Albania ( Tirana) part 1

Albania
My travel experience of Albania
5 days in Albania, time is short, fears are more, expectation is low.
Fears before travel:

1. Yogoslavia war and continuous negative news in media makes it a difficult choice for the tourist to go to Albania. 
2. No proper public transport information on internet.
3. pick pocketing and money frauds.

Why I decided to go
My last trip to Dubrovnik ( Croatia) and Bosnia made beautiful memories of southern Europe. The people, food and the nature is totally different then other developed EU countries. I thought that Albania being next to Greece and with a long coast line is worth visiting. Also Albania being 70% Muslims pulls me religiously.
Plan
Plan was simple we need to see 3 famous( based on internet) cities of Albania in 5 days.
Cities are

1. Tirana ( Capital) and KRUJA CASTLE
2. Durres ( sea side/beaches)
3. Berat ( South of Albania)

Flight

The biggest disadvantage of Albania is poor flight connections. The flights are usually expensive and rarely possible to find diect flight to big cities in europe ( other then Italy and neighboring countries). The flights are usually costly and takes longer time due to connection. I took AirSerbia, it restarted its service 3 years back with Eitehad and improving slowly but planes( ATR72) are small and old and takes long time to reach.

View before landing

Hotel and transport

Choice of hotel was difficult as I like to staynear center so to see the city in night by just walking around and easily reachable. Albania the hotels seems to be more expensive then I expected and 1 night near center cost nearly 30Euro/ room in decenet 3 star hotel. which i think is little expensive for this city in a non-tourist season ( November). I made booking for Hotel BROADWAY, its wasn't far from center and hotel agreed to pickup from airport in 15 Euro ( for all 3 people).

I recommend to either preorder a pickup or use taxi to go hotel ( it can cost from 12 to 25 Euro), some buses do go to center but I find it not easy to access or understand.

Arrival at Rinas Airport ( Tirana)

Tirana is the only international aiport, the immigration officer were very friendly and with in 15 min almost all people form the flight got the immigration process done. 

Its a small airport and 3 belts run for the luggage and flghts are not very frequent so its not very crowded. there is Exchange office just in front of the luggage belts. There is also an City information office at the airport but closed may be as it wasnt a tourist season for them.

First Impression

The first impression of the city is not very appealing, the street looks messy, shops looks under construction and buildings are made over long time as structure is not uniform. Traffic was just chaos.

Hotel, people and currency

It was a family run Hotel and  was simple but nicely managed. People gave a great positive energy, they are warm welcomming and smiling and helpful. The currency is LEK and you get nearly 136 LEk in 1 Euro. ( some cultural issue is there and still people use thousand to actually say 100 ) I am not sure why but most of the people would say you amount in thouand but they mean in reality in hundreds ( of course not for cheating any one, its just common for them ).

Safety

The fast impression wasn't that nice but walking around in city day and night in narrow and dark streets we feel quite safe as a lot of locals ( specially women) are walking in the streets and they have a lot of grocery shops in every street and local area. I always keep small cash in pocket accordign to daily need and avoid dark places but in Tirana We walked in night in very narrow streets through shortcuts to reach our destination and luckily nothing bad happened and we didn't feel great insecurity too.

What to see in Tirana

It depend on person interest, if you like museums then its good to see 

National Historical Museum

National Art Museum

Science Museum( near University)

I like center, squares, food streets so I recommend spend more time 

near the center square, the natioanal museum is also there and cost 1 Euro.

walk from center towards the University and all famous places like presidence house etc are covered.

Rina park is also a worth visiting place. Ottomon times old bridge and dictator house is also impressive to see.

View from the University

 University

 President/ prime minister house

 Street dogs are common and will accompany you where you go :)

 Bunkers form the war time at Rina park

 Pyramid

 Cloud structure near the architecture museum

 Mosque near the square

 National museum of arts

Newly built church in a mosque style

Food

Tirana( Albania) offers one of the best cuisines of Europe, the quality of vegetable,meat and overall food is unmatchable  to any northern or western European countries. The restaurant offers a big variety and very economical. A complete menue at a decent restaurant including starter, drink, main food and the sweet cost just around 8 Euro per person. 

My recommendation for Food is restaurant name ERA. ( I can write in another blog where to eat what )

Coban Kavurma ( Lamb meat)

Fergesse

Lamb meat dish ( forgot the name)

Trileche

Overall I think its a pity that Albania is a underrated Country for tourism. The country has great potential and I totally recommend tourist to go there without fear.

Dinner in Milan, Itlay

Milan is a beautiful city, specialty famous for exhibition, expo and business meetings. The city is a complete mixture of different nationalities and almost everywhere you can find the English translations of boards, menu and advertisements.

The plan is to have a Italian style dinner in the center of town in an old famous Italian restaurant. Make the booking before on weekends as the restaurants are fully crowded and people queue outside for a place. The restaurant chosen is Santa Marta restaurant, near Duomo (city center).

Italian style: Italian are really good eaters, I haven't seen any other who eat this much amount and spend 3-4 hours just for dinner.

The booking s made form 08:00 pm and that's actually little early time for locals to eat dinner, the dinner actually starts from 08:30 and goes till midnight. The menu are with a 2 types of starters,some bread and snacks are on the table all the time, then comes the white or red wine, then a middle dish of pasta and finally the main dish,lastly there is sweet. The service is repetitively slow,may be just to make the food digested till the next dish come. Finishing everything from the plate is a common practice and locals eat everything whatever served.

See whats offered in a restaurant in Italian way.

starter bread, the back one is really nice,its like bread baked and then dried .

Potato snacks are crispy and I think a paste of potato with flavor is deep fried

4 different style of marinated fish with vinegar, olive and salt and steamed prawn in the middle

steamed vegetables with olive oil

Pasta with a fish sauce

small pasta with a tomato sauce

Fried Fish with lemon, nice taste but not sure what type of fish it taste like chicken and feel like the fish meat is pressed in this shape and then fried

Steamed spinach with salt. Little garlic and yogurt would make it good

Soft cookies made form white part of egg 

I could hardly eat half the things,but I think they offer according to local eating style.

Lugano, Switzerland

If you are in Milan, the best thing you can do is to to travel to city LUGANO, its in north of Italy and less than 100 Km from Milan.

The easiest way is to take a direct train from MILAN CENTRAL STATION (centrale) to Lugoano , which takes nearly hour

Milan railway station (centrale)

Train at Milan

and 10 min and cost 23 Euro one way. The train is fast and run German and Italian company. There are many options of train but better take the train which is going to Zurich and Lugano is a stop in between,

 Lugano Train Station

Lugano train station

View from the train

Its a  small city surrounded by white top mountains and three sides covered with the Lugano lake, the lake is huge enough to give a view of a sea. The nature, cleanliness and street view is just marvelous and can't be expressed in words.

 Street view Lugano

Walking towards the Lake

From the train station, take the exit from the right (the main building) and go down the street till towards the lake, it takes nearly 10 min to reach to the lake by walking. The streets have old style shops and beautifully decorated cafes. There is McDonald just in front of the lake view. 

Restaurant on the streets of Lugano

 Lake 

food street 

Pumpkin sweet selling on the street

Walk as much as you can on the pedestrian walk lanes near the lake and every view is spectacular. Don't forget to walk inside the town center and small streets connecting the center hall, there are multiple street vendors and shops which offers some unique things like food and souvenirs. When you get tired then walk to the shopping mall named MANOR LUGANO, it has 5 floors and sells almost everything from electronics, cosmetics to clothing, There is also a supermarket in the -1 floor and you can find many cheap swiss/Italian chocolates and snacks.

Manor shopping mall

There are many things to see in the city and main attraction can be seen within 4 hours but time spent  sitting next to lake and enjoying the lake view is just uncountable. 

 Foutain next the lake and good wished from me ( have a wonderful travel)

Milan before the travel

Lets get ready to travel Milan, Issues are
1- Which airport to take
2- How will I reach Center
3- Where to stay
4- How much it will cost
From search on internet and information from friends staying in Milan, I am up to following knowledge
1- Its not actually a tourist city and mostly famous for expo and business meeting, just a church and few ruins form Roman empire can be the tourist attraction.
2- Its not safe in night and Mian people are clever to cheat you.
3- Its highly overrated city and few night stay will cost more then any average EU city.
4- Its mixture of many nationalities and I will experience something mixture for many foreigners living in this city.

First things First>>>>>WHICH airport
MILAN has 3 airports
1-Malpensa airport, (MXP) it is located East of Milan and most of the International flight uses this airport
2-Linate airport, nearest from the  center of the city and often used for domenstic flights in Italy
3- Bergamo airport, its located west of Milan and actually its not for city Milann but many cheap airlines uses this airport and show it as Milan airport in their websites.
So It is decided that I will be using the MXP airport by Czech Airlines from Prague to Milan,
How to reach Center
The train leaves every 30 min from the MXP airport and cost 12 Euro per one way and 18Euro for 2 way. Thejourney takes 30 min without stops and 45 min if train make stops. The train station is located at terminal 1.time table and online tickets can be found here http://www.malpensaexpress.it/it/malpensa-express/home.aspx
The buses are also available and takes nearly 1 hour to reach to the central station and cost 8-10 Euro.
Where to stay
I book hotel from www.booking.com and found Milan really expensive. even 2 or 3 star hotels are nearly 70Euro per night. I like staying near the center so I can see the city in night walking but Milan reviews shows that center parts are not soo safe in the night and it will be a difficult choice to make, but Metro looks like goes every where in the city.
Hopefully 300 Euro for 3 nights with food will be a good deal.
Things to see
very short choice
1- Milan cathedral
2- Roman ruins
3- Sforza castle


Hope to have a good stay. I will share my experience after travel