Blogs from Tirana, West, Albania, Europe

When I first told people that I was going to Albania, their first reaction was, “Albania? Why?” or “Where is Albania?” From a young age, I knew I was part Albanian. I new much about my Irish heritage, but very little about the Albanian side of my family. All I knew was that my paternal grandfather’s parents came to the U.S. from Albania in the early 1900’s. For the first 40 or so years of my life, I had very little information about the country. Seeing that it was a closed communist state until the early 1990’s, there was practically no information in my school encyclopedias about the nation and until fairly recently, it was hard to find much information online. While researching my family tree, I discovered that my great-grandparents came from the Korçë region ... read more

Bonjour à tous, Mes aprioris étaient faux, tous les bateaux ne sont pas équipés de wifi. Avant le départ, pendant que j'avais encore du signal exploitable sur mon téléphone, à Bari, J'ai tout tenté, en jonglant, entre le pc, la tablette, le téléphone, et j'ai perdu. Sur 471 blogs, je crois que c'est la deuxième fois que je ne suis pas au rdv. La première à Tok, une ville de 15 habitants, en Alaska, et il y à déjà 8 ans. avec 12 heures de retard sur l'autoroute ce matin entre Durrès et Tirana, en prenant un café, j'ai pu cliquer "send" et c'est parti. Je vous ai laissé hier au soir, avec la foire d'empoigne, pour se rendre au bateau. L'ajustement, et c'est le mot qui convient, pour garer les voitures se fait au centimètre. ... read more

"Travelling is living", wrote Hans Christian Andersen according to the WIzzair magazine. It all sounds so glamorous. I can assure you the M1 at 3:30 in the morning didn't feel glamorous. The rain lashed down, as we sped south. The overhead warning signs flashed. M1 Closed. Junction 15 to 14. A quick check on the web showed long red line between the 2 junctions, indicating a serious queue of traffic. In the absence of additional information, we assumed an accident in the roadworks. We cut off on a diversion to avoid missing our flight. The alternative route worked well, so we arrived our 2nd home - also known as the Mid Term Parking at Luton Airport - shortly after 4:30. I suspect others would not be so lucky, as the morning traffic rush built up. Airport ... read more

I have been looking forward to today; we are going to Albania. Most of what I know about Albania comes from a project I did at university in 1986, so I’m not really sure what to expect. First, the slightly surreal experience of breakfast in a wine cellar. The lack of natural light causes me to mistake jam for chutney and smother it all over my cheese and sausage. It tastes surprisingly good. A last wander along Lake Ohrid then it’s time to check out, which entails this cringeworthy conversation between the old man and the receptionist: Her: How was your stay? Him: Very nice except the shower leaked. Her: I’m sorry, I’ll get a lady to take a look at it. Him: It’s beyond that, it needs a man. And with that, we depart Ohrid ... 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