I rented a car in Macedonia and drove it into Albania. I assumed that there would be some bureaucracy involved to bring the car (and myself) into Albania. But I was wrong. The bureaucracy was allowing the car to LEAVE Macedonia. This is what took awhile, and once cleared to leave, I crossed into Albania where the customs officer waved me through without even looking at my passport! ("Can I have a stamp?", I asked. "NO STAMP!!!!" she bellowed. So I drove on.)
We're not waiting to enter Albania. We're waiting to leave Macedonia!
Driving back into Macedonia, it was even worse. Perhaps because the Albanian agent didn't bother to log my passport when I came in, upon leaving Albania I was held up for about 15 minutes while they took my passport and went to 3 offices doing Who Knows What. They searched my car, asked questions, did more processing, and then finally handed me my passport and rental car Green Card (cross-border insurance) like it was no big thing. Once allowed to leave the country, I stopped at the Macedonian border, where the guard casually looked in my trunk, glanced at my passport, and waved me through.
In the US and Canada, exit controls do not exist. You can leave the country without answering to anyone. Not so in Europe. Perhaps this is a legacy of Communism, when you needed government permission to leave the country. Or maybe they tax exports and want to make sure I'm not smuggling anything. Of course I expect a country to inspect me and my stuff in order to let me in, but in both directions it was stricter to just be allowed to leave? I don't get it. Fortunately, it was just a speed bump. If you're driving, make sure to allot a bit of time for border crossings.