Hotel President 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!).

... br><br>Tirana has no official bus stations so buses come and go from wherever and asking around is the only way to find out the stops for that week. I decided to continue on to Shkodra to make my way in Montenegro. I found a needle in a haystack on my fifth attempt asking is anyone spoke English and was pointed to a sidestreet where a bus was randomly idling with a sign for Shkodra in its window. How is that for luck in the face of a heavy downpour ...

... I noted Peja is only 4%, that's about the same as our major lager brands in England (although I tend to go for ale back in the homeland..). My table was quickly filled by a bloke, his wife and what looked like his father, who, somewhere, detected I was foreign and asked; "Deutsche?" "No. Anglia" (Which I think is the word for England in Albanian- I could have just as easily called myself a microwave for all I knew). That was the ...

... sens en securite... j'ai aussi visite la cathedrale catholique; c'est un bijou d'architecture recent... jk'y vais demain matin pour la messe de 9 heures (en anglais)... en attendant je me repose, ecoute tv5, fais des emplettes en attendant le retour... j'ai hate de vous revoir... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

... I was lucky, more than once, not to disappear down one of the many huge craters in the pavement. If you were to slip into one of these dark, foreboding holes, I'm pretty sure you would have kept falling until you reached the centre of the earth. Keeping your wits about you was an understatement. When eventually I did reach the guarded checkpoint at the entrance to the port compound I was able to get directions to the station and discover that I had a further 20Min's walking to go ...

... cans line the streets, no one bothers to use them, instead tossing trash in the most convenient location slightly to the side or directly in front of where they happen to be standing. Rolling power outages are a regular occurrence across Albania and Tirana is no exception. In Tirana they seemed to occur twice a day - once in the early afternoon and once in the evening, lasting about 3 hours each time. During these outages ...

... contains some buses. Tirana doesn't even have a central bus station, juts a few of these odd little pick-up and drop-off spots. As you can imagine, this makes things like buying tickets and finding out schedules rather difficult, not to mention knowing where your bus will leave from. Jane befriends four fellow Slovaks who have a guidebook to Albania, something we are lacking. They confidently stride off in the direction of the recommended hotel and we follow ...

... made us, then paid everything to buy us back. Bertie translated for us, and they were captivated. Adults were leaning out of windows all the way up the apartment building to hear and see what we were doing, was great! We had put up a table in the corner of the yard, and took the kids over there next. We gave each of them a paper plate, and had them write their name on it. They then used foam shapes and glue I'd taken out with me to make funny faces- message being they're all individual ...

... i have to do something with dogs as well as tennis when i get home. Finished the day with some pizza and the net. I went to one place and they said they were closing early to go watch soccer. So i want to a different place and they were all playing Call of Duty. (shooting game i play with my bro back home). I joined in, making my name the Australian. Giving them hell. Was nice to have a break from reality. Woke up the next morning for the 6am bus which is another nightmare travel story.

... and an old wooden cross with a story to be told (I don't speak Serbian so...not quite sure what the story was...pretty cool cross though!). Finally...at tour's end...we thanked our guide...returned to our accomodations...and...savored another hearty meal! And...all of this...for...FREE! Didn't want to leave this special place! We did leave though...retracing our route back to the military checkpoint...in the KFOR military vehicle as well!