We're off............
Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2026 5:49 am
............ To Albania that is...........
At last, I've found time to login....this last couple of months have been the most insane time of our lives.
I retired last Friday after nearly 60 years of being a trucker..... Mrs Ice and I have been mulling over where we would like to finish up in our retirement.
Not Spain thank you, maybe Portugal ??? Somewhere warm that's number 1, somewhere where our pensions will let us live comfortably #2
One Sat morning I was up at 0400 as usual after 60 years of alarms....made a cuppa and turned on the pc, popped in a search for info on maybe the right place for us and low and behold.....Albania???
No way I thought, it's full of mafia, but when you think about it, they are all over here
now lets be serious....the government over there have done wonders in cleaning the whole shabang up...in fact it's supposed to be one of the safest places to live .
Ok it all looks great on a video but let's dig a lot deeper, so crime is very low, the cost of living is also very low, no council tax so that will save us £170 a month. A 2 bedroom home with all electric runs about £20 per month, water costs around £15...at the present time we're paying £140 for elec per month... can't remember the water at the moment.....don't get me started on all the other crap we have to pay out for.
Over the last month or so I've sorted out the paperwork we need to retire there, all I need to do next is send the paperwork to be legalized.....we've spoken to an immigration lawyer yesterday who will work out the timeline for our application. We're well over halfway of clearing all of everything we own can't take it with us, get the money in the bank
Mrs Ice's car will go next week, my car will last until the 3rd week of March as we are planing to fly the end of the month...my only sorrow is I can't take my beloved Icebot still, I've looked at shipping it out but the cost is too great....so if anybody out in still land is interested let me know.
ps....I'm not giving up
Albania is the home of Raki and I've been looking at acquiring a still...so I''ll still be lurking about now I'm retired I'll have a whole lot of time on hands...watch this space.
Ice.
At last, I've found time to login....this last couple of months have been the most insane time of our lives.
I retired last Friday after nearly 60 years of being a trucker..... Mrs Ice and I have been mulling over where we would like to finish up in our retirement.
Not Spain thank you, maybe Portugal ??? Somewhere warm that's number 1, somewhere where our pensions will let us live comfortably #2
One Sat morning I was up at 0400 as usual after 60 years of alarms....made a cuppa and turned on the pc, popped in a search for info on maybe the right place for us and low and behold.....Albania???
No way I thought, it's full of mafia, but when you think about it, they are all over here
now lets be serious....the government over there have done wonders in cleaning the whole shabang up...in fact it's supposed to be one of the safest places to live .Ok it all looks great on a video but let's dig a lot deeper, so crime is very low, the cost of living is also very low, no council tax so that will save us £170 a month. A 2 bedroom home with all electric runs about £20 per month, water costs around £15...at the present time we're paying £140 for elec per month... can't remember the water at the moment.....don't get me started on all the other crap we have to pay out for.
Over the last month or so I've sorted out the paperwork we need to retire there, all I need to do next is send the paperwork to be legalized.....we've spoken to an immigration lawyer yesterday who will work out the timeline for our application. We're well over halfway of clearing all of everything we own can't take it with us, get the money in the bank
Mrs Ice's car will go next week, my car will last until the 3rd week of March as we are planing to fly the end of the month...my only sorrow is I can't take my beloved Icebot still, I've looked at shipping it out but the cost is too great....so if anybody out in still land is interested let me know.
ps....I'm not giving up
Albania is the home of Raki and I've been looking at acquiring a still...so I''ll still be lurking about now I'm retired I'll have a whole lot of time on hands...watch this space.Ice.
