Albania – Part 2 – From Peqin to Elbasan

In 2009 some friends and I joined an interesting group of people who intended to walk along the ancient Roman road Via Egnatia. More about the beginning of the trip in my previous post.

Our first stop was Peqin – a small city on the Southeast of Durres. We would camp inside of the old city walls. There was a big celebration with food and dances. So far so good. The only bottom point was that the terrain inside the city walls was lower than outside. It rained like hell that night. Half of the tents were literarily under water. Not a good start of a camping journey but a very good indicator what was expecting us in the future.

One of the important things in Peqin was to collect our donkeys who would carry all of our luggage on the trip. Due to different reasons we could not get all of the previously promised donkey and we ended with only four. For about 30 people. It’s good we had two cars with us which would carry some of the bags and tents.

Off we were. The nature was lush and green, the weather was promising, and the scenery was breathtaking.

Finally on the road. I love this picture - straight from the plane onto an Albanian donkey.

Good equipment is always a good idea. I was sure I wouldn't need this rain membrane. Ah, how wrong I was!

We have a saying here "it is pulling back as a donkey on a bridge". This was a perfect  picture to illustrate it.

We camped the center of a very small village. We had no running water but we had a coffee shop/restaurant right across the tiny street. I had one of the best coffees in my life. Of course, Albanian coffee. In other parts of the Balkans you'll meet it as Turkish, Greek, or Macedonian coffee. Go figure!

These tiny ducks were wandering around our tents in the morning.

And here came their "mum".

Soon after the coffee and heavy homemade breakfast we were off to our next stop - Elbasan.