Albania

This country is the best! Definitely the highlight of this trip so far, and ranking up there with Kiev for the year.

Incredible!

Todays train journey from Tirane to Shkoder was so much fun, hanging out the window of the train as it rambled it's way through the countryside, sharing my cookies with the local kids and rocking Doughty on the iPod. Amazing.

Tirane is actually quite lovely

Durresi, Albania

Just last year I thought I would never go to Albania. There are 48 countries in Europe and I figured about 6 of them were unreasonable to go to, maybe because they were unsafe, too difficult to get into, or too far out of the way. Albania was one of them, but here I am. It's a great thrill to go to a place that 15 years ago was completely closed to outsiders and that until recently wasn't someplace you would really want to go to anyway. Now it's an interesting, fun place to visit, and you just pay the 10 euro fee and they let you in!

Trulli

You can actually spnd the night in some of them and I was going to do that and then go to Bari to catch the Friday night ferry to Montenegro. But a room in a Trulli was a bit more than I wanted to pay and the place was a tourist ghetto anyway so I changed the plan yet again and went to Bari for the only ferry that runs every day of the week. And that is how I ended up in Albania!

The Trulli of Alberobello

My bad luck the day before gave me a chance to visit Alberobello and it's unique Trulli

Taranto

Not exactly where I wanted to spend my birthday. The original plan was to find some nice little mediterranean village and go mountain biking, but when I found out that the ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik only sailed once a week on Wednesdays I decided to spend the day doing what I love the most, traveling. A series of four trains and one boat was to get me from Catania to Bari in about 12 hours, just in time to catch the overnight ferry to Dubrovnik. Well, one delayed train threw the whole carefully planned route into a big mess and when I realized I wouldn't make the ferry I changed the plan again. I ended up in Taranto where I spent the night in order to go to Alberobello on Thursday. Taranto was quite lively. It seemed like everyone in the city was out on the waterfront that night. There was a full orchestra playing in the center of town and some of the streets and bulidings were decorated with lights.

Fonte Aretusa

You may remember this place in Siracusa as one of the early pit stops in the current season of The Amazing Race. I was wondering if I would be able to find it from memory and sure enough there it was looking just like it did on TV.

Anfiteatro Romano

I made a day trip to Siracusa, Sicily to see the old part of the city and this Roman Amphitheatre. I was lucky, the guy taking tickets wasn't there when I went in so I saved €6.

Some Roman ruins in Catania

Catania fish market

Catania, Sicily

I was glad to leave Malta this morning. Only 2 days there and I had run out of stuff to do. I guess if you've seen one tiny Mediterranean island nation then you've seen them all right? I picked this Sicilian city as my next destination because I had a flyer for an interesting hostel here. It turned out to be a good choice, there are Roman ruins across the street, a crazy morning fish market nearby and under the hostel is a cave they turned into a bar/resturant.

Last night

There was a marching band going through the streets. I don't know why. They were at it for hours and that was followed by fireworks. Not the kind you shoot into the sky though, just the loud noise kind.

The view from my room in Valletta

I'm staying at a guesthouse here. I would have prefered a hostel but there aren't any in Malta that I know of. Still this place is pretty cheap for Malta and I can get a free Wi-Fi signal in my room.

Malta!

Valletta, the capital city of Malta, as seen from the ferry this morning. Watching from the deck as we arrived into the harbor was really special.