Hotel Liro Vlore

... br>Tirana hat leider keinen Busbahnhof , Busse fahren von allen moeglichen Stellen in der Stadt ab. Habe aber den Bus nach Berat erfolgreich gefunden, musste nur 45min auf die Abfahrt warten und die Fahrt dauerte dann 2h. Die Strasse fuehrte zunaechst nach Durres, der Hafenstadt Albaniens, bevor es wieder ins Landesinnere ging. Der Strand sah nicht besonders schoen aus, allerdings habe ich im Moment auch keinen Sonnenschein mehr. Obwohl ...

... get off and walk the rest of the way but need to stop for directions. These private bus areas can be at intersections or in back alleys. They can also change locations and are without street signage (you need to look at a sign in the window). This makes it difficult for tourists to figure out logistics. We end up waiting almost an hour before it takes off. Albania must be the place busses go to die. They are in terrible shape ...

... and 2 other French girls the next morning. It was a lengthy trip but the scenery on the way up was well worth it. It reminded me a little of Canada, with deep aqua blue lakes and huge mountains covered in forest, all be them much drier and significantly hotter. Once we go to the rafting headquarters we were hurried along by the leaders and driven to the top of the river. Like cows we were huddled onto rafts and with 12 We were instructed in Montenegrin and before we knew it we ...

... people, this country must have the highest rate of bunker per capita. Today these almost indestructible things have no military value anymore (did they ever have any?), but the local youths put them into good uses: they are very popular destinations for dating, and the joke is that it gives the term safe sex a totally new meaning. <br><br>As soon as I left Tirana, the weather has changed from sunny and hot to unseasonably wet and cool, which was a great relief for me.

Berat, Albania, is a small town in the center of the country. Albania is funny because it was shut off from the world for so long during communism, and they are slowly rebuilding themselves and exploring being part of the greater world. This sounds little strange, but it really is like this. A lot of people expressed fear about going to Albania, wondering if it was safe, etc. but we had a great ...

I woke up at around 6:30. I can never sleep these days for that long I dont feel I need that much sleep. I strolled around town taking in some of the sights. There is not that much to do in Tiranna itself really but it is quite a nice little city and its compact which is the main thing and you feel safe all the time. I set off from the backpackers at around 9ish armed with a map of the city and the ...

I arrived in Vlore to discover that there were no buses to Sarande or Gjirokaster, a nearby city, that afternoon. Supposedly there would be a bus the next morning, but no one could tell me what time it was at. It was a very frustrating experience. It took me awhile to find a hotel to stay at that night - they all seemed geared to the business traveler and charged around 50 Euro a night - a bit steep for my budget. After close ...

... said our goodbyes to the man and his family, we went back down into town and stopped for a rest in the hotel. I took one more little walk around a bit later on, wandering through the attractive backstreets of wooden houses. Berati has been a nice counterpart to the bustling, dusty and hectic way of life found in Tirana. I'm glad I made it a point not to just do a fly-by tour of Albania like many others. Lots of people just zip in from Montenegro, spend a night or ...

... of Chalcedon (451). However, the city became increasingly uninhabitable as the inland swamp expanded and the nearby settlement of Vlora became dominant. By the end of antiquity the city was largely depopulated, hosting a small Christian community which built on a hill which probably is part of the site of the old city the 13th century Monastery and Church of Panagia -Shën Mëri in Albanian- (the Saint Mary). The ...

... for a time in Costantinopole. He was forced to convert to Islam and exiled back to Albania . After his death his tomb was taken over as a Bektashi shrine and remained that until 1967 Sights in Berat The town is still renowned for its historic architecture and scenic beauty and is known as the "Town of a Thousand Windows", due to the many large windows of the old decorated houses overlooking the town. It is unclear whether it really means "Thousand" (një mijë) or ...