mother's appartment in the slums, pretty shitty so we decided to go ask the other little lady that was at the bus station and we hit a goldmine,a little montenegrian couple called Slobo and Nada have an extra appartment to rent.

Since we were the only ones we had the whole appartment to ourselves. They even invited us down for supper at their place one night. They were so sweet and welcoming.....just the nicest people ever.....again, people with no money always have the biggest hearts! They hardly spoke a word of english but we were able to get some conversations going and the old man Slobo is so expressive that you get the jist of what he means. He was so proud of showing us around and talking to his buddies on the street and telling them he was taking us to this and that. We actually just ran into Slobo in the street and he took us to a hidden beach which was so cool. You walk along the sorta out of the way coastal side walk, and arrive at a sweet beach with a perfect view (pic right of perfect view.....foreground is pretty hard to beat!) and not many people, and huge waves. And then you walk through a little bridge and opening (pic left) to get to another hidden beach....the waves are crashing in on you and you have to move quick, especially when you have a camera and other non-impermeable stuff........It was so cool!

Montenegro kicked ass, but we needed to get to Greece rather quickly so we shoved off towards my second Muslim country, Albania.........This is where the challenge started.

We take a minibus to the montenegrian town closest to the Albanian border. We met a really cool couple on the bus. A german girl that looks egyptian, and a german dude that has family from ecuador thus he looks it. It was a mutual practical meeting, you'll see. We get to the little border town and search to take the following bus into Albania and the ticketlady (who's outside smokin a cigarette) says there's no bus today, mmmaaybe tomorrow............mmmmaaayybbbee tomorrow hey! what the hell does that mean....so instead of waiting around in this shitty town forever, all 4 of us took a taxi straight to Tirana, the capital of Albania.

We had a "professional" driver as he said it, and he was screamin' down all the way through the mini winding roads and holy shit was it "eye-opening" I guess. The country side there is kinda nice; at first it reminded me of Morocco with the men on donkeys dragging their produce or wheat along with the slow and rather non-industrialized, and non-machinized society...really cool, and Andre was enjoying seeing all of this type of stuff for the first time. You also see many bunkers everywhere, filling up the countryside, left over from wartimes and being used as storage and being decorated with plants and whatever.

Tirana

We then saw the outskirts and center of Tirana. What a shit-hole. I thought Albania was a hundred years back like Morocco in terms of industry and that was cool, but it's not at all like that. The whole country is in deconstruction........they say reconstruction, but there are unfinished and abandond buildings all over...... garbage......massive air vents on the sidewalk without grills thus you can just walk along and zzip, disappear into the street....... bricks..... and just an overall feeling of teenagers that didn't clean up their room. It shows Albania has had rough times, but there are the rich and the super poor in Tirana. The main square has the parliament and a monument and a 5 star massive hotel, and everything else in ruins......There is also a more trendy side of town with shishy stores, and it gives a nasty contrast to the decrepid and rundown areas. I didn't take any good pictures but you can imagine it. A sort of chaos!

The 2 germans stayed at a locals place; we thought it looked kinda scary so we ended up staying at a cheap hotel. It was goddam cheap and the bathroom had not been cleaned in about 2 months, NO JOKE!!! but we didn't stay long anyways.

We didn't really know our next move but we kinda wanted to get outta this town rather quick. We finally found a street that has all of the travel agencies, and we saw buses straight to Athens, for 25€. That's super cheap, especially for a 16 hour ride. Only hick was it took off at 4 in the morning and arrived at 8pm in Athens, and we also wanted to see Meteora which is halfway to Athens but in another direction. So we bit the bullet; slept 3 hours, of course didn't shower, and took the bus all day (I still don't understand why they do this trip during the day and not overnight). The ride was really nice cause the scenery was beautiful as we cut across the mountains and went through small villages. As soon as we passed the Greek border though everything was much cleaner and more organized, and less poor..........It's crazy how an imaginary line can make such a difference in the surroundings, and welfare of the people.

So that was our day and a half in Albania. A snapshot at the slavic muslim country that isn't the best to see when you're in a hurry like we were. It would be nice to go back for real.

We arrived at 8pm in Athens with nowhere to sleep yet, but our luck turned. We were right beside the cheapest and probably best hostel in town, a good old HI.

Tune in next time for our quick look at Greece.

love all y'all

ciao