Lin

I search for the road to Poktazhan village and the Golik bridge but can't find it. So I continue towards Lin along the Ohrid lake.
On the roadsides are fishermen who try to hit passing cars with eels. Just when I stop to take some pictures of the colorful boats, another car also stops and a passenger starts to throw up with a lot of noise. Nice...
Lin is a fishing village, located on a peninsula. Looks lovely, although nothing hints on the 4th century mosaic that should be here somewhere.
Once in Librazhd, I call Redi who is a friend of Seth (long story) and who's suppose to give me a map of the hiking trails. Redi appears after I've spent some time standing on the street and eying suspiciously every passing man. They look at me as well, especially those who pass already third or fourth time.
We go for a pizza and some wine because Redi hasn't had anything to eat the whole day. He seems to be the kind a guy who always has 100 things to do. He still finds some time to give me a lot of instructions and finally to show me two homepages he's working on. One for the park and the other for a local artist, Gezim Hidri, www.stoneslave.com. Very interesting.
It's about 25 km to Fushe Stude village where I'm suppose to find a man with a big beard. The road is beautiful in the light of the setting sun, no asphalt of course. If the car rental company knew that instead of scratches they should look for possible damage from under the car...
In Fushe Stude I ask at the village cafe and a helpful local directs me to the right house after gesticulating a beard. One by one the whole family gathers to see me. There are three sons and four daughters, two of the children are away, studying. One of the sons, Gentian, luckily speaks some English. He's studying in Elbasan to become a nurse. The mother used to be teacher in the local school and father is an ex-mayor, now the principal of the local school.
There's some confusion, because Pullumb, the father of the family, is not at all ready to let me go off into the mountains by myself. He makes a lot of phone calls to Seth and Redi and demands that they come there at once. Well... There's a bunch of reasons I shouldn't go hiking: the road is bad, long and there are stones, the mountain is high and very wild, there are bears and wolves who will eat me and the map is no good. Ok, no evil spirits at least. But nature definitely is a hostile environment for the villagers. I've never had to be the first person to introduce the concept of hiking. But nothing stops Pullumb to tell a calling friend proudly that he has a visitor from Estonia, a tourist-alpinist. After I've had a lot to eat they finally send me to sleep. Little Leila who will sleep in the same room, is very exited about it.
comments from travelpod.com:
Hello! Tonight is Easter! Congratulations! I think you should attend a mass tonight at local orthodox church, it'll be interesting, don't you think so? watashiva, on Apr 23, 2011 at 11:59AM
I visited the orthodox church in Korce during a ceremony which was interesting. Today... well, life has it's own plans. nipitiri, on Apr 24, 2011 at 05:19PM
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