http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Albania , West , Tirana en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:08:21 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:08:21 BST We got into Durres at about 7 am and joined the mob trying to push throught he one door to customs. Pushing did not help the situation at all it was hot and sweaty and everyone was frustrated. I did feel like giving a lecture on appropriate ways to queue as their system is all shove if some one gets in your way floor them so as they are merely something to trample on. Marvelling at the begging http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-299955.html Happy 4th of July. I am writing this now for the 2nd time because the internet connection just lost my blog entry. So here we go I will try to recreate. I am now in Tirana Albania and wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday. This has been quite an adventure so far and we are having a fabulous time. Here is a short and quick overview of what we have done so far.Plane from Stuttgart to Zagreb Cro http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-295231.html Some European cities beg to be explored. The less quiet romantic and dimly lit back streets of Lisbon and Budapest come to mind. Others cities however instill a deep desire to remain in your hotel room with the door locked and all windows shut tight.Tirana pertains to the latter.Albaniarsquos capital does very little to diminish the already horrendous first impression the northern city of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-278120.html Venice was the Vacation of our Vacation. Here we met up with our friends Pete and Fallon who were honeymooning in Italy. In Venice we enjoyed the preLent festival of Carnevale. We spent the time strolling the streets shopping for masks admiring the amazing costumes and eating fantastic Venetian seafood. The festival ended with a huge reggee concert in St. Mark's Sq. Kirstin felt lik http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-248407.html We woke this morning with the intention of getting a croissant from the patisserie on our road however when we got there it was less of a patisserie and more of a bar.I wanted to see the Grand Park which is located right behind our hotel. From reading about it we believed it to be not too dissimilar to the park in Chisinau except we hoped it would better looked after. Inside the park we were co http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-222961.html Last night was horrible and the journey took about four hours longer than it should have done fourteen hours in total. We drove through the outskirts of Tirana around sunrise which was breathtaking. Tirana is surrounded by mountains in every direction so the scenery is beautiful despite the houses being rather primitive. The bus dropped us near the national opera house which is in a square that http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-222957.html Arrived in Durres Albania the port was...........basically a flat piece of concretegot through customs and nothing there beside a bunch of cars calling themselves a taxi.So lost got ripped off and hopped on a taxi to find the bus to TiranaOnce on the bus it was all easy dropped right off at the train station and I just took the bigest road I saw until I got to the big Scanderbeg Square. ki http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-212554.html Tour what tourWell this little previous communist country was probably one of the most amusing visits of the lot. After a very long day of driving to Albania should only take a couple of hours but because of how dodgy the roads are it takes us all day. Itrsquos a completely different world. So when we finally get into the Capital Tirana and meet up with a lady who is going to give us a bit of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-196969.html Or so the Albanians call their country themselves... Well I have been here for almost a week now and I kind of like the country... It's a little like Asia within Europe... The traffic is chaotic at best the roads atrocious and the driving mad with lots of honking and lots of shouting... You got to love it... Tirana is not as bad as I thought it might be it has turned into quite a colourful city http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-191275.html Hi EverybodyWe enjoyed our stay in Durres. Part of the blog that I wrote there did not print. While we were there we saw a mosque and a Greek Orthodox Church. I don't know how much of the population is Muslim. We have seen a few women with modest scarves no black burkas. Many of the older women are dressed completely in black with an occasional white head scarf. They must be Greek Orthod http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-190548.html Allo All thats what hello is in Albanian easy but confusing cause how can you tell if someone is speaking English or not. I'm impressed at how well I'm doing at staying at top of these things. In fact I'm feeling very organised right now as I've pretty much booked all accommodation necessary transport and dealt with money stuff right through to July. When I last wrote I was heading over the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-160058.html The overnight bus from Thessaloniki wasn't the most comfortable I've ever had. Midnight border crossing is not exactly the loveliest thing in the world as for some reason it seems that they always arrange the border to be at the perfect point to wake you up just when you were starting to have some real sleep. On the other hand the assistant conductor had to be one of the most beautiful woman I'v http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-107157.html Hello again readers apologies for my laziness. Its been 3 months since my last blog and have been up to a great many adventures and seen a number of countries and cities. I'm now back in San Diego for a couple weeks on a 'holiday from my holiday' to recuperate and catch up with my friends here in Cali before heading back to Europe and then continuing on through Asia. Hopefully I'll be caught up w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-81031.html The night I arrived in Tirana Mother Teresa International Airport was a madhouse. The Albanian National Football team had just beaten the Greek team in a world cup qualifying match and the Greek airplane was just leaving. People were driving around town all night waving flags and celebrating.Enver Hoxha the long time leader of Albania The Land of the Men of the Eagle passed on in 1985 and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-58651.html TiranaJune 11thTirana is not my favorite city in terms of things to do and places to see for the quick traveler . That being said it reminds me much of my 'hometown' of Cairo Egypt with the pseudothird world feel. This city is not one of outstanding beauty and great historical monuments although there is much history to the region. We stayed at a little hostelhotel near the center of the ci http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-44124.html Albania at lastJune 10Sorry i dont have more photos i'm kicking myself that i didnt take more but i just wanst feeling very well aka very hungoverI love this country For some reason I've always wanted to come to this place its one of those places that you hear quite a bit either in the news or from other people yet you never hear it as an actual place to go. I also hear it in the con http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-43657.html Trumpeldor 2 Yesterday I saw a very nice person on the road who offered me a coffee with him. Well usually I don't refuse such requests which I get here twice a day but this time I refused indeed. Why because this man's hands were cut. Well I have got nothing against cripples but my main way of communicating with the locals is by hands so talking to a person without hands would be jus http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-25145.html I'm at the moment in Ioannina Greece but before writing about returning to the European Union I wish to write a few thoughts down about Albania.I already told about Shkoder fastly but now after having completed my Albanian experience for this time I wish to tell what I discovered about the culture. Since I'm only a backpacker going fastly through I offcourse haven't dicked down into the Albani http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-15168.html Tirana the capital of Albania can only be characterized as a bustling out of control city where organization of the infrastructure and people just does not seem to exist. Example When crossing the street whether in a crosswalk or otherwise you do so at your own risk because drivers have absolutely no regard for pedestrians. You are forced to quickly bobandweave in between moving cars th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-11988.html