Hotel Arber 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!).

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. <br><br>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 ...

... a very good salary. On the Friday night the couples son Andi took us out on the **** around Tirane, which was a lot like going around the center of Leeds - the bars were well decorated and friendly but the people looked like they were trying to hard with their appearance. After our trip through the north of Albania this was not what we had expected. The final bar, the Living Room, was a grand Victorian style house with the second floor converted into a club ...

... only being in it for less than a day, especially as most people in that country were so kind and helpful. Yet it was mighty gratifying that we made it through as well. As our ferry left, we took photos of the country we were leaving as well as other ferry boats along a 90 minute journey to Corfu, Greece. However, probably the most poignant part of the ferry ride, was being able to take much needed naps in the morning sun over the beautiful water.

This is going to be a real long one... If you dont read it, i understand. So i went to the bus station at Kotor and caught 9:30 bus to Podgorica (Montenegros) capital that took a few hours. I ask the guy at the information desk and he said there are no buses or trains to Albania, you can hitch hike or pay 20 euros for a taxi to the border. That was extortion. I sat down pondering whether to go to albania. A taxi driver walked up and said "Albania, 20 euros" I thought why not ...

... and poor. Things are very cheap here though. We got to stay at a 5 star resort where NATO members stay. It reminded me of Eurotrip when they went to Bratislava. Everything was dirty outside, but in the hotel it was pimp. The pool was long and mazelike, there were squash courts and a workout room. Lots of fun to be had there. At night we went out to a Hookah bar and had a blast there with some Tirana beer. Pretty cheap night out, but memorable.

... we were greeted by our first fake copper that demanded our passports. It was kind of funny, we had read about these dudes but didn't think that we would run into one literally 50 metres into the country. Anyway, we politely told the fake copper that there was absolutely no need for us to show our passports again seeing that we had just shown the customs officials. After arguing with him and a couple of taxi drivers for a while, we finally decided to walk of down the ...