Elysee 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!).

... that suffer from the communist symmetry - though atleast these had been painted in earthy tones.<br> <br>My exploring brought me to a local fast food restuarant that was so closely copying McDonalds, from it's design, two-tone colour scheme and packaging/marketing. Called Kolonat - it's fries were not as nice as McDonalds, they did sell proper ice-cream (instead of soft-serve) and of course, since it's Europe - they sold beer....

... At that point we all have to leave the bus and queue up to get our passports stamped in a ritual that goes back to time immemorial, aka Checkpoint Charlie. It's cold, too, I'm here to testify. The superhighway on the Albania side lasts until out of sight of the border, at which point it suddenly degenerates into a country road more typical of the nation, winding through crooks and snags down lonely hillsides into more populated valleys ...

... gave me ****ing complimentary crisps. If I wanted crisps I would have asked for crisps, I hate you're in a bar somewhere in southern Europe and they decide you want crisps. I couldn't help but feel disappointed I'd searched high and low for Albanian beer, and now I'd found it and it was ****. It was like breaking the record for 100 metre sprinting and being told you were actually in the long jump. Dejected, I wandered back towards ...

... also had a 2ltr bottle of water under my arm. As the girl was ringing through my purchases on the till I paid and left the shop. Getting halfway down the road I realised that I hadn't actually paid for the water as I kept it under my arm the whole time. I didn't know what to do, if I turned back the girl might not speak English and id have a nightmare trying to explain what had happened or I could keep going but id know I was robbing the water. I decided to keep going but at speed so ...

... in central Tirane. Throughout our stay they cooked wonderful meals and we sat drinking raki for hours, them telling us about life in Albania before and after communism, and us helping their nostalgia for England. It was perhaps unfortunate that we entered Albania through its poorest areas in the North. The city of Shkodur looked incredibly neglected and the minivan towards Tirane past through deserted villages and hundreds of unfinished or dilapidated building ...

... we had to take to Saranda (which left at 10pm that night, ouch ), arranged for a taxi driver to get us there and even told the taxi driver to double check once he got us there that it was the right bus. It was great, after a 20 minute drive, we were at the next bus, dropped off our luggage and then the bus drivers assistant (without asking for any money) took us in his private car to a restaurant where we could relax, clean up and ...

... in history for me. I have been reading Noel Malcom's Kosovo: A Short History and he also writes about Albania for context. The Albanians throughout history managed to remain uncontrolled by powers in the region. Foreign peoples conquered Albania, no doubt. But controling the Albanians has always been difficult. The Romans, for example, came to Albania. They didn't control the hills, though, hence the survival of Albanian. Lingusitically, it is ...

... q o melhor q a albania tem, ao contrario do q o povo diz sao os albaneses...Pessoas 5 estrelas, com bom sentido de humor e sempre a querer ajudar!(andar a boleia em sitios onde haja muitos albaneses e muito facil...5 minutos de dedo no ar e ja esta!) Ok...Qs xeguei a skohdre, a primeira cidade albanesa depois da fronteira apanhei o autocarro pa Durres, a cidade no litoral, a 50 km de tirana...nao tinha nada pa ver, uma cidadezita pacata, mas fikei la pq havia alojamento mais ...