Pilgrimage from Lezhe to Mamurras 07/11/07

The internet café didn’t open till 09:30 so it was a good excuse to sleep in :) And by the time I got everything done it was already noon.

Heading out of town, the idea was to find the railway tracks and head straight for Tirane. It was a simple plan, but went wrong straight away. According to my map I should have crossed the tracks within a few hundred meters, but they were nowhere to be found :(

I was on the highway, it was full of cars and there was nothing to look at…

But the friendliness of the people continued! I hadn’t even walked for an hour before I got invited in for a drink.

I find it extremely strange that the poorer the country, the more the people are willing to give…even to complete strangers. Before getting to Albania we had many people tell us to “be careful down there” and “it is very dangerous”. And yet, I have only been met with smiles and curiosity. People are constantly inviting me in to their houses. For some reason, in “richer” countries I will get looked upon with fear when I walk into a village. Why would they fear strangers? And why in a “dangerous” country do they not?

Strange…

My map is completely useless. Either it is 20 years old or they just got it plain wrong The road I was walking on was the main highway, and wasn’t marked on the map at all!!!

As it was getting dark I spotted a sign telling me I had 39kms to go till Tirane. This was good news so I stopped for a big meal to celebrate :)

After dinner I managed two hours walking in the dark, before finding a paddock and setting up camp.