Hey ya’ll,

Righty, not much time to say owt but here goes.

Tirane definitely does the best kebabs of eastern Europe… none of this give you all chips and salad and a tiny bit of meat lark that cracks off in Bulgaria. However am a little concerned about all the men with big guns about. It seems that you only have to be the smallest of institutions in Tirane to deserve an armed policeman cradling what if my geeky CS eyes don’t deceive me is an AK47 – a real one.

Tirane is a bit like Bangkok in that its dusty, polluted and the traffic is mad. Its unlike bangkok in that every one drives Mercedes. I mean everyone. Literally every 3 cars in 4 is a merc. I just didn’t get it. So i asked the guy at our hostel and he said its because the Albanians see it as a strong car. I said something along the lines of that we British see it as a bleeding expensive car, at which point something was mumbled about stealing and shipping from western Europe.

bloody sticky keyboard.

Went to Durres today. What a dump. Ended up spending more time trying to find the beach than actually sitting and lieing on it. 10km of sandy seaside the LP says, what it doesn’t say is its the other side of the port away from the main city centre and the rest of the sites and that its a good 45 minute walk. especially if you’re going at a claudio mardinoli broken sandle dawdle. Mind you i’m not complaining to much when it cost us about 60p to get there and its around 40km away. Altho i dont understand why it takes an hour to get there.

Looking forward to getting out of tirane tomorrow on our now 6am bus to Montenegro, should be fun. Apparently the journey only takes 4 hrs but we’re skeptical. Interesting note about montenegro, it doesn’t have its own currency but uses euros. NOt sure if that means everything is going to be super expensive but we shall see. On a euro note, also interesting to note that theres so many geezas out on the streets here waving wods of cash about. We were puzzled at first but then realised that they were money changers, who, to drum up business as you walked past would leaf through their notes and mumble something at u. Tis all gravy.

Right. Its too hot in this cafe, the keyboard is getting on my finger tips and i need my daily dose of icecream – gotta get rid of these blumin leke somehow by tomorrow eh?

10 days from tomorrow now guys, i expect big screens with a count down to the millisecond. Youlovesit.

Andy