The announcement

Here goes, the announcement.

I have been procrastinating telling everyone, mostly because I wanted to avoid the questioning and having to explain my decision.

But time has run out and there is no point delaying any longer: I quit my job and am on my way to travel in southeast Asia for about 6 months.

The reactions of those whom I have told so far have been from »Yeah, I knew you were going to do something like that!« to »Hey, good for you, enjoy yourself!« all the way to »What? Where are you going? All by yourself? Are you nuts?«

It has been brewing in me for a long time. I read so many books by people who have done just that, gone traveling. And I always dreamed how I would want to do it someday.

But.

There was no time, I had a job, there were family obligations, I didn’t have enough money…

There was always a but.

For some reason, it all came together on a Friday afternoon when I came home completely stressed out from work. I had some money saved up that I couldn’t spend on vacations because there was no time because I had to work. My children went off to college and Marko and I became empty nesters which considerably reduced family obligations. And as far as waiting for retirement goes, in these times of economic crisis, the government is increasing the age at which I would qualify to retire. Who knows if I would still be in good health to travel when I finally do reach retirement?

If not now, when would I ever go?

Borovnica – Bohinjska Bistrica 2012

Vrhnika

Ever since my failed attempt to walk toTriglav, Slovenia's highest mountain, from my home in 2005 I itched to try again. Actually, I can hardly believe it has been 7 years already since then. I guess there just never was enough motivation or opportunity. But this summer, my daughter Martina is working in Bohinj and so it seemed like the perfect excuse to go and visit her – on foot. Thus the expedition Borovnica – Bohinjska Bistrica 2012 was born. The previous time I walked to Bohinjska Bistrica it took me four days and lots of lessons learned and so it seemed only reasonable that I should be able to make it in two days this time. I only planned to go as far as Bohinjska Bistrica, foregoing Triglav on this attempt, because I have a half marathon coming up in September and I don’t want to jeopardize my running training by doing something as crazy as overstraining myself.

First of all, before starting, I reviewed my lessons learned from my previous expedition:

• First lesson, make sure you know the way. Check: now I have GPS navigation (was GPS navigation even plausible 7 years ago?)
• Second lesson, get better hiking shoes. Check: new, lighter shoes, tested twice previously
• Third lesson, don’t go in a straight line. Check: allow GPS navigation to dictate the route (should I really allow technology to take over route planning?)

On my previous attempt I made it as far as Goropeke on the first day and to Cerkno on the second day. I figured that if I started early enough and did not get lost along the way (like I did the first time) I could make it all the way to Cerkno on the first day. And I did! It was a long day though, starting at 6:00 in the morning and hiking all day, making it to Cerkno just before it was completely dark at around 21:00 for a total walking time of 15 hours. I only got lost briefly about two times, using my GPS navigation to realize that I took a wrong turn and getting back on track promptly.

Sovodenj

I checked into the Cerkno hotel, the same one I stayed at 7 years ago. It was quite funny when the guy at reception asked me, “Where are you from?”

And I told him, “From Borovnica.”

He obviously noticed my backpack and deduced that I must have hiked there so he revised his question, “I mean, where did you come from today?”

“Yes, from Borovnica.”

OK, that sank in then. I was too tired to even consider the hotel swimming pool, I just went straight to bed. My shoes stood up reasonably well, although I had two blisters on my feet but I doubt they invented shoes that wouldn’t give you blisters after 15 hours of hiking.

The next morning I continued my journey to Bohinjska Bistrica. I decided against climbing the Porezen mountain because it would mean going back down into Petrovo Brdo and up onto Soriška planina again, as I did 7 years ago. Instead, I trusted my GPS navigation that a way around through Davča had less altitude changes and was shorter in total hiking time. The device calculated my route at 8 hours and I was already looking forward to reaching my destination in mid-afternoon. What did I mention at the beginning of this post regarding trusting navigation software? Actually, I wasn’t too surprised to find out that after 3 hours of hiking time the device calculated that I still had 6 hours to go. Now, where is the math in this equation? Of course, the navigation software didn’t consider altitude adjustments and so it calculates the time it takes to walk 3 kilometers on flat terrain the same as 3 kilometers going steeply uphill. Oh well, I was actually glad that it forecasted only 8 hours when I set out in the morning, had it been more, I might have been discouraged to even start walking.

Davča

There is another lesson learned regarding GPS navigation. I was aware that GPS positioning is not exact and I soon figured out that the software on my device has a built in algorithm that wants to position you on a road whenever you are at least X distance away from a known road (I didn’t quite manage to guess what X was, in hiking time it was too much if you ask me). So if I went off course, it would take more than distance X until my GPS started screaming “recalculating route”. Even worse, whenever there were two roads close together, such as for example a V shaped fork in a road, or one of those spaghetti crisscrossing types of junctions where several roads come together, I could never be quite sure which road I was following until I was more than X distance away from all other roads. But aside from this feature, I was really thankful for the GPS navigation because it guided me quite well most of the time, sometimes even along unmarked paths through the woods. And the few times that I did find myself lost, I was at least able to use the GPS navigation to figure out where I was and which way I was supposed to go. Yes, it’s good to have technology. How did we ever manage without it?

I dragged myself up to Soriška planina, the highest point of my route, unfortunately during the hottest part of the day in early afternoon and under a scorching sun. But it was all forgotten after a cold beer at the hut and from where it was only a relatively short descent down into Bohinjska Bistrica. Yes, I managed to get lost one last time. When I had less than 20 minutes left to my destination according to the GPS, it started recalculating my route again, making it 35 more minutes. I have no idea where or how I managed to go off course, although I have a suspicion that it was somewhere in the fields where each farmer has their own road to their own field and I probably missed the correct one but the GPS didn’t notice it immediately because I was less than X distance away. In the end it added up to a total of 11 hours hiking time on the second day.

Overall, the trip was successful. I made it to Bohinjska Bistrica in two days as originally planned. If I were able to get up the next day (I admit, I was tired, my feet hurt, I had a new blister and I didn’t want to even think about hiking another step) I proved to myself that it would have been possible to reach Triglav in 3 days from my home if I really wanted to do it. Perhaps next time?

Rakitna

Rakitna lake

It takes about two hours to hike up to Rakitna from my home. Too long for a weekday afternoon and too short for a weekend when I want to do more serious hiking. So I rarely go there. This time Marko and I decided to go by bicycle. It took us about two hours, so I figured I might as well have hiked up there, it would have been easier than to drag the bicycle all the way up. When I hike I take a direct route straight up along a marked trail through the woods while with the bicycles we had to take a longer way around on a gravel road. But going down made up for all the effort. We breezed down along the asphalt road in twenty minutes! Too bad it takes so long to go up, I would have loved to do that again!

Rakitna is most known for a hospital that treats lung diseases because the air is supposed to be fresh there and good for the patients. There is also a lake, convenient for swimming in the summer and ice skating in the winter.

Albania

Road into Albania

Nothing could have prepared me for the shock of entering Albania. Although I had been there previously on business I had no idea that outside of Tirana it was all a mess. If I thought the roads in Montenegro were bad compared to those in Croatia I had no comparison for the roads in Albania.

After crossing the border from Montenegro into Albania there was just a hint of a rocky road, many potholes, no road markings, a concrete overpass with no safety fence, garbage strewn by the side of the road, old fashioned gas stations… I became seriously concerned for our car, what if something broke if we were to run into an obstacle on the road? I immediately decided that if we make it to Tirana in one piece we would only stay there and then go back, we would not explore Albania any further. Marko wasn’t as concerned as I was, hinting that I may be exaggerating a little, but in the end he agreed that he would return to Albania again only in a rented car.

I know that visiting a country on a business trip is so much different than visiting it as a tourist. On business, you only get to see the shiny airport, the official taxi and the fancy hotel, all limited to the city. I assumed that based on what I saw in Tirana, the rest of the country would be at least close to being modern and developed. But what I saw was mostly crumbling buildings and people selling all sorts of stuff along the roads. Occasionally there were brand new buildings that sprang up in the middle of nowhere and there was lots of construction and renovation going on. So I guess Albania is a typical country in transition, with Tirana already nice and spruced up and the countryside only starting to pick up. Along the way to Tirana I saw countless furniture stores and car washes. Who knows why these are so abundant.

Tirana

We encountered several wedding parties, including one at the hotel where we were staying. I found out from the locals that weddings in Albania take three days and that most restaurants are booked well in advance so during the summer weddings take place every day, everywhere.

The locals also told me that almost every family in Albania has at least one member who works abroad and sends money back home. They still remember the long years under the old regime when they were not allowed to travel and food was scarce. Now that the country is opening up, all they want to do is travel and see the world. Yes, one of the positive sides of visiting a country on business is that I get to meet locals with whom I not only work, but also chat informally and thus learn stuff that I wouldn't find in a guidebook.

Lakror

Unfortunately due to the poor driving conditions we didn’t get to see any sights outside of Tirana, for example the national parks or the sea towns further south. So Albania still waits for another visit. But we enjoyed some local food, avoided the museums and just strolled around the city which was very lively. We tasted lakror, a filled pastry that somewhat reminded me of the hachapuri we had in Georgia. I guess each country has their own version of filled pastry.

Durmitor

Durmitor National Park

To escape the summer heat along the coast we decided to head inwards to spend some time hiking in the Montenegro national parks. We found a campsite in Žabljak, the starting point for Durmitor National Park hikes. It was nicely cool and I immediately got a flashback from last year's Norway experience when it started to rain. A good thing we were only staying two nights.

There are numerous hikes from Žabljak and while I would have probably chosen the highest peak as our destination I decided against it after I checked the weather forecast: it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. So we went only as far as Ledena pećina, an ice cave. We didn’t actually visit the cave though, we were anxious to go back because clouds were gathering ominously and so we turned around to descend.

Horses in pasture at Durmitor National Park

We cut across the mountain to take a shorter route on our way down where we stumbled on three horses in pasture. I was slightly nervous about getting too close to the horses as I wasn’t sure whether they were used to tourists hiking in their meadow. Then I noticed a shepherding dog running from somewhere and it became obvious that the dog felt responsible for the horses. He started barking at the horses and although it seemed they didn’t mind him much, he managed to get them out of the way so we couldn’t get too close to them. Witnessing such a scene was certainly something incredibly unusual to me, whoever thought a dog could shepherd horses?

Black Lake, Durmitor National Park

We spent some time relaxing around the Black lake on our way down and made it into camp at exactly the time it started raining. Perfect timing! Unfortunately there was no hot water in the showers and I had to suffer through a cold shower in the cold weather in the rain. I couldn’t really hold that against them as the next morning when I paid for the camp I realized that this was probably the cheapest camp we had ever stayed in.

Podgorica

Our drive the next day took us through Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. We stopped briefly although there is nothing much to see. The reason the photo is so foggy is that my camera was wet from sleeping in a tent in the rain. I was sure glad to be heading back towards the seashore again and on to our next destination, Albania. Who knows what awaits us there?

Driving in Montenegro

Ulcinj

Something needs to be said about driving in Montenegro. The roads are bad, but perhaps it only seemed so after being spoiled by the long stretch of hundreds of kilometers of new highway that we took through Croatia. The coastal road in Montenegro is full of traffic and all kinds of obstacles so that driving is not very fun. It takes hours to cover distances that seem not too far apart on the map.

I had to laugh so much when I was handed a tourist brochure which had on the back a list of driving recommendations. Among others, there was an item about how drivers should park according to regulations. Marko and I didn’t really know what parking regulations are in place in Montenegro. We didn’t see any designated parking areas and we thought it best to learn parking regulations by observing local custom. From what we saw we were able to deduce that in order to park in Montenegro, drivers should follow this procedure:

Step 1: Stop the car.

Step 2: Turn off the engine.

That’s it. You’re done. The car is parked. If it just so happens that you stopped the car on the road, you shouldn’t be concerned. It is up to the vehicles in traffic behind you to realize that you aren’t stopping just for a traffic incident such as a red traffic light or a dog on the road but that you are parked there and therefore the vehicles, if they want to move along, have to pass you. Apparently you get bonus points if you park diagonally across from a similarly parked car, thus forcing the traffic to snake in between.

After a while we had become so used to this parking regulation that we were both startled in the city of Cetinje where we stopped for a red traffic light. When the light turned green, the entire lane to the right of us started moving. We were both confident that the cars were parked there, assuming that any car that isn’t moving – is parked. So we wound up awkwardly in the middle of the crossing. Oops.

Don’t joke about Montenegro

Bay of Kotor

Our next destination, Montenegro. I couldn’t help but think of the saying that there are no jokes about policemen because it’s all true. Or about blondes. Or about Montenegrins, I gathered. There are many jokes about how Montenegrins are lazy or at least that they take things slow and easy. So, our first encounter with Montenegro, waiting for more than an hour at the border crossing, proved to me that there are no jokes about Montenegrins because it’s all true.

It took us less than fifteen minutes to clear the Croatian side of the border. Assuming that no cars materialize in between the two border posts, it would have been reasonable to expect another fifteen minutes to clear the other side of the border. Instead, the cars moved along a snail’s pace for more than an hour. When we finally reached the Montenegrin border, we saw very official looking officials, who strutted around making sure that everyone noticed how very official they were. They hardly looked at the travel documents, rather walking around the cars pretending to check whatever they were pretending to check, taking their time before they finally let each car pass. They waved us on without even pretending to check anything.

But first impressions can be deceiving as we were able to observe on our way back. In the opposite direction, we breezed through the Montenegrin border in a matter of minutes while we had to wait for nearly an hour on the Croatian side. Who knows why, they just waved us on when we approached the official in the booth.

Petar Petrović Njegoš

We drove to Lovćen, the place with a colossal mausoleum for Petar Petrović Njegoš, an obviously beloved Montenegrin leader who was also a poet. I was awed by the grandeur of the mausoleum, comparing it to the pyramids of Egypt. I don’t recall ever seeing a mausoleum of similar proportions for anyone other than a pharaoh. Or maybe I just haven’t traveled enough yet.

Kotor

We spent the night along the Bay of Kotor, a beautiful area with a charming old city, ruins along the hilltop, scattered churches, perfect for early morning hiking.