Blogs from Sarandë, South, Albania, Europe - page 2

The time had finally come. I've been needing a break from travelling for some time now - I just needed to stop for a while. And so I rented out my own apartment for seven days in the beachside town of Ksamil in Albania's deep south. I had been getting more and more snappy every day; every little thing - if it was annoying, then it was pissing me off. This included the bus down to Saranda from Berat. For a start, I found out that the journey would take six hours rather than the four hours Google Maps said it would take and I soon discovered why. It literally stopped everywhere for everyone and the driver seemed to be a transporter of goods as well as one of people as one dude put an entire ... read more

Dinsdag 7/06/2016 – Verplaatsing naar Sarandë (83km) Stevige mooie bergrit langs de kust. De afdaling van de Llogara-pas tot zeeniveau is spectaculair en deed ons denken aan de Trollstigen in Noorwegen. Daarna gaat het konstant op en af door het kustgebergte. Gelukkig bijna geen verkeer. Een loslopend varken en een solitaire ezel waren wel even te ontwijken. Alsook een kudde geiten geleid door een hond. Alles letterlijk dan. Sarandë is de meest toeristische stad van Albanië aan de Ionische zee in het uiterste zuiden. Veel hoogbouw hotels staan in de steiger. Hopelijk gaan ze niet de zelfde kant op als de Spaanse Costa's. We staan hier voor een paar dagen op de parking van Mediterrane Hotel.... read more

We arrived in Saranda late yesterday evening, and I didn't have a place to stay. They dropped me off, and I found a guy with a sign, so went back to his hotel with him. It was ok so I decided to stay, though it was about 20 minutes walk out of town. And back from town was all uphill. Saranda is in the south and has some things I wanted to see, but I had been hoping for more from the actual town itself. It is a very tacky touristy beach resort, not really my kind of place. But it was ok. I went the next day one more time with the Norwegians to Butrint, a ruin I really wanted to see and the main reason for coming to Saranda. Really cool that they took ... read more

What a difference a good night’s sleep can make! We woke to bright sunshine on a sparkling Ionian Sea. What a shame yesterday hadn’t been as fine and sunny as we had come down that mountainside from the fog as we might have had a different impression of the scenery that the guidebooks had raved off.However, it looked like at least today we will see the better side of what the views of the coast in the vicinity of Sarande has to offer. The apartment we have is quite spacious with a separate bedroom, bathroom with HOT water!(we both had l o n g showers this morning) And a well equipped kitchen opening out to a small terrace from where we get a peak, between a couple of finished but not furnished apartment blocks of the ... read more

Resumo: Um pouco de frustacao; Escolha certa tomada; Alegria e Criatividade de volta; Estou bem. Sempre digo e repito: A vida eh feita de escolhas. Obviamente devem existir muitas excecoes, mas na maioria do caso eh verdade. No meu, por exemplo, eh fato. A minha vida eh a soma das minhas escolhas/decisoes. Sai de Tirana para voltar a Saranda (Sul da Albania), onde eu tive o melhor trabalho volutario ate entao (vide post antigo). Voltei pelo fato de conseguir aqui acomodacao "na faixa". Ok, iria trabalhar no periodo da manha como "faxineira" do hostel, sobrando assim a tarde e a noite para ficar com as criancas do orfanato. O que seria a melhor semana da Albania transformou-se em uma semana um pouco frustante e emocionalmente desgastante. Obviamente as altas expectativas atrapalharam um pouco. 1) No orfanato ... read more