Border crossing and long queue
Living in Schengen made us forget a bit about border crossing queues. Besides us, lot of Kosovan cars were waiting and we also seen buses well packed with boxes and goods. We had to wait about half an hour – which is still not so long time – and it went smoothly. We are in!
Vehicles, people and crazy traffic
After crossing the border we already started to see every kind of vehicles on the road. Some small tractors, motorbikes, etc. People were climbing across the middle separation fence on the highway (!!!) with bicycle (!!!) and it wasn’t very unusual view.
The country had under 7000 cars by 1991 and some statistics claim that they had only 600 in 1990. After that it was possible to import cars from abroad. Although it didn’t always go in the legal way. Nowadays there are 300 000 cars only in Tirana. The problem is that the quick increase in number of cars doesn’t mean good driving culture. Ignoring speed limits is the smallest issue. We also started to ignore some (most) as nobody seems to care to slow down and we are planning to keep our car in one piece if possible.
Overtaking from ANY direction is common. Without indicators, because it is more fun!
If 2 lanes are painted on the road, it means that very likely 3 or 4 columns of cars fit, so don’t be surprised!
And the best: roundabouts!!! Total chaos.
On the other hand, drivers have good reflexes as we barely seen any collisions or accidents.
Road constructions
Albania is under construction. New roads and highways are under construction everywhere. Few years and it will be easy to get around the country – and in general it is already pretty good – except the sudden missing part of asphalts, holes and uneven entrances to bridges. There is a lot of dust due to the constructions, I think I won’t forget seeing dust flying up every time I close the car door.
Police check points
Surprising to see a lot of police on the road and they almost continuously check cars or regulate traffic in crossroads. I don’t have a license, but Karol claims they are waving randomly when trying to show cars to come or stop. Anyway, I’m not sure how much effect they have on respecting rules – except that everyone drives a bit slower.
We’ve heard that they often stop foreigners, but so far we avoided this adventure.
We already survived several hundred (almost 1000!!) km of driving and I think Karol adapts pretty well to the local conditions. For me it looks less scary than it was in the beginning, but I think I will never be calm and I am prepared for few scratches that will appear on the car sooner or later.
The main point is that I feel finally that WE ARE IN THE BALKANS 🙂