Hotel Stela Tirana

... army to various victories against the Turkish empire.
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!).

... 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.

... the price indicated in the Slovak guidebook, then head out for dinner. At around nine o'clock, I sit on the saggy hotel bed and take another look at our money. "Nineteen thousand three hundred and sixty leks," I announce to no one. "That doesn't seem right." Jane's ears prick up. "What do you mean?" "Well, I thought the exchange rate was more like two Albanian whatsits to one Macedonian thingee. This guy has given us one point five whatsits." I punch a few ...

It took about an hour to drive up to Kruja from Tirana- it's nestled in the mountains, so again there are great views- and you can see all the way out to the sea at Durres. When we arrived, we met and waved off the Leeds team, who were driving the minibus back down to Tirana. Then followed a somewhat formal orientation with Trev and Kaye. They are a New Zealand couple, both grandparents, who felt called to Albania so left their ...

... roads. As we were driving through, highway construction was quickly proceeding. Definitely would like to go back, didn't get to see much of Albania other than on the bus, stayed in a hotel well outside of town and was too groggy from the bus ride to muster the energy to head into town, early night for all around.

... to be seen..."OSCE", "AID", "MIK", "KFOR" and other such monikers dominate was is seen and, the content of conversations too! With this plethora of outsiders present, and the security apparatus present, it really is mind-blowing to see how "normal" things appear to be! Only 9 months ago, a Albanian-led mortar attack on Serbian enclaves destroyed something like 70 churches, homes, businesses, etc. What is NOT normal about Kosovo? --Burned-out homes, cars ...