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Here in Shkodër Albania my hotel doesn't have wifi and there aren't many tourists to ask.

I can find lots of bar/cafes and lots of internet places with no coffee or food offered.

But what I can't seem to find is a cosy place where I can have a mean and/or a drink and do a few hours of searching on the Internet. Does anybody know of such a place in this city.

(I have tried walking around with my netbook looking for a signal but I get enough undue attention as it is and it makes me feel uncomfortable)

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Surely a place that does not serve coffee/food cannot be called a 'cafe'? – Ankur Banerjee♦ Sep 23 '11 at 13:40
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"Internet cafe" and "cybercafe" seems to have become idioms, much like "coffee shops" in the Netherlands are not shops which sell coffee! (-: – hippietrail Sep 23 '11 at 13:43
[facepalm] Didn't read that properly. – Ankur Banerjee♦ Sep 23 '11 at 13:47

2 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

OK after a couple of days of hunting I've found three places where I get a WIFI signal and can buy a coffee or a beer, but only one had a sign and with the others I'm not sure whether the signal is from the place or a coincidental open one nearby...

  • "Bar Kafe Real Madrid" on Rruga Studenti right near Shesi Demokracia, the central traffic circle of the city. They only serve drinks. They are open until about 1am. Only middle aged men seem to come here. Oddly nobody ever comes to take my order if I don't go to the trouble of going inside and asking. There are electrical sockets near some inside tables.
  • Bar Kafe Lira on Rruga Studenti at the corner of Rruga Arkitekt Sinani. I don't think this place has food either but espresso is just 50 cents! I don't think the WIFI is theirs as it only worked from the outside tables to the far left as you're facing the street.
  • Street cafe outside the "Zona Plus" building on the pedestrian street Rruga Kolë Idromeno (I can't see a name of the place anywhere including my receipt!) This place had no Internet sign but there's a fast connection without password called "INTELLINET". The connection turned bad after I was there for a while, strong signal but little data transfer.

In short, it seems to me that war-walking is the best bet. Despite the warnings I received in neighbouring countries, Albania feels very safe at least here in Shkodër so I stopped worrying about wandering around with my netbook out (-:

All of these places required no password. Here is a Google Map of them I made.

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up vote 5 down vote

There are three that show up on Google Maps, so there are probably plenty. Search for "Shkodër, Albania" in Google Maps, then enter "internet cafe" in the same search field. I'm not sure about the food and drink, though.

This is handy (and amazing, to me) looking for odd things all over the world.

Facebook Internet Center
Rruga Jeronim De Rada, Shkoder, Albania

Internet Center Osmani
30 Rruga Kolë Heqimi, Shkoder, Albania

ArtCom Internet Cafe
Rruga Jup Kastrati, Shkoder, Albania
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Note that he's not just asking about internet cafes (computers + internet access), but about places with wifi + food/drinks. – Jonik Sep 23 '11 at 22:16
Most internet cafes either have wifi or ethernet available, but it's possible that these don't. – xpda Sep 23 '11 at 22:20
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@xpda: In Shkodër at least it turns out that most don't have food or drinks and the one I did ask about wifi did not have that either! Oddly I normally use Google Maps for this kind of thing a lot but since I've been in the Balkans I haven't even been able to find supermarkets with it. In fact I can't even find my hotel and it's ancient and right at the central roundabout. I'll try to check these ones out though. – hippietrail Sep 24 '11 at 9:23
When I try this I only get ArtCom and not the others... – hippietrail Sep 24 '11 at 10:33
Google usually defaults to the local country or region Google site, like maps.google.fr for France. There's some way (I forgot how) to bring up the U.S. version from anywhere. Have fun in Albania! – xpda Sep 24 '11 at 15:34
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