Albania, an underrated country for traveling, many are saying this, but how is hitchhiking in Albania?
Where is it located?
Albania is located in the Balkan Region in Southeast Europe. It borders Montenegro, North Macedonia, Greece and the Kosovo Region (when listening to the UN it is not a country, so in that case it would be basically Serbia).
Albania is not part of the European Union and it has a bad reputation around the society. Especially due to the coastal region of the country, it is good for everyone visiting. Bad reputation doesn’t mean it is bad at all. The prices are quite cheap and it is beautiful for visit. During my stay, it was raining only (February) but still I was able to meet really great people.
How is hitchhiking going?
The hitchhiking in Albania is a bit more special, compared to the neighboring countries. Many people are going to stop right away. It is because they are all taxis. Due to the bad public transportation, there are many car owners who want to earn some extra money.
When you just say that you don’t have money, they are just leaving you. Also there are many people willing to take you. They want to help foreign travelers and sadly don’t want to pick up locals. This is good for travelers and not so good for locals.
The waiting times are not high. It is also not important where you are standing, as long you are not in the city. It is harder to find a ride inside the city, which is probably everywhere like this.
What is important to know?
Important to know that English isn’t spoken by most people. The people who were stopping at the end and taking me were usually speaking it. It is in most Eastern European countries like that, which is understandable, it is not their mother language and they are not that strongly visited by English speakers.
The roads can be really bad and it is of course important to know that you can’t just hop into the next best car, because many people want money. You have all the time you want and need, there will be someone else stopping in not such a long time!
Summary
I haven’t spent a long time in the country, but hitchhiking was the biggest problem in it!
The people were just amazing, just sadly it was not possible seeing as much from the country as wanted. For this will be in the future more time! Albania is an underrated country, so it would be good for everyone to visit, until it is like that and not changing like many others in this fast living time!
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