Profile: Albania

Meet Albania

- Former Communist holdout in the Balkans that jumped ship to China when Russia wasn't providing for them correctly. Locals still seem somewhat new to capitalism
- EU aspirations that may be optimistically high

Cuisine: An assortment of baked veggies in various ways were all alright. Crêpes were big - savoury and sweet, day or post bar. A nutty thick ice cream was also a sweet treat. Beer was your standard easy drinking pilsener or lager - I kept trying new brands but they were practically identical.

Stray Dog Rating (out of 5): Although only registering a mid 3 on the scale for quantity they were some of the saddest group going. Mangy and dirty looking it was not uncommon to see pooches missing paws, limbs or parts of tails.

Sidewalk safety: Akin to Sochi massive, leg breaking potholes were commonplace even in the main square of town - watch yourself after dark. Traffic was typical of the Balkans though pedestrians did seem to heed some respect. Just don't get caught on the narrow crumbling boulder pathways hundreds of metres up a mountain cliff going the wrong way against a van or you may be forced to practically dangle over the edge to allow it to pass.

Rambling Impressions: To be honest I had basically no clue about Albania - when my father mentioned it was communist it was news to me. Perhaps due to this and some warnings that the capital was a yawn I was pleasantly surprised by this country. It seemed to do things in its own way, to say peculiarly, that left me just smiling sometimes. People were incredibly honest such that I wouldn't even ask prices before handing over money for the most part - helped that things were quite cheap too. People are pleasant and happy to help though English wasn't overly prevalent bar in the (bars of) educated capital, Tirana. Driving was a pleasure with the lush mountains to gaze at, while Berat at in the south was incredible to look at even in the rain. The northern Albanian Alps, scene of the snowblind pass adventure, were perhaps even better. Planned three days easily elongated into a week.