Nowhere quite like Albania :-)

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So from Mykonos it was an over-nighter in Preveza, and by accident we got a hotel upgrade so we were staying in immaculate accommodation. This was a quiet night for everyone though, a bit of a wind down after the craziness of Mykonos.



The next day took us on to Albania. As the poorest country in Europe, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect and honestly my first impression was wow! The rolling mountains were so colossal and being surrounded by these towering giants is actually kind of humbling. The whole country is practically in a valley, it’s quite amazing.

As far as civilisation goes it’s not real crash hot ha ha :-). The outer areas are 3^rd world with run down houses and derelict buildings, and apparently its common practice to only half finish building your house to avoid paying the building tax on it when it is complete. So this results with houses everywhere missing a roof or deck or a staircase to nowhere or even half finished rooms, it’s really odd.

Our first service stop was an interesting experience. It was an absolute little shit hole in the middle of nowhere, even the driver Johnny had no idea where we were ha ha. So we all climb out of the bus and the locals were just starring. It was like something out of deliverance or something. As none of us had local currency, we were paying in Euros. This was like Christmas<span> for them, everything in the shop was 1 Euro, and they were grinning from ear to ear, it was like they’d just won lottery. It would have been good to know how much it would have actually cost in local currency, but either way, we were drinking 1 Euro beers served to us by a 7 year old kid so we were in heaven :-).<span> From then on, I knew I would like Albania :-).

So we get to our hotel and it’s not a hotel. It’s massive, fully furnished 2 bedroom apartments with an awesome view. Gotta love that exchange rate :-D.

So given that Albania was beginning to grow on me I decided to go out and have a few quiet beers and meet some locals. I really wasn’t planning a big one as I wanted a few quiet nights to get my voice back, not to mention that the bus was leaving the next morning.<span> So it was me and Goose (ha ha that’s Tom, and a long story from Mykonos) plus we had Luka, out Croatian/Canadian companion (and the guy that came into Rome with me) and we headed into town.



<span><span>After a death-defying cab ride we realised that things were a bit dearer in the capital city than what they were at the servo in the middle of nowhere, but we were still getting beers for 2.50 Euro so that’s still cheap. Ok so first observation was the women. My god! Albania has the most beautiful women in the world! And in such large numbers; they were everywhere. Secondly, what the fuck is the go with iced tea?? Everywhere you looked, everyone was drinking iced tea, everyone! And so I asked the bartender and he said it was an Albanian trend at the moment ha ha. I would have loved to have shares in Albanian iced tea :-). As it was an overnighter in Albania, we only had overnight bags, and thus no good clothes so I was kind-of underdressed in my singlet and boardies, especially since Albanians tended to dress it up a bit. But we managed to get into most places.



<span><span>So anyway, <span> town was awesome. Luka kinda put a downer on it a bit but it was tops all the same. It was really weird though, and around 12:30 -1:00am, the whole town just cleared out. It was really weird to see, one minute there were people everywhere, next minute they were all gone. We managed to keep drinking with some local lads until around 4am (while Luka slept on the couch). Tom and I got so unbelievably drunk on tequila and margaritas, dangerously drunk in hindsight, especially for a place like Albania. But it was so much fun, even if I did end up losing my wallet and throwing up everywhere, gross.



<span><span><span>Another story worth a mention, for those that have ever ben through a Safety Induction, you may have seen the usual photos of the worlds stupidest ideas, they're all the same, and there's one with a man working under his ute, and his ute is held up on 2 wheels by a single plank of timber wedged in place. I actually saw this happening!! It was so unreal, but unfortunately I couldn't get my camera out quick enough, I guess it is actually common practice here :-). Oh and a guy pushing his dog in a wheelbarrow :-) aah Albania :-)

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