Today was.....

Interesting. So I skipped like a week of our Road-trip (whoops) but we have been having so much fun and are so exhausted by the end of the day that there just isn't any time to write anything. But this afternoon was to great to not write a quick post about. I should probably back up to this morning. We have been in Macedonia the past 2 days and made our way to Albania this afternoon.  

This morning we drove to the big lake that connects the borders of Macedonia to Albania. As we got to the beach I realized that it was a swimming beach and my swimsuits were all packed at the bottom of my bag that has been packed Tetris style and takes about 10 minutes to close every morning. So since I was being extremely lazy there was no swimming for me, but after stepping out of the car I was completely okay with that. The place, although it was beautiful, reminded me of a stinky bathroom in China. I don't really know why, but I think it may have been all of the people and trash around, or that the bathrooms were big and stinky to begin with. The beach that we picked was also a campsite/super crappy trailer park, which had cars, people, tents, trash, and old trailers thrown about the area. I was completely satisfied with sleeping on our wonderful Picnic mat. After the rest of the gang jumped in and out of the water for a while we decided it was time to get some lunch seeing that it was almost 3 pm and hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. 

After lunch we stared on our drive to Albania. The drive from the lake to our hotel was suppose to be around 2 1/2 hours so we set off. After about 30 minutes we made it to the border. Border crossings have started to become one of my favorite part of the trip. Something funny or unique always ends up happening and I also get another stamp in my passport. We waited in line at the Macedonia gate and after finally pulling up and waiting for a few minutes with nothing happening Alex got out of the car with our passports and went to the police office. Typically thy take a look at out passports and vehicles registration. Sometimes the give us a fine or make us pay a tax to leave the country, but Macedonia was different. He walked up to the border patrol and told them that we had 4 Poland citizens and one U.S. while trying to hand him all of our passports. He looked at the car and we all waved and he said something along the lines of "okay, you can go." A little shocked but excited that our wait time was cut down we drove around the corner to get into Albania. 

We heard that it is difficult to get into Albania. You need extra paperwork and sometimes it takes a long time. We waited in line watching as people in cars unpack their trunks with police men watching, then it was finally our turn. We rolled up to the window with big smiles on all of our faces looking at the officer. After a few minutes he waved us through. It was easy. I grabbed my passport to look at my cool new stamp from Albania and gasped. He didn't stamp it. There was no way that I was going into a country that I would probably never travel to again and not have proof. I yelled out and Alex stopped the car and I got out and ran back to the border. 

When I got back to the window I put on my biggest smile and explained to the 4 officers that were standing there that I really wanted a stamp. They agreed and gave me some big creepy smiles back asking where I was from. I exclaimed that I'm a California girl and they all got so excited that I was from probably one of the few places they know in America... A little overly excited but I wasn't going to ask questions. I smiled some more and finally got my passport back with a stamp from the Albanian border. 

After getting everyone situated in the car we were off. We started driving down a well paved road, completely unexpected in such a rural country, and did switchbacks down the mountain. Unfortunately as soon as we left, we got stuck behind a truck pulling a trailer, so Alex passed it. One minute later a women police office pulled us over. We had made it almost 3,000 Kilometers without being pulled over and 2 minutes into the country and they got us. We pulled over not knowing what was in store. Apparently you aren't allowed to pass super slow cars on switchbacks down mountains in Albania. Who knew?! At first it seemed that we were going to have to pay to get out of the situation... Then she asked where we were from and Alex told her explaining that we were tourists from Poland and America. She looked at all of us squished and tired in the backseat. I grabbed the kids hands and we started waving. We had big smiles on and did the biggest and happiest waves from the whole car. She gave us back our papers and told us that we had a beautiful family and could go as long as we didn't pass anymore cars. Excited, we drove off. A few minutes later we got to the slow truck pulling the trailer again. After contemplating and looking around for police cars we quickly passed. A second later a police car, which came out of nowhere turned on its lights. We all held our breath for a minute as Alex started slowing down, and a
second later it zoomed passed us. We decided our one run in with the police was enough for the whole trip. 

We finally pulled up to the hotel after 4 1/2 hours of driving through the crazy highways in Albania. Complete with 45 minutes of the freeway being gravel rocks, potholes the size of a small car and a beautiful sunset.  Our hotel greeted us with happy faces and yummy food so it was the perfect ending to a great day!