Albania Took Me by Surprise

Albania was the place I was least excited about visiting on our trip simply because I didn’t know anything about it – to be honest when researching the tour I had to do a Google search to find where in Europe it is located. However it is a country that was rich in history and I am glad we got the chance to visit it.

We left our sail boats in Plataria early (after getting the all clear on the cleanliness of the boat). We grabbed a quick breakfast from the local bakery (which I think opened extra early especially for us) and jumped on the bus ready for the 9 hour drive to the capital city of Albania, Tirana.

As soon as we crossed the border in Albania (after bribing the officials to let us through quickly) we knew we were in Albania. It is a very poor country which is reflected in the quality of the roads. In our 9 hours of driving we only travelled 400 kilometres because the poor road surface forced us to go over large craters constantly.

We stopped for lunch in a tiny town where we were greeted by some school kids who were keen to have their photo taken. They were so friendly even though neither of us could understand a word each other said. When we finally reached Tirana we picked up a guide from the university who gave us a history lesson on his country. Albania has a very interesting but sketchy history. Here is what I learnt:

• It has been invaded multiple times by Russia, Italy and Croatia
• One of Europe’s poorest countries and the poorest area in the Balkans
• Under Russian Communist rule under the early 90’s
• Communist rule is reflected in the building architecture in Tirana; however the mayor is trying to update the buildings by commissioning artists to paint them brightly
• Under communist rule, there was no religion and if you were caught listening to pop music you faced 7 years in jail
• Bomb shelters are scattered all over the countryside as Enver Hoxha, the leader during WW2 was so paranoid that Albania would be invaded that he had them erected. The designer of the shelters was forced to sit in each while the Hoxha tested our the shelters durability by throwing grenades at it
• Albanians only earn around 250 Euro per month – well below the par in other countries
• The currency is the Lek (which is practically worthless anywhere else is the world)
• Albanians are big on education with 37 universities just in Tirana
• Mercedes are the car of choice (we saw so many of them) with the majority of them being stolen in Italy and shipped to Albania illegally
• Many of the houses have unfinished roofs because if they remain unfinished then the owner pays less land tax

Newly painted buildings in Tirana

Our hotel for the evening was a pleasant surprise. Standing above the slums of the city, our 5 star hotel was just what we needed after 3 days on a tiny boat. Jane, Maddy, Ash and myself shared our 2 bedroom apartment which came with 2 bathrooms as well – LUXURY. Our dinner was delicious and the free Wi-Fi was even better. I finally got a chance to speak to Mum and also helped Ash apply for some jobs. We were in bed by midnight and I had such a great sleep.

View of Tirana from our hotel

Although we were only in Albania for 1 day, I really enjoyed our time here. The country is so rich in history that I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting I found it - the history buff coming out in me, perhaps. Next stop is Dubrovnik, which has me very excited.

Highlights of Albania:

• Learning the history behind one of Europe's poorest countries
• Lapping up the luxury of our 5 star hotel
• Seeing the shine from the lake that contained no water, just oil that seeped from the oil wells dotted around the countryside

Leto and Rum Make for Great Greek Sailing

While the title of this article might leave you confused initially, by the time you've finished reading you should understand.

Sunset onboard the ferry to Greece

Our first full day of the tour started early. We were on a tight schedule to get to the ferry in Bari en route to Greece so we all piled into the bus quickly. Our overnight ferry wasn’t very eventful, but gave us a good chance to get to know the group more especially Shae and Shannon (Shaz) at our hilarious dinner with the ship's captain. This included a terrible dessert and grappa, but a free bottle of olive oil. The Wi-Fi onboard was well received by just about all of us, resulting in a bit of the fight to get time in front of the computers (hello iPhone, thanks for coming to Europe with me!)

We were due to set sail on our own boats from Plataria, a tiny town of the west coast of Greece and when we arrived we found 10 brand new (and sparkling) sail boats waiting for us. Our boat's name was "Leto" and we guessed it was named after the singer/actor Jarryd Leto so we nicknamed it "Jarryd". While our captain (Paige) and her first mate (Nic) got a crash course in sailing a boat from our head sailor, Ben, the rest of "team Leto" - Corinne, Courtney (another one – but she goes by “Cork”), Ash and I hit the supermarket for supplies. We were supposed to be getting food to last us for 3 days (from the smallest supermarket ever), however we all had other "supplies" in mind and headed straight to the liquor aisle. So here's what we got:

• 3 bottles of Vodka
• 1 bottle of Malibu
• 1 cask of wine
• 1 bottle of Bacardi (for me!)
• 6 cans of Coke
• 2 bottles of Orange Juice (for mixers not nutrition)
• 1 slab of Heineken beer

We set sail at about 1pm and made it to our first port without any dramas. It was pretty smooth sailing with our motor on the whole time. Port was a tiny little fishing village which I can’t even remember the name of. It only had 1 restaurant/bar which we occupied for the whole evening. Dinner was brilliant (fresh calamari caught that day), the greek dancing was lots of fun and the rum went day way to easily. I stumbled home at an unknown hour with Ash and Shae wishing I hadn’t drunken so much as I will probably struggle on the boat tomorrow.

Team Leto

As predicted, my hangover did arrive early in the morning, but it wasn’t as bad as what I thought it would be – perhaps the fresh sea air helped. Although it was an overcast day I was glad for the swim stop and the chance to jump in the beautiful blue water to overcome the effects of the hangover. In the afternoon I had a go at steering the boat for a couple of hours. There wasn’t really much to it and it really was quite boring but at least I can say I did it (unlike a couple of others on our boat). We arrived in our second port for the trip, Corfu, at about 5.30 and headed into the town for dinner with the rest of our boat (minus Nic) so we could get some food in our tummy before the much -anticipated pirate party. Corfu was very beautiful but quite busy with tourist. Paige, Corinne, Cork, Ash, Billy and I got ourselves prepared for the party by playing a quick game of kings. The pirate party was held on the pier where our boats were moored and while it was great to see everyone dressed in there pirate gear it certainly wasn’t a huge night. After the tug of war competition (in which our team lost terribly) I decided to call it a night (along with many of the others) as I wasn’t too keen on getting drunk enough to fall in the water while getting on our boat (there was quite a gap between the pier and the boat). While a few kicked on at a pub in Corfu, Cork and I lied on the deck of our boat and chatted for a bit before turning in pretty early.

Ahoy, me hearties

Our final day on the boats started with me waking up hangover – free, while a few others on our boat were carrying some sore heads. Our captain believed she was still drunk when we left the harbour which could account for why we nearly crashed into a $20million super yacht and almost giving Ben a heart attack. We sailed for a bit (dodging giant ferries while crossing the ferry channels) before visiting a beach that was set up like a mini resort with sun shelters and water sports. While I took the chance to nap under the sun shelter alongside Sarah and Jodie, Ash went parasailing, jet skiing and banana boating (little thrill seeker!). Our final night on our boats was back at our starting point (Plataria) but just as we arrived one of the other boats broke down so we were all delayed getting back in the harbour while it was repaired. When we finally made it into dock we started the task of cleaning our boats. We had been told that the owners were absolutely fanatical about the boats being left spotless so we made sure we did a bloody good job. Once we finished cleaning we had the chance to take a shower and despite the water being cold and the shower block being pretty grimy, it was absolute heaven (after 3 days without a shower). We had dinner as a whole group at a local restaurant to say farewell to Ben who told us we were one of the best crews he has ever had (woohoo!). We all headed to bed pretty early because we had to be up early tomorrow to finish cleaning the boat before a 9 hour bus drive to Albania.

Highlights of Greece

• Freshest calamari I have every eaten
• Swimming in the stunning blue water of the Ionian sea
• Sailing a $100,000 sail boat

A Roman Holiday

Day two of our short visit to Rome started with breakfast on the run at Termini station and it was good - Nutella Brioche (croissant with Nutella inside) and freshly squeezed orange juice. We had lots of sightseeing on our plate today so no time to waste.


We found the station a little overwhelming when trying to get tickets for the Metro. Luckily while we were standing in the line for the regional train tickets (stupid!) we spoke to a man who told us that Metro tickets are downstairs.  So we finally got ourselves a ticket each and onto the train to the Cappuchin Crypt. I had read about this crypt when researching Rome and I was really intrigued. The crypt is built from the bones of 4000 monks and in total there are over 750,000 bones adorning the walls and roof. It was really creepy but also really fascinating. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside the building so I have no evidence I'm afraid.


We wandered over to the Spanish Steps which gave us a good view of Rome from the top. Whilst walking down the steps we came across our first "dodgy Romans" - there were men everywhere trying to sell us roses or umbrellas or woven bracelets. Very annoying so we quickly took our photos and moved on. A walk down Rome's most famous shopping street, Via Condotti, had us resisting the urge to pull out our credit cards. If you're looking for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Armani  and Burberry then this is the place to go.

Sneaky photo of the Sistine Chapel

Ash was pretty keen to visit the Vatican (me, not so much). So we jumped on the Metro again (which is ridiculously easy to use) and made our way there. We were thoroughly harassed by tour operators on the walk from the station to the Vatican and after hearing that it would take us 3 hours to get into the Vatican ourselves we finally gave in and paid 40 Euro to get priority access and a guided tour. In theory this was a great idea, however we waited an hour for our guide to rally up more people to join the tour. I shouldn't complain though because our guide, Grant, was brilliant. He knew just about everything there is to know about the Vatican (doing an art history major at university helped!). There was some stunning sculptures in the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel was certainly impressive. Grant explained that the reason you are unable to take photos of the Sistine Chapel (besides damaging the paintings) is because the Nippon company owns the intellectual rights to the paintings after they paid to have them restored. I found this really intriguing, but it still didn't stop Ash from sneakily take a few pics. The final stop on our tour was St Peter's Basilica which was beautiful but I think I didn't really get a chance to take it all in as my feet were absolutely killing me. I had stupidly worn a pair of ballet flats which weren't the most supportive of shoes so they were causing havoc on my feet. We quickly sent a postcard to the parents and grandparents from the Vatican post office (the fastest postal service in the world) and headed back to the hotel so I could give my feet a much needed rest.


While resting my feet we also rested our eyes which resulted in an unplanned 2 hour nap. When we woke it was 8.30 and well past our dinner time. We ventured our to find somewhere for dinner, but were unable to find any ATM to get cash out. We had converted money before leaving Australia but it was fast running out. Between us we had only 30 Euro, but every ATM we went to wouldn't accept our cards. This caused us concern but we were also starving. So instead of wandering the city late at night we decided to grab some dinner and try the ATM's again tomorrow. Pizza for dinner was good and our waiter was hilarious - telling us he didn't have a girlfriend and he wanted to give us his phone number. Mind you, we was about 50!




Our final day in Rome was destined to be busy - we were visiting Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum and the Colosseum before making our way out to the camping grounds to start our TopDeck tour.


We were relieved to find that we could withdraw cash from the ATM at the train station (which hadn't work last night - weird!), but before jumping on the Metro we got our brioche and juice again for breakfast (think I might have become addicted to them). We managed to spend 4 hours walking around Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum but those 4 hours just flew by. There were so many ruins of palaces and houses to explore, I'm sure we only scratched the surface.


Next stop was the Colosseum which I was pretty excited about. Whenever I think of Rome an image of the Colossuem pops into my head so to be actually standing in front of it was surreal. Once we got inside we grappled with the other tourists to get the best position for photos. While seeing the ruins inside the Colosseum was good, I think the real magic of it is in its size which you appreciate more from the outside.

Ash and I inside the Colosseum

Remembering that we hadn't thrown a coin in the Fontana de Trevi on our first day in Rome, we made a quick detour back to the fountain. We both threw in one coin each which is supposed to mean that we will return to Rome one day (I certainly hope so!).


We were supposed to be at the camping ground to start our tour at 5. So we quickly grabbed our bags from the hotel, jumped on the Metro and arrived at the grounds at 4.30, only to find a note from our tour leader telling us to meet back there at 7. This 2.5 hour wait gave us a good chance to have a chill out on the grass under the warm Italian sun. We had been go, go, go for the last 2 days so I relished the opportunity to relax and read my Triple J magazine, while Ash worked on her tan.


We met our tour leader, Billy and the rest of the tour group (all 40 of them) for dinner before getting  a proper introduction to most of them at the bar. I crashed out early while Ash partied on (and danced on the bar, I hear) until 1am. I found out that there were three Courtney's on the tour - this was going to get confusing! Tomorrow we are on a ferry bound for Greece.   

Highlights of day 1 and 2:

• Discovering Nutella Brioche (where can I get my hands on these in Perth?)
• Marvelling at the size of the Colosseum
• Being surprised by the number of bones within the Cappuchin Crypt     

My European Adventure: The Beginning

I recently took a month of work for a much needed (and anticipated) holiday. The destination: Europe. This trip was a long time coming - over 12 months planning with my sister, Ashlea who joined me for the adventure.

So with my work in the safe hands of the rest of the ineedhits marketing team, the 17th of May 2011 finally came around and we were off.

Ash and I flew out from Perth with Emirates and although the flight to Dubai was long (11 hours to be precise) we managed to get a few hours sleep. We arrived in Dubai to 32 degrees heat at seven in the morning and flying into the city was quite interesting - lots and lots of sand.

Dubai airport is absolutely huge and our 4 hour stopover was a good chance to hit the duty free stores to determine what we were going  to stock up on during our stopover on the way home (most likely alcohol and chocolate). The tranquillity garden within the airport was certainly a pleasant surprise. To get on our next flight (to Rome) we were put onto a bus and driven directly to the plane. This was our first taste of the Dubai heat and boy was it a shock when the doors opened and we stepped off the bus. The hot air was dry and stifling, so I was pretty happy to walk (run) straight up the stairs onto the flight.

Our flight to Rome wasn't as long as the previous but it was more painful. We firstly had to kick an Italian guy out of Ash's window seat. He was pretty determined to not budge but after 11 hours in the middle seat, Ash was even more determined to get into that coveted window seat. He eventually gave in and moved, but this meant that he was now seated next to me (oh the joy!). He insisted on putting his feet all over the seat in front of him and my seat also (grrr!). So after 6 (long) hours our arrival into Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport couldn't come soon enough for me.

Instead of catching the train (Leonardo Express) into the city we opted for a shuttle bus which actually cost the same price as the train but took us directly to our hotel while giving us our first taste of Rome (and its crazy drivers). We stayed at Hotel Europa for 2 nights and while it did the job for us it was certainly nothing to write home about. It was located 3 blocks from Rome's main train station, Termini which was convenient but it was not the nicest area to be around at night time. After checking in we decided to not let jet lag set in and so we picked up a map and set out to explore the city.

Inside Santa Maria Dogli
Angeli cathedral

 Our first stop was Santa Maria Dogli Angeli which was a cathedral that when I walked inside took my breath away. The architecture and art pieces inside was simply stunning and having this as our first taste of Rome architecture we knew we were in for a treat over the next 3 days. Outside the cathedral was the beautiful fountain and buildings of Piazza della Repubblica. While we couldn't get across to the fountain because of the crazy Rome traffic we managed to get a couple of good photos. 

We ventured on to our next destination: Fontana de Trevi, however we were lucky to make it there as we found the traffic to be pretty crazy. We played chicken with our lives every time we crossed the road. Although we used designated pedestrian crossings, the Roman drivers simply choose to ignore them. There were huge crowds surrounding Fontana de Trevi but we managed to make our way down to the fountain only to realize that we didn't have any coins to throw in. Ooops! 

Beautiful Fontana de Trevi

The night was still young so we continued on to a number of sights including Templo Andriano, Pantheon and Piazza Navona. I have to admit that I was underwhelmed by Pantheon but Piazza Navona was brilliant. There were some beautiful fountains and sculptures. Ash and I were well behaved and didn't venture into the big market in the centre of the piazza, although it was very tempting.

We were pretty keen to eat some fresh pasta (when in Rome and all that), so we found a quaint little restaurant which was a good option in the end because the pasta was home made and pretty well priced. Ash had spaghetti and meatballs, while I had fettuccine with fresh tomatoes and scampi (which I had to peel myself!). We walked past so many gelati stores through our sight seeing that would have been wrong of us not to stop by at least one. So we ate chocolate gelati while walking back to the hotel and it was AMAZING!

When we got back to the hotel we noticed our phones weren't picking up any wi-fi (and our hotel wanted to charge us $10 Euro per hour for internet access!), so we found a little (dodgy looking) internet cafe to send the folks a quick email (we thought Mum would probably be already fretting that she hadn't heard from us). Early night to be for us because we were pretty tired - think the jetlag was kicking in.

Highlights of day 1:

• The great entertainment system on board our Emirates flights
• Surreal feeling of standing at Trevi Fountain
• Best chocolate gelati I have ever eaten
• Very comfortable hotel bed for some much needed sleep