Back to Warm England

Day #10 Thursday January 5, 2012

            Up for breakfast and there are more people staying at the hotel this time.  The waiter who looks like some actor, remembered what we liked to drink and got it for us.  This place had the best breakfasts.  We have until 1 p.m. or so  Our daughter is going to work out and said that there are regular people who work out there and also a staff of the massage ladies who kind of hang out and wait for customers and get them as well.  There was a local patron in the gym who didn’t appreciate that she took a long time running. (she runs about 2 hours)  Heavy sighs.

            After she was done in the gym we wanted to go to the National Museum which was on the square right across the street from us.  We started over there and walked up to the door around 10 and it was closed.  Bummer.  My husbandl had come out without a coat and  it was cold enough that he went back to get a coat but while he was going back for his coat, it had started raining enough to be uncomfortable and the hotel desk had never heard of the idea of hotels having umbrellas so we just gave up on going anywhere at that time.  We went into the gift shop of the hotel and found some of the Cobo winery Raki which our daughter  got as a gift.  There was some lovely jewelry there as well which was silver and gold though so rather expensive.  The guide books had said there would be silver and copper jewelry but we never really found any other than the kitsy cheap looking tourist stuff.  So while the guide books had gone on and on about the handicrafts and the locally made items, we never really found any that were much different from any other tourist kind of place and never found anything truly unique besides our wooden double headed eagles. 

            We finally went out again after it stopped raining and I wanted to walk down the street past the museum and see if there was anything to be seen.  Was pretty much a street of travel agents.  Albanians must travel a lot plus seeing the news around the holidays, there were tons of people coming home for the holidays and then going back and the queues at the Greek border where atrocious. 

            We did pass several shoe stores and my daughter was looking longingly at the shoes and I finally said we don’t know that they aren’t going to fit until you try them on.  Myself, I don’t get the shoe thing but maybe that’s because I have a lot of foot problems but my daughter is well into the shoe addict culture.  So we went into the store and she came out with three pairs of shoes.  She could have done much more so it is a good thing we waited until the last day to get the shoes.  One was a pair that said it was Italian leather.  I suppose it certainly could be and probably is although Klodi didn’t think so.  But not sure he would know anything about women’s shoes.  They were all nice pairs and all about what I would expect to pay for shoes in a country like Albanian and expect to pay 3 or 4 times the price in the states.

            So now we have to go back to the hotel and finish packing and that means we have  6 bottles of wine between my husband and me and one bottle of Raki and our daughter has a bottle of Raki.  We looked up on the internet to make sure we could come in with this much from a non EU country and we were ok.  Sure did almost tilt our suitcases though.

            Klodi comes to fetch us on time and we wind out way out of the city through the traffic with the useless police men paying no attention to the stop lights.  Klodi dumps us at the departure door and shakes hands all around and we give him an envelope with his tip.  The guide book had said 10% of the trip cost but we all felt that was a bit too much because he didn’t do anything the last 4 days except drive plus when we asked him about all the signs all over the place that said “this castle that way and this church this way” he was very, “Oh, nothing much there and it’s probably closed” but we certainly could have driven out to see if it was closed or not and maybe seen something rather than sit in our rooms in Korca or Gjirokastra or especially Saranda.  Anyway, he got a nice tip for what he did.

            By the end of the trip, Klodi was rolling his eyes at our requests a lot, which were stopping for lunch or stopping for fruits and vegetables or asking the restaurant to cook our own vegetables (yet this was his suggestion in the beginning and I’m thinking that if he knew that restaurants would cook your veggies for you, he has done it before for other tourists)  By the end of the trip, it was obvious that Klodi would much rather have been somewhere else than taking us on a tour.  Still, we did have a very good time and did learn a lot from him. 

            We check in without a problem.  So nice being business class.  Could have told her not to bother putting the priority tags on the suitcases since it doesn’t seem to matter in the order of them coming off the plane.  Then we did a quick run through of the duty free, nothing, and then up to the lounge where we were the only ones there.  We did get some nice snacks though and they had a nice but odd cake. 

            Finally it is time to board so we go downstairs and wait for another 10 minutes.  They had called for families with children and business class first.  We shuffled our way to the gate and they were putting people to one bus or another as we walked out the door.  The plane is 100 yards away but we are going to be bussed over there.  At first I thought we were getting the business class bus because usually, nice airports, have a bus for first class, a bus for business class and then a bus for the riff raff.  But after about 10 people were in our bus, they kept filling it until it was full and then it went.  We did go first though and most of the children and families were in the second bus so why have them go through the gate first???

            Luckily, the flight was not totally as full and not as many kids and not as many whinny kids so it wasn’t too bad a flight.  One of the nice things about business class and British airways is they try to accommodate you, even with odd and unusual requests.  I always ask to keep the coffee cup on British Airways.  So this trip, I managed to snag all the British airways coffee cups this time.  Now I have a set of four.

            Into Gatwick and we get through immigration rather quickly but then we stand in the baggage claim area for at least 10 minutes before we even know what belt our luggage will arrive.  Then we are not coming out first like priority.  I had gloated in Albanian when my suitcase was the first of our three to arrive.  This time it was last.  Karma!  Our driver calls me while we are waiting for our luggage. 

            Finally we get our luggage and get outside with it.  Our driver takes off with two of our bags and we get stuck behind some slow walkers and the driver is disappearing with our suitcases into the parking garage but we catch up finally.  He is in a sedan and has a hard time getting everything into the car.  He drives us home and stays in the fast lane almost the entire time.  While it got us home faster, made me nervous to be flying that fast down the M25!  So very nice to get home.  So very nice to see our kitties.  So very nice to be warm in our house and have plenty of hot water.

            That’s our trip.  We enjoyed it.  We were very glad we went.  We think Albania is a lovely country and full of good things to see and visit.  We think we will not ever go in the winter again and would advise people to stay in the “high tourist” season for a few more years until they catch on that people like to visit at all times of the year.

Over the Final Mountains

Day #9 Thursday January 4, 2012

            Back to Tirana today.  Only one more night in Albania.  We could have done a lot better tour if I’d believed the people who told me things would be closed and NOT believed the people who told me that things would be open.  Well, we hear what we want to hear.  How true.

            We are supposed to visit several places on our trip back to Tirana.  One place being along Lake Ohrid which borders Albania and Macedonia is on the other side of the lake.  IF ONLY, we had skipped Saranda and just gone over this way and  popped into Macedonia.  Oh well.  Always easier to design a trip after you have done it.

            So we are heading towards Pogradec and Drilon.  Drilon is a small town on the lake where the former dictator had a summer home.  Of course, then it was hard to even get into the town much less onto his grounds and see his swans swimming.  Now it is a restaurant.  We have to go over several hills to get there and as we are coming down the side of one mountain, all the sides of the mountain are terraced.  They have a light dusting of snow on them so it is hard to tell if they are also farmed or not.  Klodi tells us they have cherry trees on them.  I would imagine it is beautifully pink and white when the trees blossom.  Then to the dictators home.  It is in a lovely setting and there are plenty of swans swimming including some cygnets or young swans who haven’t attained full white plumage yet.  There are also some noisy ducks who quack loudly and head for anyone on the banks. 

            We walk around the lake and over a bridge to where there are a couple of dammed sites and one side of a small bridge has carp and one side has trout.  They are supposed to be some kind of big deal fish but they were just trout and carp.  Not even koi. Back towards the restaurant for a cup of coffee and then I decide to buy some sunflower seeds from a man sitting outside under a tree.  I get two packets of seeds which have very few seeds in them actually but they only cost a few cents.  Off to the bank to give to the ducks.  Of course, the ducks are down at the far end now.  I start to throw the seeds to the cygnet and the man yells no and comes over and quacks at the ducks who start coming towards me.  Guess the seeds were only for the ducks.  Back inside for a bathroom break and a coffee and then back to the car for the rest of the ride to Tirana.

            We drive along Lake Ohrid for a while.  There are a number of resort hotels and apartments along the lake and most look pretty empty.  There are also a number of boats pulled up on the shore waiting for summer.  Then we start passing men who are selling fish that they have caught in the lake.  A couple of times we pass someone who looks to be selling crabs but can’t really tell because Klodi is not afraid of driving fast today.

            We go through another deserted copper mine in one town.  Most of the windows are broken out of the main building, as usual.  Passing cemeteries, bee hives, hay stacks, sacrificial bears for good luck hanging off of roofs and eves.  Passing  lovely houses tucked into cliffs, train trestles, and once a whole lot of people standing on a hilltop for no apparent reason.  All things that I have tried to take photos of several times and never sure if I have a good one.  If I stopped the car for each photo I wanted, we’d never get anywhere.  We pass through Elsedan where there is an old city wall but it was a drive by to look at it.  We did ask for a toilet which always seems to surprise the male guides.  I think it should be mandatory for any male guide with a female client to stop every two hours for a restroom break.  Men seem to be able to go all day without one.  We stopped at a small restaurant and went in to use the toilet.  Passed over a hill looking down on a town where was another large communist factory abandoned.

            It is all up and down hills all the way to Tirana.  Klodi says they are digging a tunnel that will go this way and no more up and down hills.  It should be done this year.  Finally past some road construction into Tirana and we are telling Klodi we need lunch.  It seems pretty certain he just wanted to dump us at the hotel and be done with us because I am sure we have not been the easiest of clients with our fruit and veggie stops and “it’s cold!”  but my husband says we need lunch before we go to the hotel.  It is well into the afternoon but Klodi swings up a side street and takes us to a restaurant were we have a lunch and then he takes us to the hotel and says he will see us tomorrow to take us to the airport.

            Our flight leaves at 2:20 and he said 1:20 would be plenty of time but I asked to be there at 1 to give us a little safety so he agreed.

            We get rooms on the 10th floor of Tirana International hotel this time and while they still want our passports, they do not make us pay 20 euros per room this time for the mini bar possible usage.  We want to go out a bit and see the Christmas market that is down the street and looked to still be in operation.  So we walk past the mosque and to the market.  A lot of it has already closed up and left.  It wasn’t so much of a market left as it was food stalls and bars and some toy stores.  We did see a Cobo winery booth, the winery we had visited.  Back to our local fruit market where the stall sellers know us by now even though it is only our 4^th time there.  And as we ate lunch late, we spend another quiet evening in the hotel, our last evening in Albania for this trip.

           

Smokey, Smokey Korca

Day #8 Tuesday January 3, 2012

            My daughter and I wanted to hit a couple of stores this morning as it did look like there were some interesting shops here and of course they were closed yesterday but maybe  today.  We had breakfast in the hotel, nothing fancy, and walked up the cobblestones to the first turn we had made yesterday towards the castle.  There was a wood carver shop we wanted to visit.  He had some really nice pieces.  He had a cut out of the double eagle of Albania.  We both got one and I got a small key chain as well.  He and his wife very carefully wrapped them up separately in paper and gave them to us.  They didn’t have a lot of English but asked where we came from.  We said the States and sometimes that doesn’t register as well so we said America and the man goes “Obama! – good”.  Huzzah.  People overseas like our president again.  Nobody ever liked Bush.

            We start back but have a few minutes so we look at some postcards and get some cards and I get a magnet.  My daughter has been looking at the purses women are carrying but we have not found a good purse store.  She has also been looking at the shoes and they look lovely but she thinks there will not be any in her size especially after she had to go with Large in the clothing store. 

            We get back to the hotel and  the men are waiting for us.  We take off about 10:15.  Our guide is very nervous about the road today.   He has asked the locals and other drivers how is the road as he says this will be the worst road to drive over in terms of snow and if any driver had said it was bad, we would have gone the other way which probably meant back to the coast. 

            So today we are going to Korca (pronounced Korchah) and supposedly we will see a nice mosque and a museum of medieval arts BUT Klodi has already warned us that this place will probably be closed.  It is, after all, only the 3rd and people don’t like to go back to work yet.  This has become his theme song with each singing of it becoming a day longer that things are closed and another day of our vacation that we could have spent somewhere warm!

            There are some truly magnificent views as we are driving.  The mountains are snow covered, the trees are green or brown, nothing in between, and towns are nestled in valleys and quite lovely.  Driving  in the shadows there are some slippery spots which Klodi drives over at about 5 mph.  In places where the sun is shining, he goes about 10 mph if there is snow on the side of the road.  We stop one place to look at a valley where there is a waterfall.  Kind of hard for me to see it but the valley is beautiful.  I finally make out the waterfall.    There was a herd of goats there too and they kept coming up the steep hill to the road.  At first, it didn’t seem like there was a shepherd but he finally showed up and he is walking up the cliff about the same as the goats do.  Just looking at how steep it was made me fall off balance!

We finally get to a spot in the road that is in shadow and there is ice on it and the car can’t get a grip to get up enough momentum to get up the road without sliding.  Our guide backs down and  tries again to no avail.  He backs further down and no luck.  It is not a wide road and there are cars behind us and cars coming towards us and we are pretty much in the middle of the road and stuck.  Klodi gets out of put on chains. 

            I don’t think he has ever put them on before and they were not a design we knew.  Usually, you lay down the chains and rive over them and then lock them.  He was putting them on and trying to reach behind the wheel to lock them.  Men were coming up and offering advice and helping with the chains and all.  One man talks to us and offers my husband his card (he was actually talking to me too) and he is a doctor at one of the hospitals.  He was quite friendly and didn’t seem to mind at all that he was stuck on the road behind a stuck van.

            Our guide is getting frustrated and  rips off the chains and acts like he is going to try to drive up the hill again with the men pushing the car but then several of the men take the chains and manage to put them around one wheel on the left hand rear.  So how many Albanians does it take to put on one tire chain???  In our case, it took three!  We get back in the van.  Men walk up the road and direct the cars coming towards us to the side so we have a full road.  Then several men push and we slide a bit but the chain holds and we get up and over the hill.  We keep driving with the one chain and it is flapping as it goes around but we can’t be going over 10mph.  We come to a small restaurant and coffee shop by the side and our guide pulls in there and says we will have a break.

            The men get busy and  take off the chain and attempt to put it back in its case, then  Klodi has to put the van back together because he had gotten out the jack as well in case he had to jack up the wheel to get on the chain.  All the men who had helped us come driving by us now in their cars and they all wave.

            There are bird cages in this small restaurant too.  There is a fire in one room and we stand by the fire.  There are men working on a car outside and then they are out there holding a rifle and I thought they were going to shoot something but Klodi said they were just posing for photos with the rifle as if they had shot something.  It is quite cold in this small restaurant because all the men going in and out working on the car and taking photos of each other holding the rifle always leave the door open.  It’s about 2C outside and we are very cold so we are as close to the fire as possible without climbing into it!  The door usually gets shut about ½ ways but each time a new person comes in or goes out, there is a chilly breeze into the room. 

            So my daughter and I are waiting for my husband and our guide and somehow we got into talking about  honey.  This place was known for its good honey for sale so we each got a kilogram of honey for something like 10,000 Lek which is a bit under $10.  We finally continue our journey to Korca.  As we pass over some hills and see these little towns and small cities tucked into the hills in nooks and crannies, there is a haze hanging over a lot of them.  At first, it wasn’t a great haze so wasn’t sure if it was haze or clouds.  When we got further into the mountains and there would be valleys surrounded on all sides by mountains, it because quite apparent that these were smoke hazes hanging over the towns.  When we arrived in Korca, it was quite hazy and this town smelled very much like damp wood smoke and peat fires.  We had to spray all our coats when we got home because of the smoke smell from this place.

            We got into Korca late as  it was getting dark already.  But then it was getting dark by 3:30 or 4 p.m.  We went to the Hotel Regency because this was the only place I had asked for a different hotel as the reviews of our originally assigned hotel was the Kocibelli and it didn’t have good ratings on trip advisor.  I was supposed to pay extra for this hotel as it was more expensive.  I gave that money to Klodi the next day and he pocketed it so not sure if he got an extra tip or not.  Hotel Kocibelli was just around the corner from us and actually looked nicer.  The hotel is a nice little place with a fish tank in the middle of the lobby that has a large carp in it that has to jerk itself around about 3 times in order to turn and swim the other way.  Also a couple of huge plecostimas  We did manage to ask where restaurants were and our guide told us how to find the ones around the main square where the cathedral was and said we couldn’t’ miss it.  The restaurant in the hotel was closed.  Then he was gone and we were on our own for the rest of the day.  No touring today, no sightseeing today, no anything but riding in the car and crossing the mountain.  Ah, but there was shopping this morning.  I guess that’s something.

            We go out to find the restaurants.  We find the main cathedral but it’s very, very cold.  The cathedral is lovely and lit up at night with some holiday greeting.  We see a couple of restaurants on the side of the cathedral so feel confident that we know how to get something to eat.  We head back to the hotel and stop at some small shops on the way and find some snacks and drinks.  We are accosted by a couple of boys who think we should give them money.  This is the only place where we have bit hit by kids wanting money other than some of the obvious gypsies.  After our guide had discussed with us about how he told the lady at the mosque in Tirana that she shouldn’t be begging but should get a job and get help from friends, we were surprised that these boys approached us.  They weren’t gypsies and in Albania, it seems that gypsies begging is ok but everyone else, it is not.

            We head out again about 6 I think.  We’re hungry and ready for food.  We make our way gingerly back to the square and cathedral because the walkway is icy and slippery in spots.  We make our way across the square and pick the restaurant on the left and head into it.  It is pretty full of people on the ground floor and someone directs us upstairs.  It wasn’t until later when our daughter said something that I realized we had been directed to the women’s bar upstairs.  Yep, this was not a restaurant but a bar.  We ask for a restaurant and they direct us around the corner.  We go around the corner and find a place that says bar and restaurant.  We walk in and ask if it is a restaurant and he says yes and directs us into a room with tables and then leaves.  We sit there for maybe 5 minutes or longer and then he comes back and says they will not be cooking yet for another hour!  I guess he was happy to have us sit there for an hour or so but we didn’t feel like doing that.  Sooooo.

            OK, we are out of there.  We walk back across the street and back down the slippery sidewalk and stop at the small stores again to make sure everyone has something to eat for dinner because we’re not coming out again in a hour in this cold and this smelly, smoky town and that ends our night in Korca, total waste of time to go there really and the tour agency should have known things would be closed.  Could have shortened our trip by several days!

            Other things we have noticed.  Most Albanians look rather surly and will stare at you.  When I smile and give a nod, they totally transform their face and smile back at me.  They seem to love it when I try to say thank you.  The first few times after I had it written down, I still wasn’t doing very well but got pretty good at the end.  They laughed a lot too at the beginning.  Faleminderit (pronounce all letters including the t at the end and the e’s are accented and sound like short a’s).  There is no zoning and no anti-litter laws.  Trash is everywhere and the worst of it is thrown into their waterways.  Several streams and rivers had high water marks in the trees lining their banks and the markers were odd bits of plastic bags and trash that would be stuck in the branches all at the same level and all ‘flowing” in one direction. 

            Not only are they heat challenged but they are door challenged too.  Even on the coldest days, a lot of people walk in and out of stores, restaurants, bars, hotels and just leave the doors open.  It’s no wonder that all the shop keepers, bar keeps, etc. are wearing heavy coats inside their stores. 

            Usually we saw shepherds with just sticks and dogs but in the mountains, sometimes there were shepherds with rifles and other long guns.  Twice shepherd dogs came over to our daughter to be friendly.  The one in Antigone got in trouble for it, I think.   We have had Klodi stop for fruits and vegetables many more times than he has wanted to, I think.  Now he rolls his eyes each time we say we need to stop for fruit.  But in spite of all the heat problems and food problems, it is a lovely country.

On! On! No Matter that Everything is Closed

Day #7 Monday January 2, 2012

            Out of Saranda to head towards Gjirokaster today.  We make Klodi find us a fruit stand before we leave Saranda.  We are following the same route as we took to the Blue Eye yesterday and it doesn’t take us long to zip past the gypsy camp and past the entrance to the Blue Eye and then up over some mountains which have some snow on them but the roads are ok.   We are going to stop at Antigone before reaching Gjirokaster.  This isn’t even on the itinerary.  Klodi says the road has only been open to this site for a year and prior to that, it was a donkey trek.  It is a nice paved road too, not very wide but certainly one of the nicer roads we have traveled pot-hole wise.  There are a lot of switchback curves and up and downs and at one point, there had been a recent rockslide and only enough had been cleared to barely let us through it.   We pass through some small villages where cows and sheep are being herded and there are some lovely persimmon trees that remind me of Korea because they lose all their leaves before the fruit is ripe so you have bright orange fruit on stark branches.  Quite lovely.

            We finally pull up into a rather wide parking lot with spaces for 15 or 20 cars.  They have high hopes with their new road.  There is a sheep herd on the fields below us and several sheep dogs.    We walk up to the entrance to Antigone and get some of the history from our guide.  300-200 BC Pyrrhus, the husband of Antigone, who was the daughter of Oedipus and his mom (in the play) built the town for his wife.  It is  high up on the hill, overlooking the valley, and had quite an extensive town for the time with an agora, city walls, fields, etc.  It was incredibly peaceful and quiet up there, very still.  The stillness affected  us all in a very good way  We liked it very much as it was so peaceful.

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            As we walked further into the city, we saw some people ahead of us arriving at the Agora area.  They were also tourists and I felt quite indignant that we did not have the place to ourselves.  The only other tourists we have seen all week and they turn up in the place where it is the most beautiful and peaceful.  They left before we did though and we still have quite a bit of time to look at the view and be quiet and all.

            This town was quite a way up the hills and had a great view of the valley and the river in the valley which was another river that had moved over time.  So at one point, it was supposedly great for commerce and a good place for fortification and defense but how the heck did they protect the river and how the heck did they get the water from the river to the homes as they were miles from the river and it would have been hard to run downhill if they needed to attack someone.  If they had anything down there to steal, it would have been gone and the people down the river with it before the troops could get down there.

                        Back at the car, the sheep have gotten close to the car.  One sheep dog is barking at us as we pass.  The other sheep dog comes up to our daughter and falls all over itself for her attention.  Then back the way we came and on to Gijokastra past a large bunker where someone is living.  They have put an Albanian flag on the top of it.

            Over another pass and into Gjirokastra the birthplace of their former dictator, Enver Hoxha.  It is a pretty little town on the side of a mountain above the Drino River.  There is an old bazaar street that is now just a nice cobblestone street with a few modern shops along it.  There is an old Mosque in the center of town and there is a castle/citadel on the top of the hill overlooking the town that has been turned into a weapons museum but it was also a political prison in the old dungeons too at one time.

            We wanted lunch so we drove to the other side of town and had lunch at a hotel that was sitting on a man-made lake where we got some rice patties that are traditional to the area.  They were quite tasty and I had a second helping and took the rest home with us.  They cooked our daughter’s vegetables but then drenched  them  in olive oil.  After this, we had Klodi write down how to cook our veggies for us and to say no butter and no oil.  We have also had fruit slices for dessert that have honey drizzled over them and sometimes some cinnamon sprinkled on them as well.  This is quite good and we have had it at several different restaurants.  We were driving through one section of town where there were a lot of road side stands with honey we thought.  We asked our guide too late to stop for honey and he said we had already passed all the good honey.  But now is when we have just started seeing bee hives so we found some honey in Sarande and got it   Lunch was sometimes a challenge for our guide.  I think at this point in the tour, he really wanted to be elsewhere and just wanted to get us from town to town and then go visit his friends.

            We take a walk up to the castle to see if it is open.    As we are standing at the gate looking forlornly at the castle, a car drives up and some VIP gets out with his family and calls inside the locked gate.  A caretaker comes to the gate from the inside and opens the gate for him.  I am very hopeful that he will also let us in and ask Klodi if it is possible.  At first, it looks like he’s not going to but Klodi keeps talking to him and he opens the door and lets us in for 500 Lek.  Score!

            The entrance hallway is rather grand and long with guns sticking out from each small chamber to the sides of the long hall.  The guns are WWII and usually rather large bore long range guns.  There is a tank there too but it was all so dark that I couldn’t really take any photos and half the time, my camera couldn’t even get a focus on anything and if I took it off automatic, it was fuzzy.  We got through the long hallway and there was a statue to the resistance fighter and then we are out in the courtyard.  In the courtyard are doors into rooms which have lost their purpose and some steps leading down into the dungeon where we can’t go but that would be a good part of a tour.  In one small courtyard there are a couple of guns and an American “spy” plane.  It was a trainer jet with problems so had to land in Albania.  The government kept it and put it on display as a spy plane so that they (the Albanians) would realize that their Communist government was protecting them from the wicked West.

            The views were lovely up here with the sun shining on the snowy mountains on the other side of the river and the town tucked into the hillside.  Gjirokastra is also known as stone town because everything is made of stone even the roofs.  We continued on to the end of the castle with another larger courtyard and a façade from a 2009 festival that had been held here.  The castle is used for musicals and such but this was the last really big one held here.  We looked at a tower with Ali Pasha’s clock on it.  We also have a good view of a stone roof there.  They are quite well done and according to local lore, very warm in winter and cool in the summer.  Not sure how but whatever. 

            The VIP family has disappeared so we have the whole castle to ourselves.  It is a lovely view from the end of the castle overlooking the river (where you cannot see the debris in it from this high) and the mountains that are copper colored on the snow with the setting sun.  We turn to go back and walk up on the stage.  We were asking about the dance from New Year’s Eve that we saw the locals doing in the restaurant.  Klodi says it is just 6 steps and shows us.  We all try and get it going pretty good for an impromptu lesson.  The steps make you go in a circle so that’s why it’s always a circle dance.  Then we head back out of the castle.

            My daughter tries to light up some of the guns as we walk back through the darkened hallway to the entrance.  I was able to get a few shots but not so many as it is just too dark inside.  The caretaker comes out of somewhere and lets us out.  We thank him profusely and I am able to say it haltingly in Albanian as I finally got Klodi to write it down for me and once I saw it, I could practice it.  The caretaker takes off down the street and we walk down the hill to go down the street in the other direction. 

            We are behind the mosque and come around to in front of it and our guide asks if we want to go see the former dictator’s birthplace which is now a museum but of course it is closed because nothing is open on Jan 1, 2, 3rd (now we are up to the 3rd being a day of things also being closed).  We say yes so we head around the streets and down some small hills and tromping on the cobblestones.  There are some nice views back at the castle and some good shots of the stone roofs but I never got a really good shot of the roofs and never really even thought about it until we saw some postcards in shops. 

            We get half a block from the dictator’s house and Klodi goes “there it is” and that was it.  Of course we have to go back the same way, up the hills, around the bends and tromping on cobblestones which haven’t helped my daughters’ injury and haven’t helped my feet but it is always picturesque to see cobblestone streets.  Awwwww.  Oddly, there was a car sitting on the street that had a Wisconsin license plate.  We also saw one in a different town with an Illinois license plate.

            We pass the mosque just as it is doing its call to prayer.  I don’t notice a lot of men heading towards it.  Back to the hotel to warm up.  This means we have a small heater in the rooms as it is not getting very warm in there.  This country is definitely heat challenged.  The hotels aren’t having many guests (sometimes just us) so they don’t heat the rooms until someone comes.  That means we are walking into rooms that are 40 something F or maybe 50 if we are lucky.  We needed heaters in Berat, needed them in Fier but didn’t get them, and needed them in Gjirokastra.  Our room finally got warm enough that we were able to put our heater in the bathroom for the night which was good because there was a huge gap in the window letting in cold air.  So with the heater, it was warm enough to take a shower the next morning.

            As we pass the mosque on the walk back to the hotel, a man comes out of a small store or bar and sees my husband.  He stares at him and walks alongside us on the opposite side of the street.  I can tell he is going to talk to us, I thought.  He finally comes over and says Hi to my husband and “my name is Jimmy” and where are you from and “I speak German, Russian, Italian and Greek.  My English is not so good”.  I just automatically opened my mouth and said, Oh your English is much better than our Albanian and then realized that Jimmy was totally ignoring me and didn’t even once look at me or acknowledge my presence.  He continued to walk besides us a bit and then said goodbye to my husband and went away.   Wow, I’m invisible. 

            On our way in Gjirokastra today, we had passed through Leskovik.  It was a former communist copper mining town.  Only reason for its existence was for the copper mine which is now defunct and gone.  The town has not dried up and blown away but I was asking what they do now.  Some of them are into the livestock and shepherding but not sure what else they are doing and Klodi didn’t have an answer.  We saw another copper mine later that was also defunct plus the textile factory that we had passed in Berat that was dead.   Not at all sure how these people are living in valleys between mountains with no industry and no easy way to get out of the valley. 

            This location is quite lovely and the town is pretty but except for the lucky chance we had to get into the castle, this day would have been nothing more than a long drive in the country to look at the scenery.  We are a bit miffed that our tour company had promised that these things would be open and set an itinerary that hinged on everything being open.  Live and Learn.

New Year's Day

Day #6 Sunday January 1, 2012

            Actually, we didn’t sleep too badly and didn’t hear that much noise.  Either they have a lot better insulation in this hotel or the speakers downstairs weren’t working very well.  Arrangements had been made earlier for us to have breakfast in our rooms this morning as they didn’t feel they could handle having us in the dining room after the party the night before.   We get a knock on the door and a man brings in one tray that has a large greasy omelet on a plate that is cold.  A basket of stale bread, a glass of milk, and  a couple of pastries.  No coffee, no juice, no fruit, no yoghurt, and nothing to put on the bread.   There was no coffee, did I mention that.  NO COFFEE!.  While we are waiting for him to bring in another tray, my husband goes to the door and realizes the waiter is about to knock on our daughter’s door.  Since we don’t know for sure if she is downstairs working out or still asleep, my hubby stops him and has him bring the tray into our room.  I ask if we are supposed to share the tray we already have and he says, it was just breakfast for 2.  We tell him that we are three people and the front desk should know that.  He says he’ll go get another breakfast.  Now why we even wanted him to do that, don’t know.  The food was pretty awful but since we made him bring another one, we felt a little obligated to at least look like we had eaten some of it but we flushed some of the omelets. 

            This was a 4 star hotel supposedly and I had looked up all the hotels on line before we came and this one had a fitness room.  It consisted of a small room with two broken elliptical machines and a treadmill, I think, and a weight bench that was so wobbly that I wouldn’t have used it in fear that the bar would drop on top of me.  Our daughter did manage to use the equipment but don’t know how.  None of it was very safe.

            This is the day we were supposed to go to Butrint which were Greek and Roman ruins and Albania’s most important archaeological site.  Our guide had pointed out from the Fortress yesterday at late lunch where the ruins were and a large lake that accompanied them but he had also told us he had called and was told that Butrint was closing at noon on Dec 31 and would not be open again for several days.  Now he is saying to us that things will be closed Jan 1 and 2nd.  Nobody goes back to work before Jan 3rd.  But he is going to come and take us to see the Blue Eye which even the itinerary does not explain.

            As we are driving to the Blue Eye, there are many signs posted along the road that read ‘this chapel that way, this monastery other way, ruins straight ahead, etc. etc. museum to the left, castle to the right.”   We thought with so much being closed that we could at least drive to some of these sights and see something but our guide insisted that the signs were better in being a sign rather than in what they were marking as the “ruins” might be a single rock, the castle might be a hole in the ground and the museums would certainly be closed

            Klodi retrieves us for a trip to the Blue Eye.  He seems pretty chipper and we ask him what time he went to bed last night and he says around 3.  He stayed at the restaurant until about then, stopped at the hotel to see if we were downstairs as part of the party and then we to his friends and got some sleep.  We drive out of Saranda along the same route we will take tomorrow to go to Gjirokaster.  Along the way, we pass a large gypsy camp that looks to have been in the same location quite some time.  Through a few hills, over some curves and to a dam and drive across the earthen dam and down a long row past some defunct and deserted Communist fish farms.  The fish farms are large, long concrete open top troughs with scummy water in them and weeds growing up and around and all over them.  They have probably been sitting there empty since the early 90’s and any fish died or were scooped out early on when the farm went under. 

            We park in a lot where there is one other car and walk down the path past some rushing water that is remarkable clear.  We had noted on the drive over that all the water we saw was so clear, when it isn’t filled with debris.  Their power is hydroelectric and we also had passed a large hydroelectric plant.     We cross a foot bridge and come to the Blue Eye.  It is a fresh water spring bubbling up from the ground.  Apparently Albania is blessed with a number of these springs especially in this area.  This one is the prettiest.  There is a flow of 7 ½ cubic meters per second which is quite a current.  The temperature is a constant 10C all the time (50F) and the water is good and tasty and I can attest to that as I got a handful and tried it.  Also spilled it on my polarizing lens and tried to clean it off later with the wrong cloth and ended up having to clean all the lenses including the inside lenses.  Anyway, back to the Eye.  In 1995 and 1998, some divers descended into the spring and were able to go to 50 meters (150’) before they could not squeeze any further into the water column.  Not sure how the heck they did it and my husband and I had some fun trying to imagine the logistics involved with diving that deep and coming back without rising too fast because of the current, etc. etc.  Something divers like to do – analyze other dives.  The opening of the Eye was quite blue with a very deep blue in the middle.  Supposedly, it looks like an eye if you climb up to the viewing platform over it and look down.    I really didn’t think so.      

                                           

            There was green plant life growing around the eye as well.  Another debate between myself and hubby as to whether this was algae or plants and we think plants.  It was a lovely spot and the water rushed out and down the river and spilled over rocks and trees and was quite beautiful.  We walked down the path a bit rather than immediately return to the car    Further down, the river widened and there were a couple of floating docks over the water and you could see the plant life all the way on the bottom.  Quite lovely.

            This is a country where we figured we would need to drink bottled water.  First night in Tirana, we got a bottle out of the mini fridge because the hotel desk clerks couldn’t understand what we were asking.  Next day we had asked Klodi and he said it was safe to drink so we had been the entire time and so far none of us have gotten the runs from the water.  Now we are looking at this beautiful outpouring of clear, clean water and it is just lovely.  Three miles away and everywhere else we have been, the water is full of crap and debris and garbage.  This is a country where they have not figured out what to do with their trash so they throw it all in the rivers and streams and creeks.  All the rivers are debris strewn and you can see high water marks on all the rivers based on how high the trash is and that it is all “flowing” in one direction.  Certainly a bit of a contradiction in having clean water to drink and having dirty crappy rivers.

            Back to the hotel and we are going to walk along the promenade and see if anything at all is open.  Being a good resort town like it is, there are numerous  hotels along the walkway and restaurants.  Most really seem to be closed.  There are a couple open that seem good.  We are wanting some lunch and having a hard time deciding where to stop.  We walk a ways and finally turn to come back and pop into a restaurant where we can sit outside and not be bothered by too much cigarette smoke.  It is comfortable in the sun.  We order and it takes a while to come plus the man had to come out with an English speaker and tell us one thing we ordered wasn’t available and to choose something else.  This was my hubby’s dish.  I got mine first, a kind of gyro which was quite good.  Our daughter got hers next which was veggies and she also had ordered some grilled shrimp which we knew were going to come with the heads on and my hubby  promised to take them off for her.  He  took off the heads of her shrimp but the dish passed under my nose and I thought it was atrocious smelling, positively vile.

            She got busy peeling her shrimp and when she was done, she had a plateful of shrimp crumbs and debris.  Not a single shrimp had stayed together in one piece.  She tasted one and then she showed us the shrimp debris and mangled crumbs of shrimp.   We both tasted the shrimp and it tasted as bad as it smelled.  Good thing all of us had been tentative and not taken a big bite.  Definitely bad, bad shrimp.  Later we commented on it to Klodi and he reminded us he had told us a tale of not liking shrimp for the same reason, he got some bad ones.  Took her several days to totally get the smell off her hands.

            Back to the hotel.  We didn’t find any place open that had fruit or veggies.  There was a place selling cigarettes and candy.  Can always count of a cigarette place being open all days of the year so we were able to get some candy bars and drinks.

            We are meeting Klodi for dinner and we go back to the same restaurant where we had our New Year’s Eve dinner.  It was tasty again and that ended our almost totally wasted day in Sarande.

New Year's Eve on the Seashore

Day #5, Saturday December 31, 2011, New Year’s Eve

            We are a day behind, officially, according to our itinerary.  We were supposed to hit Apollonia yesterday but we didn’t make it.  Oh well.  The shower has hot water so that is good but the water is coming out of a wand which I didn’t bother to check the position before I turned on the water so was hit full in the face with cold water first thing.  Brrrr.  My daughter ended up with the same problem.   Here is her take on the hotel:

“I also had the same problem. I ended up getting water all over the bathroom because the wand wasn’t positioned correctly. I had actually looked to check that the shower head was positioned correctly and figured it would come out of there but the water came out of both – hence the water everywhere. This hotel was also newly renovated – it was the first time our guide was staying at it after the re-work. None of us were impressed. It was styled as modern art type which made it a bit sterile and cold. Thus, with surly staff and lack of service, it was the worst hotel we stayed at. They also kept their poor German Shepard chained down in the parking lot. He did not look happy. During breakfast, the server – who didn’t really serve anything, pretty much just stood behind us and watched us the entire time while her (or some other staff)’s kids watched cartoons on the TV.”

My husband & I got up in our 18C room, never got warmer than that, about 64F., and went downstairs to breakfast.  It didn’t look very promising but a lady motioned us into the restaurant where there was a table set with the “buffet”.  We sat down to see if we would be served coffee but the lady disappeared.  We went to the buffet table.  There were 2 cooked eggs on a plate (they knew there were three of us there), and the eggs were cold.  There were a couple of hard boiled eggs, there wasn’t much fruit or vegetables, no yoghurt, and I think there was no coffee and not much in the way of bread or pastries either.  Probably the worst breakfast we had at any hotel on the tour. (OH, except for New Year’s Day).  That plus the surliness of the front desk and their unwillingness to change our room and the fact that it is supposedly a 4 star hotel and we had to park two floors below the hotel and carry our bags out to the car this morning.  I went downstairs to see if I could find an exit to the car park but there wasn’t one.  Poo.  I wandered around the kitchen area and electrical area and laundry area but nothing for guests to get to the parking lot.  So we weren’t very happy with this hotel.  My review on Trip Advisor reflects this all. 

            We were downstairs ready to go at 10 which is the time Klodi gave us.  At 10:15, I called his number and he obviously was still in bed.  He was quite startled and said he’d be right down.  It still took him another 15 minutes to make it to the lobby.

            We haul out with our suitcases but I was lucky and Klodi took mine down the stairs.  Into the van.  Our daughter has relinquished the front seat to me so I can take photos but she and I are both taking Bonine to make sure we are ok on the curves and swerves.  So we are finally off to Apollonia this morning on a hill top and take some photos of some cemeteries as we pass and also some of the bears hung in houses being built to ward off evil spirits.  Usually these bears or dogs are hanging from the rooftop or hanging from an aerial.

            I am worried that I do not have a good turkey photo yet so I told Klodi that if we see a bunch of turkeys, we have to stop so he can hold one for me so I can get a photo.  So that is what we did.  We passed a flock of about 8 turkeys with an older man and a stick.  We stopped and Klodi went back to talk to him.  I don’t think he ever told him that he was doing it so I could take a photo but told him that he was interested in buying one for dinner.  I am out of the car and walking towards him because I expected him to wave me in but as usual, all the Muslim men ignored me so I just kept walking closer and closer and then Klodi is running after turkeys trying to catch one.  They are very adept at running and gobbling just a few steps to stay out of the way.  Another man in a red jacket joins the chase and he is the one that finally runs a turkey down and tackles him!  I think the red jacket man was another turkey owner and just was having fun tackling the turkey.  I wonder if all buyers have to catch their own?   Klodi takes it from him and I am snapping photos  and there is a lot of positioning by the turkey as it flaps it wings and wiggles and tries to escape but Klodi finally has him by the feet and is holding him upside down.  He is still talking to the man and I am taking photos then ask if I can hold him.   He’s one heavy bird.  Klodi talks some more and puts him down and we leave.  Later he said that the bird was 700 lek per kilogram and we worked it out to about $60.  He also said that he told the man he would think about it and when we came back by maybe he would get it.  Of course he had no intention and when we did drive back by, he tried to go fast through the area but our van is a rather distinct Mercedes Benz red with foreigners in it so the turkey owner recognized us and tried to flag Klodi but he ignored him and drove faster.  I’ll bet that old man remembers Klodi or at least the red van next time he comes through with some other tourists.   

            We pass some of the omnipresent bunkers but these are quite large ones. Most have graffiti on them include the biggest one that says Hi Mom.  Now we are on smaller roads and there are several donkey carts that pass us and a horse cart.  Always some sheep in the road almost every day as well.  Sometimes cows as well. 

            Apollonia is a huge site but like most in Albania, not a lot of excavation has been done.  At least this place is much better than Durres in that they could do a lot of excavation.  High on a hill top and no modern village or town built on top of it.  There is a large façade of a former building which might have been a Prytaneion – basically a place where the leaders of the local government met.  Also a couple of Stoas or ancient streets that were straight as a rod.  There was a library and an Odeon, some baths, some noble’s house and that’s about all we got from Klodi that I recall.  We did pick up the brochure and there is a lot more information about the rocks and walls and ruins than what we got and also must have been some more in other places as well.  Looking at the map of the site, we only covered a very small portion of it but also looks like we would have been hiking over quite a distance to see the other ruins and possibly would have taken too long.  

            We walk into the former church/monastery which is a museum.  There is a monk standing looking over the valley below and the wind is blowing his robes.  I snapped a photo but didn’t really get it into good focus.  There were statues around the courtyard, all without heads which are in museums elsewhere.  The church was lovely but the columns along the front of the church (a covered walkway between the columns and the church entrance) were Byzantine and  was more interesting as they had faces on the tops of the columns on both sides.  The faces were called  “frippery” by our guide meaning a lot of decoration and silliness for no reason.  I liked the faces and each one was different so I took a photo of each.

            I was allowed to take photos in this church.  It didn’t have near the fancy decorations or icons of the other churches but it was small and nice.  At one time there were frescoes on the walls but they have been scrapped off or painted over and are gone except for a small blue one on the wall and a bit on the top of the dome.  A double eagle is on a carved stone set up near the roof on the outside and some writing in Greek which is very strange for the time period.  We went into another little church that had a lot of damage done to it and the frescoes were in very bad shape. 

            We are now heading down the coast to Sarande which is a resort town and we will spend two nights there.  Klodi has started warning us that things will probably be closed on the 1st.  He also says thought that it is good we are out of Tirana because the celebration there goes on all night and you can’t even see outside at night because of all the fireworks smoke.  There have been fireworks every night and often during the day as well as people set off bottle rockets and such just for fun.  We are now noticing a lot of fireworks for sale along the road and everyone has some for sale.

            The itinerary read that we would stop at Ali Pasha’s castle in Porto Palermo.  As we are coming down one hill, we see it in the distance.  It is on a small island that looks like it might have a causeway.  According to my very old guide book, it said you could visit this castle and there was no entrance fee.  According to Klodi, it is closed and all we could do was stop for less than 5 minutes and take a photo.  We would have learned a lot more about Ali Pasha had we been able to visit Butrint but since we couldn’t; he fades into the background of our knowledge.  He did undertake a lot of building in Albania and we did see some of his stuff but you can take an “ali pasha tour” to see his works and buildings and aqueducts and castles.

            We are almost to Saranda when we drive up a steep hill to the Lekuresi Fortress that overlooks the bay and the island of Corfu.  This is when we first realized that we were so close to Greece.  I never remember what is in the itinerary!  Lekuresi was waiting for us and had our lunch ready.  We did not get to choose the menu as they are giving us some traditional food things .  It actually had  looked like they were totally closed but they were getting ready for their New Year’s Eve party.  Still, they had food for us and it was good and they didn’t mind cooking  our daughter’s vegetables. 

            Some things we have learned.  So far, only Tirana (with one exception) has any stoplights and those are questionable at best since there are traffic cops messing up the works everywhere.  In Vlore, we saw cops with guns who were searching a car and the people in it.  Skanderbeg’s flag is the flag of Albania which is a double eagle.  Mostly men are the shopkeepers, a lot like Turkey and if they aren’t shop keeping, they are sitting around in cafes and coffee bars drinking Raki, or coffee, and chatting with each other.  The women don’t chat on the streets but hurry from one errand to another and then go home. Also in Vlore, we saw a salesman whose trunk was totally full of mandarin oranges.  Where the seas join in Vlore, there was a secret submarine base but wasn’t quite as secret or prohibited as the one in Balaclava in Ukraine.  Dhermi was a village totally on the side of a cliff with one church and one mosque.  Vuno was a village with one stoplight. 

           

            We are at the Hotel Butrinti which is 5*.  As we walk into the hotel, only one person at the desk speaks English.  The lobby is full of tables and chairs with nuts in dishes on each table and huge speakers on either side of the entrance and a Christmas tree that has been pushed back to almost blocking the elevator.  Our guide told us that no one eats dinner before 10 and especially not on NYE.  We didn’t want to wait that long but he said no one would be ready before then.  We finally compromised on 9.

            We ask for the quietest rooms we can get.  Pretty sure we are almost the only ones in the hotel again, maybe one or two other guests.  They do tell us the party downstairs will not start until midnight.  Great.  Pretty sure we will get no sleep this evening.  There are two sets of 5 speakers stacked on top of each other  in the lobby and they reach to the ceiling.  Of course, we end up in rooms right over the speakers.  We ask for rooms at least on the other side of the hallway and are told that would be worse because there is a club back there and they will stay open all night and be much more noisy.  We do have a great view out of window though of the city which has a promenade around the waterfront.  There is also a view of Corfu, the Greek island, right across the water from us.  There is a daily ferry to Corfu.  While in the room, the lights are flickering several times and the TV would go out and the lights would go out.  Then the lights would come back on because the hotel had a generator which ran the lights but pretty much nothing else.  This happened several times but the lights and TV would always eventually come back.  This was of great concern too because we didn’t want to spend another night with no heat and then no hot water later.  We later heard it was because too many people were busy cooking their fancy dinners and such and once that peak passed, the power stayed on ok.  We did take the stairs down when we left for dinner.

            We get to the fruit stand before it closes and stock up for tomorrow.  I get some sunset shots of Corfu.  We get ready to go out at 9 for dinner.  Our guide comes to get us but we are not driving, just walking down the street to the restaurant.  When we get there, a few people are already there for dinner as well and some more come in so people do eat earlier than 10.  There is a man tuning up his clarinet with a speaker.  Have never seen a wind instrument with a speaker attachment before. 

            The meal is a set menu and several courses.  We get starters of  some fried little seafood bits which included octopus and squid but some tasty tiny shrimp.  And I’ve totally lost what else we had but it took a long time to get the food and a long time between courses.  By now, the musicians have started playing music which sounds a lot like Greek and the largest party there starts dancing which is a lot like Greek, 6 steps around in a circle.  I am not a late night person so didn’t last much  longer but headed back to the hotel where I could read and get into my pajamas and enjoy the rest of the night.

            We were reading and watching TV at midnight when we heard fireworks and looked out. It was beautiful because there were fireworks going off all over the city so we could see the outlines of the town and the buildings and then bright colored fireworks over many of the buildings.  It lasted a good long time.  It was beautiful because the bay was in a crescent shape so we could see  the fireworks in a long line following this crescent shape of the city.  People were shooting them off in so many locations that at times, the whole city across the bay would be lit with colored fireworks.  There were people shooting them next to our hotel as well so we had fireworks in front of us and firewooks to the side of us.  Cast a few glows on the water and made everything look like fairytale land.