German Chancellor Angela Merkel came within a few hundred kilometers of the Greek border on Wednesday, arriving in Tirana, the capital of Albania, to tell her hosts that  the EU will not “artificially” block their path towards EU accession.

She’s expected to press home the same message in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, her next stops in a mini tour of the western Balkans.

While she was somewhat optimistic in terms of Albania’s EU prospects, when referring earlier to crisis-stricken and capital-controlled Greece, she merely said that she was “not exaggeratedly optimistic” that a deal could be found to save Greece by Sunday.

She also said “things aren’t going well in Greece”.