Leaving Shkoder we decided to move away from hostels for a few nights and stay in a few hotels on our route down through Tirana and on to Berat. The logic behind staying in hostels stems from the desire to meet other 'like-minded people' when travelling - it is not for their hygiene or the joy of sharing a toilet with ten other people, half of whom do not know how to clean themselves, let alone stop a bathroom from falling into such disrepair it resembles a festival toilet. However, fundamentally I am not the most tolerant person and am quite happy in my own company a lot of the time (and Hannahs) and so I do not find the need to spend my evenings listening to crusty hippies gain credence by competing to have the dirtiest dreadlocks, playing the guitar or having a contest to discover who had found the most life changing moments on their journey.
This was brought home to me in force as I had to endure listening to who I am sure was a perfectly nice young women from New Zealand. She began by trying to teach us about our own continent that she had travelled (for 3 weeks) and how Albania was her favourite country she had ever visited. It is worth pointing out that another boast ALL travellers (myself included) gain credit with other ‘like-minded people’ they encounter is by naming the most obscure country they have visited and declaring that is was their favourite due to the lack of other tourists who had yet to spoil it. Don’t get me wrong, Albania is a beautiful country from the small amount of time I have spent here but as I was driving past crumbling houses, wagons pumping out all manner of world ending chemicals and soviet era tower blocks rising above piles of disregarded rubbish I couldn't help thinking that Italy, Norway or even Scotland might have a few complaints about this bold claim. As my clear irritation at being stuck 2 foot away from this women grew increasingly apparent and Hannah held my hand to stop me throwing her off of the bus I decided that is was best to leave the hostel scene for a few days and promptly booked into an inexpensive hotel as we prepared to head south to Albania’s capital, Tirana.
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