Monday 25th February 2019
After a peaceful night next to the castle above the town, we left our sleepy spot and went into Sarande to get some local currency from the ATM. We also needed SIM cards for the phones. The roads were mainly one way streets and there was quite a lot of double parking going on, but we managed to find a car park to accommodate Harriet the Hymer. The attendant told us it would be 300 lek for 2 hours and pointed us to the sea front. We took some currency out from the ATM at the bank and carried on to the Vodaphone shop. The lady spoke perfect English and sorted us out with a SIM card each, £9.50 (1400 lek) for 10gb of data plus calls & text messages etc. We were glad to be back online. We wandered around the streets and down to the seafront.
Not sure what we were expecting, but Albania so far was a lot better than we’d anticipated. We got back to the van and as we left, the lovely car park attendant put his hand on his heart and smiled at us before he waved.
We were heading to Butrint, another UNESCO World Heritage site. There were two ways to get there, according to google maps. Both about the same distance and time so we opted for the top road. All was well, drove through the Butrint National Park ...
... until we came to the end of the road.
We realised a moment later that we had to cross over the river via a floating bridge made of wood!! Andy, never to back down from a challenge, drove on to the platform while I was having kittens lol. The Albanian guy never batted an eyelid and took us safely across to the other side. Wow!!
This had to be in the top 10 experiences of this trip. We parked up, had lunch and then went to visit the old Roman Town.
At the entrance, after paying just under £10, the lady gave us a map in English. We followed the arrows to the various sites, the baptistery, the gymnasium and the old well etc.
It was lovely to wander around in the dappled shade, reading the information boards.
The castle itself housed a small but interesting museum.
We loved the detail on this guys feet!
Then we followed the old town walls with amazing views to the sea gate and lions gate.
It’s always amazing to find unexpected treasures like that. A brilliant place to explore.
We spent a lovely quiet night in the parking area.
According to Culture Trip, one of the top 10 places to visit in Albania is the “Blue Eye”. So we took the coastal road 20 miles (much better than the top road), from our sleepy spot in Butrint, to a turn off in the road. The next mile was, shall we say, on a par with a Lithuanian gravel road!
We drove over a long narrow bridge and carried on until we came to a clearing.
We’re so glad we made the effort though. It turned out to be a natural underground spring (we think), and the colours were fantastic. Not to mention how clear the water was. It was just like looking into an aquarium.
However, it did look like there had been some severe weather recently as there was a lot of damaged buildings and blown down trees, which they were busy clearing whilst we were there.
We parked up by the little chapel near the main road and had lunch.
We continued on our way to the coastal town of Vlora, or Flora as we named it lol. It had a huge sandy bay, lined with colourful hotels and restaurants that came alive in the evening.
The main road, with palm trees growing along the edge, had a cycle track running next to it.
Even the bench seats had WiFi.
And to top it all, the parking area we found at the port was guarded 24 hours.
We’d definitely recommend it.
Before leaving the next morning, we walked up to Independence Square. Past a small Eiffel Tower?? and more street art.
There were lots of "For Sale" signs everywhere, which made us giggle.
And some quirky things that we never thought we'd see in Albania, including lots of USA flags flying.
There were so many people out and about all rugged up while we were in t-shirts. Old men huddled on seats chatting to each other.
One guy stopped and asked if we liked Albania and of course the answer was yes.
Called into a supermarket and found everything super cheap which was a big bonus.
We also had to give a big thumbs up to the Albanian people who actually stop to let you cross the road on a zebra crossing, unlike the Turks or Greeks who would rather run you over than let you get to the other side.
Then, if that wasn’t friendly enough, the guard actually saluted us as we left the guarded car park.
Our next destination was yet another UNESCO town, Berat. In hindsight, when we drove there, we should have carried on along the SH4 and doubled back on ourselves rather than cutting the corner off.
But then again, if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have experienced a “proper” Albanian road lol.
Luckily it wasn’t for very long, but now we know what people mean about pot holes lol. (Still not as bad as Lithuanian gravel roads though haha).
The journey was full of interesting things to look at including lots of colourful buildings. The Albanians aren't shy when it comes to colour!!
The shepherds waved at us and so did a bunch of school children as we drove past.
We found our parking spot in the garden of a hotel with all the facilities for €10 a night.
The owner spoke a bit of English and couldn’t have been any more kinder if she’d tried. We asked if we could do some washing, which she did for us.
Berat is nicknamed the city of a thousand windows and it was obvious why.
It was only a small place but very nice to walk round.
We wandered over the 18th Century Bridge and followed the river to the next more modern bridge to take some photos.
On our return, the lady at the camping ground had not only done our washing for us, it was out on the washing line when we returned. Wow!
The next morning, we went to visit the castle in Berat where people still live inside the walls. It was high up on top of the hill with a very long steep climb to it. We cheated and paid a couple of pounds for a taxi. It was worth every penny.
The views from the top were spectacular.
On the way down the very long and steep cobbled road ...
... we came across a restaurant that was open. Had a very nice Viennese steak and salad for lunch, served by Gary the waiter. His English was perfect and even played some Ed Sheeran for us. He was very proud to tell us that his father had named him Gary after Gary Lineker. We ended up taking the worst selfie ever lol.
What an amazing day.
We continued next morning to Durres. The road was great and it didn’t take us long to get to Albania’s most popular seaside resort.
It was very busy, probably because it was weekend, and unfortunately it wasn’t easy finding a parking space. We managed it though and had an interesting walk along the sea front and over a man made “giants causeway”.
There were guys out enjoying the sunshine, playing chess and backgammon with their friends.
Andy said the 4 wheeled bikes and ring toss games etc. reminded him of Skegness or Morecambe in the 70’s.
The place was full of hotels and cafes with lots more hotels being built.
The pier was quirky and had "runways" off each side into the water. The grandkids would be straight in lol.
We liked the shopping street with its merry-go-round, palm trees and quirky cafes.
We loved the street art and statues.
We took lots of photos and walked back along the back streets to Harriet, where it wasn't so nice with the rats nest of wires everywhere.
then drove to Gardenland Campsite, 17 miles from the border of Montenegro. When we arrived the place was closed because of renovations, but the owner was lovely and said there was no problem for us to stay the night. They had 2 night guards on so he assured us we’d be safe and wouldn’t take any money from us. How lovely was that!!
We would definitely recommend a visit to Albania, we thought it was great and wouldn’t hesitate to return.
Sunday again so it was time to leave and cross the border into Montenegro, country 24.
We gave the passports & vehicle documents to the Albanian border official who then passed them through the window to the Montenegrin border official (no mans land didn’t seem to exist). Then he asked us for our green card. We couldn’t make him understand that we needed to buy vehicle insurance, until I showed him Andy’s wallet. He gave us back the paperwork and told us to park up. We went to another window where we paid the lady €15 for 15 days and that was it. We were free to go.
We followed google maps (which we’d already downloaded in Albania) to Bar.
The road, shall we say, was interesting!!
Not very wide especially when concrete mixers & other lorries were coming the other way. We came across two road blocks, first a couple of cows and then something we’d never seen before ... a tipper driver on his own, filling in pot holes!!
We soon joined the main road to Bar, which after the country road we’d been travelling on was in great shape.
There must have been a better road from the border but we must have missed it.
We parked in the Marina and walked into town.
We needed internet and a few essentials. We both laughed at ourselves for changing countries on a Sunday twice in a week! Luckily, the Idea supermarket was open to buy milk etc. but he phone shop wasn’t.
We managed to get 2 Telenor SIM cards from a street kiosk, 5gb for €5 but try as we might we couldn’t get them to work. We walked back into town and found a phone accessory shop and asked the lad if he could help us. His English was perfect and 15 minutes and a smile later, he’d sorted us out. We thanked him and left.
The place was quite nice to walk round, especially in the sunshine.
We watched the sun go down and ended up staying the night in the marina.
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