Blogs from Durrës, West, Albania, Europe - page 2

A day trip. Not so much to see here, in the end, but was proud of myself for finding the minibus here and back. :)... read more

This morning dawned beautifully fine and clear filling us full of good spirit in anticipation of the drive ahead to the border of Albania and beyond to Durres which will be home for the next three nights. Of all the countries we planned to visit, Albania was the one that had given us the greatest fears of testing our adventurous fortitude. Even though we had read quite a bit about the country that had been in isolation to the rest of the world (not unlike North Korea is today) for 45 years between 1946 when Hoxha, the ‘dictator’ who ran the country until 1991, we were unsure what to expect. Would it be like the other countries we have passed through so far where we have tended to slip seamlessly across borders without noticing too much ... read more

On our travels our intension was always to go through Albania. Several years ago when it was communist country, it was one of the most isolated Iron curtain countries, there was no way you would be allowed in, you would have been shot! On researching our journey through Albania, we started to worry about the state of the roads,(we need to take care of Bongo, there’s a few thousand miles to go!) and possible documentation worries. So we had planned to drive back to Dubrovnik, take the ferry back to Italy then another to Greece, by-passing Albania. However, we never like going back where we have just been and the thought of 24hours on ferries was not appealing. Fingers crossed, we chose the border crossing that leads from Montenegro’s Capital Podgorica to Shkoder in Albania. We ... read more

From Saranda in the south of Albania I planned to return north along the coast - this time with my new travel companion. Not only did we share the same name and passport we also shared the same birthday. Jon, was originally from Penang in Malaysia but had lived in the UK since he was 18 and had worked for the National Health Service as a radiographer for ten years. He was now a British passport holder and had moved to Alberta, Canada to work. This was Jon’s fourth time to the Balkans and we shared the same basic itinerary of Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia. He loved it, especially Slovenia which I had also loved having been on an activities trip in the Soča River a few years previously. The morning we headed to the ... read more