good talk

Malta my 109th bought a ticket to Athens for 200 U.S. total at an agency used it the same day. I've been to Athens a zillion times it's always beyond great but only there so I could advance northward.  Very safe people seem downtrodden.  Had decent cheap lodging at Omonoia Square where even the Commies have abandoned their longtime headquarters. Went to the fabled Archeological Museum closed my last 2 visits due to the Greeks' Sloth and saw my old friends the bronze statue of Zeus pulled from the sea, 5th cent. B.C. and the marble statue of the wounded Gallic Warrior able to defend himself for the instant, 1st cent. B.C.  Climbed to the Acropolis and saw the perfections (Lord Elgin did the world a favor by taking the Marbles to the British Museum where they've been safe).  The "New Acropolis Museum," 2009 is real fab. Took the bus to Tirana, Albania glad to leave on May 1 as everything closed.  Beautiful scenery buses are always cheap and I often prefer them to trains anyway.  Been to Albania before pop. 3 mil, Tirana founded by the Ottoman Turks in 1614 half Moslem half Orthodox today.  Albania ruled by Communist leader Enver Hoxha from 1944 to 1985 and closed off from the rest of the world until 1989. Took bus to Durres on the Adriatic Sea Albania's 2nd City founded in the 7th cent. by the Greeks it became a very important port of Rome's.  The amphitheatre from 2nd cent. A.D. sat 20 thou only excavated in the 1960's it's basically unrestored and a lot of fun to walk around within.