It was a long driving day today.
Almost 6 hours for 300km including the border crossing into Albania.
It was mostly uneventful except for a near-collision when a car 5 ahead of us slammed their brakes on causing every other car to slam theirs on and pull sideways to avoid the car in front. We waited for the thump from behind that thankfully never came.
Passed several bushfires, one quite large.
We arrived in Radhime, just south of and much quieter than Vlore, admired the view,
waited for a herd of goats to pass,
did a quick shop for dinner things, then found our accommodation, admired the view and jumped into the pool for a pool beer.
We will be staying here for 6 nights, an intentional “beach holiday” on the Albanian Riviera.
Drove into Vlore this morning to get the car wheels and brakes checked. All clear except for a leaking tyre. Went to a second place to have that repaired, drove back, even happier we were not staying in Vlore. It is a busy place with Mooloolaba/Gold Coast vibes.
Had lunch then a 2 hour siesta, a swim then dinner.
Today started with a swim, had a swim in the middle and ended with a swim. The remaining time we read, knitted and chilled. We also walked down the hill into town for lunch.
This morning we wandered down the hill to have a swim at the beach. The water was a really pleasant temperature, but as the floor is rocky we were glad for our water shoes. We enjoyed the swim and float, and watching the fish swimming around us, until one of the fuckers bit me on the shin!
We headed back to the house, swam in the pool, watched a movie in the AC and did some bookings for the next week. We walked back down the hill for dinner at a restaurant we’d seen spit roasting a goat this morning. The goat was delicious, and a huge Greek salad made a nice fresh meal.
The rest of our beach holiday passed this way: swim, sleep, eat, swim, relax.
We finished our beach holiday this morning and drove south along the coast before turning inland.
The mountain scenery today was STUNNING.
After passing through a tunnel, we drove along a new road, accidentally ending up on a bike path. It looked like an extension of the road we’d been driving on, until we noticed two arrows, one on either side of the “road”. As we were wondering if we were not on a road we came across another car reversing backwards with one driving towards them. So we weren’t the only idiots that day. Kevin reversed back several hundred metres to a road and we found our way back to the road we should have been on.
This road led us up into the hills where villages were perched on the side of the hills with a narrow, at times single lane, road.
We passed a gorge with red cliffs along the winding riverbed-dry due to the hot, dry summer.
We passed a boat tunnel at Porto Palermo – it was used to hide Albanian fast boats that would patrol the waters at night during the Cold War. It is now disused but still a military site.
We stopped at a roadside stall for a drink and some Qofte (meatballs/chevapi) with a view over the Ionian Sea; we’d have seen Corfu if the haze wasn’t so strong. The hills were covered in olive trees.
Noticing the absence of livestock driving to Vlorë the other day, there was an abundance wandering along the road today: horses, goats, cows, and donkeys.
Turning inland the landscape became a sandy grey colour, drier and rockier.
We arrived at our destination Gjirokastër.
As check in time was still some hours away we went to the Gjirokastër Castle. After parking we walked through one of the many tunnels in the area, from one side of the castle walls to the other, then up the hill to the castle itself.
There has been a defensive position here since several hundred years BC with the current castle built in 1700s.
It has been ruled by Ottomans, Ioannians, Austro-Hungarians, Albanians, Germans, English and more.
It was more recently used as a prison by the Albanian communist regime in the 1960s. The prisons were pitch black.
The castle also houses guns and tanks left over from World War 2.
It was hot today.
Our room was ready so we drove from the old town to the new town – sounds easier than it was on steep, narrow, slippery cobbled streets – and checked in.
The funniest little girl, Sofia who may be 5 years old, took charge of our check in, demanding to carry a bag (we gave her a light backpack) and showed us to her room. She had some attitude!
We’re having a heat break and will head out for dinner later when it’s cooler.
We woke to another hot day and headed out about 9.
First thing on the list was walking up the hill to visit the Zekate House.
When we say up the hill we mean 750m uphill at an average 17% gradient. We were hot sweaty messes by the time we got there! Our plan had been to go high early then have the rest of the day be a net downhill.
Gjirokastër is known for it’s Ottoman Architecture, the Zakete House is an example of this, on the hill overlooking the town. It is maintained in the traditional style of furnishing and decoration, with an indoor well, Turkish Toilets (i.e. a hole in the floor leading to…somewhere),
balconies in rooms, fireplaces, small windows in the winter rooms and large windows in the summer rooms. There was lots of original woodwork and some frescos in the main reception room.
We had a cold drink before leaving.
We wandered our way towards the Old Town and found a restaurant to have something to eat as we hadn’t had breakfast. We had delicious Qofte again, Burek and some stuffed eggplant with more cold drinks. The place had a great view so we sat for a bit with our drinks.
We then headed to the Bazaar with a quick stop at the Bazaar Mosque just as the call to prayer went out. We wandered through the Bazaar, browsing the shops and streets.
We went to find an ATM as lots of places only take cash here, the fee was exorbitant ($14) so we pledged to only buy at shops/restaurants that took cards. We stopped for a drink, confirmed they took card prior and again took in the views over some cold drinks. When we went to pay their machine was off-line so we had to go and get cash out anyway!! Grr.
We started the walk back to our accommodation, stopping for an ice-cream (paid by card) on the way. Albanian ice cream is like Turkish ice cream, a bit stretchy and not icy. Was delicious.
Currently having some time out of the heat before we venture out again later.
We left Gjirokaster this morning and headed to Korçë for our last night in Albania. We had factored in a few stops on the way.
We stopped at multiple river valley viewpoints and what were supposed to be waterfalls, however most were dry due to the hot summer and no rainfall.
We followed the Drinos river initially then the Vjosa River seeing them change colour from stunning blue, to green and then to a deep grey colour. One stop was at Dragoti Bridge where we walked down the banks, across the stony riverbed and checked the water temperature. It was not as cold as we were expecting given the colour.
Almost as we turned a corner the mountains changed from sandy/gravelly yellow-greyish to trees and green.
We passed some small gorges, some rapids, we did see a few rafts on the water.
We got very close to Greece, a long-jumper could have jumped (maybe, on a good day with a tail wind) between the two remaining pillars of the Perati Bridge that used to connect the two countries.
We stopped for lunch in a hilltop village, delicious grilled vegetables and Qofte. Albanians know how to cook meat and vegies, it was excellent.
We saw a cat running past holding a huge fresh heart hanging from it’s mouth, we assume it nicked it from a butcher somewhere in town! It was clearly looking for somewhere to devour the treat where no dogs or other cats would try to steal it!
After lunch the road took us into a forest where we saw signs of autumn in the tree colours and the temperature dropped 10 degrees – by days end it was 18°; we haven’t had more than 3 days below 30 since June and none below 20 since Scotland.
It also started raining – we can’t actually remember when we last saw rain either! Albania certainly needs it!
We passed a dramatic roadside bronze monument that was erected in recognition of Albanian resistance against the Germans in WW2.
The Albanian partisans ambushed a group of elite German alpine troops (who they thought were Italian) in 1943 at that location, known as the Barmash ambush.
As we entered a town a few kilometres away we stopped at a monument to the victims of a massacre.
The Germans as they were known to do exacted reprisals against the residents of the nearest town, killing all 107 of its citizens that they found that day and burning every house and building. From what we saw on headstones at Borovë the people killed were aged from a few days old to >80 years. They were hardly a threat.
Just outside our destination for the Korçë we stopped at an archaeological museum Kamenita Tumulus. Years ago many tumuli (burial mounds) were found in the region.
The tumulus at the museum dated from the 12th century BC to the 6th century BC. Archaeologists recovered 430 individuals, from about 400 graves and over 3500 artefacts. The museum housed 2 skeletons, 1 of which, based on the size was obviously a baby.
We could also touch and hold some of the artifacts found – very heavy copper arm and ankle cuffs or items that might have been used to hold a cape together – that was really cool as these things are usually behind glass in a museum!
They have done mitochondrial DNA tests on the recovered remains and all the families who live in the area. There are no genetic links between the two populations!
Today we headed to Ohrid, a small town on the edge of Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia.
We expected a longish day as there was a border crossing involved and they are not the quickest.
We had a few stops planned before the border. We won’t bore you with those details though.
We arrived at the border and after 15minutes queuing we reached the front.
Very quickly our passports and vehicle documents had been checked and we were on our way…back into Albania.
Our car registration document is a print of a scan of the original (which is in Spain) and the North Macedonian border security was having none of that. The original is required or no entry with that vehicle.
So instead of being in North Macedonia, we have another 4 nights in Albania. We had a quick regroup, cancelled the accommodation for the next 4 night and booked something new in Albania.
We were lucky to get what appears to be a good hotel in Tirana, a city we never intended to visit, and hopefully by Wednesday we’ll have the original paperwork in our hands (thanks Mark, Paula & DHL) so that we encounter no problems in the next three planned border crossings.
We’ve had a couple of quiet days in Tirana, we were advised to not head into town yesterday due to protests blocking roads (day 107 of the flamingo protests), but today we went and did a cooking class. We cooked Birek (spinach pastry), Fergese Tirone (beef cooked in yoghurt)
and Sheqerpare a sugar syrup soaked cookie.
We’re still waiting for our registration paperwork to leave Spain…doesn’t look promising for its arrival tomorrow if it has been in the same place, where it was lodged, for 24hrs.
Another slow day in Tiranë yesterday as we watched the paperwork inch it’s way to us on the DHL tracking app. We finally got it, and then headed out of Tiranë towards Kosovo this morning.
We took a route that was not the motorway as we figured that would be more interesting, and it was.
It was a narrow, winding, undulating road through more stunning mountain passes, small villages, over hills and into valleys.
Kevin did a great job with another difficult drive.
We eventually made it to the border with Kosovo at Morinë, passed through quickly (with the right paperwork!) and continued on to Prizren.
It’s nice to finally be moving again ans to be able to publish the Albania blog post!
An Unplanned Year 
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