TIRANA - ALBANIA

The old Yugoslavia and the area around it was a part of the world I had not been to before. Typically I just picked a route based mostly on flight times, most of those countries looked worth visiting so I went for the most convenient.

The plan was to start in Tirana Albania and finish in Dubrovnik Croatia with a stop in Montenegro in between. Three stops of three nights each just like the previous trip to the Baltics in the summer. The good news was I flew from nearby East midlands, the bad news was a 3 hour wait in Brussels so I spent twice as long in airport departure lounges than actually in the air.

Not a bad travel milestone !!!!!

Arrived in Tirana early evening with only an hours daylight remaining so I only had a brief walk around before it got dark. First impressions were similar to Yerevan in Armenia only a bit more run down. The evening was spent in the hostel bar, only a few were other travellers were around as it was the low season. It did fill up with local people and they had a live band on so it was a reasonable night. Drinks were cheap and included free shots of raki thankfully it was different to the Turkish stuff.

Friday morning I walked to the mountain after taking a wrong turn, the cable car ride was outstanding as well as the view from the top. I spent around half an hour walking round the top.

Walking back through Tirana I noticed that most of the population seemed to consist of old men. They seemed to be everywhere, I was later told that Albania actually has a young population it’s just that the old men tend to socialise in the streets sitting around playing cards/chess/dominos.

Before it got dark I went down to the artificial lake south of the city and walked round the nearby park area. Back at the hostel 2 other travelers I had met were with 2 local girls who they met on couchsurfing. They took us to a square where all the students hang around and drink beer before heading to the bars and clubs. We then ended at a bar called radio, which was not a bad place. I was one of the last 2 to leave and overall the night turned out far better than I expected earlier on.

Signed up but never used couchsurfing before so made a note to myself to start using it!!!!!

I wanted to do a tour but due to the lack of people Saturday was a bit of an unplanned random wander around the city, I walked so far the previous day and had a bit too much sun. Got my pictures of the city and called it a day, night time was completely dead in the hostel so I was glad to be leaving very early the following day and had an excuse to go bed. Tirana was not the best city I had been too but it was cheap enough, the locals were friendly and it did have that “off the beaten track” feel about it.

Montenegro was the worst neighbouring country to get to by public transport. It involved 3 separate busses taking all day. When the first bus got stuck in a jam near it’s destination I bailed out and found my way into town using my GPS which by this point has paid for itself several times over. I made enquiries at the tourist office about taxis over the border, the first one I found quoted the same price as the tourist office said.

It’s a very rare occasion when a taxi driver does not try and rip off a tourist, I was also going to cut my journey from 12 hours to around 4……………….