Blogs from Durrës, West, Albania, Europe

Dear All Greetings from Albania! Country number 92, and another one of the remaining few European countries now ticked off my list! Just five more to go now! I arrived in Albania the day after I got back from a wonderful week in Sheffield with my family over Christmas. Gone are the days that I'm away for Christmas, there's certainly no place like home when it comes to this important Christian celebration for me! I flew to Albania on wonderful WizzAir, a Hungarian-based budget airline which is pretty much the Ryanair of East Europe really, but with good customer service (nice!). I'd kind of gotten used to travel delays with train issues both to and from Sheffield just the week before, and this flight was no exception. Because I felt used to it, the 1.5 hour ... read more

When we left the magnificent Bay of Kotor, we headed south and stopped at the town of Bar, still in Montenegro as we needed to check out of the country and this broke up the trip to the next country we will visit, Albania. We had heard that it was quite easy to check out in Bar which is always a plus when dealing with the bureaucracy of various countries. We pulled into a large marina in Bar and were pleasantly surprised when we were given a side tie – always much easier for getting on and off the boat. We were helped by a very kind marina staff member who you could tell knew his way around boats by the way he dealt with the lines - he was an older gentleman that stated that ... read more

A few days’ previously, we had watched the chaos ensue near the Dogara roundabout as the road system struggled to cope with the volume. Pedestrians weaved precariously between the cars, as they attempted to cross the road to reach the Bus Station on the far side. It was our turn to join them this morning, as we had decided for our final full day on Albanian soil to take a trip to the seaside. Durres was the destination. We alighted opposite the Bus Station and decided the safest tactic to cross the road was to effectively use others as a form of human shield. If we let them take the initial plunge into the carriageway, they would get hit first. It worked. We made it the other side and the Bus Station. I say Bus Station, ... read more

Zaterdag 4/06/16 – Durrës Korte busexcursie naar de historische havenstad Durrës. Bezoek aan de overblijfselen van het Romeins Amfitheater uit de 2de eeuw, het grootste uit de Balkan. (15.000pl). Spijtig, alles oogt nog slordig. Slechts gedeeltelijk opgegraven. Op een groot deel staan nog flatgebouwen en woningen. Evenwel in de gewelven enkele mozaieken van een vroegchristelijke Byzantijnse kapel (5e eeuw) nog redelijk bewaard. Aangebouwd aan het Amfitheater resten van de stadsmuren (15e eeuw). Ook bezoek aan een prachtig Archeologisch muzeum. Artefacten, amforen, gebruiksvoorwerpen, munten etc uit de Illyrische, Griekse, Romeinse periodes knap tentoon gesteld. Gids met mooi kleedje. Foto's nemen verboden. Daarna 4 uur vrij voor lunch en uitgebreid te terrassen aan de zeeboulevard. Minpunt zijn de bedelende Roma's die je konstant volgen en money vragen voor de bambino's. Ha... read more

Woolly says – With the sun out and quite a lot of walking to do I had decided that a taxi to our first exciting visit of the day would be in order. As we sped through the city streets I spent the time explaining to Jo and Zoe about King Zog.....what an awesome name for a king I hear you cry! HM King Zog was the founder of the modern Albanian State and first King of the Albanians, which he declared for himself! Born Ahmet Bey Zogu on the 8th of October 1895 in urgajet-Mat, he attended school in Istanbul but returned to Albania in 1911 to lead a revolt against the Young Turks.....maybe he hadn’t enjoyed his school! On the 28 November 1912, he took part in and defended the declaration of independence of ... read more