A Stressful Day

Monday, Sept. 12, 2016--Prizren to Tirane

When I awoke, I checked the weather forecast.  It called for a 50% chance of rain at 15:00 when I was supposed to be standing on the roadside waiting for my bus.  So that started the stress for the day.

When I finished breakfast, there was a light rain.  I knew I had until noon to stay in the room, but I started to worry that maybe the rain would be all day and that I couldn't go out.  I spent time in the room doing various things.  And by 11:30, fortunately, the rain had stopped.

I checked out of the hotel and headed for the one last tourist spot I wanted to see--Church of Our Lady of Ljevis, an Orthodox church that is a World Heritage Site (WHS).  I knew it had been damaged by fire during the war and was undergoing restoration, so I was uncertain what I might be able to see.  But I went there, because I would hate to miss seeing a WHS when I am in a city whre there is one.  What I found was a disappointment.  There were restoration signs, but the yard was grown up with weeds, and there were rusty gates blocking any entrance.  On top of the gates and the fences were coils of razor wire. I was able to see the exterior of the building fine, but that was all I got to see.

From there, I walked to a small seating area I had used yesterday and sat and read from my book until 13:30.  Then I returned to the hotel to be sure I was there whenever the owner wanted to leave to take me to the bus.  While waiting, I visited with a new employee who speaks English very well--a very nice young man who enjoyed talking, and another employee who listened mostly, but also was interested in the conversation.  At 14:35, we left for the bus stop at the side of the highway.

We had been told the bus would be there at 15:00.  We arrived at 14:45, fortunately with sunshine instead of rain, and waited.  At 15:05, I started worrying that maybe because of the light holiday traffic the bus had arrived earlier and already left.  The driver called.  They told him it was still 5-10 minutes away.  Fifteen minutes later, we saw a blue bus come down the highway and take the exit.  When it got to the traffic circle near us, it turned and drove into town.  It wasn't the bus I needed.  A car arrived with two other passengers waiting for the bus.  They said they were told the bus would come at 15:30.  Finally, at 15:35, the bus pulled off the highway and stopped to pick us up!!

The highway is a nice 4-lane controlled-access road most of the way.  We curved and winded through mountains, but at a much faster speed than any of my other bus trips.  We went through one long tunnel that had to be almost two miles (3.5 km) long.  At a half-way point stop, I visited with 4 young men excited about heading to the beach in Durres for a week of swimming (and partying, too, I imagine).  Seated beside me on the bus was an elderly man.  All five of these men became fascinated by my phone as I used Google mapping and GPS to follow where we were as we headed back on the road again.  Every few minutes, I would open the phone, have it find our location, and they would see what was near on the map as they watched the dot slowly moving along.

Unfortunately, the bus did not go all the way to the center of town.  It let us off on a ring road about a 25-minute walk from the center.  Fortunately, I already know Tirane from my previous trip here 7 years ago, so I headed straight into town.  Soon, I was at Skanderbeg Square, the center of the downtown area.  I turned up the street toward my hotel, Hotel Stela City Center, where I checked in around 18:45.

I thought I would go back out to walk around after that, but as soon as I had gone a couple of blocks I realized how tired my body was from the stressful day.  I just turned around and went back to the room for the night.

Aft