Last Day in Albania

It has been a struggle getting internet access here so excuse the bad spelling courtesy of my phone's predictive text on previous posts. Now in a 5 * star hotel in the business centre which has two computers connected to the internet but with out of date anti-virus! No photos today as I won't be plugging my sd card into this computer! I will post photos and more comments after I reach home

Albania has been an interesting experience. The people are unfailingly friendly and helpful but the infrastructure is poor. In many ways Albania reminds me of Cuba. (Bet you've not been there Mark!) Both are Western countries in poverty struggling to live a western lifestyle, although the underlying causes, though both political, are different. Here mobile phones and satellite dishes abound but rubbish lies in the street, the minor roads are rock strewn tracks and the one hospital we saw looked dire.

The roads here are an unending source of amazement. Leaving Saranda we were treated to the most glorious twisty tarmac winding around the beautiful Ionian coast & up to the the Llhogara Pass 1000m above sea level. Today on a more major road we were plagued by road works where there was just gravel and potholes. The bikes actually fared better than the cars as it was easier to pick a route around the holes. The cars are also interesting, a lot of Mercs, both beaten up old jalopies and brand new ones. There's a lot of old cars generally, a fair number of modern mid sized saloons and a surprising number of top end ultra expensive Mercs, BMW's and Audis all with blacked out windows. One wonders where there money came from.

Yesterday we stayed in Vlore, a lively port and seaside town whose tourists are mostly Albanian. In the 1990 it was famed as a centre for drug & people trafficking which was carried out quite openly. You've got to think the trade lives on but underground.

Today we're in Shkoder, a busy, cosmopolitan town & have treated ourselves to 5* luxury at 75euro for the night. Note the 5* luxury includes a bath but not a plug ( fortunately we brought our own) and we had two power cuts in the first hour here. It is very plush though. The town is again pretty lively with wide streets, lots of apartment blocks and tarmac on all the roads! Wow! Tomorrow we'll cross the border into Montenegro and have just boooked ourselves a b&b for a couple of nights on the Bay of Kotor. The scenery is apparently very beautiful there and the roads supposedly better so we hope to get up into the mountains as well as explore the coast.