As planned, Vincent, Abishek and I headed off to the mountains after breakfast this morning. We crossed the river and climbed the mountain right between river and lake, choosing the “right path” on the go and talking about religion, spirituality, philosophy, travelling and life in general. Different tracks and animal paths took us higher and higher, revealing ever more of the beautiful view over the lake, river and city of Shkodër. On the way, we had various encounters with turtles (that seemed a little odd in this landscape and made me wonder how they had gotten up there), many lizards and various herds of cows, horses and goats. Every eating animal would subconsciously make us stop and start eating too.
As Abishek had to catch a flight later this night, we didn’t climb all the way to the top but went as far as the hour allowed us and started descending after a snack- and view-break. On our way back, we couldn’t find the track anymore and stayed on several animal-paths until they stopped. On one of them, a medium-sized snake suddenly crossed our way.
At first, the terrain was stony and easy to manage, the further we descended, the bushier and more impassable it got. Maintaining the minimum height of passable vegetation, we kept walking in direction of our old path and eventually found it. We got back around 3, more exhausted than expected, and soon had to say goodbye to Abishek who headed off towards Sarajevo.
This place had started to feel like home over the last days but tonight was all new people already and tomorrow I will leave as well.
Vincent and I fell in some kind of tired, depressed lethargy after lunch, we had probably spent all our energies during the trip. I bought an extremely overpriced fish for dinner and half-burned it in a too sticky pan. But that’s just small, temporary, superficial lows I can live with.
With every hour I spend on the road, walking, in buses, boats, trains, hostels, with every 2-hour-friendship that starts and ends, with every time I look into the sun or walk under the rain, with every time I pack up my stuff and leave and then get somewhere else, with every time I get lost, I get a little more addicted to it, I don’t want it to end, I want more. The willingness to do something more different, off-the-track, more extreme is arising in me (I would like thru-hiking Albania but it doesn’t seem very good idea). I am questioning my plans for summer though, highly doubting that I would enjoy sticking to a plan of several weeks (which I would have to make because everything will be fully booked and packed with tourists). I am growing constantly more lazy of planning even a few hours ahead and planning 2 or 3 weeks of stops and hostels seems impossible. Going back to a “normal life” seems pretty unattractive too right now. I am curious to find out how my feelings and thoughts will continue developing over the coming weeks and months and how life will go on for me.
