Hotel Miniri Tirana

... kleiden sich sehr westlich, man sieht we***** Kopftuech** als in Deutschland. Und alle 100m gibt es ein Casino.

Morgen geht es dann weit** gen Norden, sollte morgen Montenegro **reichen. Liege ganz gut in d** Zeit, kann v**mutlich einige Staedte an d** Kueste besichtigen, Inshallah.

Gruss
Ralf

P.S.
Dachte d** Pauschaltourismus ist noch nicht hi** angekommen, ab** im Nationalmuseum lief doch glatt eine deutsche Reisegruppe h**um.

... me pressed for time. If I stayed down here the 30 hour train to Poland from Sarajevo is over 300 bucks. That is a big oh hell no for my wallet so I will just speed up things and stick with good ole Ryanair.

Podgorica is just a transit point for me later but I chose it because it has been described as the ugliest capital city in all of Europe and perhaps the world. Now how can anyone pass that type of hype up? I will let you know what I find!

... that briefly reminded me of my A level history teachers face whenever I'd handed in an essay that basically said "I couldn't give a **** about the origins of the welfare state". The passports were quickly returned and we drove on until we came to the Albanian border. Albania operates a strange border policy wherein you have to pay to get in and out of the country. Some sources had said it was ten euros each way, others said one Euro ...

... anecdote: ici quand on balance la tete de gauche a droite, ca veut dire oui; quand la tete va da bas en haut, ca veut dire non... le guide lonely planet avait beau m'en avoir informe, je ne m'y habitue pas spontanement... ainsi quand le pope orthodoxe m'a fait signe que non il ne parlait ni anglais ni francais, j'ai compris oui...quand j'ai demande au chauffeur de mini-bus s'il allait a berat, j ...

... train to reach Tirana and for the entire length of the journey I was entertained by my new young and amusing friends. They had saved me a seat beside them, in the completely empty train carriage full of empty seats. The six of them must have had ages between 7 and 14 and little or no English but we didn't let a minor problem like that stop the opportunity for some deep and meaningful conversation the length of the journey. It began with them making the shape of a gun with their ...

... on Italian artists in the Albanian National Gallery and decided to call it a night. Tirana doesn't exactly have a hopping nightlife, so I spent both evenings hanging out at the hostel sitting in front of the wood-burning stove attempting to keep warm. Luckily there weren't many people staying at the hostel, so I could take blankets from four other beds to bring my total up to five, enabling me to sleep without shivering.

... along Tirana's main street, I realise we don't have any Albanian money. Maybe they don't even use money here and prefer the traditional barter system: "How much is the room?" "That will be three goats, or two weeks' labour, or your second born child. Male only if you want an en suite bathroom." Fortunately a Western Union bureau de change comes into view. The Slovaks wait outside and consult their guidebook while Jane and I go inside. The 12,907 ...

... No tatoos/body piercings on show, no strappy tops, no drinking, no speaking badly of Islam. Some seemed obvious, some seemed a bit excessive, but I can see why they did it- evidently in the past people have been shocked by team behaviour and it's reflected badly on them. We were given a -schedule- for the week. Couldn't be more different to Tirana- with times to be back at our host's for dinner, times to meet in the morning ...

The final leg of the return to Tirana was an interesting one. Having missed the last bus by some way, I was really quite unsure of what I was going to do (as with most of my life at the moment, it seems). Back at the bus station (oddly, unlike anywhere else in the country, Berat had something resembling an official bus station. Still no information, though) I had the usual round of taxi drivers offering to take me to Tirana for only 50 euro! When I made it quite clear that I would ...

... intervention on the part of the UN...you know the rest of the story... Today, the different regions/countries are largely split across ethnic and religious lines: Slovenia (Catholic...and...Slavic People...I think...) Croatia (Catholic...and...Croats) Bosnia & Herzegovina (Muslim...and...?) Serbia & Montenegro (Russian Orthodox...and...Serbs) Kosovo (Muslim...and...Ethnic Albanian) Macedonia (Greek Orthodox...and...?) ...After Kosovo...expect ...