Grand Hotel Leone Fier

... br>Tirana hat leider keinen Busbahnhof , Busse fahren von allen moeglichen Stellen in der Stadt ab. Habe aber den Bus nach Berat erfolgreich gefunden, musste nur 45min auf die Abfahrt warten und die Fahrt dauerte dann 2h. Die Strasse fuehrte zunaechst nach Durres, der Hafenstadt Albaniens, bevor es wieder ins Landesinnere ging. Der Strand sah nicht besonders schoen aus, allerdings habe ich im Moment auch keinen Sonnenschein mehr. Obwohl ...

... get off and walk the rest of the way but need to stop for directions. These private bus areas can be at intersections or in back alleys. They can also change locations and are without street signage (you need to look at a sign in the window). This makes it difficult for tourists to figure out logistics. We end up waiting almost an hour before it takes off. Albania must be the place busses go to die. They are in terrible shape ...

... evening I sat outside of the hostel and cooked some steak on the barbie, the outdoor area was great and before long there were about ten of us sitting out there and enjoying some 50 eurocent beers. We hit some bars in the old town and had a nudie swim (well I was nude anyway) and drank some local spirits that the bartender brought with him to the beach. Except for the sun coming up as we got home it was an awesome night/morning.
The next day was quiet except for a 2 hour walk ...

... of joining the PC). Thru her I learnt a lot about how people live in this region, including a ritual called “gyro” , which is kind of like our “cruising”, but on foot. Every evening in the summer a section of the main street will be closed to traffic between 7 and 9 pm, and people, especially the girls, put on their best and walk up and down the street. All men and women of any age can join in, but most of them are younger ones. The men ...

... with Scott, we helped him lay out placement for framed pictures throughout the hostel, paint his common room bar, hang fabric from the ceiling, get a sense of the bus schedule for arrivals, and any other little thing he needed doing.

This way, we were able to stay in a cool place, work a few hours a day, and get room and board in return. My favorite thing about Berat was how ...

... I told her that I have a boyfriend in the US and he wouldn't like me meeting other men like that. Thankfully that seemed to stop all talk of her brother. Once the woman seemed to have had enough talking to me, I had an interesting conversation with translator-man. He learned English while studying on international programs in Finland and Switzerland. I didn't quite understand what he was studying in either place. He ...

... Slowly but surely, I make my way to the inner most fortifications. The grass around them is bright green in the rain and with the gray sky, it almost looks like I'm in Scotland - not that I've ever been there to really know. Quite wet by now, I decide it is time to return to the hotel and dry off - if only the heat were on! At 6:30, I decide to go for a stroll around town. The power (which has only been on for two hours) cuts just as I step outside ...

... We had to shower between 4 and 6 pm, even though we just started sweating again immediately afterwards. The electricity came on at 5:30 so Katie put in a load of laundry, including some of my clothes, and even hung them all up for me later when i was out sightseeing. Katie had a class to teach at 6, and around 7 pm I headed up to the citadel - I wasn't in a huge hurry to sightsee in the heat. On the way I saw the Leaden Mosque, plain but nice. On the way ...

... an Illyrian tribe, who remained closely involved with the settlement for centuries and lived alongside the Greek colonists. The city was said to have originally been named Gylaceia after Glyax, its founder, but the name was later changed to honour the god Apollo. Aristoteles considered Apollonia an important example of an oligarchic system, as the descendants of the Greek colonists controlled the city and ...

... Byzantine murals. Outside the ramparts is the Church of St. Michael (Shen Mehill), Built in the thirteenth century. This church is reached by a steep but perfectly safe path. Near the entrance, after a guardhouse, is the little Church of St. Theodore (Shen Todher), which have wall paintings by Onufri himself. The most interesting is the cathedral of St. Nicholas, which has been well restored and is now a museum dedicated to Onufri. Onufri was the greatest of the ...