See Travel Blog

Welcome back to my blog, where I seek to show you the sort of stuff in countries that travel guides won’t cover.

After tacking South East Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand) last November, this time we’re exploring a couple of countries in South East Europe – Albania and North Macedonia, which can best be collectively referred to as the Western Balkans.  

So why Albania and North Macedonia?  There are two good reasons – firstly, I have a penchant for ticking off countries to visit (we haven’t done either of these places before); and secondly, a few years back we visited mainland Greece, and planned to head north (to both of these countries) for the second week.  Unfortunately the hire car company wouldn’t let us leave the country and that put paid to that expectation.  So here we are – it’s August 2025 and have some unfinished business on the Balkan Peninsula.

To set the scene – I’m joined by my mum and dad again on this trip, and we’re flying from Belfast to Tirana (via London).  I’ll not let you know too much about what we have planned for now so I don’t spoil the surprise.

It was a 3:15am alarm call.  They say good things come to those who wait, but I’m not sure that covers travelling.  It seems most flights I take these days require a crazily early start.  To be honest the thought of just sleeping on did occur.  

I’ll gloss over the flights, but I did pick up one of these bad boys in the airport, to try on the plane.  

I’ve got to say that these Biscoff Chocolate bars must be considered as one of the greatest innovations of the 21st century.  They are just perfect in every way!  The iconic Biscoff biscuit gives a bit of a crunch and holds the whole thing together when it’s been in the heat for too long, but the ratio of biscuit to chocolate is just right.  It’s still predominantly chocolate.  The white chocolate complements the Biscoff flavour beautifully, and they’ve thrown in a bit of the soft Biscoff spread as well for good measure.  So early days for this holiday, but we’re off to a great start.  You could say we’re flying! 😂 

We had a five hour layover at Heathrow, but there’s plenty of stuff in Terminal 5 to pass the time.  The shops range from Boots and M&S all the way up to designer labels like Bulgari, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Prada.  Of course no hope of being able to afford anything – no I’m not talking about Prada, but rather one of the 5 WH Smith stores located within a 200 metre radius of each other.  In there it’s a well known fact that a Toblerone costs about the same as the last NASA mission to the moon.

We arrived into Tirana at about 6:55pm, just as the sun was setting below the hills that seemed to surround the airport.

Exiting the plane, temps didn’t feel overly hot, (maybe high 20s), but I was hit with that waft of sweet air that you tend to get in warmer climates. 

There was a pretty big queue getting through passport control, but the digital passport scanners made this an absolute breeze, and we were straight through into the baggage reclaim hall in no time at all.  No passport stamp though, so that’s an early black mark against Albania!

The main terminal building of Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza, named after Mother Teresa (who wasn’t even from Albania) is an impressive display of modern architecture, with a giant metal wall in front of the terminal bedecked with some fancy patterns.  What a colossal waste of money that would have been.

I was concerned for a few moments when I caught glimpse of what appeared to be a worker hanging lifeless on a rope from the canopy of said metal wall.  After whipping out my camcorder with 60x zoom, I swiftly realised it was actually a red stuffed bear.  Panic over, but how or why it got there remains a mystery.  

The traffic situation in Albania seems to be similar to the traffic situation in Italy.  Totally out of control!  Cars flying everywhere, general lack of indication, and several near misses (and that was just leaving the car park).  At least there’s a lot less horn use here, so at least it’s a more pleasant experience audially!

For the first week, we’re staying in a city called Durrës on the Adriatic coast.  It’s the second largest city in Albania (behind the capital Tirana!) It seems to be more of a holiday resort kind of place – think Benidorm without the drunken British expats, or Blackpool without the tower, amusements or illuminations (scratch that last thought actually – that doesn’t really leave anything).  The traffic was pretty bumper to bumper coming in, but the place does look quite lively.

We arrived at our accommodation – at the White Hill Hotel, and after freshening up, head down to the on site restaurant for an stress-free bite to eat. 

I’m liking our first impressions of Albania, but it’s been a very long day, and I need to get some sleep.  See you tomorrow for Day 2.