Today we're off to Albania for a day trip. We're 1hr30 from the bordering town Shkodër which has an old castle and a photography museum.

The drive there isn't ideal and is on the back roads, seems there's no major road unless you come from Podgorica which is the capital of Montenegro.

The border crossing isn't too arduous and takes around 30 minutes to get through.

Shortly into Albania we hear horns beeping and then see people hanging out of cars, looked very strange until we then saw what we presumed was a wedding car so perhaps this is some sort of tradition.

As we get closer to the castle the roads start to narrow and the traffic gets chaotic. Google maps suggests we take a tiny gravel road but we decline and decide to find somewhere else to park.

It's quite a climb up to the castle and in this heat Liliya is really struggling so Al puts her on his shoulders. It's actually the first time she's needed them this holiday which is very good going considering she's had several late nights and done a lot of walking.

When we get to the top turns out there was actually space to park but it would have been very risky especially if we'd have met something coming the other way.

Once in my anxiety is through the roof. We've visited many castles back home but our level of health and safety means it's much more difficult to get to the edge of the wall and find a sheer drop of death on the other side and Liliya hasn't really developed her own sense of fear yet so I'm on high alert making sure they are within hand holding distance constantly.

We were able to get some beautiful views across the Albanian mountains and the kids wanted to go for a swim in the river.

As we got further along we saw people eating ice cream which of course on this hot day would be very welcomed and as we toothed the corner we found a small restaurant. €12 later and in a shaded corner we were all enjoying the cold ice creams.

Next door to the restaurant we found a museum with artifacts and relics found on the site. Although it was an extra fee we decided to go in since I doubt we'll be back in Albania any time soon so need to make the most of it.

It was a fascinating display of coins, weapons, mosaics and more.

After the visit we headed back to the van thankfully en route finding a small souvenir shop where we could buy our van sticker and tree bauble (last year when we spent a day in Bosnia we failed to find either which has always frustrated me so wanted to get one at the first opportunity).

Next we set the sat nav to take us to the photography museum. I think the roads around the area must have changed since the maps were made as it was constantly trying to send us the wrong way down one way streets.

We eventually found out way there through utter carnage and I was so glad Al was driving. It reminded me of somewhere like Morocco or Egypt. Tiny roads and people selling anything and everything along the roadside.

Being as we were only here one day we hadn't got any local currency since many places take Euros or bank cards but the museum wanted local cash. It took ages for us to find some and we had to pay an extortionate fee for such a small amount.

The photography display however was worth it, a fascinating look into various old photos from a couple of locals who became known for their talents and were even asked to photograph royalty.

On the way back Al pulled in a couple of km from the border as I really wanted to log a run in Albania. It was very short but every little counts.

As we got back to the border all I can say is I'm not sure why they bothered. The Albania side just saw I was holding passports and waved us through then on the Montenegrin side again the same except he wrote 4 on a piece of paper!

I then questioned whether we had been given a stamp earlier in the day and turns out we hadn't so we came all the way into a new country and no passport stamp to show for it 😭

Back at our campsite for the last night and we managed to do a spot of bird spotting and relaxing by the river.

We have a couple more days in Montenegro but are moving north to Kotor tomorrow.