Tag Archives: Tirana
Travelling By Train Across The Balkans – ‘No Beards’
To set the scene, my book chronicles my travels around the Balkans with my regular travel buddy called Hamish. Albania had always been a mystical place to us, Europe’s outcast being neither east nor west. During our teenage years we used to try and get information about the place, but in those Internet free days […]
Euro 24 Match Day 11 – Albania v Spain
Spain have already qualified and play footballing minnows Albania who have just secured their first ever tournament finals point. Albania Back in 2007 there was a small but fun network of trains in Albania. I took two from the now defunct Tirana Station, to Durres on the coast and north to Skhodra as we made […]
Euro 2020 Rest Day 2 – Non-Qualifying Nations – Iceland, Romania & Albania
24 nations qualified for Euro 2020 and according to whose list you consider as accurate, there are between 44 (United Nations figure) and 51 (Wikipedia) countries in Europe. Here are three more that didn’t make it to the finals. Iceland The tiny nation of less than 5 million people qualified last time and actually knocked […]
Monday Morning Blues – Albanian Police Car, Tirana
I spotted this police car parked up outside Tirana’s main police station in 2007. I didn’t think it would fare to well in chasing criminals, but I am sure it had its day!
Balkans Tour 2017 – Tirana
Continuing my look back of my 2017 Balkans Tour – how did Tirana 2017 compare with Tirana 2007? We had just arrived by marathon bus journey from Sarande in Southern Albania and dilapidated taxi to our hotel from Tirana’s run down bus station…….. Tirana We found our hotel to be delightful and soon forgot our […]
Friday Photo – Skanderbeg Square, Tirana, Albania
Gjergj Kastrioti, known as Skanderbeg, was an Albanian nobleman and military commander who led a rebellion in the mid 15th Century against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia. He is revered as a national hero having a museum dedicated to him, a multitude of statues and […]
2017 Balkan Tour Revisited – Kosovo
Kosovo is one of those places that conjures up thoughts of conflict and strife. Synonymous with the Yugoslav Conflict in the same way as Sarajevo, Mostar and Srebrenica. The Islamic enclave and particularly its embattled capital Pristina certainly bore a heavy price due to the ethnic cleansing that the Serb forces carried out in those […]
Trains in the East of Europe
You will maybe know of my love of overseas train travel, especially in the east of Europe and you can of course read about my adventures on over 15,000km of track in the region by downloading my ebook on Amazon. Here are a few train pictures from my travels in the region….
2017 Gone, 2018 Beckons
It is that time of year to reflect on travels undertaken this year and to look forward to what the new year will bring. All in all 2017 was very good travel wise. It started with a bang in January when I visited Cuba with Mrs Wilbur and regular travel buddy Hamish to celebrate Mrs […]
