Tirana, ALBANIA

The drive down from Kosovo to Tirana was excellent. The route is a fast and impressive motorway that sweeps across huge valleys and mountains. Some truly beautiful scenery.

As we approached the outskirts of Tirana we had one of those legendary sat nav experiences. We were passing the airport when the sat nav sent us down a side road – presumably the software had calculated a shorter route. After about a mile the road became a bumpy track and then suddenly we found ourselves in front of a very narrow concrete bridge – with no sides – going over a small river. I really wasn’t sure about the width of the car but had no choice but to carefully edge onto the bridge and gingerly crawl across. (In case you wondered why I didn’t reverse back, it was dusk and a local had driven up right behind me and was ready to go. It was obviously his usual way home – and/or how he got his adrenaline kicks). It was quite scary – and my co-pilot was somewhat shaken! Once over the bridge we were soon back onto a tarmac road and heading along the other side of the airport perimeter and into the city. Those sat nav software programmers have got a lot to answer for!!

For many years I have been interested in visiting Tirana. I am not sure why. Possibly because I had been intrigued by its political history when I was a student – or possibly because I was intrigued that Norman Wisdom had become such a cult figure in Albania. (In the 1960s the Albanian communist dictator Hoxha had banned all other western films).