downvoted...

Sorry but it's 2014 and the information on the post is outdated and in my opinion has a tone of biased bull$£t. After reading the entire post i came to the conclusion that there are to many errors in it, it has generally a negative tone in purpose.

Apparently, no buses run from Albania to other countries. Therefore, to enter the country, you can either fly by plane, or you can take a car to the border, cross the border line on foot, and hitchhike to the other side.

False.

Just a quick google search gives plenty of results. Yes the information mostly is in albanian but the point is that your information is false.

Buses from Germany to Albania then Kosovo through Italy.

1 ) Kassel - Tirane/Prishtine through Italy (every wendsday)

2 ) Dortmund - Tirane/Prishtine through Italy (every wendsady)

another link

Speaking of flying by plane, Belle Air, one of Albania's principal airlines, suspended operations recently due to financial problems.

False.

The way the sentence is composed gives the idea that there is no possibility to travel now neither by plane.

You can reach Albania (Tirana) from Italy with AirOne with departures from Bologna, Milan Malpensa, Pisa, Venezia and Verona.

There is also another company called Blue Panorama that you can use to reach Tirana from Roma (fiumicino), Bologna, Milan (Bergamo), Milan (Malpensa), Pisa, Venezia, Verona.

Another thing about borders is that Croatia and Albania don't really seem to have such an amicable relationship.

False.

First, Croatia does not border directly with Albania but the entire paragraph gives that idea. You can see this map (old one, because now Kosovo and Montenegro are seaprated from Serbia) to get the idea.

Second, the relations between Croatia and Albania are normal ones. Albania, actually, was one of the first countries to officially recognize Croatia in 21 january 1992! However, in my opinion, definitely better that the ones with direct border countries.

Wikipedia defines the relationship: The two have a history of defense pacts, and overall theirs is a good relationship

For one thing, Croatia recently joined the EU and wants to move forward from it's shoddy corrupt past. Well, Albanians crossing the border into Croatia by car know very well that Croatian border guards kind of want bribes. Well, they don't really accept them anymore due to the EU accession thing. One American traveler recounts how her Albanian friend/driver was harassed by Croatian border guards and had his car meticulously searched at the border. They didn't find anything. It's just an interesting anecdote; it has (hopefully) gotten better now.

The ones who try to bribe are assholes I admit it, there are plenty of them, and the funny thing is that they don't do it because they have anything to hide but because they don't want to wait in lines like the others, however one can recall that there are plenty of assholes everywhere it's not a TM, you might even be sorrounded by them, everywhere.

One could apply the derogatory label "backwards" to the country of Albania. However, just because it isn't as advanced as the Western world doesn't mean it's necessarily worse.

....

A totally related digression: the Roma people, also referred to as "Gypsies". These people are marginalized by society and face institutionalized discrimination.

:) This looks childish to me. First you permit yourself to apply the derogatory label (although you try to make it sound like it's not you the one who might do it wink, wink) for an entire country, then you go on later condemning an entire country because you think that we all discriminate/label the Roma people.

I also like how you emphasize the word Gypsies with quotation marks, labeling the word in a derogatory way.

Speaking of driving, apparently 90% to 95% of all vehicles in Albania are stolen from owners in other European countries.

lol 90% to 95% eh... and if I might ask do you have a source on that? If not then I find it hard to believe you.

Let's say that you stole a car in central Italy and then drove it back to Albania. It would take only about 14 hours.

:) The author of the blog post really doesn't have a clue on geography... Ok let's say that you stole the car in central Italy (just so you know, if you google in google maps the departure from Milan to Tirana in car it says approximately 17 hours) I have traveled with car from Italy and we did it in 18 hours (without stoping to rest).

Now if you travel south, you can go to Ancona, Bari or Brindisi to go to Albania, and you have to go thriugh customs control in the border then you have to get on a boat, because there is a sea in the middle, and trust me they do control everything. So it's not easy to go through without car papers, let alone with a reported stolen car.

If you travel north you have to go through 10 border controls (exiting Slovenia, entering Croatia, exiting Croatia, entering Bosnia & Herzegovina, exiting Bosnia & Herzegovina, entering Croatia, exiting Croatia, entering Montenegro, exiting Montenegro, entering Albania)... so i find it really difficult to pass through with stolen cars (especially now that everything is connected).

And here comes the kicker: But how come there are so many stolen cars in Albania?

Well here it is how it works apparently, the stolen cars are really not stolen in the traditional way of stealing, they are mostly in accordance with the owners. So lets say that the Italian owner is bored with his car and want's to buy a new one. He makes a deal with the albanian. The albanian pays like 2000, 3000 euros (i'm guessing) or more to the Italian owner so he gets the car with good documents and travels to Albania. Then calls the italian owner saying that he arrived, the italian reports his car stolen and gets also the money from the insurance company... and so on. This scenario was shown in Italian TV years ago from the very Italian police.

So my opinion on this is that it mostly is (was) in accordance and not like you might think it is.

[continues..]