Crazy Taxi

Albanian/Greek Frontier

We left Athens really early in the morning in an attempt to get into the South of Albania the same day. A long day's travel but we heard it was possible. A series of train and bus journey's eventually slugged us up to the north of Greece. We arrived in Ioannina and headed to the bus station to get a bus to Saranda (Southern Albania). We had been told be Lonely Planet that is was possible, however the bus ticket guy told us different.

We got a bus up to the border and walked across. It was getting late, however, and there were no buses running from the other side of the border. Right on time a taxi guy approached us. Time to think. Rule #1 whilst travelling; avoid taxis. Rule #2; never get into an unmarked taxi. All things considered, then, we decided to get in the taxi. We haggled down to 30 Euros for the 1h 15min trip.

It was some introduction to Albania. We clambered into his old rattling Merc and he drove off through the hills. The mountain passes snaked up the steep slopes in a series of sharp hairpin turns. It was as if all the driving rules and regulations that were present in Greece and indeed most other European countries had vanished over the border. The driver was pushing sixty round the corners whilst simultaneously making a call and lighting a cigarette. Making space for the oncoming traffic he took a wide line trough many of the bends, bringing us tantalisingly close to the sheer cliff edges that remained spine-tingly unprotected by barriers. The only thing that would stop you hurtling over the edge, if you were lucky, would be the shrines of the people who weren't so.

After we got used to the new driving style we were able to relax and enjoy the breathtaking landscape that was lit up by the setting sun. A more unusual sight was a cow, hung from a pylon in the process of being gutted. Welcome to Albania, I thought.