Blogs from West, Albania, Europe - page 10

Hi all, Finally have found a good internet place so it is time to update the blog. Although Scott tells me I am not funny enough in them :-(. So sorry if I bore you but here goes. We picked Vicky up and had a fun afternoon seeing the main sights while poor vicky dragged her luggage around with her! (dont worry we did help her........a bit!)(Well she did forget the VEGEMITE!!!). The Acropollis is the main focal point and although it is iconic and looks great from a distance it is a little bit of a let down close up - all covered in scaffolding. Had a lovelt meal and made our plan of attack for the week. We decided to hot foot it around Peloponnese. We crossed over the Cornith Canal. A massive 6 ... read more

Catherine enjoyed frankfurters for breakfast heated over a Gaz-type stove and in a 250 mL coffee pot. Such was the Ulcinj Hilton/home stay. Our cabbie was on time and we headed for the border along ever-deteriorating roads. This area really was a frontier in geography and vibe. At the frontier proper, the wind was cold, chilled by the previous night's snow! The roads actually improved in Albania though the old mercs - a legacy from Hoxha era smuggling - seem to adopt a speed mania. Our destination was Schkodra bus terminal and we soon recognised the similarity to the villages of Vietnam. It must have been a communist design thing. Getting from taxi to the Tirana bus took a second as bus touts grabbed our gear and secured our custom. We then sat for 20 mins ... read more

From Tirana we headed off to Berat, apparently Albania's prettiest town as it was preserved during the communist era as a museum town. We arrived in the afternoon and after a trek across town and up cobbled streets to the Hostel, we arrived at the most beautiful hostel - The Berat Backpacker's Hostel - owned by a nice English guy called Scott. The highlight of the hostel was the pretty garden complete with grape vines, fig, pomegranite, lemon trees and aubergine and tomato plants. We went into the main town and walked up another cobbled hill to the citadel, where we climbed the walls for the stunning views, and then walked around the pretty Mediterranean style village, visiting the little orthodox ornate church. From 7 to 9 pm the people of Berat walk up and down ... read more

Wednesday 8th July 2009 Wake up this morning at 6am... had not slept well AT ALL due to the streetlights shining straight into the sail boat cabin which has no door plus I had woken up at 4am with a coughing fit, so it felt like I had only just got back to sleep when it was time to get up and get ready. We had to pack up our stuff and clean the boat and have breakfast this morning before the boat inspection at 6.45am. It has to pass the inspection or we will be charged 40Euro, gulp. Yesterday we had already done the front decks and cleaned out one of the inside cabinets where we had stored the water. This morning it is all the other surfaces and with 6 of us on the ... read more

Wow, Albania. Absolutely crazy place. Are we still in Europe? Firstly, the trip from Bar, Montenegro to Albania was a nightmare as expected. Once again, we were travelling on a Sunday (we gotta mix up our schedule a bit). The first leg of the trip was a bus from Bar to Ulcinj, a town closer to the Albanian border where we hoped we could get a bus to Shkodra in Albania. Of course the only bus that day left at 6:00am and we missed it by a long shot. There are always taxi drivers hanging around the bus stations offering rides to stranded travellers but until now we always ignored them. We were approached by a guy who offered to taxi us straight to Shkodra. I knew it was illegal to taxi across the border but ... read more