Category Archives: Travel stuff

Another chapter closes

After our couple of days in the mountains near Theth, our appetites were whetted for a last taste of the Accursed Mountains. There’s another road on the map, north of the Theth road, which curls along the Montenegrin border towards … Continue reading

Posted in Art & Culture stuff, By Country - Albania, By Country - Montenegro, Officialdom stuff, Travel stuff, Van stuff | 2 Comments

The mythical road to Thethi

Sometimes when a thing proves difficult to do or is in the end totally unattainable you yearn for it even more. So it was with Thethi, reputedly one of the most scenic of Albania’s remote settlements set in a deep … Continue reading

Posted in By Country - Albania, Personal stuff, Travel stuff, Van stuff, Wildlife stuff | 1 Comment

Komani Ferry

Our guidebook says that the Komani ferry is “one of the world’s great boat trips, right up there with Norway’s Hurtigrut”. With a recommendation like that, you can’t possibly miss it, can you? Yet it looked for a while like … Continue reading

Posted in By Country - Albania, Travel stuff, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Nearing the north

Kruja was the first bit of proper full-on tourist industry we’ve really come across in Albania. Apart from the nearby hotel which advertised camping (sauna and pool included – but migawd, you were paying for ’em!), we were guided into … Continue reading

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City break Tirana

Leaving Durrës I thought I’d selected a good route that would take us to the camping place in the suburb just south of Tirana centre, without us having to tackle the city’s notorious traffic on a Friday afternoon, and without … Continue reading

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Albania again

Our short tour around Macedonia almost over, we headed south from Tetovo towards Lake Ohrid, to cross back to Albania. The route took us through the Mavrovo National Park, meaning that, whilst we’d not spent much time in the country, … Continue reading

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The small museum with the big heart

From Skopje we turned west again towards the city of Tetovo. Tetovo lies at the foot of the mountains that mark the border with Kosovo, and it is also part of a majority ethnic Albanian region within Macedonia. We had … Continue reading

Posted in Art & Culture stuff, By Country - Macedonia, Personal stuff, Travel stuff | 5 Comments

Scoping out Skopje

Bitola wasn’t really all that great as a destination – there were some good views of the city from the mountains of the national park, and the old bazaar and market area was quite pleasant for a quick wander through, … Continue reading

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A tale of icons, apples and the perfect camping place

We left Ohrid via the internet café, which luckily wasn’t affected by the powercut that seemed to be blacking out most of the town. The day had dawned sunny, but clouds were rolling in. Our first foray was to Sveti … Continue reading

Posted in Art & Culture stuff, By Country - Macedonia, Personal stuff, Travel stuff | 2 Comments

On the Macedonian side of Lake Ohrid

As we drove around the northern edge of Lake Ohrid from the border crossing we felt less than inspired. It was overcast, threatening to rain, and any campsites we could see not only looked closed but terminally so. As we … Continue reading

Posted in Art & Culture stuff, By Country - Macedonia, Travel stuff | 4 Comments