Hotel Continental 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!).

... morning, but that night we were blissfully ignorant of parking in an embassy zone. it wasn't marked!) We spent the rest of the evening sitting out on our covered balcony feeling the intensity of the storm and talking about the greatness of traveling. Sigh. <br><br>The next day the weather was decidedly better, so we headed off to explore the city with a guy who didn't leave with the others, Matty. Tirana is not so big, so we set off in the direction of the center ...

... city! Bad people!" "It was the easiest way to get to Kosovo" I replied, hiding my unexplainable love of Serbia (This ethnic hate bollocks annoys me, I've met plenty of Serbs who'd say the same thing about Tirana and the Albanians). The more intelligent Albanian looked at me as people began to get back on the bus. "My friend, do not look out window on bus, if you want sleep, do not look out window. If you do, your stomach will be in your ...

... ogromny potencjal. Ten potencjal jednak nigdy nie zostal wykorzystany. Tranzyt zajal nam caly dzien. Pod wieczor bylismy w trzecim w tym dniu kraju - Czarnogorze. Tam, na granicy, spotkalismy czworke Polakow - studentow medycyny (autostopowiczow jak my), z ktorymi juz stopem dojechalismy do Podgoricy. Z dworca kolejowego w Podgoricy, na ktory nas podwieziono, szlismy pare km. Zrobilo sie juz ciemno, gdy znalezlismy laczke, na ktorej - po raz ...

... wishing each other the best of luck in our different endeavours. We had reached the hostel gates and I must say I was really impressed with the look of the place. The hostel was converted from a huge villa with balconies over looking the surrounding streets and pretty gardens below. With its picturesque setting all that was left for me was to hope that there was a nest free. I wasn't too worried; after all it was Albania how busy could the hostel be? My answer was quite busy but ...

... anyone but themselves. I haven't even made it to Bosnia-Herzegovina or Serbia yet, but already it's not difficult to see how war broke out in this region in the 90s. The border between Macedonia and Albania is my first walking border. Many people are mystified by the idea of walking across a border, but really, it's quite common. A bus drops two women and me at the Macedonian check point, where we are stamped out of that country. We then walk probably 700m to the Albanian check ...

... working for a living but it's sort of annoying to need to wash your hands only to find the water turned off, or it's equally annoying to find your room in darkness due to yet another power outage. All this explains the rows of noisy generators you'll see out front of virtually every business in the city, or at least those who can afford it. We had a bird's eye view of a spike in the city's power grid from our seat in the panoramic restaurant overlooking the ...

I cant remember what I said in my last post, so sorry if I repeat myself, but I now have half an hour to write a weeks worth of entries... whew. OK well for a start I was struck by how similar Albania and Uganda are. There are stray dogs everywhere, barking through the night, the roads are fairly dodgy, the driving is crazy and crossing the road lethal! (Centre of tirana also has very few traffic lights- every man for themselves).After Tonin picked me up from the airport, we got most of ...

... the country to become as big a draw as anywhere else in the Balkans, should the information and budget accomodation network develop. Another thing that I enjoyed about the country was the people. They all seemed so warm and friendly, and genuinely pleased to see foreigners. About 2/3 of them were genuinely helpful people, and would go out of their way to help if they could. The other 1/3 were taxi drivers. They would also go well out of their way if at all possible. I like Albania :)

... myself (at least I win!) and awaiting the stories of the rest of the team. That is except for a trip to Tirana to get some lotion to ease this infuriating itching! I can't really remember much except for pill box bunkers, more abandoned cars (mercs!) and the fact that there are no brand names anywhere!