I'm in Europe

[Sulaboy]

So I've been gone since June 22nd until July 25th. I'm in Albania, a neat little Balkan country, I'm here for my uncle's wedding. So being here for 30 something days I need something to remind myself to take pictures along with giving me something to do when I have Internet so I figured I'd share my time here and give some information about this place.

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An interesting street name.


This is a kind of traditional outfit for some of the northern regions of Albania. No one really wears these in public except for special occasions like weddings.


Here's a picture of a World War Two bunker that had been converted into a tattoo parlor. We saw it on the side of the road and decided to check it out.


Here's a sketch of Skanderbeg which was outside the tattoo shop.


An old bridge across a river bed. You can see that large field of rocks behind it, after winter when the snow starts to melt tons of water flows through this. The water level can almost reach above the bridge during that time.


The view across lake Shkodër. The lakes famous for something I can't remember, and it has to die with it's elevation.


Some graffiti in English.

[Wubs4Scrubs]

Thanks for sharing!

For some reason even though I know where Albania is on the map I always think it's in Africa at first.

[Sulaboy]

Thanks for sharing!

For some reason even though I know where Albania is on the map I always think it's in Africa at first.

No problem, I'll probably be sharing some stuff periodically.

Africa probably pops into mind because of the name or the proximity to the Middle East, but it's in Europe alright.

[Mister Jeether]

neat'o

[Sulaboy]

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Castle Shkodër



A dam near amiright?



Nice



Now for the cool stuff

Going to Valbona on a barge into the mountains.


View from the bed I spent the first night up there in.


I went hiking, and ended up taking a trail between two of the towns through the mountain. About 15km and ended up going about a kilometer up. Being from Florida this was a challenge. I got a nice picture of me standing heroically on the peak eating a bag of chips (Also this bag of lays was pumped up because air pressure changing). Hike started behind that hill about where the red dot was.


Catholic Church in the mountain.


Battle tower in Theth.


What was left of an old gun in a gun port.


The church, and tower were all on the hike to this waterfall. Ended up hiking with a nice group of people from Spain which is neat because I speak a little Spanish.


I've got some neat lore to share too. Albania has some cool legends.

[Jaketeaking]

looks very nice. honestly, the only things I knew about Albania were all the stolen cars that somehow end up there, and that the most popular car make there is Mercedes.
thanks for opening my eyes a bit.

[Sulaboy]

looks very nice. honestly, the only things I knew about Albania were all the stolen cars that somehow end up there, and that the most popular car make there is Mercedes.
thanks for opening my eyes a bit.

There's a tell for if a car was stolen. Cars don't get stolen here as often now, but if you see one with a red license plate it was present during the end of communism here, and hence probably stolen at some point.

[Jaketeaking]

I meant, they often get stolen from other countries, and end up in Albania.

[Sulaboy]

I meant, they often get stolen from other countries, and end up in Albania.

And get liscensed under the red tags when the government was very lax here.

[Jaketeaking]

ahh, misunderstood what you meant, sorry.

[sicktrigger]

Here's a picture of a World War Two bunker that had been converted into a tattoo parlor. We saw it on the side of the road and decided to check it out.

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[Sulaboy]

The bunkers are no joke here man. A lot of them have been broken apart for their steel, but you'll still see bunches of them in fields. Also hello Hoxha.

[ThesoldierLLJK]

Why do I have the sudden urge to say Glory to Arstotzka after looking at all your pictures.

[Sulaboy]

Why do I have the sudden urge to say Glory to Arstotzka after looking at all your pictures.

Alright I got a bit of a funny story. So my family went to Montenegro to see some more family. My grandfather's brother is kind of a butcher, and was going to sell some meat. The way he handed it off was by selling it to the Albanian border officer. The guy walked up the hill from his side of the border to the Montenegro side to pick up this box of meat.

So yeah the border is pretty chill here.

[Sulaboy]

Alright my time here is coming to and end. I'm leaving tomorrow morning, and because of a real early flight I get back home on the same day.

Over the last week here I spent most of my time swimming in this cool river, and at the beach because it has been really hot here. I could see Italy from the beach so that was pretty neat.

I did go back to Montenegro to meet with a family friend and see some cool stuff. Me and my brother got to walk across the border post, and we spent two days out there. Also the officers at the checkpoints are still using pistols left over from communist times.

What ended up happening was we went to Budva. Budva is known in Montenegro for its beaches and the nightlife. It's a popular tourist destination, and sees a lot of rich people showing up.

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Beaches were nice, and the water was pretty clear. The place was pretty crowded, but that's normal here.


Budva's castle. An old place that's now full of night clubs and jewelers. We walked around the place for a while.


Some pictures from Google, because mine don't do the place justice. It's a beautiful place.


My friend got us a ride on a boat, and we had a good time.

This isn't my friends boat. We saw this while pulling out of the harbor. It's the tenth largest yacht in the world and has its own wiki page.

So that is the end of this adventure, unless anyone really wants pics of Istanbul's airport. I had a pretty good time over here. Hope you guys enjoyed learning some of this obscure information.

Edit: Added spoiler tags to all the pictures and past posts because everything must be optimized