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Railways of Albania

A few more photos seeing as people seem to be interested -

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Just go to India with a lonely planet and go to all the places that aren't in it
 
teuchter said:
No, I've not. I kind of have a thing about going places which aren't popular destinations and I have an image of India just being full of teenage backpackers. Probably totally unjustified of course.

I enjoyed the various documentaries about Indian railways that were on BBC4 recently though. And that film a couple of years ago...forgotten the name for a minute...about the three brothers who end up on a train across India.
Click to expand...

india's plenty big enough that you can get way, way off the tourist trail and experience some 'proper' travelling. the railway network is incredible, you would've got a good idea of what it's like from those progs, they were really good. i've had numerous amazing journeys by rail there. it's so cheap, and it works. travelling through rural india in a basic couchette-style sleeper coach is brilliant - a bed at night and a compartment by day. love it!

the suburban commuter trains in mumbai though, fuck me that has to be seen (and experienced) to be believed. it IS as bad as you've heard, if not worse! mental.

namaste

23
 
Aye, some day I shall have to do a trip to India I guess.

I've done some long trips in Russia on the couchette by night/compartment by day setup...very relaxing way to travel I find although I think it might drive some people a bit nuts basically sitting in the same 5 square metres for several days...

At the moment my eye is on a rail trip to Iran and I'd like to go to some of the "stans" too...


You should have a read of this thread too by the way, and the blog it links to - absolutely brilliant read if you enjoy obscure train journeys -

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/threads/335395-The-Forbidden-Railway-Vienna-to-Pyongyang
 
Great stuff thanks, I went Albania (via Durres from Bari by ferry) and it was fascinating, bit of a hustle, mind, in Durres especially.

Tirana was cool, only place I've ever been where the first local we saw said hello just before pulling a gun out of his pocket, shooting a hole in the ceiling of the bar, and walking out. No-one batted an eyelid (well i did, obviously).

Quality pics, nice one
 
Cheers Teuchter. I was just watching Albanian trains on YouTube yesterday.
Makes my recent rail Romanian experiences (bizarre timetable, canellations, slightly fecked up trains etc) pale into comparison. :cool:
 
Good pics teuchter. I would have liked to have done this when I went on the Malaysian railways but we always got the night trains so I only really managed a few pictures. :(
 
Those CKD locomotives still work well if they are maintained, one was pulling my train from Ljubljana to Budapest back in May thought in the Czech Rep and Slovakia they
do light freight and shunting.
 
It's a load of lovely pictures, and like someone else said, sad, too. Ta for posting. Glad I stopped by.

"Railways of Albania" is now the title of a song or poem I haven't written yet. :)
 
Isambard said:
Those CKD locomotives still work well if they are maintained, one was pulling my train from Ljubljana to Budapest back in May thought in the Czech Rep and Slovakia they
do light freight and shunting.
Click to expand...

A strange thing with the locos: at each stop, the driver shut the engine down, then started it up when it was time to go. Even for stops of just a few minutes. I've never seen that before. Desperate measures to save fuel? :confused:
 
Steel☼Icarus said:
It's a load of lovely pictures, and like someone else said, sad, too. Ta for posting. Glad I stopped by.

"Railways of Albania" is now the title of a song or poem I haven't written yet. :)
Click to expand...

One thing I read which I thought was quite nice, is that apparently until quite recently, the railway "company" didn't have a name, like SNCF or BR or whatever. They were just the trains, and the state ran them, and that was that. No messing around.
 
teuchter said:
One thing I read which I thought was quite nice, is that apparently until quite recently, the railway "company" didn't have a name, like SNCF or BR or whatever. They were just the trains, and the state ran them, and that was that. No messing around.
Click to expand...

Yes. I like that, too.
 
Isambard said:
Doing that would surely be wasting fuel if the stop was only for a couple of minutes?
Click to expand...

Dunno, possibly...I'm trying to remember now whether it was a feature of both the journeys I did or just the one - maybe it isn't normal practice and there was just something wrong with that particular engine.
 
Top stuff. Do you have any more trips to pull from the archives? If not, be sure to post the future ones.
 
Ooh I loved those photos....the scenery does look rugged and beautiful...fantastic documentary feel to it all....so glad you posted them. I have very good Albanian friends in Greece..desperate for things to pick up so they can return home, and they're working their socks off to have the money to take back for a new start. Their kids have lived in Greece longer than Albania now, but even they are so looking forward to going back...whether they ever do or not remains to be seen....do you have any more rail journeys in other countries that you could post?
Did you just find a hotel to stay in at Tirana overnight?
 
clicker said:
Ooh I loved those photos....the scenery does look rugged and beautiful...fantastic documentary feel to it all....so glad you posted them. I have very good Albanian friends in Greece..desperate for things to pick up so they can return home, and they're working their socks off to have the money to take back for a new start. Their kids have lived in Greece longer than Albania now, but even they are so looking forward to going back...whether they ever do or not remains to be seen....
Click to expand...

Maybe they'd be better off in Albania than Greece at the moment...

clicker said:
Did you just find a hotel to stay in at Tirana overnight?
Click to expand...

Yes, just rolled off the train and went by a couple of places in the guidebook and one had a room. It was a place that called itself a "hostel" but it was just a cheap hotel really. It was fine. I'm not sure how easy it would be finding somewhere cheap to stay elsewhere in Albania: I think most of the hotels tend to be aimed at business travellers so possibly in other cities it wouldn't be quite so easy.



paolo999 said:
Top stuff. Do you have any more trips to pull from the archives? If not, be sure to post the future ones.
Click to expand...

clicker said:
do you have any more rail journeys in other countries that you could post?
Click to expand...

The thing is, I've done loads and loads of trips, mostly all over Europe but I haven't really documented most of them (or not the rail aspects anyway). The ones that I do have a few photos from though...

London-Vladivostok via the trans-Siberian
Canada trans-continental (with diversion to Hudson Bay)
Some of the Duoro branch lines in Portugal (one of which is soon to become victim of a hydro-electric scheme, I learnt recently)
Up across the Arctic circle in the north of Sweden
The west highland line (London-Fort William sleeper)(if that counts as "other countries")

Take your pick.
 
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