Today we are moving to a new hotel tonight but we are starting to Durres which is a port city very close to Tirana. Many people in Tirana have summer homes down here or weekend homes. We saw that there was a train that goes between Durres and Tirana but our guide said most people do not use it as it takes 1 ½ hours to go the distance and you can drive it in ½ hour. I would imagine that you could only make that ½ hour drive if you are going in the middle of the night without traffic. Certainly took us more than ½ hour to get there and we are not in the middle of the summer beach season.
Durres is a large port town and was once the largest port on the Adriatic and during Albania’s struggle for independence, this port town led a fierce resistance and the men who died are regarded as martyrs and the first ones in the War of National Liberation. So Durres is still regarded as an important town of independence and freedom. As we are driving through the town, there are large congregations of men on a few street corners near where a ferry must dock. These are the local money changers and each one of them held a large stack of money in their hands. Some more freedom and independence right here!
Durres has½ million people, on the coast, with Byzantium walls around the old part of the city that were built around 500-700 A.D. with the oldest known excavation dating around 600 BC by the Greeks. Unfortunately, they cannot excavate anything else because too much has been built on top of the ancient ruins. We are going to see the amphitheater which was used for gladiator fights only, the theater which was used for plays and musicals and part of the agora which was the shopping part of ancient towns. Odeon’s were half circle stages covered with a dome where literature and poems were staged. Durres does not have a Odeon that has been excavated that we saw. There wasn’t much left of the agora, just a few lines of foundation rock, a circle of floor stone and a dozen or so columns left standing. We are in the middle of a neighborhood with apartments and shops around us. The modern city is crowded right up to the fence protecting the ruins. I believe the modern city would be into the ruins except for the fence. Have to have a good imagination on this one. We could see there was nowhere left to excavate though because the ruins that are left are rather “ruined”
Next we drove to the amphitheater. It is in a bit better shape with a bit more to see as far as having more shape and slope to its sides. On the far side of the amphitheater from where we were looking was a small turkey flock. As it is almost New Year’s everyone is anxious to have their flocks out and about so they can be purchased. Someone was whistling to the turkeys and after each whistle, the turkeys would gobble. Whistle, gobble, whistle, gobble, whistle, gobble. Quite funny. My husband tried it but I think he was too far away. There is a small church in the amphitheater but it is under cover and we can’t see it. Some of the amphitheater stones are in the more recent ruins of shopkeepers stores and houses that are in the foreground of the amphitheater. And it wouldn’t surprise me if we went across the street and found some of the shopkeeper stones in the houses of today.
Later we walk around parts of the old walls and look at the massive guard towers that jut into the park. Our guide asks me if we want to go to the beach for a coffee and snacks or if we want to go for a panorama view. I ask to do both and he says “of course, why not?” We drive up a hill with some switch backs and cobbled streets. We are passing concrete bunkers in the ground. Klodi says there are some 70,000 bunkers all throughout the country. We believe him and can usually see bunkers everywhere we go. These were built by the Germans during WWII and were kept in use during the Communist period. During the dictator’s reign, everyone had to do some training in a bunker. These bunkers come in all sizes from being set into the ground with just a viewhole above the ground to huge platoon sized bunkers in the middle of a field. Often I would look on the map to see why a bunker was placed where it was because it sure didn’t look to me like that area was in any danger of attack from across a border or river. Found out they were everywhere partially to avoid attack from above.
At the restaurant, we park, walk further up the hill then have to take an elevator up to the restaurant. We go outside for the view and it is magnificent. We can see across the Adriatic Sea, across the town, and if it had not been hazy, probably would have been able to see Tirana. There is a house in the trees close to the restaurant and it was the former house of the former king, King Zog. Don’t know anything about his time or reign and we never got any more information than that. There is a small carnival close to the waterfront with one of the cars that rocks back and forth getting higher with each rock until you are almost looking straight down at the height of the pendulum rock. We could see part of the port and several buildings are being constructed close to the seaside that looks to be apartments or condos. The sun is up and high enough to cast a golden sheen over part of the water. It makes a nice backdrop for a tanker going out to sea Klodi wants to get a cup of coffee and my husband is eager every time to join in so we sit outside in the sun and it’s pleasant enough. No need to drive down to the beach because the view from up here is superb. We finally finish and head off to Berat where we will spend the night and see the old town which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Several things to see and note as we are traveling around the country. Turkey is the traditional dinner for New Year’s. But this is not a country where you get your turkeys in the grocery store but you pick one out of a flock and carry it home, live, and then do the deed yourself. I don’t think I could wring its neck as 1), the birds are huge and I think getting a grip on it would be doubtful; 2) I’d be pretty squeamish, 3) just not into killing animals. 4) I’d never get all the feathers off it. I want my meat on a tray, laid out and ready to cook and not looking like anything recognizable other than meat. But it is a hoot to see turkeys being carried in sacks, upside down, by the feet, under the arm, and transported by car, bicycle, donkey cart, bicycle cart, and walking. So I am always on the lookout for turkey photos.
We notice a lot of unfinished houses as we travel too. Like many countries, they build when they can buy the supplies. Usually, the bottom floor is for their shop, business, car washing (there were MANY Lavazh or car washing places everywhere. No one should have been driving a dirty car), garage, and supplies. The order of the next floors built depended on the family I suppose. Some houses looked like they were being built from the top down and others from the bottom up. Throughout the country, we saw houses in all stages of construction from a slab being poured to roofs being tiled, walls going up, support columns poured, one floor finished, two floors finished, only the shop or garage finished, etc. Again, the youngest son stays with the parents and his wife comes into the home. Usually they take the top floor while the parents stay on the middle floor. It takes years to build a house like this as the materials are purchased piecemeal. You have an extra 10,000 lek one week so you buy a pallet of bricks. Maybe you don’t have any extra money for the next three months or whatever but you eventually get enough bricks to use them in a wall. And so it goes. There doesn’t seem to be any zoning either as it appears you can put anything you want on the bottom floor next to a house that maybe isn’t used as a business next to a business of car rental or a grocery shop. Hodgepodge and higgelty piggely.
On our way to Berat, we are going to stop by Cobo winery for a tasting. Before we reach the winery, a wedding parade pulls out in front of us. The lead car has a sun roof and a videographer is standing up in the car facing backwards to film the bridal couple in the next car as they are driving. Looked a bit dangerous to me and I’m not sure how interesting to anyone, even the bride and groom, a video would be of them in the front seat of a car driving down the highway. I’d get tired real fast of smiling and waving at the videographer.
Pulling up to the winery, there are a number of cars parked along the road and a policeman directing traffic and a lot of people walking out of the winery. There was a party there for 300 people just before we arrived and it was at the end of the party now. We wouldn’t have been able to get in otherwise. The party debris was still all over the tables and the wall ledges. There were still a few party goers tasting the last of the wine and eating the wine snacks including a couple of uniformed policemen. Guess they felt they were due some wine after all the hard work tangling up the traffic and parking cars.
We parked and Klodi chatters with the owner who is still willing to take us on a tour and let us do some wine tasting. Nobody is in a hurry. It takes a few minutes to get the owner away from his other guests as the VIP who threw the party is still taking photos of the owner with him but then we head down the ramp to the vats and wine cellars. They have only been producing since 2000. He is not speaking English so Klodi is translating everything. As usual, there is a lot of chatter that seemingly takes 3 or 4 minutes then a sentence or two translated that takes about 30 seconds. Where are our magical powers that let us understand all languages or our universal translators at least.
We don’t spend a lot of time in the cellars as it is cold out of the sun. We go upstairs to the wine tasting room and get a seat with some glasses. Some plates of snacks come over, some olives, some really tasty bread that his mom made that morning, and some chicken and some cheese. There are sample bottles on the racks where people have ordered a special wine with their own photos on the labels. That would have been cool for our wedding. We are going to taste 3 reds, a white, and then Raki that is made with an infusion of nuts. The red wines are actually fairly tasty but the one that the owner likes the best is the one that we choose not to buy. We end up with a white and two reds and the Raki. Even I liked the Raki with nuts. Ate some of the great bread and would have loved to take it with us. The cheese is also delicious. All the snacks have been made by the owner’s mother this morning, including everything for the earlier party of 300. We have tasted everything and decided what to buy and the owner comes up with a last bottle that is still quite young and is not anything blended. He and my hubby got into a short “discussion” on whether or not to blend this wine. My hubby thought it would taste better if blended but the owner “I Like it Like it IS!” adamantly. And suddenly he could understand English too! Finally we have our 4 bottles for which we paid $48 and we all take a quick toilet break and back in the car to go to Berat.
As it is winter, the light is going fast. We pass many fruit stands along the way but no one seems to have strawberries. At one of the crossroads, there are also men with turkeys waiting for buyers. We pass several donkey carts and sometimes the carts propelled by the single stroke engine that was so common in Korea. We were supposed to have time to view parts of the castle but as we get to the castle the sun is setting and shadows are darkening and we are insisting on food before anything else. We drive up to the castle/citadel anyway and walk into the grounds.
There are some 40 families still living inside the citadel walls. One family is working hard on their basement area but they have a restaurant on the first floor and we go in there. It is not a restaurant where they have menus but rather a restaurant where you ask them what they have cooked today and ask for a serving of that. We learned the very first night that grilled vegetables means eggplant and peppers which our daughter doesn’t like so she doesn’t order that anymore. We have started carrying around vegetables with us so we can ask them to boil it for her. Still took a while to get our meal even though it was supposedly already cooked.
We check into Hotel Mangalemi and the people are very happy to see us and also quite concerned. We walk through the building, out the back to a courtyard and into another building with an unheated hallway to our rooms. Our host tells us that he will bring us a portable heater as it is possible that the heat will go off in the hotel if the outside temperature gets below 0C. We find out with this hotel that most of the hotels do not bother to heat the rooms that are not occupied. It is very cold in our room and we can’t take off our coats yet. We get the portable heater and if we stand directly in front of it, we are a bit warmer.
I haul out the tripod and my hubbyl and I decide to try and take some photos of the old town parts in the lights. On the side of the river where we are is the old Muslim part of the town. Across the river is the Orthodox side of town. We find a spot to put up the tripod and my fingers are so cold I can hardly work the camera. We move over to the bridge to see the other side of town and take a few photos. It is really too cold to try and take any more photos and we go back to the hotel. Our room has not warmed up much and it appears that the central heating has already gone off. One of us calls for blankets and they bring us more blankets.
Nobody wants to go out for dinner so we manage to do with what we have which is enough. Our daughter is in her room wrapped up in her blanket with her feet on the heater. We are both wrapped in our blankets and not getting a whole lot warmer. A knock on the door and it is the host with another heater. He said they just went out and bought them and while it is much smaller, it is a much stronger heater. We put the original heater on the floor because the dresser was getting pretty hot underneath it. We keep them both going full bore all night long. Per my thermometer on my alarm clock, it warmed up to 16C but it never got over that. When we finally went to bed, we had all the wool comforters over us and both heaters blasting away. It was not an unpleasant night as long as we didn’t have to get out of the covers
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