Hotel Ani Durres

... 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!).

... kleiden sich sehr westlich, man sieht we***** Kopftuech** als in Deutschland. Und alle 100m gibt es ein Casino.<br><br>Morgen geht es dann weit** gen Norden, sollte morgen Montenegro **reichen. Liege ganz gut in d** Zeit, kann v**mutlich einige Staedte an d** Kueste besichtigen, Inshallah.<br><br>Gruss<br>Ralf <br><br>P.S.<br>Dachte d** Pauschaltourismus ist noch nicht hi** angekommen, ab** im Nationalmuseum lief doch glatt eine deutsche Reisegruppe h**um.<br>

... most had jobs, not good jobs mind but at least some sort of an income. Now all these government supported jobs are gone and lots of people are struggling to make ends meet. Albania is booming in comparison to what it was but there is still alot of corruption with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. I explained that corruption in this day and age is not unique to Albania as we have had similar problems of late in Ireland too. Power corrupts we concluded, no matter ...

... professional painter, had the bright idea of painting them in random bright colours to disguise the otherwise concrete block nature of them. The result is a kaleidoscope of stripes, squares and circles in colours ranging from green to yellow to purple to pink - often on the same building. The overall effect resembles what might happen if a pack of giant five year olds with crayons were told to colour in the city. It's......colourful. We also stopped in at the ...

... realised how ossified the country was and began a liberalisation programme that broadened Albania's ties with its neighbours and the international community. This led to the relative stability the country enjoys today, a stability that has helped to attract foreign companies and is helping Albania work toward NATO and, more importantly, EU membership. Befriended So now that I've colossally bored you all with history on Albania, not to mention my own ...

... they love them there, so this could be a real opportunity. Anyway after our history lesson and another prayer session, we all went up to the castle for our last team lunch together. We went to a traditional Albanian house museum afterwards which was fascinating to learn more of the local culture. At one point, you'd be able to tell a person's heritage simply from the clothes they were wearing. We walked through the Old Bazaar one last time, but I ...

... back to the hostel to relax for a spell. It's best not to overdo it in a country where transportation doesn't really work the way you'd expect it to. I'm heading down southwards then from tomorrow, with the plan to check out the historic UNESCO-listed towns of Berati and Gjirokastra. After that I'll pop back into Tirana one more time and then make for Macedonia. If there's time in there on that last day, maybe I'll have a look at Durrësi. We'll see.

... then known as &#1044;&#1088;&#1072;&#1095;, Drach in Bulgarian) remained as one of the last Bulgarian fortresses as the Byzantine Empire subjugated Bulgaria. Dyrrachium was lost in February 1082 by the emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who was defeated at the hands of the Normans (Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemund (see Battle of Dyrrhachium (1081)). Byzantine ...

... mushrooms all over the place. Kids were jumping from them into the sea and they were in random places in fields. Apparently the last president of Albania was reeeeeeally paranoid about invasion. Without our Lonely Planet we were travelling blind now. No map. We asked around and found that we could get a mini bus to Tirana then on to Duress from there. So off we went. The journey was really long but the scenery spectacular. We basically had to cross the country ...

... stand alongside mosques with no obvious signs of discontent. The town of Berat stands as wonderful testimony to this. On a high hill, the medieaval city wraps itself round Byzantine churches and mosques, some of which are in immaculate condition. ..The country looks as if, after hundreds of years of subsistence living, the people have suddenly thought fit to sign up to a five year plan to build as many identikit, concrete homes as it takes to house the ...