Albania part 2

 

 

We are now sailing in Albania and looking for a marina to stay. Half way up, app 50 nm from Corfu, we called the Albanian Coast Guard on canal 16 VHF. We called several times but now answer. We even tried to go in to what we thought was a marina but the entrants was too shallow for our boat. We anchored outside behind a big pier and had dinner in our cockpit.

After the meal we decided to sail all night to Durres in the north of Albania.

We arrived at the same time as the sun raised from the horizon and anchored in the big bay outside Durres harbor.

At about lunchtime we woke up and called the harbour master and asked for permission to enter the harbor. Inside the harbour we understood that here wasn´t any marina for sailing yachts .

The people in the harbor was very polite and showed us a place were we could stay with our boat. The place was between to BIG ships and the area in the harbor was´t very nice so we decided once again to go on up to Montenegro and don’t stay in Albania.

We were very sad about this because we really wanted to visit Albania.

 

 

Albania part 1

Albania, part 1

 

Albania is one of Europe’s poorest countries and is still suffering from the time of communist dictatorship. The country is politically unstable and corruption and organised crime are rife. But the economic developments are heading in the right direction.

A third of the population lives on less that two us dollars a day, and many people do not have

access to water, sanitation and schools. The informal economy is huge, and tax income to the government are therefore small.  The small-scale nature of farming and a lack of modern

equipment mean that the farms seldom give more than food to the farmer himself.

Political and economic reforms must, continue, especially as regards corruption and organised crime. Another condition of eu accession is free and fair elections. Respect for human rights is growing in Albania, and a strategy has been drawn up for the integration of Romanies,

and children’s rights have entered the agenda.