Vivas Hotel Durres

Kruja was a short day trip out of Tirana. <br><br>There is a well preserved fortress that has now been converted into a museum on Albania history of Skanderberg - a prominent Albania figure in 14th century who lead ...

... und von ein** B**gstadt aus den Ottomanen ein kleines Reich abgetrotzt. In 25 Schlachten mit den Ottomanen ging ** als Sieg** h**vor und sein Reich wurde **st 26 Jahre nach seinem Tod von den Ottomanen besiegt (in 1479). Die Alban** sehen sich als Rett** des Abendlandes, waren die Ottomanen doch zu ihr** sta**ksten Zeit in Schlachten mit Skand**b**g beschaeftigt statt die Truppen gen Wien zu schicken. <br><br>Albanien macht keinen sehr islamischen Eindruck, die ...

... the National Art Gallery. The gallery featured an eclectic assortment of contemporary art, some of it unframed and just glued to pieces of cardboard stuck to the walls, several-hundred-year-old ecclesiastical art which managed to survive the communist purges, and a fascinating gallery of socialist-realist art from the Communist era featuring lots of portraits of oil-covered workers in overalls standing on mountains triumphantly holding their wrenches and spanners ...

... its tourism industry. It's also still recovering from 50 years of Communism and, unfortunately, some parts of it are still recovering from recent (early 90's) civil wars. Finally, what getting to this part of the world will also mean is, I would imagine, a different type of Travelpod entry. Yep, due to the sacristy of actual 'sights' between here and Istanbul, we'd imagine the entries are going to be slightly different to the ones you've become accustomed to ...

... testimonies and the whole church went out for pizza. It somehow ended up being 30 people, and we discovered when we got there that everyone was expecting the team to pay... Would have been nice to have a warning first! Sunday was literally a day of rest. Half the team went to visit a couple of families, but the families my half were meant to be visiting were out. So... we played uno, card games, watched Chocolat and went on the internet. On the way to ...

... Silly system. On the plus side, it did take me direct to Kruja; many of the furgons only go so far as Forshe-Kruja, from where you have to take another furgon for the remaining, short leg. Again . . . silly. Kruja's a pretty tiny place and most of it is modern (with an awful lot of new construction going on). It's beautifully set on the edge of a jagged, grey mountain range though, with the lowland plains of western Albania stretching ...

... road that led to Thessalonica and on to Constantinople. Another lesser road led south to the city of Buthrotum, the modern Butrint. The Roman emperor Caesar Augustus made the city a colony for veterans of his legions following the Battle of Actium, proclaiming it a civitas libera (free town). In the 4th century AD, Dyrrachium was made the capital of the Roman ...

... becomes neon blue or yellow, or yellow stone looks white under bright spotlights. A certain part of the square is a place for children to drive Power wheels cars safely, and elementary aged children rode around, learning to drive as erratically as their parents. We finished the evening with a pasta supper at our hostel in other backpacker company and I played Backgammon with two Aussies to whom I taught the game. The bills added up ...

... is a collection of depressed animals in white-tiled square cells. And the electricity is still not reliable, right now I'm hoping for it to come on again, and this is a Tuesday morning - many office employees are out having coffee, waiting. The city only has a handful of sights; three museums, a mosque and a few pretty tekes (meeting places for a Muslim mystic sect that's based here in Albania), but it's the liveliness ...

... after 30+hrs on ferries and in transit we hit Durres in Albania - phew! Our first delight of this country were 2 Roma children who followed us and mumbled words of no description for 500m or so. The guidebook made note of these folk and what to do - but no matter what we tried (saying no, ducking into shops and looking threatening) nothing would stop them begging from us. They are the most persistent beggars we have faced in all our travels without a doubt. Albania was, shall ...