Berat, Albania – A step back in time.
Where is Berat? Berat is a charming little town in central Albania. It took a whole day to get there from Tirana which was predicted by guide books and blogs, but confused us as it was only about 130km away. Needless to say the roads were ghastly and often we drove at less than 30km per hour, arriving no less than 6 hours after we left Tirana! Berat lies inland on the edge of the Osum river. In July 2008, the old town (Mangalem district) was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is famous for its collection of...
Read MoreSarajevo Tunnel Museum
As we headed out of Sarajevo we decided to stop at the Sarajevo Tunnel Museum on the outskirts of town. It took less than 30 minutes to get there and was relatively easy to find. It is in the middle of a field and if you weren’t sure what you were looking for you might drive straight past, however it is well worth a visit. During the 1992-5 siege, where Serbian Forces surrounded the landlocked Sarajevo, local Bosnian’s dug out a 1 meter wide, 1.6m high tunnel which ran 800m under the airport and into the heart of the...
Read MoreSarajevo – Never Judge a Book by its Cover
We left the sunshine in Mostar and drove into the rain in Sarajevo. On the way we stoped in a little town called Blagaj and made our way out to the Dervish House which is based at the bottom of the cave and is the origin of the Buna River. Blagaj is a village-town (kasaba) in the south-eastern region of the Mostar basin, in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It stands at the edge of Bišće plain and is one of the most valuable mixed urban and rural structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina, distinguished from other similar structures...
Read MoreGlorious Ghent
Erin and I decided that it was time for a girls day out, so we left the kids with the boys in Brussels and drove up to Ghent. It took less than an hour, and again, because Belgium is so organised, it was pretty straight forward. We did accidentally park in a hotel when we first arrived, but thankfully worked it out pretty quickly and managed to move our car just in time. This was handy as they charged 30€ per half an hour for people who weren’t staying the hotel! The weather was perfect and we spent most...
Read MoreSurviving Tirana, Albania
We had hired a car in Croatia but weren’t allowed to take it into Albania (all rental car providers outside Albania forbid taking rental cars into Albania, for a good reason!) so we arranged a private car to drive us from Kotor to Tirana. It was a bit confusing as it was organised through a youth hostel, however it was the only way we could work out how to do it. The cost was around 99€, and just after 8am a large white van turned up and off we went to Albania. Where is Albania? Albania is a small country on...
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