Was manic when I went.. but that was an England game in 2002ish. Witnessed Norman Wisdom running round the track though lol. I'd be interested in your opinions once you've visited please as I understand Albania is fast becoming the latest place for a cheap holiday etc. There seemed to be an abundance of attractive women when we were there... and the biggest turkey I've ever seen!
Funnily enough a colleague of mine just got back. He was saying how he attended a football match while he was out there and got put in a cage with bare chested tattooed men throwing beers at the other team's supporters.
Few of my pals have just come back and said it’s absolutely fantastic, one of them went down to the South and said it was stunning. Looking forward to it
My mrs is albanian, ive been a few times, pretty much been everywhere, i personally enjoyed Ksamil and Vlore, the mountains when travelling between towns, is incredible!
Me and the lads always have a hiking holiday every year. May have to put this on the recommendations!
Once went on a stag do around 2002, we went out in fancy dress - l was dressed has Norman Wisdom, ended up losing my mates and getting chased round a track by wild dogs.
I’ve never been personally, but I’ve had stories from 4 people who spoke negatively about it. 3 were female and 1 gay male. The negatives were more about the people than place but it’s odd how all 4 had issues that were similar. It’s a place that if I could still travel, I’d give a go. I’ve always liked being off the beaten track and don’t tend to give great heed to others views of places. Find out yourself, if you don’t like it, at least you know.
Went a few years ago. It’s a really interesting country. I think it’s got more touristy in recent years, but it felt properly off the beaten track when I went. Tirana is well worth a visit, it’s not massive though so depends how long you’re staying for/what sort of holiday you’re after but you could probably see most of the interesting stuff in two or three days. Lots of brutalist communist architecture around skanderberg square and up towards the university, there’s a massive weird glass and steel pyramid that I think was built in Hoxha’s time which looked pretty derelict when I was there but they might have done something with it since, loads of outdoor bars if you’re there in summer around the Blloku area, and the food’s decent as well, although the English translations on the menus were occasionally quite amusing - I went to a restaurant where some of the options on the menu, word for word, were: big beans, internal of lamb, some kind of pie, and pie (piece of pie). Ordered big beans just to see what they were like and it turns out the menu description was absolutely bang on, it was just a bowl of massive beans. It might have got more expensive over the last few years but it was one of the cheapest places I’ve been to in Europe - two of you could have a decent meal with beers/wine for under 20 quid. There are some amazing places in the rest of the country as well. Shkodër in the north and Ksamil, Gjirokaster, Sarandë, and Butrint national park in the south are all well worth a visit. Although if you’re hiring a car get a big four wheel drive, some of the roads are horrendous and the driving standards are laughably bad - we narrowly avoided a crash and when the driver of the other car got out to speak to us it turned out to be a kid who must’ve been no older than 14. There are loads of old concrete bunkers dotted around the countryside from when Hoxha was paranoid they were going to get invaded back in the 70s. Most of them are falling to bits but we saw some enterprising farmers using them as cow sheds out in the countryside. Enjoy your trip however long you’re there for, it’s a really interesting place.
Ive actually booked a hotel around the corner Blloku, £80 for 2 nights, looks decent too, we’re off to watch England for a the weekend, we’re going via Milan then back via Rome Ciampino so we get about 2 hour to Rome (no pun intended) around Ciampino too so should be a good trip. Few Ian’s said the south is absolutely stunning
