This year’s big adventure was a true step into the unknown. Whilst I normally over-plan my trips, for this one I wouldn’t even know where I was sleeping each night – not just the hotel, but the country! The Albanian Connection is the second trans-European race organised by Lupine Travel, tasking participants with getting from London to Tirana in a week. Most closely resembling the BBC’s Race Across the World, it wouldn’t be quite as simple as hopping on a plane… only buses, trains and ferries would be permitted for long-distance travel, and a series of intermediate checkpoints would not be revealed until the start line!
Not only did I attempt this challenge solo, I also tried to live-blog my progress. Whilst I couldn’t always quite keep up, thanks to those efforts I returned home with both a trip report on Flyertalk and an annotated map of my route on polarsteps (where you can also find a few photos, although only at phone camera quality). As is tradition, it took me many more months to distil out my thoughts into a series of themed posts here… But I now have coverage of both my route and my favourites of the many train journeys; overviews of my short stays in two new countries; and a guide to the most demanding leg, crossing the Adriatic from Italy to Albania.
