Friend's 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 ...

... story's about the place it sounds pretty terrible working there they get little money and they don't even get 1 day off in the week they have to work everyday. He was also telling me how the staff are not even allowed down into the local town because the customers will follow them down there and they will lose money. The whole place is just totally geared up to take your money and as much as possible. The chocolate bars are around 1.50 pound and they have old books ...

... of their country's greatest heroes. The ultimate testament to his failings can be seen just to his right- The Et'hem bay mosque and it's accompanying clock tower. I carried on walking for a bit until I came to the muddy stream known as the River Lana. I promised myself that I wouldn't compare Tirana to Belgrade, but it's not quite the Danube-Sava confluence. From the distance I heard the Islamic call to prayer, there is something mystical ...

... at the end of the journey he wants you to pay twice as much. Bananas cost 1Euro/kg and Marcin had to pay 1 Euro for... just two bananas. Eventually a certain woman helped us out with finding a transportation to the boarder with Montenegro and then she asked us to pay 10 Euros for the "service"... The country itself is beautiful, surrounded by mountains, it has a huge potential. The potential though has never been used. The transit took us all day ...

... a beer I was glad to have my feet fixed firmly back on the ground and to be heading for a bar with a more local flavor. I had been pretty interested to chat to Gregg about his plans to cycle to Australia but he was one of these guys that talk's non stop and doesn't let anyone get a word in. As for Lisa, she was the most boring girl I've ever met in my life and a bit of a disappointment after the Manchester girl's id spent time with in Krakow. When eventually Gregg gave her the ...

... a surprisingly high percentage (20-30%) of Mercs on Tirana's roads. Odd for Albania's population, 30% of whom live in poverty, no? Additionally, a decent number of collective farms became marijuana plantations in the new age. In 1996, pyramid investment schemes began to collapse as well, causing 70&amp; of Albanians to lose their savings. However, benefits are arriving as wages have doubled since 1998 and the economy has stabilized. End of Brief History Driving through Albania ...

... enough to full that they decided to depart. Having no local currency, called Lekes, we were lucky enough to pay in Euros. The exchange rate being about 1 Euro = 100 Lekes. The bus eventually took off, and we were pretty much the only foreigners on board. It was another 3 hour ride south into Tirana, on a very hot, unaconditioned bus with minimal ventilation. The bus driver stopped repeatedly for reasons that were completely unknown to myself or Alex. Once in a ...

... and started clearing the area. It was really hard work, bending down to scoop up months worth of food wrappers, sweetcorn cobs (sold nearby) and cigarette butts. As soon as that was done, we had to get started on the weeds. Admittedly the Americans had quite a bit of equipment to set up, but they didn't offer to help or even talk to us, I wondered if they thought we were Albanian... seemed a bit hypocritical to me, but c'est la vie. We stopped for a quick drink, then went back over to ...

This place was not nice. We drove from Skopje to the border at well over 150kmph. Our driver was trying to get us to Tirana before dark. The road to the border was not safe at night because of the problems with serbian and albanian guerillas. We were delayed at the border for almost three hours. Once we were let through we tried to speed our way through the mountains. No such luck. We got stopped in the ...