We”re within spitting distance when, at the last minute, my man swerves right, narrowly avoiding the truck, various farm animals, and a group of local children, all of whom look completely unfazed.

”¦ the scenery out the window shifts from the grungy buildings of Shkodra to a kind of agricultural nothingness ”¦

The bus pulls over, and we all take a 15 minute break at a lively pub for our 9.30am shot of rakija (bus driver included), because no man would dare face the Albanian mountains sober.

Of course, the only one who speaks English is an uneducated 11 year-old boy, who has accordingly become the manager of the local guesthouse, but somehow this is the kind of occurrence that stops being surprising once you”ve spent more than a day in Albania.

Und wer sich für die Geschichte mit dem Minibus auf Eis interessiert, lese den ganzen Bericht:
>> Welcome to Albania, where ice on the road gets the bus driver dancing