Day 19 - 20 (2nd-3rd September): Crossing the border we were suddenly thrown into another world. Montenegro now seems so civilised! The roads were full of potholes and the terrible driving techniques of the Albanians made for an interesting drive! Every vehicle was an old Mercedes (in fact 99% of all cars in Albania are Mercedes...quite why we don't understand - they should all be 4x4s with the road conditions!)

We felt like we were in India - the dust, noise, smells and general chaos! There were police cars every few kilometres and we had been warned by the police at the border of corrupt officials! Luckily every time we passed them they had already pulled another car over so we didn't get stopped. What with the potholes and dust we felt like our African adventure had really started...

There are no campsites whatsoever in Albanian towns so we spent our first night under a roof. Although since it was a roadside motel with cockroaches and drunken Kosovans as neighbours we would rather have camped! We didn't get much sleep and got up every hour or so to check on the car and were relieved to find all the wheels still on in the morning! We were pleased we had fitted the extra lock in Croatia.

We drove along pretty terrible roads through rural areas which are littered with concrete mushroom shaped bunkers - built by Hoxa the president who wanted to protect all Albanians from any form of attack - they were built to be indestructible so are still all over the place - apparently used by young couples as love nests! It's a shame Albania used all the concrete on the bunkers rather than putting it on to the roads!!

The countryside could be beautiful - the scenery is spectacular and the rural areas have a rugged appeal - people go around on mules and ponies pull carts. However the houses are very strange - bright colours and balustrades - rather like Barbie or Cindy houses...not very tasteful! We visited what our guidebook described as the highlight of Albania - a beautiful hill top town of Kruje: after wandering the streets clambering over open sewers through market vendors selling fly infested meat and second hand shoes - we wondered what the lowlights are!

We actually loved the experience and having spent periods of time in India, felt quite at home. What's amazing is how Albania is a world apart from the rest of Europe. Our biggest adventure to date has been driving into the centre of the capital Tirana - it was like we were stock car racing and even around the main square (Trafalgar Square equivalent) the roads were cobbled and dusty and it was anyone's right of way. Biggles spent the night in the locked car park of the most expensive hotel whilst we stayed in a budget option.

We really enjoyed Tirana - a cross between decayed, communist Moscow and dusty, chaotic Delhi. It is an array of multicoloured concrete - austere grand buildings surrounded by tower blocks of all the colours of the rainbow. We enjoyed walking around the city - some areas of which have only recently opened up - sitting in cafes drinking coffee (known to be as "black as hell, strong as death and as sweet as love": more like crude oil to us!), hanging out in some cool bars and standing up at burek counters (salty filo pastry filled with cheese and spinach). Albania is not exactly geared up for tourists - in fact we didn't see any other Westerners in our whole time in the country - but we really enjoyed it and if, like us, you like visiting quirky places, we recommend you go.