Boga, Bunkers and Baron

Thursday 10^th May.

It was off to Albania today. We did breakfast in the hostel restaurant and headed off for the border along Lake Shkodor at Hotti. We stopped in the border town on the Montenegro side for Liz to try and buy postcards – no chance. Little bit of hassle as where we could park and then on towards the border. I do not know how many times I have entered Albania, but this is the first time ever it was a case of being “nodded through” border control. Our aim was Theth high in the Accursed Mountains, so we made towards Shkodor before turning inland at Kopik. Al was plain sailing but as we got up above the snow line and the hair pin bends became more frequent and intense we eventually met a mini bus and land rover coming down. We were informed that the asphalt ran out and in the current conditions you would need a 4 x 4 to get through to Theth. So, I continued for a few hundred yards with Liz getting increasingly hysterical about what fate awaited us and soon found a nice wide hair pin bend to do a three-point turn. As they say it was down hill all the way. At the next village called Boga we had a choice of 3 camping grounds and chose the one attached to a small hotel. As luck would have it the owner had grown up as a foster child in Manchester and worked there before returning to his roots and building a small hotel with 8 letting rooms and 2 suites. He then has developed the camp site with some small glamping huts, more en suite chalets a dinning room, shower and toilets. Somewhere he found time to marry a local girl and has 2 daughters Olivia and Elizabeth. Dinner consisted of a whole chicken for the 2 of us and wine by the bottle.

Friday 11^th May.

Today it was Tirana or bust. Breakfasted in the sun outside the little hotel and then off to Tirana. Progress was good until we hit the city limits. Traffic congestion is a real problem here now as we made our way the the Baron Hotel out on the Elbasan Road where they had facilities for camper vans with access to the hotel for showers etc. We took a taxi back into central Tirana and met up with Lefter, Lindita, Viola and Nensi at their apartment.

Saturday 12^th May.

It was a trip to Vlore today with our trusty Albanian guide Lefter. We passed through Duress which along the beach is continuous high-rise development for several miles and and very close to the beach. Lefter informed us that planning consent is required from the local government / mayor, but I suspect some fairly hefty baksheesh is involved. The inland towns such as Fier have also undergone massive development and similarly with Vlore. Along the coast southwards it is much less developed and more attractive. We had a very good fish meal here before walking along the beach at Vlore. On our way back to Tirana we went into Duress and walked along the promenade along with the world and his wife. Apparently the Kosovans have bought a lot of the property here as well as Italian and more recently Polish second homes. It was then back to Tirana for and pizza at the Klimi apartment.

Sunday 13^th May.

Viola was our guide today but first we had to get the camper van sorted as it seemed to have a square wheel. We met Elona’s nephew Elvio and her brother in law Merri at their garage and after an hour they diagnosed an oval tyre on the front nearside. They duly replaced it with the spare wheel and problem solve. We met up with Viola who took us to the Bunk-Art museum. This is a huge bunker installed by Enver Hoxha completed in 1978 for him to move his entire government and armed forces commandment in th event of conventional or nuclear attack from the Imperialist Americans or the Revisionist Soviet Russia. It was never actually used (what a surprise) cost a great deal of money and a lot of sweated labour. It now depicts the rise and fall of the Socialist Republic of Albania starting pre-WW II and up to the overthrow of communism. Interesting and brought home how little we knew of the closed and xenophobic state of Albania in spite of being able to pick up Radio Tirana on our crystal sets and early trannies when trying to find Radio Luxemburg.

2 hours later we emerged into daylight and went for a seriously carnivorous Sunday lunch at a restaurant on the lower slopes of the Dahti Mountain. We then visited Elona’s parents at their home, her mother looking remarkably well having suffered a stroke earlier in the year.

We finished off the day by having coffee with Gjergi, Lefter’s brother who is visiting his home city from Florida for a few months. He has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease but remains extremely lucid with some surprising opinions on the state of the World and the USA. We then found the camper van after a little searching of Tirana back streets and returned to our camping spot at the Baron Hotel.