It’s been a week since getting back from holidays – strictly six and a half days as we got back at absurd o’clock because the plane was late.

Just not quite late enough to trigger a repayment. Ah well…

And the exceptional part is that I can STILL remember it!

Normal return to work scenario is reattach laptop to docking station after taking it with us on holiday.

Where it didn’t get used at all because

(a) most of the emails got dealt with on the phone and

(b) as usually happens the one time I did switch it on I discover an issue that requires something still in the UK…

So what was it like in Albania?

I’d like to add “I hear you cry” to the previous sentence but I am too honest.

You will either have forgotten I was going to Albania or forgotten I was even on hols as that post was three weeks ago.

Either that or you know me well enough to know I was going to tell you anyway.

Whether you are interested or not.

Musing face emoji or tears of laughter. Your choice!

We first saw Albania in 1983.

From a hilltop in the old Yugoslavia and the only reason we knew it was Albania was the bus driver told us.

That and the one-man pill boxes dotted all over their side of the hill to keep foreigners out.

That was in the bad old days of Enver Hoxhe and the Albanian Communist Party which had schismed (not in Chambers, let alone the spellchecker but a noun that ought to be verbed…) with the USSR (as was) and was beginning to consider the Chinese brand of communism a bit namby-pamby (not in the spellchecker but a real expression in the UK).

But “stuff” changed and after the downfall of Hoxhe the country has been making advances in great leaps and bounds and will soon be a mainstream destination.

Go now if you can – before mass tourism gets in the way (more of which later).

So, where to start?

Driving. Now it was nowhere near as bad as Chennai when I visited there a number of years ago. Eight “lanes” of traffic on a three lane road sticks with you.

But it was enough to suggest that, if you are NOT confident in your driving skills, don’t do it…

There are basically six issues, away from major towns:

• the roads are wiggly or very wiggly
• vertically as well as horizontally
• and some have rudimentary barriers or none at all on scary drops
• on roads only just wide enough for two vehicles to pass, even on the main roads
• and have lots of potholes
• and, finally, there are other road users.

The distance from Permet to Korce (please excuse lack of accents, no idea how to get them into WordPress) was around 133km and Google Maps suggests a journey time of 3hr 16m, which suggests an average speed of 40kph or 25mph if you’re old world English.

Easy-peasy you might think. Or not.

My back was acting up after a visit to the Benje bridge and thermal pools and Lorraine drew the short straw.

And I’m very glad she did. Soooooooooooooooooooooo many curves and hills and switchbacks and, and, and…

Needed a beer or three most days to calm the nerves.

Accommodation, food, etc. pretty good and very reasonable price-wise.

We also visited North Macedonia (to keep any Greek readers happy; so much better than FYROM – look it up), Montenegro (not a member of the EU but uses the Euro as its currency), Bosnia (a country steeped in history, Sarajevo and the First World war for a starter) and Croatia (in the EU but still uses the Kuna as currency).

North Macedonia was a diversion while in Albania and shows the benefit of checking things out fully beforehand (yes, you daughter) when you get to the border crossing to discover you haven’t got a Green Card and have to drive 20km back to the previous Albanian town and hope you can find an insurance place open.

We had researched taking the hire car from one country and leaving it in another but the additional costs of doing so led to us engaging a personal transfers firm called My Day Trips in the second week.

And overall the extra cost of being chauffeured for four journeys as against hiring a car for the week was not much more than £100.

Bit of a no-brainer maybe?

I’m only going to do a resume of the second week – unless next week is a nothing week and the holiday is my best offer.

Montenegro

Up and coming country, not completely overrun by tourists – yet.

Best road – the road from Kotor to the Lovcen National Monument. Part of which is a series of TWENTY FIVE switchbacks!

Each is numbered so I know this is true. And you keep meeting coaches on the road. Which only just go round the corners.

If you’re not confident driving your car backwards down a 1 in 7 hill get someone else to do the driving.

But preferably NOT a coach firm – don’t encourage then any further.

Bosnia

The Old Bridge at Mostar was the highlight of our Bosnian excursion with the Dervish House of Blagaj and the Kravice waterfalls a close second and third.

Lorraine and I remember the Old Bridge (Stari Most) from our first visit. Before the Bosnian War of 1992-95 when the bridge was shelled and destroyed.

Wikipedia tells me around 100,000 people lost their lives in this war and 2.2 million were displaced.

It is hard to understand how “stuff” like this can happen less than three hours from our home.

But it can and it did and we can only hope that it never happens again. But I’m not going to hold my breath…

All the people we’ve met in the Balkans have been so welcoming. How can you not be welcoming amongst yourselves?

I’ll stop there before I get any more angry.

A positive is that, with the help of UNESCO, the bridge was rebuilt in 2002 and is now overrun by coach parties at certain times of day!

The original one had been warn so smooth by the passage of feet that it was like trying to walk on glass – so less people did so.

Die Tochter can only hear us oldies talking about this while trying to get our photos without tooooooooooooo many people in the shot.

And finally Croatia

Or Hvratska as they call it. Okay I do understand it may not be the easiest word in the world and while writing this I think I see how Hvr becomes Cr in English.

But you’d think we could make the effort a bit? Or is it because we’re “English” so it doesn’t apply to us?

BTW, I’m not – born in Cardiff and Lorraine has a complicated mix including Scots and Irish I understand so maybe that’s why I’m a tad more cosmopolitan in my outlook.

One of my favourite cities in the world is Dubrovnik.

But I’m not going to suggest you go there.

It’s full.

I know we are tourists but you can hardly move for the buggers!

Blame Game of Thrones.

Try Split instead. Even there a talk with a waiter suggests they are all so happy that peak season is over. Lower tips and commissions but a better style of life.

If we’re not careful we’ll destroy the thing we go to see.

Ironic?

Who knows…

Back from holidays.

The bridge at Mostar as we never saw it – 08.00 on a February morning? courtsey of otarikkoc / Pixabay