Diplomat Fashion Tirana

Kruja was a short day trip out of Tirana. <br><br>There is a well preserved fortress that has now been converted into a museum on Albania history of Skanderberg - a prominent Albania figure in 14th century who lead ...

Hallo zusammen,<br><br>von B**at ging es wied** zurueck in die Hauptstadt (**neut 45in Wartezeit und etwas ueb** 2h Fahrt, wenigstens sind die Strassen in Albanien recht gut). Hatte dann nur ein paar Stunden Tageslicht, ab** das reicht aus, um Tirana zu sehen.<br><br>Das Nationalmuseum ist ganz nett und etwas groes** als das Museum des Kosovo. Die Geschichte Albaniens ho**t mit 1945 auf, man schein noch nicht b**eit zu sein die kommunistische A**a zu bew**ten. Das ...

... in my life time. On the way to Tirana the bus decided to brake down so we were hanging around on the side of the road for an hour until the next bus came along to pick us up and take us to Tirana. The trip was around 9 hours long in total and going through the narrow windey roads does churn your stomach up a bit I must admit! Anyway tomorrow is another day another country. I will be off to Montenegro. I have heard great things about it but I must admit I am starting to ...

... were imported legally I'm sure) that was to be for the rest of the day. With it came the honking. Honking your car horn it's just an irritation is a habit right across the Balkans, but Albanians take it to excess. In fact, if you go ten seconds without hearing a horn, chances are you're not in Albania. It really does seem to symbolise everything for them- agree with something? Honk your horn!, disagree with something?, Honk your horn ...

... itself is out of this world. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my time there but I can honestly say that if I had someone else with me, someone else to share the awe and magnitude of the place my experience would have been even better. Backpacking is not all glamor all of the time, sometimes its difficult but I feel that with being a backpacker you are in this kind of unofficial club. We should look out for one another, advise one another on not just places of interest but of ...

... Albania (Thanks again Lisa!). The one thing the LP guidebook does say is to expect to pay 10 euros at the border to get in. Lisa also reminded me of this, so it was a nice surprise when the border guard said "1 euro" upon entering, of course when I gave it to him he put it directly into his pants pocket still it was the highlight of the day --- that and after over 2 weeks in the former Yugoslavia I finally saw a Yugo, which I soon realized wasn't that big of a deal since the ...

... the power is out. "We'll do check-in later," the man explains. I have heard of this problem, and that the power cuts can be scheduled or random. During my first five hours in town, I experience three outages, or perhaps it would better described as two periods when there is actually power. The outages each last between thirty minutes and an hour, and walking down the street, I see most businesses have generators chained outside to combat this problem. The more expensive restaurants ...

... back. Finally, we figured out that all the furgons in the area of the city we were in headed north only. If we wanted to go further south, we'd have to get to the other side of the city to find the buses that go south. Ok- there was some factual information. On a whim, we walked into a travel agency, which was actually the best decision we could have made. The travel agent was so nice and helpful, and we were able to explain our situation and our need to get ...

... team were arriving at 11pm, so we went to Tonin's brother's house for dinner. It was the first of many times I experienced the Albanian hospitality. We had shepherd's pie and watermelon-mmm. Even though it was 10:30 when we got there, they still welcomed us in, sat us down and seemed so pleased to see us. Valentin, Tonin's brother, however, stayed lying on the sofa the whole time we were there (which Tonin later said was very rude) while his heavily pregnant wife cooked, served, and ...

... buldozed a large number of houses the people had constructed over the years. It seems that they didn't have permits to build there, so the city just destroyed everything. There was a place called Wall Street, where, under police protection, people ran an illegal money exchange on the sidewalk. Manholes were another thing. They just weren't there. People would steal them for the scrap iron. What a place.