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[QUOTE="timr, post: 737749, member: 5237"] Friday 26th April Day 2 From Golem to Memzote. 21km NOTE I am also writing on FB but this is more expanded version. Take your pick! 😀 Within 10 minutes you have left the 'city' behind and are heading out on an open road. It is a tarred road, in the beginning but there is really no traffic! I'm using GPS trails on my phone. And I have a Dutch book linked to these trails. It is 'Via Egnatia on foot' by Marietta van Attekum and Holger de Bruin. It's in English. Obtainable from [URL='http://www.viaegnatiafoundation.eu']www.viaegnatiafoundation.eu[/URL] They supply the gpx files on condition you do not share them, which is reasonable I think, given they are a charitable foundation working to promote and develop the route, working with local partners. Having said that, my own trace is recorded daily (including getting lost) on Strava under my name.You can also find them on wikiloc by searching for tim.redmond Being very dependent on GPS brings added difficulties I will come back to. Navigation otherwise very difficult....tiny villages have no names and I haven't seen any kind of signpost anywhere. I took the shorter 'dry weather' route which soon headed into the hills. Would be difficult if wet. There is a fair bit of fording of streams! I can say 'good day' and 'good morning' and people in the fields are happy to respond. No one much has English but quite a good bit of Italian spoken. I met two old men riding donkeys. A donkey could set you back €1000 I was told. I wonder could that possibly be true? But certainly it would give you some status. I saw ponies and traps as well. And occasionally funny little tractors that looked like they were powered by a lawnmower engine. I found a little bar in a place which is called Helmas and had a coffee - Turkish style with lots of sugar. The host refused to accept payment. I got talking to a young man in Italian. He is a nurse in a government clinic and is paid €200/month. It is a poor country, though costs are quite low. But petrol is €1.40 a litre! After Helmas I took the wet weather route avoiding another ford. My feet were slightly wet from previous episodes. I came upon three men planting trees and one called me and said I could stay the night in the next village. He called his wife and said I was on the way. Up to then I had no plans for the night. There was a hotel further ahead which wpuld have involved crossing a motorway and climbing over the central reservation! In Memzote (which Google does not know) I met Lindita, Saku's wife and sat in the shop. Italian works well - there's usually someone who can translate into Albanian. Lots of people interviewed me. Everyone was Muslim and interested in why I was here. A young boy took me on a tour of the village including the cemetery. We didn't have one word in common but somehow we both managed to pray for his Granny, to the same God, by slightly different routes. In the evening we had a barbecue and many visitors came. All male, apart from Lindita! Women stay at home in Albania. One shop and a mosque - that's Memzote. A place of great old fashioned hospitality of the road. A few thoughts: [LIST=1] [*]It's a very poor country. Infrastructure, like roads, is very basic. I lived in Kenya for many years. Could Albania be poorer? I guess not but certainly the poorest country I've been to in Europe. [*]I'm thinking it's a hard country for women. They are out in the fields doing manual work and herding castle and goats but otherwise not much to be seen. I don't think that [I]necessarily[/I] means they are unhappy. [*]In Memzote there were lots of cheerful boys in the street playing football. No girls to be seen. My host told me his own primary school girls go to school in Tirana. But not everyone could afford this surely. [*]It sounds a cliché, but the people are lovely and welcoming. [*]Bunkers- Enver Hoxha had 700,000 built. Everyone in the country could fit into them! They are everywhere, like a parody of the trulli of Puglia. It's not clear what they were really for our who they would repel! I was told women had to give up there wedding rings to pay for their construction. [*]There is a new mosque in every village and the muezzin can be heard calling throughout the day. But I've not seen anyone going to a mosque! All religions were banned completely in the Communist era. There are Catholics and Orthodox, but where I am at present is particularly Muslim. The people I've spoken to are very tolerant. All the cemeteries I've seen have Islamic symbolism, though none a very old. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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