We’ve pretty much figured out off-season life in our first month in Sarande, so there hasn’t been much news to report. But it has been a while since our last post, so we figured we should give a State of the Union address to let everyone know what we have been up to and what our plans are!
We’ve got some big moves ahead of us.
Day To Day Stuff
Like last month, we’ve been doing a good job keeping our day-to-day lives busy.
Most days, we meet up with local expat friends we have made.
Sometimes we get together for morning tea or brunch, which usually turns into a half-day social event.
Or we might go out for sunset drinks at the local hillside wine bar.
Other times we go on small group hikes, locally or farther afield, depending on car availability. These hikes usually end with dinner out, either in Sarande or at one of the nearby local villages, making for an enjoyable day.
Hiking with our friends Hamid and Naz in the hills near the villages of Brajlat and Kostar.
Or we may have friends over for lunch at our place. Our apartments in Sarandehave been bigger and better equipped than we are used to, so entertaining is easy.
That, and Rhonda loves to cook for people!
On our free days during the week, we focus on exercise, doing errands, catching up with distant friends and family, and our personal interests.
One day I got lucky and found a replacement pair of used hiking shoes to replace my boots, which finally started falling apart after 18 months of use. Size 47 EU is hard to find here!
This is probably why our posting frequency has been so low lately. We just haven’t had consistent blocks of time for me to sit down and write!
Our USA Friends Came To Visit!
Our biggest event in February was that our USA friends Krista and Rich came to visit. Astute readers may remember them from our adventures in Cusco, Peru and Oaxaca, Mexico.
And despite everything, they still like to travel with us!
In mid-February they flew into the island town of Corfu, Greece, just across the bay from Sarande. We took the ferry there to meet them, and spent the next three days exploring.
Our Russian-made hydrofoil ferry! It made the trip to Corfu in 40 minutes. A round-trip ticket costs €40 when purchased directly at the Finikas Lines office in Sarande.
Since it was the low season, the public bus system wasn’t running as frequently as normal. So we confined our explorations to the Corfu historic old town and walkable outlying areas.
We spent our first day getting oriented, wandering the streets, finding all the major landmarks, and finding places to eat!
The streets of historic Corfu are really charming.
On our second day we visited several museums and enjoyed the waterfront area, but were denied entry to the Old Fortress and Achilleion Palace (both closed for unannounced renovations). Still, we had an excellent time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
The Corfu Museum of Asian Art was worth the €3 entrance fee.
The Byzantine Museum of Antivouniotissa was also worth a visit (€2 entrance fee).
Visiting the Archaeological Museum of Corfu early in our Corfu visit was a good idea, and helped us better appreciate the archaeological sites we would see the next day (€3 entrance fee).
Sadly, the Old Fortress complex was only open to university students during the renovations. 🙁
On our third day, we walked down the Corfu waterfront, checked out the Sanctuary of Artemis, thoroughly explored Mon Repos Park and its archaeological sites, and returned to town just in time for a nap and dinner.
Free to enter, Mon Repos park was large, with many walking trails that featured forest and ocean views. And there were a bunch of cool archaeological sites too! It was a great way to spend a few hours and have a picnic lunch. Pictured is the Doric Temple of Kardaki.
On our last morning in Corfu, we escorted Krista and Rich by ferry to our apartment in Sarande! Our apartment was the perfect size for four people, so we all had plenty of room to spread out and relax.
We rented a car for the next week (Winter season rental cost for 7 days = $63 USD through MEX Rent A Car), to give us maximum flexibility to explore the surrounding areas and enjoy everything Albania had to offer.
In Albania, many locations are poorly represented by Google Maps so we made heavy use of the Organic Maps app to get us around!
Our explorations included a visit to the Gjirokaster area, which is one of the most architecturally intact Ottoman-style cities left in Albania.
Gjirokaster Castle is at the highest point in the city area.
Gjirokaster Castle was large and fun to explore, with many buildings, side passages, and even a small museum.
Castle views of old Gjirokaster were pretty spectacular.
This picture gives a better perspective of the proximity of Gjirokaster Castle to the old town. The castle must have been an imposing sight for villagers during Gjirokaster’s heyday.
The bazaar area was beautiful to explore. And in February there weren’t too many tourists, unlike summertime!
So many vendors with stuff to buy!
Before we left the Gjirokaster area, we just had to see the Ali Pasha Bridge, a remnant of the large Ottoman aqueduct system that fed Gjirokaster Castle. It looks small from this point on the approach trail.
As you get closer, you can start to appreciate how big it is! Now it is only used by hikers and shepherds.
Rhonda was happy to provide size perspective.
The bridge was structurally sound, but it was still a scary view from the edge!
On our way home we were careful not to run over any sheep herders!
Butrint National Archaeological Park was a huge ancient Greek & Roman city complex just south of Sarande. Several millennia old, it is well worth your time and the €10 entrance fee.
There were so many nooks and crannies to explore in Butrint. You can spend an entire day here if you are interested in Greek and Roman archaeology.
An opening an ancient well. You can see where rope friction over millennia wore away the rock edging the well shaft.
There is even a restored castle here, complete with a small museum featuring artifacts from the site.
And the views from the top weren’t bad either.
Daisies galore in the Acropolis area.
Entrance to the Great Basilica.
Rhonda guarding Lions Gate.
Near the water’s edge, we watched fishermen plying their trade.
From the entrance to Butrint you can see the Venetian Triangular Castle across the waterway, so we decided to visit.
But the only way to get there is by a slightly dodgy car ferry. But we were game!
One way ferry prices, in Albanian Leke. Round trip for one person was 150 Leke (~$1.50 USD).
The triangular castle is small, but free to visit. It was largely intact and had lots of subrooms and hidey holes to explore. Well worth the time and ferry cost to visit!
The Ancient Phoenicia Archaeological Park is found on the plateau of a nearby mountain, about a 30-minute drive outside Sarande. It was supposed to cost 300 Leke (~$3 USD) to enter, but no one was staffing the ungated entrance. So it was free for us!
Sadly, During post-WWII times, quite a few of the archaeological sites were destroyed by the communist regime in favor of defensive bunkers.
Tunnels interconnected the bunkers, which were a little short for me!
Thankfully several archaeological areas remain intact, and suggest that Phoenicia city was quite complex.
This temple area was completely covered in daisies! Gorgeous.
In its heyday, this theater was thought to have seated thousands of spectators, with rows of seats extending up the hillside.
We also revisited Blue Eye natural park, but this time with a great new twist! We discovered a beautiful circumferential trail that goes all the way around the park. Thanks Organic Maps.
Blue Eye was gorgeous as always.
The trail we found was a nice path through the woods and around the lake, eventually leading back to the parking area for Blue Eye.
This was a much better way to return to our car than the concrete road recently made for tourists.
Despite some elevation gain, it was a nice way to finish up our time at Blue Eye.
We also showed Krista and Rich the Lukove Cliff Trail (the cliff-only version), which we did with our expat friends last month.
We parked off the side of the road just before Shën Nikolla, a tiny Greek Orthodox chapel. We then walked to the trailhead at the southern end of Plazhi i Shpelles.
It’s hard to be disappointed with views like this.
We weren’t the only ones enjoying the view.
Horses don’t always get along, it seems!
And this dung beetle was more interested in his dung ball than the scenery.
Even Rich and Krista spent half of the time looking down at rocks, many of which come from petrified trees that lived in the area long ago. It can be handy to have amateur geologists travel with you sometimes!
Another successful hike!
We also went on a hike along the Livinë village herding trails. Doesn’t sound like much, but Rhonda and I have done this trail before courtesy of our friends Jens and Hamid. So we knew better! 🙂
Once we reached the plateau, there were panoramic views in nearly every direction.
We then explored this Albanian bunker from the old communist regime. Good thing we brought our head lamps! You can see its position (marked “cave”) when using the Organic Maps app.
The left and right bunker entrances are connected by a long U-shaped corridor, with several dozen side rooms (all empty).
Good thing we don’t mind bats! They were all asleep.
Gorgeous animals.
On the return portion of the loop trail we took, you can better see the quaint village of Livinë. Our rental car is the red one!
The highlight of the trip was our phenomenal multicourse lunch at the Aybena Restaurant & Cafe (mistitled in Google Maps) in Livinë. Hands-down the best meal we have had in all of Albania. The owner only speaks Greek though, so you better have Google Translate ready just in case there isn’t a helpful local around to translate. But she is super sweet and will work with you!
Our tableside view.
Basking in the afterglow of a massive, expertly cooked lunch in the Greek style. There was no menu that we were aware of, and we just kept saying YES whenever suggestions were made for food. We all shared expressos, waters, salads, fried cheese, seasoned french fries, byreks, 1 kilogram of seasoned pork ribs, yogurt sauce, bread, and high octane rakia (pictured). And all food was sourced from around the village. Total cost = 4000 Leke (~$40 USD). A shocking amount of food, of shocking quality, for a shockingly low price! And the view wasn’t terrible.
Of course we showed Krista and Rich the usual Sarande sights too! But we covered most of those in our last post.
We had a wonderful time reconnecting with our friends and were sorry to see them go. But they had to return to Corfu to begin their horrible 24-hour, 4 layover journey back to the USA.
Until we meet again, Krista and Rich!
What Does The Future Hold For Two Travel Turtles?
Quite a bit, it turns out.
Short term, we will stay for one more month in Sarande and leave on April 4.
We will spend two more days in Albania, but aren’t sure where yet. The town of Berat looks like a strong contender though.
Regardless, we will be in a location that makes flying out of Tirana, Albania easy on April 6th – because we are heading to Rome, Italy on that date!
We will enjoy three full days exploring Rome, which we will use as a stopover location for our flight back to the USA on April 10.
Yes, after nearly 18 months we will be returning to the USA!
Visiting family and friends will be a priority during our stay, as well as the need to take care of some business. But after we return, who knows what we will do!
Thankfully, when we are in the USA we will have plenty of time to figure things out.
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