Albania Plus
The smiling Italian woman at the Ancona Ferry sales desk said no problem getting me and the bike on to the ferry to Albania. There was a slight delay with the loading, which I assumed was due to the number of vehicles. It was a big ferry and looked like it could take about 2000 passengers and dozens of cars and trucks.
But I was wrong. I was one of only 50 or so passengers, two bikes and 20 trucks. No cars at all. I wandered up to the recliner deck to bag the best seat (pointless – there was nobody else there) and later got talking to an Albanian guy, Clyde. “Nobody wants to go to Albania, they all want to leave,” he sighed. Intrigued, I asked why – wasn’t there any work or tourism or significant industry in Albania? “The biggest business in Albania is stolen cars,” he said. “I have a nearly new Volvo V90 XC. It cost me €3000. I think it came from
