We drove away from the border and the road conditions were ten times worse than Montenegro, we were stunned, the road was just a potholed nearly single track. It was still torrential rain and all we saw were cows on the road, rubbish tipped everywhere and any cars that did pass were old Mercedes. We carried on and things didn't get better, we already knew there would be no camping and we would need a hotel but there were hardly any houses let alone hotels. It was surreal, we have travelled through many countries but nothing compared to this. We travelled an hour hardly covering any distance as we couldn't get higher than third gear and were just getting worried when Peter spotted a hotel. It was like a phoenix rising from the ashes surrounded by fields! The price was 40 Euros and it looked really nice and clean with secure parking. We were shown a few rooms to chose from and they were all very clean with fresh towels and sheets. The whole place was immaculate with a bar and restaurant. The bar was quite busy with what must have been locals and we couldn't fault the attentive service in the restaurant. The meal was quite good too.

When we got up for a shwoer at 8 a.m. the electricity went off and the waiter told us this happened every day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. to save electricity. They hardly had any water which was being restricted by Montenegro. He had lived in England working for the Co-op and told us he was on £2 an hour here and things were pretty grim. He wanted to go back to England but would be allowed! We mentioned we had seen a lot of cars with GB plates and he said they went to the U.K. for them and drove them back otherwise they could pay 3 times the price in Albania.

We drove through the capital and got hopelessley lost. the driving conditions were appaling worse than Morocco or Mexico, everyone just did what they wanted, overtaking on the wrong side of the road while on the phone!

We carried on over mountain roads and hairpin bends and the scenary never changed, bleak. We had hoped to get to Greece in the day but had only travelled 260 miles in 7 hours and again had to find a hotel. This one was just as nice on the side of a Lake Ohrid and only 25 Euros. Again we had a choice of rooms and a simple but enjoyable dinner. The Albanians were very friendly towards us and seemed pleased that we were staying in their hotel.

This time in the morning at 8 a.m. the water went off. Luckily I had just rinsed the shampoo from my hair otherwise it would have been a problem!

After about an hour driving the next day we reached the border and left Albania behind. On reflection it was a strange country, obviously very poor, but we never saw any begging or slum areas and we were never approached or threatened in any way. The infrastructure in the towns was very limited and not much in the way of shops but unusually those lovely hotels on the outskirts of towns. However, we cannot see it being one of the up and coming holiday destinations of choice in the near future!!