May 2024. Tirana. Albania. The homeward leg, now; back from “gorgeous Gjirokaster” (the TIC can have that for a 100 lek) to Tirana, which I had as yet no opinion on at all. It wasn’t without incident. Mrs RM had booked seats on giirafa for 3pm, and now all we had to do was get… Continue reading TRYING THE “LOCAL BEER” IN TIRANA
Author: retiredmartin
Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.
Gjirokastër Castle
May 2024. Gjirokastër. Albania. These blog posts don’t get half the views that a post on a Marston boozer in Wrexham gets. In fact, this post on a CLOSED pub in North Wales from 2017 is still getting more attention than anything I write on Albania. But it’s a diary not a beer blog, and… Continue reading Gjirokastër Castle
Could YOU resist an Albanian bar called “Hangover” ?
May 2024. Gjirokaster. Albania. We’d walked every street in Gjirokaster by 7, and while Albania’s prettiest city is a gem, it could really do with some tourist attractions like, I dunno, firing pellets at furry animals. I told you they had a weird relationship with teddies. We agreed to leave the castle till tomorrow, when… Continue reading Could YOU resist an Albanian bar called “Hangover” ?
THE STRANGE ALBANIAN OBSSESSION WITH TEDDY BEARS
And you thought the obsession was with Norman Wisdom ? May 2024. Gjirokraster. Albania. Our third city in Albania, and already Gjirokaster looked destined for our own personal Top 40s, level with Cologne and just above Palmerston North, possibly. You can walk its dips and climbs in 20 minutes; it felt a place you HAD… Continue reading THE STRANGE ALBANIAN OBSSESSION WITH TEDDY BEARS
“No current ! No current !”. Dramas in Gjirokastër
May 2024. Gjirokastër. Albania. You left us sitting on piles of sand on the side of the SH72 road on the edge of Lushnje, where we’d now been for 3 hours. praying silently for the 13:38 to turn up to take us to our third Albanian city of the trip in what sounded like Gyropasta.… Continue reading “No current ! No current !”. Dramas in Gjirokastër
STUCK INSIDE OF LUSHNJE WITH THOSE ALBANIAN BUS BLUES AGAIN
May 2024. Lushnje. Albania. A post for all of you who enjoy discomfort and distress befalling Mrs RM and I, as we attempt to continue our Albanian adventure on the second morning. Gjirokaster, which I continuously called Gyropasta, not helping at all, is the other big Unesco site in town, and you’d expect it to… Continue reading STUCK INSIDE OF LUSHNJE WITH THOSE ALBANIAN BUS BLUES AGAIN
LIZARDS IN BERAT
May 2024. Berat. Albania. The first afternoon of our Albanian trip took us to Berat (pop. 30,000 and falling), a town seemingly existing on German tourists arriving on the excellent coastal road in cars and coaches parked at the entrance to the castle walls, then heading straight to the restaurant with the best view. I… Continue reading LIZARDS IN BERAT
ALBANIA ON A BUDGET
May 2024. Tirana to Berat. Mrs RM sees herself as an aspiring travel “influencer” (ugh) and was about to take thousands of photos of Albanian pastries and beer for her own Instagram page. At the very first hurdle we forgot to take a pic of the breakfast spread at the just opened Mercure on that… Continue reading ALBANIA ON A BUDGET
ALBANIA TICKED
May 2024. Luton to Tirana. Back to ticking Europe. I miss Europe. When I completed the Guide two years ago I thought I’d never again have to rush around, leaping from plane to bus to ferry. May 2022 with its sixty (60) GBG ticks looked like this; But that May of Antrim and Alderney and… Continue reading ALBANIA TICKED
THE REMAINS OF THE SUN BEER FESTIVAL
May 2024. Waterbeach. The night before another venture east to tick Europe, we stay in Waterbeach to give Dad a special viewing of the major construction project across the road, order the Chinese from Chung Hwa (new dish alert : No. 61 Chicken with Spring Onion and Ginger), and wait for it over a pint… Continue reading THE REMAINS OF THE SUN BEER FESTIVAL
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