Blogs from Shkodër, North, Albania, Europe

Up before 5am to catch the minivan to the ferry on Koman lake. Easy journey but cramped seats. One stop for the driver to have a coffee and smoke. The road wound through the countryside, the last part along a lake formed by a dam. Emerging from a final tunnel the van popped out to a busy wharf and we transferred straight onto the 9am ferry. We had read that this is a popular trip on the car ferry up to Fierze and it was certainly busy with vehicles  locals and tourists. Every seat was taken so we sat on the top deck, legs dangling over the side and enjoyed the 2.5 hour journey through picturesque gorges. At the other end we had a coffee and got back on for the 1pm return. Even busier with ... read more

Day 3 I had a horrible sleep. Yuki was asleep before me and at first I thought it would be ok but then the snoring started. I used to be able to sleep through anything but I can’t seem to do it anymore. I put in earplugs and I can still hear it. I put my headphones on a sleep story waking around Toronto of all places but it doesn’t work. I try waves on the ocean. It must work at some point because I have nightmares about people putting my onto psychotic medication I didn’t need and I wake up several times. I hear Yuki’s alarm and to his credit he gets up and takes his stuff outside. I doze for a bit and when I check the time it’s half six. Still half an ... read more

The trip to Albania was slightly less straight forward than it was supposed to be thanks to the demise of Adria airlines. Instead of a direct flight from Ljubljana to Podgorica, Montenegro we first flew from Ljubljana airport (which was about a half hour drive from our hotel in Bled) to Belgrade in Serbia. After an approximately 3 hour long layover in the rather uninspiring Belgrade airport we caught the next flight to Podgorica. Podgorica airport must be one of the easiest airports for passengers; we hopped off the plane, queued for immigration as we entered the terminal building, clear immigration and headed to the baggage carousel which was about 10 meters away. After picking up our hire car for the next 3 weeks (a white VW golf), we set off for Shkodër in Albania. Along ... read more

Any preconceptions we had of Tirana – grey, totalitarian, unfriendly - are blown away within minutes of arrival. Everyone is friendly, greeting us with a smile. The old buildings may have been grey once but they are now painted in primary colours. The once-grey central square is in the process of being “greened” with mature trees. The World Cup has just started so the main square is the Fan Zone with a giant screen, fairground rides and food and drink stalls. This is not the Albania we had imagined. A walk around the capital city takes in mosques, the cathedral, bridges, public buildings, museums, cafes and parks. Some are old, usually renovated, and some are new, all glass and concrete. Everything seems to have happened in the last 20 years. The 20 years since communism lost ... read more

For me, Albania is a country of intrigue. A rare majority-Muslim country on European soil and with a language that looks a bit like Turkish - and a language where I can literally recognise nothing - its culture alone promised to make it very different from anything else I had seen in Europe to date. Which is why Albania was the country I was most interested and excited about visiting on this particular leg of my journey. It isn't really on the tourist radar either - I don't think I have ever had a friend or colleague come back from vacation telling me about their amazing holiday in Albania. Rolling into Shkoder exhausted from the all-night party I pulled the night before back in Montenegro and with the Austrians Frido and Simon that I had met ... read more