A few weeks ago we all decided it would be fun to visit Albania. Before our trip we checked with a car rental agency to see if we could drive across the Greek/Albania border. The man who ran the agency assured us it would be fine and he said he would meet us once we got to the mainland.

In order to get to mainland we took a ferry, the sun was setting just as we left, so we had quite the view.



After about an hour and a half on the ferry we arrived in Igoumenitsa. A little greek man greeted us and said, in broken english, that he was the one with our rental car and was ready to drive us to the Albanian border. We asked him what he meant because just a few days before he had told us we could drive the car ourselves. He responded that we needed a Green card to drive across the border and it would not be possible to get one until the next day, so he repeated again he would drive us to the border and drop us off.

Unfortunately this arrangement would have left us at the border of Albania, late at night, without a place to stay, and no way of getting anywhere. So with no hope of a successful visit to Albania we tried to improvise and asked him if we could rent his car anyway and stay in Greece. He said that would be fine but he wanted quite a bit more than the normal rental price for the car. At this point we decided to see if we could find another car somewhere else. About an hour later after wandering around in the dark, we finally found a place that was open and reasonably priced. We all piled into the car and decided to Ioannina, a larger city with a castle only a couple of hours away. Before leaving Igoumenitsa we stopped at an ATM, and our new rental car promptly died.



Lucky for us, a guy that was walking by happened to be a mechanic! He showed us how to jump start the car by pushing it down the road and popping the clutch. It felt  like we were the family from the movie Little Miss Sunshine…

Finally we arrived in Ioannina. It was late and we were all tired, so our next challenge was to find a place to sleep. Unfortunately finding a cheap hotel, for six people, without a reservation, was not the easiest things to do… after asking about eight hotels we finally succeeded in getting a room. We grabbed our bags, walked up the stairs, and just as we were walking into the room we heard this clattering coming from the stairwell. Outside of our room a lady, who looked absolutely terrified, ran from the stairwell and jumped against the wall with her hands above her head, following her was a man with a gun!

Before we had the chance to run screaming out of the building, a man with a video camera appeared behind the man with the gun. Then they all went running down the steps. We never did figure out exactly what was going on… Our theory was that they were filming a movie… hopefully…

The next morning we started exploring the town. In the center of the town is a castle, which is surrounded by massive walls.


According to wikipedia, “The bizarre, maze-like layout of the castle’s streets, (many of which lead to dead ends, or just go around in circles) were allegedly designed to confuse pirates of old who breached the castle walls, so that they would get lost within the fortress, and be captured before escaping with their bounty.”
Which would explain why were lost about 90% of the time we were there…







Then, (thanks to cell phones with Internet and wikipedia yet again!) one of the volunteers read about a town not too far away that had ancient theatre. I, of course, got very excited, and a short time later we were back in the car heading towards Dodona.



We, of course, could not pass up the chance to try out a little acting on the stage…


As our afternoon faded into the evening, we drove back to Igoumenitsa and caught a ferry back to Corfu.



It was certainly not the trip to Albania that I had expected. But sometimes things turn out better when plans get thrown out the window… or in this case, when a Greek man tries to drive you to Albania..