Blogs from West, Albania, Europe - page 3

We get up and have breakfast. The food’s not great but at least the chef has gone to the effort of writing the hotel’s name in HP sauce on my plate. The old man is usually the master of the all-you-can-eat buffet, but today he meets his match. An elderly lady at our table manages 6 plates to his 3. He says this an unfair comparison as she poured the entire first plateful into her handbag. I am keen to stay and see if she can manage a 7th but beat a hasty retreat when she starts stirring Nutella into her tea. We depart for a day sightseeing in Tirana. Most points of interest are on Blvd Deshmoret e Kombit; a wide, tree lined boulevard which runs between two squares, Mother Teresa and Skanderbeg. Our first ... read more

Though our nearly two-week tour of the Balkans already had a full-to-the-brim schedule of activities and sights from Albania to Slovenia, our time in Albania itself was relatively short and the better part of that was spent in Tirana. However, when booking our tour we were offered several varied optional excursions for an additional charge. One of these was an afternoon/evening excursion to the small but interesting and historic town of Krujë which was only a short drive of 45 minutes or so from Tirana. Weighing our options, we decided to book the Krujë tour and some others in advance of our trip. The excursion took place on our second day in Albania, and as it turned out, not only did we have a beautiful day for the visit, but it was my favorite experience in ... read more

Albania Day 14 Tirana Thirty degrees again today and we are bussed to Tirana. The journey crossed a huge fertile plain with a lot of activity with grass and crop cutting. Several small balers were in use and a big Class Combine was seen. It was not until we approached Tirana that we saw vehicle and tractor dealers selling new equipment of all brands. The rest of Albania only appears to sell used products. In Tirana a visit to the Bunkart (Bunker) was made, which depicted the history of the law enforcement by the gendarmerie and policia from 1913 to the fall of Communism in 1991. The museum is a huge concrete bunker with many small cells showing different aspects of the journey. Most harrowing is the way the secret police were set up and operated ... read more

Albania 2018. Day 3 Last night we had a meal outside by the river, which was very pleasant. It started with a good mixed salad with pickled gherkins and ended with chicken and very nice tagliatelle pasta. Whilst the chicken was tasty I think it was a scraggy thing,or they took off the bulk of the meat befor chopping it into pieces, giving us bone with a little meat on. Very tasty all the same, regardless of the calories consumed in finding the meat. Did I say the red wine was good? The Ballkan Hotel this morning served up a good breakfast with the usual cold meats, boiled egg, cheese, cucumber etc plus pieces of cooked batter upon which we put on sweet jams of fig, quince and cherry. A really nice change. A good start ... read more

We left Probistip early the following morning, the boys are struggling with the cold but I am enjoying not being hot for once. The journey south was on excellent roads through pretty countryside, I had no idea that Macedonia had such beautiful snow covered peaks which we followed all the way south to the city of Bitola. Bitola is the home of the country's most important ancient archeological site Heraclea Lyncestis. This ancient Macedonian was founded in the middle of 4th century B.C. by Philip the Macedon, Heraclea existed for over a millennium as an important strategic point. We arrived around midday to find the site empty of people with a single caretaker in residence who seemed happy to take us to the gift shop and delivered a long but interesting discourse about the history of ... read more