Incidentally, some Macedonians go to Albania for their holiday, because it is one of the few places (possibly the only one) that is cheaper than Macedonia-- people in Yugoslavia used to go to Croatia and Montenegro, both of which have been 'discovered' by Western tourists and by the Russians (who are buying up so much coastal real estate in Montenegro that some people I spoke to in Serbia don't want to holiday there anymore, because they feel surrounded by Russians).
Also-- the reason the roads in Albania were better than those in Kosovo is that foreign donors (primarily, I was told, USAID) provided money to rebuild the highways, and some of this rebuilding work has been completed. This may still be an ongoing process, and it is probable that the roads that are less traveled/highways that are not between Macedonia and Montenegro are also in greater disrepair/still under construction, but I found this interesting. Nonetheless, one of my colleagues told a story of driving through Albania on a nicely laid road and noticing the gas stations and 'vulkanizers' alongside it ('vulkanizers' being tire repair shops, I don't know of an equivalent English translation). He had to pull over because one of his tires was going flat, and there were three nails in it, so, of course, he had to get it patched at one of the conveniently located nearby vulkanizers. So it would seem that while the newly constructed roads themselves are nice, drivers should beware of nails scattered by entrepreneurial capitalists.
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