Elysee Tirana

... und von ein** B**gstadt aus den Ottomanen ein kleines Reich abgetrotzt. In 25 Schlachten mit den Ottomanen ging ** als Sieg** h**vor und sein Reich wurde **st 26 Jahre nach seinem Tod von den Ottomanen besiegt (in 1479). Die Alban** sehen sich als Rett** des Abendlandes, waren die Ottomanen doch zu ihr** sta**ksten Zeit in Schlachten mit Skand**b**g beschaeftigt statt die Truppen gen Wien zu schicken.

Albanien macht keinen sehr islamischen Eindruck, die ...

At 5:10 my alarm goes off. Oh so early. The streets are deserted as I walk to the bus station. Apparently 6 AM is a common time to start such long distance rides. There are only a few people in the 20 person bus but it fills up with what appears to be students who must takes this daily. It is an interesting ride through small, local neighborhoods. Mosques and churches seem to be fine side by side.

The bus terminates at the closest border town, Shkodra. LP (Lonely Planet ...

... it hard to manage your money without having too much or too little of a currency in a country you'll only see for a day or two or three. When I realized I was not in love with Albania and had no long-term plans for the future it was a toss-up whether to change more money or make do with the $5 I changed at the border, hard to know without knowledge of local prices, and facing a long bus ride to Bulgaria. After stocking up on carrots and bread ...

... of mass tourism was more than one could dream of........... go there now before it gets its guts gnawed........... go now i tells ya......... and Albanian people are simply one of the nicest and most polite people we've encountered so far....... it's true that they don't have a good reputation in certain countries and some of them admit straight away that there are certain groups of people that tend to misbehave......... but that ...

... trodden tourist trail for many years. Albania was going to be different. Albania involved me leaving my comfort zone for the first time on this trip. I didn't know anyone who had been to Albania before; there was no persons experience for me to call upon. As I stepped of the ferry and onto terra firma it was a step into the unknown, to coin a phrase from another great explorer "its one small step for man and its one giant leap for mark-kind" (sorry about that I just couldn't resist ...

... country has its problems but the situation is far better than the years of communism when they were never allowed to leave their own country. There are two electricity blackouts per day (totaling 5 hours) and the roads are definitely the most dangerous I've ever seen. Our apartment balcony overlooked the main square and we sat entertained for 3 hours watching people have near death experiences. During the blackouts the traffic lights are turned off which has ...

... up, along with - the team from Pasqacan. It was so good to see Matt, Sam and Tonin again, it felt like we hadnt seen them for ages! Loughborough team unfortunately lost miserably, but it was fun watching everyone else. When we got back to the house, Xamejia suggested I did some English cooking, and I thought a cake would be a good idea as it was Bruna's birthday the next day. Unfortunately even though i knew the quanities to use, she didnt ...

... for 20 euros. When the albanian guy finished with my passport he gave me a salute with a big smile. If only they all gove you a salute! This would be the beginning of the friendly albanians. I didnt go with the taxi guy at first. I thought there must be mini buses into town. There was none. He was it. I got him down to 15 euros for a half hour drive. He was a friendly guy always slowing down so i could take a picture of things. He wasnt actually a taxi driver though, just a ...

Efter en backpacker tur med 2 gange Jacob hvor vi besøgte New Zealand, Australien (hvor jeg købte en bil i Sydney og kørte op ad øst kysten til Cairns), Bali, Singapore, Malaysia og Thailand -blev tiden til en anderledes tur i udlandet med forsvaret. Efter 2 måneders hård træning i Slagelse GHR, landede vi i Kosovo og blev kørt fra Pristina til ...