# Albania: Beautiful, but an awful place to work remotely

- **Episode:** [220](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/220.md) (2025-08-05)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** albania, remote-work, travel
- **Time:** 26:43–29:18 (start 1603s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/220?t=1603](https://truthliesandwork.com/220?t=1603)

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[26:43] Leanne Elliott: Okay. Albania
[26:44] Al Elliott: Albania. Well, we were there for about 2 weeks, were we?
[26:48] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[26:48] Al Elliott: Maybe, maybe 3 weeks or 4 weeks because we went to Ksamil. We drove through from Greece and we came up to Ksamil first, which is spelled K-S-A-M-I-L. The first time I ever saw a €500 note. Pretty sure the guy was into, um, should we say import-export? Um, but a €500 note
[27:05] Leanne Elliott: Allegedly
[27:06] Al Elliott: Allegedly. Well, yes, I'm not— I can say it because I haven't said who it is. Yeah. Anyway, um, Ksamil was interesting. Probably a bit more developed than it was when we were there. But then we went to stay near the capital, didn't we? We were there for about 2 weeks, 3 weeks?
[27:21] Leanne Elliott: Yes, we did. Durres?
[27:23] Al Elliott: Yeah, Durres
[27:24] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, that was really nice. The thing I'd say about the south, because I see the south of Albania talked about a lot as being like the new Riviera or kind of the place to go. And I was talking to a friend about this who'd also been to Albania. I don't really get it because there's such, there's so much development. You can't really look in any direction without seeing cranes and building sites. And the sea is beautiful, but you just look behind you and you're looking at a construction site
[27:55] Al Elliott: Yeah
[27:56] Leanne Elliott: I didn't, I didn't really get the hype
[27:58] Al Elliott: No. Um, I think there's, there's, there's a few people on Twitter or on, well, Instagram, whatever, who will say, yes, you're looking at beautiful pictures of, um, of Albania. But if you just flip the camera around, it would look like you were in, I don't know, Spain in the 1950s when they're still building stuff. One thing about working in Albania was we found that back then, I'm not sure it's different now, but back then, an awful lot of power cuts and power surges
[28:23] Leanne Elliott: It was an awful place to work remotely
[28:25] Al Elliott: It really was
[28:26] Leanne Elliott: The internet wasn't great. Like you say, the power wasn't great
[28:29] Al Elliott: No. So, don't take our word for it and say don't go to Albania, but Do your research first, find the place. I'm sure in Tirana, in the capital, it's different. But if you're anywhere outside the capital, expect slight issues. The other thing is, talking of issues, if you're driving through Albania, it is the craziest drivers in Europe
[28:49] Leanne Elliott: Good luck to you
[28:50] Al Elliott: Yes, we've driven through Montenegro and all the Balkan countries. They're craziest drivers ever. You'll literally, you'll come around a corner and there'll be a car overtaking a car and then another car overtaking that car, and they'll all be on your side of the road, and one of them will probably be the police. So, yeah, just be a bit careful, but it is stunning if you were to drive down towards the Greek border. That last bit there, the last 100K, is just stunning
[29:13] Leanne Elliott: Beautiful. I would say if you're going to do Albania, do it as a holiday
[29:15] Al Elliott: Great
[29:16] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. I don't think it's a nomad destination