Hotel Dajti Tirana

Kruja was a short day trip out of Tirana. <br><br>There is a well preserved fortress that has now been converted into a museum on Albania history of Skanderberg - a prominent Albania figure in 14th century who lead ...

... but most of our tour reflects the poor economic situation with decaying buildings, poor infrastructure &#8230; <br><br>Despite all the poverty, Mercedes and BMW are everywhere. Apparently Albania has been (still is?) a major destination zone for Western Europe&#8217;s stolen cars.<br><br>I try to take a shower in the evening but the water is turned off for most of the day.<br><br>Several of us at the hostel get take out and share bottles of wine at the hostel&#8217;s courtyard.

... people. At one point when I was taking a picture of a painted wall obviously commenting on the country's previous Communist rule, one self-styled street-punk even challenges me threateningly with something like "are you Albanian?" I don't like people getting in my face unprovoked of course, so I return his anger and up him one with something like, "Is there a problem? If so, bring it on over." That's what he wants, right? What's the difference ...

... la sympathie des albanais, les soirees de musique traditionnelle...;- moins bons souvenirs: m'etre fait voler a kotor, le voyage enautobus korca-gjirokastra... 2. questions que je porte et que je continuerai a surveiller: - pouirquoi des gens de meme culture (croates, serbes, musulmans) se detestent-ils tant? les religions pourraient-elles jouer un role reconciliateur?- les albanais sont-ils expansionistes: macedoine, kosovo, montenegro ( en ...

... through Durres because the drama and confusion it caused was immense. The first problem for the girl behind the counter was trying to identify where I was from, me classifying myself as being Irish and from Ireland didn't seem to aide her in any way. After a few minutes of silence she seemed to forget about that problem and move onto something else, perhaps to come back to the nationality question later. The second problem was trying to identify where I had come from, she had ...

... buildings. Most of these buildings are adorned with a scarecrow-like thing hanging from it. I'm not sure if they're going to come back and continue building them or if they are just abandoned forever. The buses also passed by a number of Albanian cemeteries. All of the gravestones in these cemeteries included a picture of the person buried there. In my opinion this is to continue the culture of staring so that the dead person can ...

... in Tirana. Ejonta and I did an overnight trip to Durres, where we stayed at her brother's apartment steps from the Adriatic Sea. Too bad the one day we were there the winds picked up and blew sand everywhere. By the end of the day, we were the only crazy people still on the beach!

... sip. Couldn't finish it though, it tasted like a lethal mix of sambuca and vodka. After lunch, Kaye kindly volunteered us to share our testimonies. They reallz appreciated us coming, they couldnt believe we'd come all the way from England to visit them (!) Back in town, we had another team meal, which was good to catch up with people and see how everyone's days had been. Jamie had a traditional ...

... stray dogs and garbage absolutley everywhere, you wonder how the hell 90% of cars are Mercedes. People drive like its asia. Honk at everything. Drive so ****. Half the streets its cross and pray. Sometimes theres the crossing man, but half the time it doesnt work. Also in Albania there is bunkers everywhere. Little cement mushrooms. The defence obssessed old president or whatever had 700 000 thousand put all over the country. He made the guy who invented it test it out ...

... Der er soldater spredt ud i hele Kosovo - i Mitrovicé holder Danskerne til og lejren huser knap 600 soldater. Der skulle jeg tilbringe det næste halve år, som blev til 10 måneder da jeg søgte om "genganger" efter de første 6 måneder. Jeg var hjemme i starten af maj, og tog snart efter en afbestillings rejse til Thailand. Men det er en anden røver!!