Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia

I began this trip in Greece - one of my favourite countries. I arrived by Ferry in Igoumenitsa from Italy and hopped in a taxi which took me along the coast at sunset to Syvota. The oranges, pinks and terracotta tones of the sunset which gave colour to the sea from the precipitous cliffs made me feel warm inside and happy to be back in Greece. The taxi driver spoke no English, to my delight, as it gave me the chance to use my Greek, although not too much because he did not slow down at the bends of the edges of cliffs and I did not want to distract him.

Syvota is a lovely seaside town, which hasn't been spoilt by tourism. I felt welcomed on arrival and headed straight for a seaside taverna to order some "Gemista" - Stuffed tomatoes and peppers with rice. The flavours of the Mediterranean could be tasted in every mouthful.

I had been attracted to Syvota after seeing a postcard a few years before which pictured the sparkling waters of a small island's coastline. I later found out that the beautiful place on the postcard was one of several islands laying just off the coastline around Syvota.

The islands are uninhabited and totally covered in greenery, not leaving once space for even a path. One part around the islands is called "pisina" meaning swimming pool in Greek because the water is so blue and transparent. I took a boat ride around the islands and after a short trip of traditional Greek music and being sprayed with the white foam from the waves, I arrived at Pisina where I swam and took just about 10 000 photos! After getting sunburnt, the boat came back and whipped us off around the islands' coast before returning to Syvota for the evening.

The next step of my journey was a visit to the very green islands of Paxos and Antipaxos. On Paxos, I hired a moped and pretended I knew how to drive it by going from one tip to the other. In fact, I assured the lady in my bestest Greek that I had already hired several mopeds in the past and was an expert, and then hopped on like a 5 year old trying to ride a bike for the first time and almost falling off! Nonetheless, I soon remembered how to work the thing and was off! The roads were nice but didn't seem to take me anywhere I wanted so I gave up and decided to get a boat to Antipaxos.

The midday heat was intense and seemed to be getting hotter by the minute. A short boat ride soon revealed tropical tones of calm water which delicately touched the powder white sand of the virgin coves. The boat abandoned us on the beach and I set off to explore the other coves one after the other, taking photo upon photo of the stunning island.

My next destination was Albania by boat from Corfu town. I felt a bit strange during the crossing, as the boat was very small and I was the only foreigner on the boat. We got closer and closer to Saranda in South Albania, where I could see many people on the beach and children splashing in the water. The scene was pleasant but slighlty spoilt by the buildings which didn't quite fit with the nice scenery. Nonetheless, I grabbed the first taxi driver I could find and offered him a day's work to drive me up the coast, stopping for photos.

Albania's coastline appears quite different to that of Greece's because of the stark landscape which perhaps was once covered with trees that came down to meet the sea. The 4 hour journey up the coast follows a road which changes drastically from asphalt to dirt tracks and vice versa. The ride can be very bumpy but it is worth if for the views you get along the way. The coastline varies between long sandy beaches of crystal clear and shallow water, to small pretty coves where the sea dips quickly to a dark shimmering blue. The coastline becomes more interesting towards the end around Dherme where it climbs up an impressive and very large zigzagging road up the side of a mountain which is not for vertigo sufferers. The views of the azure Ionian Sea below and the coastline beyond however are breathtaking. The road then reaches the mountain summit called Llogara Pass at over 900 meters altitude and curves and descends into a surprise forest of pines.

We stopped for lunch in the forest where we ate spitroast meat - the finest in Albania so I was told by the taxi driver and his father which he had decided to bring along for the journey.

After lunch I told the taxi driver I was heading for Berati which was quite a distance from where we were. He offered to take me half way and leave me to get a bus for the remaining part of the trip and we set off again. I was just beginning to worry about being left in the middle of nowhere waiting for a bus that wouldn't come, when the taxi driver spotted the bus I needed and raced after it signaling for it to pull over. Luckily it stopped and I got into the front seat and had a nice conversation with the bus driver in Greek. He was very impressed that I had made the effort to visit Albania and was proud of his country, but recognised its problems and particularly pointed out its lack of infrastructure for tourism. Likewise I was very impressed with how friendly he was.

Berati is an interesting and pretty town to visit with its traditional houses and hill sided river. At this point I was rather hungry so went into the first kebab restaurant I could find where absolutely nobody spoke a word of English and after many smiles, giggles and hand gestures to demonstrate what I wanted to order, I got the kebab I had wanted. Berati came alive at dusk as the whole population of the town descended upon the streets to have their daily evening stroll and also a good chance fot the local youth to eye each other up.

Albania's capital was next on the list, and after the disturbing view of half collapsed bridges with no railing and the strong smell of car fumes, I decided to make it a very short stay and instead got the first bus out to the cobbled streets of the village of Kruje where I had the most disgusting soup yet. In fact I was unable to find anywhere to eat and the only bar open offered me either soup or meat...and without any specifications as to what meat or what kind of soup. The bread was very nice however!

My Albanian journey ended and I was left with a good impression of the country and its people and could see its potential for tourism in the future.

It was quite a long journey to Croatia where I was to meet Jose at Dubrovnik airport. The bus trip took me through the plains of Northern Albania, passing the mighty fjords of Montenegro and finally arriving at my destination at sunset the day before Jose's arrival.

It was great meeting Jose at the airport and then showing him around the quaint town of Dubrovnik which sat comfortably within its high protective walls. It's difficult to describe Dubrovnik's beauty - the tiny cobbled alleys, the warm atmosphere, the smells of fresh fish being grilled, the harbour which looks so pretty that you could eat it, and the views of yachts passing between the town and the lush round island which lays opposite. It could very easily be the Mediterranean's prettiest town.

After soaking up the ambience of Dubrovnik, we jumped into a car we hired and rode down Croatia's most southern stretch of coast passing small coves of sparkling sea and pine covered countryside and then back into Montenegro, where I had to go back to take some photos of those impressive fjords around the town of Kotor which I had seen on my way to Croatia.

We travelled along Montenegro's stretch of Mediterranean stopping for lunch at Budva and a few photos and a swim at Petrovac. The first thing I noticed was that here everything was in Serbian and so were the menus, which is why it was just as well that I had been learning Serbo-croat during the summer and was able to communicate quite well, although finding the understanding part more difficult. Nonetheless we got by and then headed inland for the country's stunning mountains, lakes, ravines and forests in the Durmitor national park.

The drive to the park was nail-biting due to Montenegro's very dangerous drivers. We soon realised that overtaking on sharp bends was not uncommon and the number of memorials along the roads spelt out very clearly just how dangerous the roads of the country are. We arrived in once piece thank God.

The climate here was very different from the sundrenched coast and we grabbed our coats to keep warm. The lakes and forested mountains were beautiful, but the night absolutely freezing in our hotel.

We left Montenegro, after giving some random people a lift far far off our original route, although it was worth it because we went through a very stunning and long ravine to get there. After stopping for lunch in Serbia, we approached the border with Bosnia. I was very amused because Jose was quite nervous about Bosnia. His mind clearly conected Bosnia with war and landmines, whereas mine conected to Bosnia's natural beauty. The Serbian custom's officer put the cherry on top of Jose's nerves when wishing us "good luck" and then cackling. I found it hilarious and couldn't stop laughing. As soon as we entered Bosnia, we encountered its natural beauty. The countryside was lush green and the sun rays gleeming through the country hills, woods and crops gave the landscape a pretty autum feel. It was not long before we came across even more stunning landscape passing through ravines with deep rivers and high green cliffs.

It took us a long time to get to Sarajevoand we arrived just as dark set in, after descending meandering roads through the hills which form Sarajevo's backdrop. Finding a place to stay was an interesting experience. We found a nice hotel with reasonable prices and all we needed to do was park the car in a space in the hotel's carpark. Jose did just that, but parked slightly over the line of the next space. A Bosnian man - hotel worker moaned and told Jose to park again, so Jose did his best reversing and reparking the car. This time the car was in the lines, but slighty to one side. Once again the man moaned at Jose telling him to park it again and once again Jose did...this time fine although not perfect. The stupid hotel man still wasn't happy and moaned at Jose again. By this time, and after a long journey to get there, I had had enough and told Jose that we were leaving. And so the hotel lost a customer because of a stupid fussy man! Their loss!We were in luck though because we found a lovely place to stay in someones very beautiful house, all nicely decorated and with wood galore! It was perfect.

Sarajevo is an interesting city which merges an old and traditional turkish-style quarter and a new and more Austrian style one. Both are very nice to walk around. Jose seemed to be obsessed with finding war buildings, despite not having much luck until we were leaving and there was a huge building with holes in it which Jose stopped for in delight to take photos. I found it strange that he wanted such pictures, but then I guess his impression of the country before visiting was based soley on war stories.

Next stop through roads of more stunning scenery was the town of Mostar, famous for its bridge which seperates the Muslim side from the Christian and which was destroyed during the war, but then rebuilt and said to be eternal. The bridge is very beautiful and the emerald green river flowing under it really sets off the scene. Here it's possible to see many buildings which were destroyed during the war and which must not be entered due to landmines. There are huge holes in the buildings, bits missing, entire collapsed walls and signs warning people to keep out. It was interesting to see this, but the scenery and the town soon bring you back to the peaceful present.

Our car was due to be left in Split and so we spent the final day of car hire visiting a traditional Turkish building in the hills, which sits over a stream of water which flows from a cave, and then to the waterfalls of Kravice which fall in a semicircle into a large pool of water. It was then off to Split crossing back into Croatia and through mountains which lay high above the coast below and the breathtaking view of Croatia's many islands and their peculiar shapes like gems floating on the sparkling deep blue.

We spent a pleasant afternoon in Split before crossing by boat to the island of Brac, from which we watched the sunset over the pretty sand strip of Bol. We had planned to see a lot of the islands but instead opted for relaxing on the island of Hvar and Korcula. On Hvar, we took a day trip to the Pakleni islands where Jose looked for shells and played with crabs and I spent my time prodding a prawn in the sea, as I had never seen one alive in the sea before and was fascinated by how hard it felt and how it didn't seem scared of my stick, but instead seemed to be just a curious at what the thing prodding it was as I was with the prawn being prodded!

Hvar town was also nice, being very typically croatian with its beige colours, pretty streets and harbour. Korcula island looked equally as beautiful with its coves of turquoise water and its pitturesque town.

Our trip came to and end with our return to Dubrovnik where we relaxed, ate pizza, went for a swim or two and had the most delicious fish at a harbour restarant.