Money hunt in the Balkans

On a trip to the Balkans my husband and I took in May ’04, we had wanted to travel by bus and find accommodations as we went. As soon as we arrived in Tirana, Albania, we realized that language problems would require us to have a car and driver.

In three hours, Sadik Malaj of Sondor Travel & Tours (sondor2002@hotmail.com) made all the arrangements. Our driver was his son, Dorien Malaj, who spoke English very well and was an excellent driver. The car and driver for eight days cost €1,250 (near $1,530), and we paid our own meals and hotels.

Credit cards generally are not used in Albania, and we had to exchange the dollars we had with us for euros to pay for the car and driver. The ATM machine inside the American Bank in Tirana gave only leke, the local currency. Our private room in Tirana and the hotel in Berat had to be paid for in euros, while the hotel in Gjirokastra and all our food were paid for in leke. Credit cards were not even considered.

In Ohrid and Skopje, Macedonia, some hotels took credit cards, and there were a few ATM machines that accepted MasterCard, Visa or American Express for dinars, the local currency there. Unfortunately, our ATM card needed Plus/Star, which none of the machines accepted.

Pristina in Kosovo uses euros and due to the large U.N. presence has ATM machines, but again the machines did not use Plus.

In Montenegro, everything was paid for in euros and, finally, the ATM machines accepted almost any card to return euros.

Dorien was not able to continue into Croatia with us, but English is widely spoken there and tourism is becoming a major part of their economy. Euros are widely used, but the kuna, their local currency, is preferred and available from numerous ATMs. Credit cards are widely accepted almost everywhere in Croatia.

Kata in the Atlas Travel office at the port in Dubrovnik ably arranged our last six days — ferry to Split, Hotel Marajan, bus to Zadar, hotel/restaurant Tamaris, bus to Plitvice Lakes and bus to return to Dubrovnik for our flight home.

The Balkans are certainly worth visiting, but be sure to plan carefully ahead of time. Most travelers to that area are from Germany or Italy, so those languages are spoken to some extent.

The roads in Albania are horrible, almost impassable in many places. Roads in the other countries are reasonable.

Countryside in the Balkans is very pretty and quite mountainous. The people were extremely friendly and helpful even if they did not know a word of English. Though Macedonia uses the Cyrillic alphabet, quite a few people speak English.

Balkan history, especially in Albania, goes back to pre-Greek civilization. We came home with a new appreciation and respect for the Balkans.

DOROTHY PEAVY
Grass Valley, CA