Category: travel

Visiting Newquay (Nookie), Cornwall

On By Rick McIn food, travelLeave a comment

I knew nothing of nothing Cornish aside from Port Isaac, home to the Doc Martin TV series.

Actually, that comedy is a pretty good introduction to Cornwall. 😀

I’d return to Cornwall anytime. There’s so much to do and see.

Doc Martin coastal scenery. Charming British attractions.

My Ryanair flight landed me in Newquay. What a terrific tourist town!

I stayed 4 nights.

Turns out Newquay is the undisputed surf capital of the UK.

Surfers sometimes show up here and never leave.

Of course this was originally a medieval fishing hamlet.

By the 1800s, tin mining and china clay industries were important here.

After WW II, tourism boomed with the rise of guesthouses, holiday parks, and family beach vacation spots. Newquay was most known as a PARTY TOWN — before rebranding to attract more families.

I was here for hiking. Enjoying several walks a day up and down the coast.

In September, huge beaches still busy with surfers & tourists.

This attraction is photographed by all. Perched atop a 70-foot-high granite sea stack right in the middle of Towan Beach, a unique home is connected to the mainland cliffside by a dramatic 100-foot-long private suspension footbridge.

Though summer 2026 was warm and fairly dry with the climate change European heat wave, Newquay normally gets 150 – 200 rainy days a year. Plenty of overcast. BRIGHT colours are important in this kind of climate.

Best was sunset over the Atlantic.

No colour correction.

I did find prices high in 2026. Many things 50 – 100% more expensive than in Canada. Few bargains.

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Race from London to Istanbul

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I bumped into a competitor during the Trans-European Race from London to Istanbul August 2026.

He was one of 200 participants traveling using only public transport and walking — no flights.

Everyone chooses their own route. You WIN by getting to the finish fastest, while collecting as many points en route as possible. You get points for taking a photo of specific locations based on clues.

I believe each had to take a mandatory 12-hour stop somewhere along the line. You can’t go sleepless

My gent had hit every checkpoint but one. Yet was worried he wouldn’t make it to Istanbul by cutoff.

Only 91 of the 200 made it on time.

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Mixed Feelings – Tirana, Albania

On By Rick McIn food, government, hiking, travelLeave a comment

Albania is cool in 2026. Especially the Albanian Riviera.

Almost every tourist online has a lot of praise for Albania.

Once the “North Korea of Europe“, Albania is frantically trying to become the next Greece for tourists.

Inland Berat is great. I hear Gjirokastër is terrific, too.

The capital, Tirana, is NOT one of the tourist highlights. Fly in and leave as quickly as possible. The airport is terrible in 2026, by the way.

Taking walking tours of the centre on a hot day, I concluded this must be the most boring capital city in the world.

The only attraction to write home about is weird and wonderful Pyramid of Tirana. On top is the place to be at night.

Children sliding down the pyramid.

The inexplicable structure was co-designed by daughter of former dictator Enver Hoxha — and nobody has settled on best function. Numerous proposals to demolish the thing have been pitched — but I hope they keep it.

There are some impressive religious buildings.

Resurrection Cathedral, Tirana
The Namazgah Mosque near Skanderbeg Square

This thing was closed.

I did enjoy walking the Grand Park of Tirana close to the city centre.

Tried to go to the Botanic Gardens — which seemed to be closed — so bought a ticket to the animal prison. The zoo is bad, as I expected, needing funds for reparations and animal care.

After a week hiking Accursed Mountains, crossing between Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro — some of our group finished the trip with an excellent meal downtown.

Food fantastic.

Walking town on Saturday night after dinner, I started to see why tourists like the lively cafe culture, and budget-friendly, high-quality food.

That night I stopped in at the government Flamingo Revolution protest. It started against luxury tourism developments, one backed by American investor Jared Kushner.

Expanding nationwide into an anti-government movement focused on corruption, land rights, protected areas, strategic-investment laws and political accountability. Most of the signs I saw were calling for Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign.

Tourism is booming everywhere in Albania — and I expect things will keep improving quickly.

Don’t count on good toilets or showers. 😀

Water Creatures luring People into the Lake

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, travelLeave a comment

A nix is a water creature of Scandinavian folklore which can transform into many shapes.

It’s often depicted as an aquatic monster that takes the shape of a gray, horse-like creature with inverted hoofs.

The Nykur often appears on the lakeshore, with half its body in the water, and looks to be quite tame to its unsuspecting victims.  It tries to lure them into the water.

I passed by on the road on a dark, rainy, windy day — surprised to see the horse in the water.

In the lake of Sørvágsvatn/Leitisvatn, this statue was unveiled November 2017.

Local sculptor and artist Pól Skarðenni built it.

Of course this is only one of many myths of Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

related Trip Report – The Lake that Hovers Over the North Atlantic

Visiting Berat, Albania

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, travel1 Comment

Everyone loves this quirky little town about 2 hours by bus from Triana. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site.

In fact, Albania is a tourism hotspot in 2026. Berat had 50,000 tourists a year a decade ago. Today it’s 1 million.

BUT I recall when Albania was off limits to tourists. During the repressive communist regime of Enver Hoxha (1944–1985), Albania became one of the most isolated “hermit states” in the world.

Enver Hoxha was a totalitarian dictator who ruled Albania with extreme repression, paranoia, and isolationism from 1944 until 1985. He closed all churches & mosques, for example.

Like Trump, he wanted his name everywhere — including on this mountain seem from Berat. BUT in 2012 the first two letters were swapped to spell NEVER as part of an art project by filmmaker Armando Lulaj.

Brilliant.

Berat is much more than just “the city of a thousand windows“. There are NOT a thousand windows. That’s a marketing tag line that started as a language misinterpretation — but stuck. 😀

Detail of the beautiful houses of the illuminated historical city of Berat in Albania

There’s a great hostel. I paid 12 Euro / night ($14) including breakfast. Sweet.

Berat was +45C recently, the highest temperature ever recorded.

SO I decided to climb up to Berat Castle in the cooler evening. It’s open 24 hours / day as families still live there.

Interior of the bridge of the illuminated historic city of Berat in Albania, UNESCO, the city of a thousand windows

Next day I climbed the slope opposite Berat Castle, Gorica Hill.

More great vistas.

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Visiting Ohrid, North Macedonia

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Ohrid in North Macedonia is a super popular tourist stop.

Designated a Cultural and Natural World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. 

Samuel’s Fortress is the biggest attraction. You can walk parts of the ancient walls.

By kallerna – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=139070032

The many Byzantine churches were what I liked best. So impressive.

Ali Pasha Mosque is the most important of many in the city.

This is St. Clement of Ohrid, celebrated here for creating Cyrillic scripts — the alphabet confusing me so severely while traveling in the West Baltics. 😀

At night, everyone walks the lake front. ESPECIALLY when it was 35C+ during the afternoon.

Mmmm. Pizza.

Visiting Skopje, North Macedonia

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My most memorable city in the region.

Memorable mainly due to the surprising huge neoclassical buildings and monuments. They have nothing to do with the culture and history of this region. 😀

Skopje is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. 

Old town bridge and cityscape at night, Skopje, Macedonia

Tourists spend time on both sides of the river, crossing the ancient pedestrian bridge.

Weirdly, there are wrecked ships in the river that anyone can explore.

Super dangerous, in my opinion.

Apparently they are fake concrete-and-steel imitation galleons built as tourist attractions — but are rapidly falling apart.

Macedonian Street is the mostly pedestrian area where visitors hang out. Shops, bars, restaurants, fast food, ice cream.

Huge Skopje Fortress looms over the river and old city. I enjoyed exploring that attraction — but it could be much improved.

Most impressive to me in this region are the Byzantine-style churches. I love the look.

As ornate as Trump’s toilet.

Of course there are many mosques, and many very historic mosques.

Mustafa Pasha Mosque

See more churches & mosques.

The Memorial House of Mother Teresa is located here in her home town.

All in all, I’d recommend Skopje.

I stayed at an entertaining hostel here. Mama and a litter of brand new kittens.

I signed up for a half day tour which would get me up to the giant crucifix. Sadly, the cable car has been out for months. BUT it did get me to a great day hike in nearby Matka Canyon.

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Skopje, North Macedonia – STATUES

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, travel1 Comment

Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, is widely known as the “City of Statues” for hundreds of monumental sculptures.

In order to attract tourists to this little known city, in 2014 the city spent a LOT of money they didn’t have to revamp the city centre building historically inaccurate neoclassical buildings and monuments.

Locals argued that money should have gone to schools, hospitals, or infrastructure. And trash removal !

Many contracts were awarded without public tenders or open competition, leading to widespread accusations of corruption and money laundering.

In any case, all these huge statues are weird and wonderful for the tourist.

In 1963, an earthquake destroyed roughly 80% of the city. Spearheaded by a United Nations-backed master plan from Japanese architect Kenzō Tange, the city was rebuilt using raw concrete (béton brut). Designed to withstand the next earthquake — and reflect the (boring) socialist aesthetic.

Skopje Post Office

Visiting Pristina, Kosovo

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Pristina is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. 

I knew nothing about the city before arrival. My trip is exploratory.

Of the population of nearly 1.6 million, the vast majority are ethnic Albanians.

Kosovo is a developing country with significant economic growth over the last decade. It shows. They’ve applied to join the EU.

It’s NEW. The Newborn Monument was unveiled on 17 February 2008, the day that Kosovo formally declared its independence from Serbia.

“Newborn” was chosen as a single English word for the power to describe the birth of a new country, its positive connotations, ease of understanding by non-native English-speakers, and potential to present Kosovo as a new, contemporary, trendy country. 

The most interesting tourist attraction for me was the National Library of Kosovo. Though some call it “the ugliest building in the World”, I like anything different. Opened 1982.

Sadly, the exterior is already turning to rubble.

The impressive Cathedral of St. Mother Teresa (opened 2007) is still under construction. One surrounding superb park is already finished, but there’s still much more to do with the surroundings.

The main tourist pedestrian walk is called Mother Teressa Boulevard. The Albanian–Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary Saint Teresa of Calcutta is a legend here.

There’s a statue, of course.

Another statue nearby celebrates the life of Albanian hero Skanderbeg.

There are a number of large mosques, the most celebrated being Imperial Mosque. Built in 1461.

They love Bill Clinton here. He was key to the liberation, leading the 1999 NATO bombing campaign that stopped Serbian forces and ended the Kosovo War.

The future looks to be brighter for Kosovo.

Yet here in the capital city, there’s still a lot of trash. Abandoned vehicles and buildings.

I saw very few western tourists.

Those who do get to Pistrina will be pleasantly surprised.