And so the first phase of this trip is almost over, and I'm just counting down the hours until I meet Becky - I just can't wait! During the past two weeks I have done a route that would have been totally unthinkable as little as 10 years ago - it has certainly been interesting if not always straightforward! To be honest, I was just glad to get the hell out of Tirana - it's not one of those places I will be going back to in a hurry! It was good that I met A...

I try my best to be descriptive with my journals;o paint a picture so that anyone reading them can feel like they were there with me. Sometimes though, things and places are very difficult to write about, and it is just the whole feel and atmosphere of a place that strikes you - be that good, bad or indifferent. My time spent in Albania, although thankfully relatively short, has been one of these times. It's worth mentioning that on Friday James had tried ...

So I left behind sunny Dubrovnik on Friday and began heading into Montenegro, first stopping at Hereg Novi and then catching one of these furgon/collectivo thingies on to Kotor, which was where I wanted to get to. Along the way I met Chu, a really friendly guy from SIngapore but who had been living in London, and so we travelled to Kotor together. After an all action hour or so in the crowded furgon, we finally pitched up in the town of Kotor, which lies at the...

I headed back into Croatia on Wednesday morning, leaving Mostar behind for the sunny Dalmatian town of Dubrovnik. Once again, the bus ride there offered some simply stunning views of the coastline - the Dalmatian coast is exremely dramatic (unlike me!) and is dotted with hundreds of islands out to sea. There are no hostles in Dubrovnik, and so as in Mostar your only option is to find some private accommodation - not difficult in one sense seen as hordes of old ...

The train ride to Mostar on Tuesday morning had some really spectacular scenery en route - was a bit of a shame I was so bleary eyed not to fully appreciate it! I was supposed to be being met at the train station by someone from where I was staying, but maybe not antirely suprisingly nobody showed. To cut a long story short, the woman eventually decided that she didn't have any space for me that night, but told me I could stay with her "friend" - I thought, tha...