Sept 2 - Pack out of the room, and the host calls us in a taxi to the International bus station. Get a brunch at a café near the station, trying to spend some of the lek that is left over. It is an uncharacteristically cool morning, with bouts of rain. The station is just a line of bus offices and a parking lot. No cover at all for waiting passengers. We sit in a cramped office to keep from getting wet, while the sales representative opens a large pack with many vials of fingernail polish, apparently sent to her by bus from somewhere else in Europe. She almost forgets to tell us when our bus is ready to leave.
Our route takes us up through Elbasan and up the flat Skhumbini River valley. Plenty of great mountain views, many covered in pines, and across a mountain pass. On the other side we break out into the region surrounding Lake Ohrid. Thankfully a very short line at the Kjafasan border crossing.
