Road Trip to Several Eastern Block Countries known as the Balkans
Montenegro
We traveled from Padgorica. Montenegro going through Montenegro Customs and then Albania Customs. We stopped in Shkoder, Albania for the night.
Leaving Montenegro
Albania
Entering Albania...thank goodness the vehicle backup is going back into Montenegro.
We had a pleasant picnic lunch in a park in Shkoder.
Mosque chanting occurred while walking through town.
We stayed in a small hotel right in town, walked the streets and had a traditional Albanian dinner in a very popular restaurant.
The restaurant had these beauties blooming outside.
A traditional European breakfast....tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, two cheeses, fresh sliced Albanian bread, thin sliced chicken and ham, egg omelet, fresh squeezed oj, coffee and tea. It was more than Larry and I could eat so we made a sandwich with the leftovers.... for a picnic lunch.
We drove past the Rozafa Castle....high on the hill with a narrow road leading up to it.
Constructed and ruled by Illyrians around the 4th century BC, it was later rebuilt by the Venetian and then the Ottomans.
Just outside of Shkoder we turned off of a major highway, selecting to go the back roads. What a fantastic road we chose. We continued our adventure passing through several tunnels and heading west towards Macedonia.
The scenery was eye candy.
The road was curvy and narrow but full of exciting views.
This was the largest goat I have ever seen.
Livestock were often free to roam in the roads or were tied up to a tree or stake.
We enjoyed spotting herders watching over their stock....everywhere.
The haystacks were so unusual. There also were corn stalk-stacks.
Our first sighting of snow capped mountains as we leave Albania through an immigration booth and enter into Macedonia through a Customs checkpoint.
Macedonia
The name "Macedonia" is the oldest surviving name of a country in the Continent of Europe. Archaeological evidence shows that old European civilization flourished in Macedonia between 7000 and 3500 BC.
What a pretty little alpine structure.
We passed through the Macedonia Immigration checkpoint, then entered Kosovo through their Immigration checkpoint.
Kosovo
We spent the night in Tevovo
The next day after breakfast we headed towards Pristina (capital of Kosovo) then we turned toward the east to Serbia....into the mountains.
We traveled through a couple of tunnels...then I started counting...just for fun.
This river had lovely homes popping up on it.
The tunnels looked quite old on the eastern portion of our westward travel towards Montenegro.
We had to slow down as we passed through several mall villages.
Starting in Kosovo and ending in Podgorica, Montenegro we went through 54 tunnels in one day.
Wow!
Serbia
We passed through immigration checkpoints going out of Kosovo and again passing into Serbia.
While on this trip, we noticed that every town had a Mosque...sometimes several. It was evident that Islamic religion was dominant.
Perhaps a mountain get away home...
After passing through Serbia Immigration and back through Montenegro Immigration, we went from a two lane road that was graveled and being updated in Serbia to a six lane modern highway in Montenegro. The highway appeared to be brand new.
The tunnels were even six lanes. We owned the highway. Larry and I couldn't imagine why a six lane highway was needed in the area because there were no major cities or traffic. They must have thought "Build the road and they will come."
We arrived back in Podgorica around 6:00pm ready for a new adventure...off to Croatia.
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