City Hotel Tirana

... army to various victories against the Turkish empire. <br>On the road from the bus station (stop) there is a street of wooden shops (that ironically looks very turkish and was selling predominantly turkish goods!).

... von Envar Hodscha jedenfalls ist heute eine Disco, Envar Hodscha, d** Albanien 40 Jahre lang regi**t hat, ist heute in einem namenlosen Grab auf einem gewoehnlichen Friedhof begraben. Seine Statue ist ebenfalls z**truemm**t, auf dem Zentralplatz steht nur noch die Statue von Skand**beg, dem nationalen Helden.<br><br>Albanien geho**te auch zum ottomanischen Reich, ab** ein Alban**, d** von den Ottomanen in Byzanz ausgebildet wurde, hat einen Aufstand ausg ...

... in the open air markets (my favorite) to the return of the prayer calls and the sausage stands along the side of the road. mmm mmm mmm. <br><br>We spent the day exploring and sheltering under awnings when necessary - we saw big ugly communist era buildings made beautiful by being painted bright colors and patterns - we saw a statue of Mother Theresa, a funny lake in the middle of a giant park and a bunch of other funky hidden art all over the city. We were joined ...

... by several random coffee stops along the way- exactly how much coffee you need between two and five in the morning is a mystery to me. I was starting to regret not doing an overnight pub-crawl, having a beer every time we stopped, I would have been wankered. Tirana seems to lack an actual bus station- so buses from Kosovo just tend to park behind the museum and disgorge their passengers there. So, at 5am I found myself alone on the ...

... na tym wyjezdzie - rozbilismy namiot. Cale szczescie, bo w nocy padalo. No i czulismy sie bezpieczniej... ENGLISH: From Ohrid we took a bus to the Albanian boarder (110 Denars=2 Euros/2 people) and we walked through both of the boarders. Firstly though we had to wait at the bus station for an hour, because Bogna-the-very-clever-one didn`t realize that when crossing the Greek-Macedonian boarder, we`d changed the time zone and for almost 3 days we had ...

... there was plenty of room for little old me. The hostel is run by a young crew and with a bar downstairs has a really relaxed vibe. With a shower and a change of clothes I was starting to feel quite at home. When you are staying in hostel dorms it's always a bit of a lottery was to the type of people you will be bunking down with, it can be hit or miss. While smoking a cigarette out on the balcony I acquainted myself with my two roommates, Lisa a young girl from Manchester, and Gregg ...

... whence we negotiate a taxi to Pogradeci, the nearest town. I manage to find a mini-van headed for Tirana, the capital, but it's not leaving any time soon. They leave when full and at the moment, I'm the only one waiting. I sit down to read up on Albania. A Brief History of Communism and Capitalism in Albania: During Soviet times, Albania was ruled by Enver Hoxha, one of the founding members of the Albanian Communist Party. In 1948, he severed connections with the Yugoslav communists ...

... them we were only planning on 1 night in their country. It was as if they wanted to show it off. Not only did we get no hassles from the border crossing, they hired us transportation and negotiated the price for us, getting us a steal by paying just $5euros for a 40 minute drive to the next main city, where we could catch a bus towards the capital city of Tirana. Our first impression of Albanians was a great one! So nice and welcoming, and so eager to talk and ...

... night out- basically a big kebab wrapped in flat breads, with chips inside too! Looked good but couldnt have eaten anything hot. Hopefully will get one before I go. Last night (i,e, myfirst night) I'd managed to break my maglite (not so good as the electricity is v.sporadic) so went to a market stall and found a rechargable torch- you plug it straight into the wall! V.handy as we normally have electricity in the day, but seems to last a long time anyway. We just missed the bus, so sat in ...

... the only reason it took the better part of half a day was because of the state of Albania's roads. That's an experience in itself! Tirana is different. The second poorest country in Europe, and it's very obvious in the capital. Not so much for beggars or anything like that (it's no worse than any other country in that respect), but more so in the general condition of the city. The roads are an appalling mess - the "bus station" is a mass of road works - and the pavements (if they exist ...