Albania

A big jump for me from my last entry - ever hopeful that S-O will write in english to save us ´computer` time.

This is our 4th day here, each one full of new impressions. The scenery is beautiful. In the north more lowland than Montenegro and Croatia, but here, further south, the coastline is once again mountainous. There is a national park here in the mountains where the views are said to be spectacular, stretching, on days of good visibility over to Corfu. Hopefully, we will make it there this afternoon.

There is a feeling of African Kenya in the suburbs and rural areas and a bit of Cairo in the towns. There are 4 harbours along the Albanian coast, 3 of which are industrial and the fourth a marina setup in a nomansland 20 minutes walk on the unpaved and heavily trafficed road to Orikum.

The Cairo impression comes from the mixture of abandoned half-finished new buildings, derelict relics of old houses, and a compott of new and old. Touristic and modern mixed with old and badly maintained buildings.

From what we have seen there is no quality in the new. The marina in Orikum was oficially opened last year. Already, the service building lacks maintenance with no locks on the toilet doors, showers, mirrors, handbasins and floor tiles are broken . The difference with cairo is that there, the population is so dense, that even the modern ´ruins` are inhabited!