Well, thinking of five famous Albanians is harder than thinking of 5 famous Belgians: Mother Theresa of course, King Kog (and Mrs Zog?), Herr Honhxa, the capo dei capi of communisti till he died, Ali Pasha, Norman Wisdom (well he's not actually Albanian but he's very popular with the locals apparently. Now i have set foot on Albanian soil, I can see why they need a laugh.

Anyway, having now covered Andorra to Zimbabwe, it was time to start over with the As, hence Albania. The frontier in the south of Albania/north of Greece was indeed a desolate spot. Pre-warned that the loos had not been cleaned since the country opened up to foreigners (1980s), we hung on for the usual formalities: passport number, DOB, eye colour. Eye colour? Tough if you have different colour eyes or colour contact lenses you forgot to change over that morning. The usual chaos made worse by the fact that the brand new building was not is use and fenced off so cars were forced into a rocky side road where nothing could pass.

So far so good.

And off then to one of the three Unesco world heritage sites in the country, an impressive collection of antiquities from BC, Byzantine, Turkish and Roman times (it was a Roman settlement under Caesar Augustus, established after the battle of Actium in BC31 nearby where Mark Anthony and Cleo P were defeated) still standing and occasionally revealing age-old mosaics in incredible order (largely protected by earthquakes in 400 BC and 1100 AD). Another one due?

Well that was really the highlight as we headed north through treeless mountainous landscapes but with huge lemon tree orchards in the valleys to reach the Albanian answer to the French Riviera, or so the sales blurb has it. Maybe, but not in my lifetime and I plan a long life. Basically a massive building site, new flats all the way up the hill, mostly half finished and soulless.
One of the newer hotels has a sign offering among other facilities a 'swimming poo' . Having looked at it, I could make a claim of misrepresentation but I thought of taking the sign back to the border guards for their loos, but somehow I don't think they have the necessary sense of humour. After all who laughs at Norman Wisdom these days?
Who is funding all this construction? There not even in the Common Bucket and the Lek currency still holds sway instead of the Euro.

Perhaps this is why 20 percent of the population has emigrated since 1980 to look for a better life, but who knows; maybe one day it will take over from the Spanish Costas as the holiday destination of choice, or from Greece if it explodes; no sign of that here where life seems to go on regardless.

Parting shot: as you enter the desolate no-mans-land between the two countries, up pops a fully stocked duty free shop (remember them?) stocked with an amazing range of out of date perfumes, fags and top of the range whiskys stacked in a standalone nissan hut with aircon, the lot. Amazing.

Kalispera