Hotel California 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!).

... Juliana asks where the furgon (private bus) is that we need to take to Tirana. The guy answers in French which I don&#8217;t understand. With a strong Islamic influence, he will only talk to me. I just nod. The girls get the answer; around the corner and to the left. We board a decrepit bus which by most standards would be sold for scrap. The guy doesn&#8217;t speak any English but must have lots of dealings with backpackers. He takes E3 each for the 2.5 hour trip. Buses ...

... and pretty good, if boring after many many. I tell myself it's olive oil. I absolutely refuse to study a language I'll only visit a few days and which only has a few million speakers. Still I have to eat, and I don't stay in fancy hotels with fancy English-language menus. The little bit of the language I manage to glean is interesting enough, though by necessity I'm mostly limited to those words recognizable through the Indo-European family, in ...

... du pays dans une famille catholique... mais des son jeune age, il a ete enleve par les turcs pour devenir janissaire, i.e. une garde de l'empereur...evidemment on l'a force a devenir musulman... cependant il a reussi a se sauver et a retourner dans sa region... il est redevenu catholique... c'est de kruja qu'il a organise la resistance puis la victoire contre les turcs... on dit qu'il symbolise bien les contradictions des albanais: ils sont ...

... on a working afternoon would be like. It was manic, people milling around everywhere, luggage scattered all over the place, and the noise level was deafening. I found the whole scene exhilarating and extremely exciting. There were three counters open and a queue snaking its way back from each one. Whenever I'm faced with the choice of queue and no matter what I might be queuing for, the supermarket, the cinema, the bank, I always have the same thoughts and do the same thing; try to ...

... the general lack of English-speakers in the country. Albania was a very dirty country. All through the countryside and in the cities there is trash everywhere. Especially pervasive are the blue plastic bags that every store seems to use. The whole reduce-reuse-recycle movement obviously hasn't exactly infiltrated this country. On one bus ride, while stopped for a smoke/pee break, I even saw one mother give her daughter the empty potato ...

... the English. The capital is a fascinating place, far more interesting than the tourist driven cities of Croatia. Its incredibly cheap, coffee 25p, beer 50p, a 110km journey costs 1.75, a meal for 2 with drinks at a top restaurant about 7 pound, and a late night kebab about 80p. Furthermore if the country continues to grow soon easyjet will be flying here so a whole holiday will be cheaper than a Premiership football ticket. So that was Albania, see you there next year.

... 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 ...

... cool place, it was nicer than I expected it to be and the people were super friendly. One time we were lost looking for the mini bus to a city in the North and a fast-food vendor walked over to us and asked if we needed help. He gave us directions to the mini bus and we happily set out in the completely wrong direction. We then stood at the biggest dirt round about I have ever seen, giving way to shonky buses, stray animals and a thousand Mercedies (it is literally the only ...