Blogs from West, Albania, Europe - page 8

IT’S A-DAY!!! On the road again, this time it’s really into the unknown as we head for Albania – Its A- DAY (the name adopted by the bus for the day we really head into the unknown. We had an early breakfast at the resort so we could make an early start and hopefully get to the border at a time when there’s not too much traffic. We were advised to take our own lunch as options were very limited on the way. MONTENEGRO We left Croatia and entered Montenegro, previously part of Serbia it had broken away about seven years ago. The whole population of the country is only 700,000 so it seems a bit odd. Apparently it has become the playground for the super rich Russians. It is on the beautiful Adriatic coast and ... read more

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 3rd world with run down houses and derelict buildings, and apparently its common practice to only half finish building ... read more

Berat is thought to be one of the oldest towns in Albania and is overlooked by the Kala (or castle to you and me). I spent most of the day exploring Berat and started off with the castle, which was mostly built in the 13th Century, but with origins going back to the 4th Century BC. A very beautiful place with great views of the surrounding area, as I was walking up the hill to get to it I heard the crump of artillery shells in the background, which is always an intersting backdrop to any walk:-) There must be a firing range in the area unless there was another Balkan war taking place:-) Most of the castle inside the walls is in ruins, although there is a nice church which is worth a visit. The ... 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

Today we were up at 6:30 am to leave for Albania! The coach left at 8 am. It was going to be a big travelling day today. Although the distance wasn't that far, the road we were going to be travelling on were very bad (windy, bumpy, and unpaved) in this part of Europe, so it would take double the time it would usually take to cover the same distance. I was looking forward to seeing Albania since it is not somewhere that a lot of people can say that they've been to. I thought it would be very interesting. We stopped for our first services at 9:30 am, which was just a tiny little gas station in the middle of nowhere. We had to line up to buy food and use the toilet. We should ... read more