louiseinlimbo

When I finally left Tirana, my first stop was Berat – also known as the ‘city of a thousand windows’.  Not sure that this is a very meaningful description if other windows are like two of the three on my hostel dorm: window frames and panes set onto the front of a brick wall (with no gap in the bricks for windows)!!  But it truly is a beautiful city, dominated by a large castle overlooking it from a hilltop.  Started by the Romans and largely re-built by the Byzantines in the thirteenth century, it contains within its walls a number of Orthodox churches, two Ottoman-era mosques, a museum and of course a number of cafes. From there I moved on to Gjirokaster, another inland city built around an old hilltop fortress, this one even larger as it includes a residential quarter within its walls as well as a former prison and a museum.  Again, there were cultural events in the city – this picture being a group of polyphonic singers on stage in one of the city squares, and ag...

Having seen North Macedonia in two relaxed weeks, I felt that I have more time left than I really need in the Balkans, so after a relaxed week in Tirana, when the hostel owner asked if I’d like to volunteer for a few weeks/months in return for a free bed plus €5 per day subsistence money, I agreed.   The hostel is quite chaotic (on my first full day here, when unfortunately I had gone out exploring so missed the drama, the police came and asked to check everyone’s ID; one guest said he had to go up to his room to get his – and he didn’t come back down.   When the police went up to investigate, they realised he must have jumped off the roof terrace onto an adjoining property and escaped … we found out later the guy was wanted by Interpol!!), sometimes noisy at night, dirty, etc, but owned and managed by a very nice Egyptian guy who I felt comfortable with.   At first it wasn’t that much work – stripping beds when people checked out, putting dirty laundry through the washin...