Croatia: Dubrovnik

Red-tiled rooftops on the Adriatic shore

Monday 10 June 2013: Only one-minute walk from the tourist office, the Old Town Accommodation guesthouse, hidden within the city fortifications (with no alley name or house number to help), takes me an hour to find, but it's clean and central - ideal.
Tuesday 11: The classic walled-city, Dubrovnik is a great place just to wander around (at least until the cruise liner muppet groups arrive) and take-in the sights - ornate churches, clock towers, gates, ramparts and steep little alleys speckled with shops and restaurants.
Wed 12: 'The' thing to do in Dubrovnik is to walk around atop the extensive city walls and fantastic it is too with great views over the red-tiled rooftops to the port and cliffs below. Iron gates lead out to the rocky outcrop on which the city was built where tipsy revellers plunge into the Adriatic Sea below, cool.
Slideshow of Dubrovnik.

Kotor & Herceg Novi

Fortified mountainside above Kotor

Saturday 8 June 2013: A two-hour bus ride north takes me to the walled town of Kotor and the Hotel Galia on the waterfront.
Sunday 9: It's a strenuous zig-zag climb up to Kotor's mountainside fortifications high above the town but the views back down are just reward. Apple, pear and blackberry cider are the local drinks of choice, the perry (pear) works best for me.
Monday 10: Heading north again I stop briefly at the small castellated town of Herceg Novi before continuing to the mother of all walled towns on the Adriatic coast, Dubrovnik.
Slideshow of Kotor & Herceg Novi.

Montenegro: Budva & Sveti Stevan

Privately owned isle, Sveti Stevan

Friday 7 June 2013: Taxi ride over the border to Ulcinj in Montenegro, then a bus north, along the scenic coastline to Budva, a pretty old walled-town bustling with pink tourists. Once settled in at The little Hobo guesthouse I stroll south, back along the beaches and limestone cliffs, to the pretty fortified isle of Sveti Stevan, sadly all now just a large private hotel complex.
Slideshow of Budva & Sveti Stevan.

Slow train to Shkoder

Slow train clickety-clacking along

Thursday 6 June 2013: Tirana's cute little train station, complete with hand-written national timetable, is a delight. Few people here take the train as buses are newer, quicker and more reliable but I'm happy to relax aboard a well-worn compartment on the 13:10 service to Shkoder. At just 145 lek (about 85p) for the four-hour trip it's a real bargain - comfortable seats, room to walk around and great scenery, fantastic.
All too soon we roll into Shkoder and I settle into the tiny Hostel Mi Casa es Tu Casa before climbing up to Rozafa Fortress for fine views over the town and surrounding countryside. A black olive salad, grilled steak and, of course, a carafe of local red gold wind-up a great day.
Slideshow of the train ride to Shkoder.

Berat

Town of a thousand windows

Tuesday 4 June: Taking the bus south to the UNESCO World Heritage listed town of Berat, I'm lodging in a pleasant old Ottoman home, Lorenc Guesthouse, on the south bank of the river Osum. North of the river is Berat proper, a rare example of Ottoman architecture where a hilltop citadel, The Kale, defends the open town below. Tiered down the rocky mountainside the oblong houses have numerous south-facing windows to make maximum use of the prevailing sunshine, "the town of a thousand windows". It's a glum day but views from the fortress summit are spectacular.
Slideshow of Berat.

Kruja

Skanderbeg's castle remains

Monday 3 June: I jump on the local bus for a trip to the nearby mountainside village of Kruja, once the home of Skanderbeg, Albania's national hero. Easily recognisable by his goat-head helmet he remains a symbol of Christian resistance against the Ottoman Turks. Little of the original castle still stands but the cloud-shrouded mountain landscape makes a pleasant break from busy city life.
Slideshow of Kruja.

Albania: Tirana

Generations of architectural styles

Finally, my laptop and I are up and running again!
Saturday 1 June: Not sure what I was expecting of Tirana, Albania's capital city, but it's a pleasant surprise with only the slight whiff of isolationist Communism remaining. Tirana's restaurants and bars are modern, trendy and full of emerging middle-class youngsters and with few beggars on the streets, and no hassles, it's a pleasant city to wander around before I retire to my cosy en-suite room in the comfortable Hotel Arleea.
Sunday 2: The green Skanderbeg square, surrounded by a whole range of architectural styles, is fantastic and the fresco-fronted national museum seems worth a visit, but disappointingly, it's full of little more than old religious icons. The Galerie E Arteve is far better with a fascinating collection of Communist era art as well as historic and modern impressions.
Wednesday 5 June: Back in Tirana again I dine, for the last time, in my favourite restaurant, Era. Great messes, rich red wine, I'm sad to leave.
Slideshow of Tirana.

Kosovo: Pristina

Europe's newborn nation, Kosovo

Tuesday 28 May: Taking the afternoon train to the Kosovo border I change trains and soon arrive in this new country's capital city, Pristina. With all the feel of a provincial town only the train driver and I disembark at the deserted station and there's not even a taxi in sight. I ask at the empty station bar, it's only a short walk to the centre of town.
Friday 31: Nine-foot tall lettering decorated with the flags of all the nations who accept Kosovo's legitimacy is Pristina's only monument, not a statue in sight. The Serbs gutted the city's museum before withdrawing so all it now houses is a sad assortment of small arms from the conflict.
I'm staying at Guesthouse Velania where an American UN worker befriends me. He's showing me to a good local restaurant when we bump into one of his Kosovan friends, Bujar Berisha, who in typical Muslim hospitality style insists that we eat at his home. I say yes but only if I can bring some beer as a gift. He reluctantly agrees as he has plenty of beer at home and I am a guest in his new hard fought-for country. The Berisha family live in a large comfortable apartment where his two loving kids are keen to practice their English. His wife is out so Bujar makes us a starter of olives and dried beef followed by a simple pasta dish and more beer. Bujar is the charismatic lead singer and front man of the region's most popular heavy metal band, Troja. Later his wife returns and the boys adjourn to the band's recording studios on the other side of town. Another band, Jericho, are there when we arrive, via a liquor store, with more beers. We talk of music and how challenging it was for young musicians in Tito's Yugoslavia to hear western bands - Beatles, Stones and Noel Redding (of the Hendrix Experience fame). There's much drinking, smoking and music until around midnight when Bujar drives us to his favourite bar. It's the one at the station, but now it's heaving. Everyone knows Bujar and beers come our way from all directions. At around 3:00am he drives us back to the guesthouse and gives me a Troja CD to remember him by, good evening, great Albanian Muslim guy.
Saturday 1 June: Bus to Tirana.
Slideshow of Pristina and videos of Troja playing Amaneti i Clownit and Mretnesha Kohe.