The highlights of the 2011 trip to Albania and Macedonia

Albania - a country off the beaten path. During the years of communism, Albania was the most closed country in the world. Albania started opening its borders for visitors in 1991.

The first thing after getting a bus from the airport to the downtown of Tirana (Albania) was finding a place to have a lunch (and a beer).

It was quite a challenge to find the hostel we had booked in Tirana - they had two different house numbering systems on this street and the hostel didn't have any kind of signs or advertisements. A couchsurfer was working in this hostel and gave us the recommendation. Unfortunately we didn't find a CS host this time.

They used colors to make the soviet style block houses look less depressing. Success?

A rooftop party at the hostel with locals. We offered some Finnish drinks - Salmari and Jallu.

We took a minibus from Tirana (Albania) to Ohrid (Macedonia).

The road wound its way through the mountains.

Duty Free Shop at the border between Albania and Macedonia. Lots of emptiness for sale. 

After seeing this bus, we decided to take a taxi from the Macedonian side of the border.

The taxi drove like a crazy (wrong way in the middle lane) so maybe it wasn't a safe option either.

Sunset and evening swim at Lake Ohrid (Macedonia).

Playing snooker in Ohrid (Macedonia). We didn't find a full size table so we bought our own.

Morning swim.

The minibus dropped us to the border and we had to walk from there.

The view was nice though.

Back in Tirana. They don't have McDonald's or KFC in Albania (not that we would go into one), but Albanian Fried Chicken was surprisingly similar.

Grupi Lynx - a great cover band, playing Metallica etc.

We took a train from Tirana to Durres. It was slower than a car but we wanted to try it. Why? Scroll down...

The railway station of Tirana. Very Soviet style.

The trains didn't have a single unbroken window, mostly bullet holes. Despite of the holes, the train was really hot, especially after a long night in Tirana.

Imagine the people and this picture could be a nice beach boulevard from Miami or another tourist location.

Swimming in the Mediterranean sea in Durres (Albania).

We took a minibus back to Tirana and the driver got pulled over and got a ticket for having (way) too many people on board.

Some travel guide book said that you can count the tourist attractions of Tirana with one hand's one finger. The mandatory Jallu pic with the only tourist attraction of Tirana.

The central downtown was under construction. As was most of the city. And country. At least should be.

Our bus back to the airport. Think pink.