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Central Albania – Cape Rodon, Durrës and Tirana
I started the route towards central Albania in the town of Teth. The first point of my trip was Cape Rodon, also known as the Cape of Skanderbeg. This is definitely a place you must visit while being in Albania. Actually, I could point out three reasons why it’s worth coming here. The first are bunkers, which I wrote about here. The second one is the castle built by Skandenberg in 1452, to defend against the Ottoman Empire. Although it was a hiding place for Skandeberg for a while during the siege of Kruja in 1466, it was destroyed by the Turks only a year later. Currently, only the remains…
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Banjul – the capital that barely exists
Banjul is the capital of The Gambia, though to be fair, it looks more like a sleepy provincial town than the beating heart of a country. Not only is it not the largest city in the nation, but with a population of just 40,000, it ranks eighth in terms of size. No surprise then that it’s one of the smallest capitals in the world. The city is relatively young – it was founded by the British in 1816 as a military outpost to guard the mouth of the Gambia River and enforce the ban on the slave trade. Back then it was called Bathurst, named after the colonial secretary, Lord…
