ALBANIA. THE INLAND.THE NORTH, LAKE OHRID AND BERAT

Komani lake, North Albania

Lake Ohrid

Albania may not be on top of your list at the moment but push it up there... The country is still a virgin in the sense that humans have not interfered in nature much. And it is not as popular to tourists as its neigbours Greece and Montenegro. People are still genuinely curious to talk to you and know why you chose their country and are happy to answer all your questions. They don’t want to sell you anything, not yet…And you are not looked at as a walking dollar. Reminded me of what Bulgaria was when I was growing up – no resorts or shiny hotels, lots of wild beaches and camp sites, of course, really bad roads and poor infrastructure but people were much nicer to each other. The poorer, the nicer. Much less to lose, much more to give. So please, hurry up to see one of the few unique places in Europe left…I give it maximum 2 years and all that will change. The big corporations would bring their cranes and excavators to “develop” the country and as a result people would realise that they could actually make money instead of being so nice.

AUSTRALIA. EAST COAST

Not my first but almost (contacts with a surfboard).

On 26th of Feb, after all the hassle getting my visa, I finally made it to Australia. Landed in Brisbane, quite late at night. It took less than 30 seconds to pass the immigration (I was expecting to go through all the questioning again) and my luggage didn’t get checked (probably because I said NO to everything…although I had spices in my bag and my hiking shoes were quite muddy). Andrew (our host from CouchSurfing) and my friend Pesho came to pick me up at the airport and we went straight to the house and bed. Although we stayed awake for a while, as we had to catch up for the 3 weeks Pesho spent in Oz and I was in NZ. I missed my flight to Cairns because of my Australian visa so Pesho was 3 weeks ahead of me, he did the stretch between Cairns and Brisbane which I missed. That means I didn’t get to scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef :(.