Vila Belvedere Durres

... 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!).

... von Envar Hodscha jedenfalls ist heute eine Disco, Envar Hodscha, d** Albanien 40 Jahre lang regi**t hat, ist heute in einem namenlosen Grab auf einem gewoehnlichen Friedhof begraben. Seine Statue ist ebenfalls z**truemm**t, auf dem Zentralplatz steht nur noch die Statue von Skand**beg, dem nationalen Helden.<br><br>Albanien geho**te auch zum ottomanischen Reich, ab** ein Alban**, d** von den Ottomanen in Byzanz ausgebildet wurde, hat einen Aufstand ausg ...

... few of the guys, me included, went over to watch the game. The match had gone into extra time and penalties were looming by the time our turn eventually came to be checked out of Albania. Up at the booth I was due to pay Eur10 as a departure tax but maybe because Jimmy was escorting me the officer didn't charge me a penny. When my passport was stamped we began to walk towards Greece only for one of the off duty officers to shout that the penalties were about to start. Not wanting to ...

... Yeah, well how about food poisoning. Yep, would you believe it but Meg woke the next day (our first full day in the city) to a nasty bout of food poisoning. We assume it was food poisoning (neither of us are Doctors but endless throwing up and diarrhoea spells food poisoning to us) but I was fine and we basically eat the same food, and have done for sure for the past few days. Anyway, whatever it was kept Meg busy most of the day as she moved back and forth ...

... this evening (something better came up, namely the opening game of the Rugby World Cup) and instead spent the night in our hotel room getting organised and ready for the bus in the morning for the short trip inland to the Albanian capital, Tirana. So as you can see, not too much to report from Durres. I realised that before starting this entry but looking at what I've just typed I see it's a sizeable piece of text, and with observations still to come ...

... about her experiences of communism. While she was at school, her friends called her James because she longed for any kind of link to English. If you tried to learn or even speak English you could be thrown in prison. Lazza told us last week how men weren't allowed to wear shorts ever, and at times, the police would measure your hair. If it was a few mm too long, they'd shave it all off. Its incredible to think this was going on until 1991.

... hotter after that. Doing the slightest amount of sightseeing worked out to be quite a chore. Not that there is a tremendous amount of sights here. On the contrary, Tirana is little more than a dusty, chaotic capital city filled with unimaginative architecture and too many cars. Much of the infrastructure was thoroughly trashed in the anarchic 90s. The suburbs make many industrial cities in Romania look decent. Really though, you can't expect much of a city that was ...

... once equally commodious and safe, is gradually becoming silted up." The palace of King Zog I in Durrës 20th century Durrës was an active city in the Albanian national liberation movement in the periods 1878-1881 and 1910-1912. Ismail Qemali raised the Albanian flag on November 26, 1912 but the city was captured by the Serbs three days later during the First ...

... signs. A went into a travel agency and asked the lady about cheap hotels. 'There are no cheap hotels in Durres.' she said. How about maps or a tourist office - 'There are no maps of Durres or no tourist office.' she said. Thanks very much and have a nice day. Apparently the gem I had stumbled across was the cheapest place in town!! Locator or what?! We dumped the stuff in our bargain room - big with share bathroom and large balcony looking out over the main ...

... no big deal...they didn't share that the two miles was all uphill. Oh, well...good exercise. The compound that we are on is locked at all times. We are right next to a military building, so there are military in watch towers at all times guarding I'm sure not what. Last Sunday we went to mass at Sacre Couer (Sacred Heart) church in downtown Tirana. The service was wonderful, about 250 people, all in Albanian but they had a readings handout in English. Met ...