21/09/2026
Day 8 (Jules)
Sunday 20th September.
An early departure today as we had a decent drive ahead of us to get to a place called Kruje, a hill side town overlooking the North of Albania and, also near the airport, where an early van handover was due tomorrow..
Driving happily along, trying to ignore the twinkling of warning lights, suddenly we rounded a bend only to be confronted by a strategically placed armchair in the middle of the road, accompanied by many Albanian men waving frantically at us...An accident we thought, as we hit the brakes....but no it was a full blown wedding ceremony at 8am..spilling out into the road. Everyone was dressed to the nines and waving handkerchiefs, singing and dancing, without a care in the world...bless them...
Onwards we went, keeping an eye out for anymore lurking armchairs..and handkerchiefs..
We knew that our final resting place for the night was in the hills..but we just kept going higher and higher, through the town of Kruje then onwards and definitely upwards..surely we should be awarded another warning light for all the screeching and wheel spinning coming from our poor van..
Finally we reached our little hotel in the clouds...but just in case we weren't having enough trouble with oxygen deficiency our room was right at the very top of the hotel, 60 stairs and obviously no lift...falling into the attic room, we both proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes repeatedly banging our heads on the ridiculous low roofbeams..swearing and huffing...but at least the view was worth it...well it would have been if the thunder clouds hadn't rolled in...Ahhhhh, the joys of travelling..
Once our heads had stopped throbing we headed out to check out the nearby viewpoint just up the road...and what a sight...The dark clouds had cleared and you could see all the way to the coast in the evening sun....
Then things took a rather strange turn....there was a little crowd milling around right by the cliff edge, when suddenly a sleek black (obviously freshly washed) Mercedes rolled up, complete with blacked out windows...the driver got out, then helped the blindfolded, yes you heard that right, passenger out and they both headed to the precipise only a few meters away...Thinking we were about to witness an Albanian assassination, we backed off slightly, but it was at this point we realised it was a traditional marrige proposal ceremony, complete with a big heart statue, ch*****ne, fireworks, overhead drone and much merriment ....
With much relief we joined in with the clapping and polite nodding...We thought she was a bit smartly dressed..
Back to the hotel for a feast that would have easily fed the whole engagement party..
Then it was a long climb up those lovely stairs, a bit more banging of heads, then sleep, or maybe it was mild concussion..
What a great last day in Albania...
Off to Bologna tomorrow for our final night, lets see what that holds for us..?