Last year when I travelled from Prishtina to Tirana for a few days, we had to go through the mountains in northern Albania, driving about 30km/h. It took us about 12 hours in total to reach our destination. Now there is a highway, at least while driving in Albania. A highway will be built in Kosovo to better connect the capital of Kosovo and the capital of Albania. In the future, a highway between Prishtina and Nis (Serbia) will be built and that way, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania will finally be connected with a decent highway.

There are still some parts that are under construction, here in Kukës in northeastern Albania, for example. And somehow a cow ended up in the middle of the road. Would be a scandal in Sweden – here its perfectly normal. :)

I reached the border between Albania and Kosovo. I had to buy a special car insurance for my car since the International Car Insurance, the “Green Card”, is not valid in the Republic of Kosovo.

One flag is not enough – in Kosovo its common to see the flags of the United States of America, Albania and Kosovo all together. Driving in Kosovo is interesting – very much going back to basics. There are no highways, no one really bothers about traffic rules and thank God I drove here last year and had an idea of where I was going – one has to really keep the open for road signs – if there are any. Asking for directions is also interesting – it’s always “drejt”, which means “straight”. But I’ve figured out that drejt really means turning left and right – at some point, haha.

10 km away from Prishtina with the Kosovo flag. I did it! Sweaty, tired, bored of driving. But I did it. Welcome to Kosovo.

Photos: Courtesy Anna Wiman.

Leaving Dubrovnik early in the morning…

Reached the border between Croatia and Montenegro.

Crossed the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro with car ferry to save time.

Onboard… a mix of cars from all over Europe actually. Now that the diaspora from Kosovo and the rest of the Balkans come back for the summer holidays many choose to go through Montenegro.

Reached the border between Montenegro and Albania. Here I met some Albanian diaspora from Norway, also on their way to Kosovo.

I was surpriced at the road quality between the city of Shkodër in northern Albania and the capital Tirana. Construction is still going on everywhere and it wasn’t always obvious what roads to take due to bad signs or none at all but things are going forward!

Reached Tirana, the capital of Albania! I stayed with my friend Rudina and her family. Here we’re goofing around on her terrace. The family lives in a beautiful city centre apartment. :)

Met up with my friend Edlir for a coffee – haven’t seen him in a year.

Summer is here and the weddings come with it. Albanians decorate their cars, drive around, honk the horn… and manage to stop the traffic while doing it, haha.

Impressions of Albania’s beautiful capital.

Impressions of Albania’s beautiful capital.

Impressions of Albania’s beautiful capital.

Edlir and unlogical “Balkan parking”. :)

The Skenderbeu statue in Tirana. There are similar statues also in Skopje (Macedonia) and in Prishtina, Kosovo. Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu is considered an Albanian hero. – fore than two decades he kept the Ottoman Empire away from Albanian territory.

Photos: Courtesy Anna Wiman.

No more highway south of Split. :) There is one under construction but most roads went back to basic so one had to know what foot is where… and where the other cars are at.

I think this was somewhere north of Omiš, a coastal city south of Split.

I stopped the car several times to take pictures of the beautiful landscape. This one made me want to jump into the refreshing sea…

Said and done!

There is a small part of the coast that suddenly becomes Bosnia and Herzegovina… that’s also where one can choose to carry on towards Dubrovnik or to leave the coast and go towards Sarajevo (capital of Bosnia) and Mostar.

Reached Dubrovnik safe and sound! This was the view from my hotel room. Once again, found spontaneously. I didn’t want to leave!

Yachts and other boats outside the hotel.

Dear Opel Corsa to the left, thank you for bringing me all the way here!

Two friends relaxing in the harbour.

Good view of Dubrovnik city walls. Isn’t it gorgeous?

Tall houses and narrow cobble-stone streets in the old town…

Having quite a romantic dinner made of fresh fish with myself. :)

Photos: Courtesy Anna Wiman.

Since then, the Republic of Croatia has grown into becoming a new and trendy tourism destinations in central Europe. Croatia is member of the United Nations, Concil of Europe, NATO, World Trade Organization and CEFTA and also a candidate for European Union Membership.

Firstly, it hit me was how incredibly beautiful Croatia was. Secondly, I realised how clean it was and how everything seemed to be pretty organized. The highway between Ljubljana and Split was a highquality highway and parts of it along the coast, so I really enjoyed that…

I can see the Adriatic Sea! Wonderful coastal landscape.

Clear blue sky in Croatia. I later discovered that I had a very charming white stripe across my chest from the seatbelt, haha.

Somewhere south of Ljubljana the navigator stopped working. The maps were too old. :) From now on traditional map reading…

Rijeka and Pula are cities in the west at the Italian border. Split is located on the coast further south and was my final destination.

I found a very decent hotel 15 minutes walk from downtown Split as soon as I arrived. This was the view from my room.

Evening walk in Split…

Evening walk in Split… My father later called it the “St Tropez of the Balkans” when he saw the pictures.

Very Italian/Venetian architecture…

I sat down at the water for a while and realised I hadn’t sat down like that for the whole trip. I realised I was in the middle of Croatia, realised that I had come this far. It was a nice feeling.

Photos: Courtesy Anna Wiman.

As I arrived it rained cats and dogs…

After escaping the rain I explored the very nice city of Ljubljana.

Very Austrian architecture…

Loved the waterways and the small bridges in the city.

Omelet and coffee in a narrow cobble-stone street…

Ljubljana was all what I had expected.

Slovenian flag on Slovenska cesta, one of the main streets.

Drove to Kranj, a city about half an hour outside of Ljubljana. A friend of mine comes from here and it looked very cute when I googled it…

Typical Slovenian small town?

Photos: Courtesy Anna Wiman.

The distance between Lüneburg and Graz is about 1000 km. I needed about 12 hours and I was exhausted after that drive… mostly because I’d caught a bad cold in Lüneburg. I still managed to enjoy Graz. :)

Loads of tunnels in the Alps in southern Germany/northern Austria.

This was what my world looked like after 12 hours of driving. Pretty blurry… Unfortunately I never got a nice shot of the Alps because it had become dark already.

View of Graz from the castle hill.

View of Graz from the castle hill.

Streets of Graz.

Streets of Graz.

Graz was the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2003. This small “island” was built and is still there. This year, 2010, Istanbul is the Cultural Capital of Europe. Next year its Tallinn’s (Estonia) turn.

Posters in the city. “Wer Grenzen im Kopf zieht, begrenzt die eigene Welt” (“Those who draw boundaries in their heads also create boundaries in their own world”). “Nur den weltoffenen öffnet sich die Welt” (“The world will come only to people who are open for it”).

Photos: Courtesy Anna Wiman.

I catched a ferry from Malmö in southern Sweden to the city of Travemünde in Germany, about 1 hour north of Hamburg. 

This is the Öresund Bridge, connecting Malmö in Sweden and the Danish capital, Copenhagen. It’s the longest bridge in Europe combining both a road and a rail track  and was opened in 2000.

A heavy thunderstorm appeared in the afternoon, about 30 minutes north of Travemünde. The sun still managed to pierce through the sky.

First stop: Hanseatic city of Lüneburg. I spent my exchange studies semester from September 2009 to March 2010 at the University of Lüneburg. This is the city square where I used to live.

Lüneburg city hall. Construction began in 1230. In 1720, the baroque facade was added.

Germany had recently won the Eurovision Song Contest and during the World Cup it was all about the German flag…

These guys drag tourists that come from all over Germany to see the Hanseatic city of Lüneburg around town…

Lüneburg is a fairly rich city, only 30 minutes south of Hamburg. This is the typical Lüneburg city scenery with narrow cobble-stone streets.

The river Ilmenau flows through the city.

Anna’s Café is my favourite café in town, not only because of its name but also because they serve the best hot chocolate there. ;-)

Lüneburg has the most bars and cafés per resident in Europe after Madrid, Spain. Just pick and choose…

Cafés, bars and restaurants are lined up in Schröderstrasse. There is a very good sushi restaurant there.

My German friend Michel (far right) turned 21 during my short stay.

We all gathered for a nice brunch. Friends, food, conversation!

Germany played their first match in the 2010 World Cup against Australia on Sunday June 13th. I decided to stay one more day in Germany to see the game with some old friends.

Me and my old flat-mate Timo from Germany painted our cheeks in black, red and yellow.

Re-union with old friends from my days as an exchange student in Lüneburg. From left: Aija from Finland, Timo from Germany, Nathalie from Russia/Germany, me and Pok from Hong Kong/United Kingdom.

Germany won against Australia with 2-0 and people celebrated in the streets of Lüneburg.

Photos: Courtesy Anna Wiman.

In Croatia. Dubrovnik in the background.

I was originally going to fly. Just check in and letting somebody else be in charge would be making it easy for myself… Until one day when I realised that it would better to have my own car considering how much I had planned to move around once I’d arrived. I would become mobile, independent and free to go wherever I wanted at any time. It seemed like a good idea.

But… where should I sleep along the way? How much would the gas cost? Could I handle the traffic? Was it safe to go alone? Would the car be OK?

Some people thought I wouldn’t make it – it was too hard and unsafe. But most people supported it. I asked some diaspora Kosovoalbanians for advice. What was the smartest and fastest route?

They say that preparing is the most important part of a road trip. I didn’t prepare a lot… For example, I didn’t book any hotels before-hand (in Croatia I didn’t have any friends to stay with), I left home with a three year old navigator that stopped working south of Ljubljana due to old maps and didn’t buy a map of Europe until I reached southern Austria.

Instead, I focused on having a fully functional car. I…

• let an auto repair shop take a good look at the car
• checked that I had a first aid kit, warning traingle, extra motor oil, reflex vest, flash light, extra tank of gas, fire-extinguisher etc
• picked up an International Insurance Card, a so-called Green Card from my insurance company and other relevant car documents

My dog has everything under control and makes sure no one attacks the vehicle…

…while I do fun stuff like vacuuming the front seat. :)

Photos: Courtesy Anna Wiman.

Stockholm is absolutely breath-taking in the summer time.

The busy hall at Stockholm Central Station.

People having picnics and enjoying the evening in Vasaparken.

I attended the annual meeting of the newly started Svensk-Albanska ungdomsföreningen (Swedish-Albanian Youth Association), an initiative made up by young Albanian diaspora that I hope I will be able to contribute to in some way while in Kosovo.

I met loads of young and driven people at the meeting. 23 year old Arba Kokalari, originally from Albania, is one of them, working as a political advisor to Carl Bildt, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

View of Stockholm from Mosebacke, a neighbourhood in the southern part of town “Södermalm”.

Evening sun and drinks at Mosebacke.

Stockholm is beautiful until the rain comes back…

MS Birka Paradise is sailing between Stockholm and the Finnish island “Åland”. Södermalm in the background.

We spent the day indoors at the newly opened photography museum “Fotografiska” with exhibitions featuring Annie Leibowitz, world-known American photographer, among others.

One of Annie Leibovitz most famous pictures is probably the picture of a pregnant Demi Moore in the august 1991 issue of Vanity Fair.

Cool water tap mirror reflection at the museum toilet…

Photo courtesy: Anna Wiman.