Remembering my adventures
APRIL 17, 2025 Permet was on our scheduled route and we made a brief stop to check out some sites that we had read about. Permet has a huge stone in the centre of town. It is 42 metres (138 ft) high. There are 101 steps to the top where one gets a nice view... Continue Reading →
APRIL 16-17, 2025 Gjirokaster was first mentioned in historic records dating back to the 12th century, when it was part of the Byzantine Empire. It has been fought over by the Greeks, the Albanians and the Ottomans. Today it is a mish-mash of cultures, religions and languages. We got into town and quickly found our... Continue Reading →
APRIL 13-14, 2025 The city of a thousand windows. The first thing we noticed when we pulled into Berat was the houses stuck like barnacles to the side of a cliff, with an old castle on top. The second thing we noticed was that our Airbnb was one of those houses. We went up a... Continue Reading →
APRIL 9 - 13, 2025 The name “Albania” comes from an ancient Ilyrian tribe called Alban. Ptolemy mentions the it in the 2nd century. First and foremost, the roads. The main highways are pretty good, but the secondary roads are crazy winding and narrow. The average speed on the secondary roads is only about 40... Continue Reading →
APRIL 9-13, 2025. Our initial impression of Tirana was not good at all. First of all, the road into town had a speed limit of 50 kph. Our taxi was going 110 and cars were passing us like we were standing still. Then the taxi driver got lost and started losing her mind. She was... Continue Reading →
DECEMBER 11-14, 2024 Our plane landed late at night. We caught a taxi to our Airbnb. Even though the host had given us good directions, they were not so good. It was "Electra road opposite Royal Rose Hotel beside the ADNOC petrol pump". The Royal Rose Hotel was actually a block away, the petrol pump... Continue Reading →
DECEMBER 7-10, 2024 DECEMBER 7-10, 2024 We got back to Istanbul by bus. From the bus station we thought we had negotiated a price from the taxi to take us to our guesthouse. I kept telling him I wanted the meter. He kept insisting that the meter would be more than he was charging. Bullshit!... Continue Reading →
DECEMBER 5, 2024 We all know the story from the Odyssey of the 10 year war between the Greeks and Trojans. The Greeks built a horse out of burnt ship planks and leave it at the gate of Troy. It is an offering to Athena, for destroying her temple. Then the Greeks pretend to sail... Continue Reading →
DECEMBER 4 - 8, 2024 On a hill opposite Çanakkale there is a huge mural of a soldier and a torch. An inscription reads "Stop, Traveler, This Land You Came Without Knowing and Treaded, Is Where an Era Sunk." It is the first two lines of a poem commemorating the Canakkale Victory in WW1. On... Continue Reading →
DECEMBER 4 - 8, 2024 The Battle of Gallipoli was a military campaign in WWI where Britain, France and Russia wanted to weaken the Ottoman Empire by taking control of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Strait; because the Ottoman Empire was in cahoots with the German Empire. Taking control of the two straits would allow a... Continue Reading →
An Old Lady with a Backpack 