Day 14: Friday 21st October 2022

Start: Budva, Montenegro (Currency: Euro)

Finish: Ohrid, North Macedonia (Currency: Macedonian Denar)

Temperature: 15 degrees and clear skies leaving Budva, throughout the day was 25 degrees but dropped to 11 at the 1800 border crossing into North Macedonia.

Today is the ‘long drive day’ through Albania and on to North Macedonia. The phrase we’ve been using today is ‘breakfast in Montenegro, Lunch in Albania and Dinner in North Macedonia.

At 0830 we stopped for a quick photo stop at Stefan Island where apparently several celebrities have booked out the semi-abandoned island for weddings. Now we have two hours to the border with no stops (again, there aren’t many places to stop).

By 10:10 we made it to the Albanian border, crossing over in record time. During the drive, Bojan told us the story of the lady buried in the fortress wall at Rosafa Castle.

Our stop in Albania for a walking tour and lunch was Tirana, where I was fascinated by their stoplights where the entire post lights up to alert drivers of the signal colour. The local guide was lovely and incredibly knowledgeable, taking us past the central town square, a huge orthodox church and mosque before letting us loose to find some lunch. Our place of choice was down a cute little alleyway at the Shendevere Wine bar by Cobo, accessible via the alley entrance at Tirana Castle wall (free access). The staff were fantastic in helping us select dishes available in our short timeframe and served us promptly and efficiently.

We then drove several hours to the border of North Macedonia, where several people were caught out with how fast the temperature dropped. As we stood in the queue at the border, the bus read 11 degrees outside. Bojan suggested a restaurant/bar for those of us not attending the optional group dinner (with dancing and music!) NOA Restaurant. The handful of our group who opted not to attend, still joined the bus at 7.45pm into the old town, but as the others all herded off toward the vibrant party evening, our little group wandered toward NOA. We ended up settling for a different restaurant that felt more our speed – Cun Restaurant. It was fantastic! Food was unbelievably cheap, as were the cocktails and we even had some traditional music played for us by a violinist and guitarist. We feasted on dips and fresh baked bread, stuffed capsicums (peppers) with cheese and bechamel sauce and a traditional kebab style dish that looked almost like Brazilian barbeque. We topped it off with a local cake of walnuts, chocolate and caramel shards. We returned to the bus and enjoyed listening to stories from the others who attended the group dinner. As usual, the reports were fairly synonymous. The food isn’t great but the entertainment was fun for those who were enthusiastic enough to participate.