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Published: August 28th 2011
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I was joined by my chums from Skopje on the bus to Tirana but their hostel was full so ended up in the Albania Hostel, which was a most agreeable place. On the taxi ride to the hostel the driver advised that you don't have to wear seat belts in taxis only in Private cars, I did ponder explaining the merits of wearing seat belts (especially in Albania, as the drivers are crazy) but decided against it and resumed the conversation about Manchester United:-).
The hostel had a bar and a puppy, what more could you want:-)
The next day I had a walk round the centre of Tirana but like Skopje, it was also a building site, I think there has been an influx of money into the Balkans countries and they seem to be spending most of it on their city centres. To be fair though there was a huge new hospital on the outskirts of the city so it seems the people are benefitting as well as the politicians.
There wasn't that much to see so in the afternoon I headed off to Berat, I was to catch a furgon, which is basically a minibus
that doesn't run to any timetables, they just depart when full. Anyway I approached what I thought was the furgon to Berat, shouted Berat at him and he nodded his head and told me to get in, I asked him how much first though and he said 30 leke about 20p, I thought I had got a bargain there as it was 2 hours to Berat. Anyway he drove around 2 minutes, picking up further passengers and then dropped me off at another Furgon wih a Berat sign written on it - so much for the bargain!!
The bus to Berat was eventful to say the least, even before we had left Tirana we had to stop for 15 minutes to wait fr 2 more passengers (even though we were full). Eventually we left the city and headed off down the motorway, then at the turn off we stopped at an industrial site and all our baggage was unloaded and all kids of plastic cladding was placed on board with our luggage precariously balanced on top. The was followed by bags of suasages which were put inside. During the ride so far the driver hadn't used his indicator once
and was constantly on his mobile, I lost count of the number of near misses we had. Whilst hurtling along at around 60 mph, this other car draws along side him and he has a leisurely chat with the other driver, shortly after he stops again this time to give the sausages to the guy he's just been chatting to!! Throughput all this the other occupants of the furgon were getting increasingly frustrated and shouting obscenities (more than likely) at the driver to which he seemed oblivious.
Amazingly we all arrived in Berat in one piece and I headed off to the hostel for a drink! There is only one hostel in Berat and it was full and there was whole group of us from all over the world putting the world to rights over beers
Boring bits
Hostel Albania in Tirana - would recommend
Furgon Tirana to Berat 500 leke = £3.20.
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