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Published: February 3rd 2024
Dear All
Greetings from Sarandë! This is a lovely gem of a port and beach town in the far south of Albania. I used it as a base to explore some nearby places of interest, and these have very much been of interest and beauty. I really enjoyed my time there, and as with other places thus far, I've very much had the place to myself, along with of course lots of very friendly Albanians. They are a real pleasure to talk to, very open and talkative, even if they don't speak English!
Leaving Berat meant a really early wake-up call at 5.30am, to leave my amazing BnB with a delicious take-away breakfast prepared for me by my very kind hostess there, and a 40-minute walk back to the bus station. This time it was all downhill at least, so nay bother there. And walking through the beautiful Berat citadel again at 7am in the morning just as the sun was rising was so special, like going back in time to a medieval citadel centuries ago. Although there was not another soul in sight, the stray dogs were already up and active though, with a new-found confidence I'd not
seen before, seeing as there were no other people or cars around. It was as if they now owned the place, and one of them actually followed me all the 40-minute way to the bus station! Probably the reader will not know this, but I have a fear of dogs ever since two large dobermans (dobermen?!) jumped up at me when I was around five years old, and subsequently from much of my teenage years working as a paperboy. I don't like dogs, and this walk was not very pleasant. I could see that the dog was just looking for some human company, but this thought did not do much to allay my fear for the whole walk. At least it was indeed all downhill this time, and when I got to the bus station, the empty bus was already there and I was able to bags a good single window seat again for the four-hour furgon to Sarandë. I had my takeaway breakfast at a table in the bus station waiting for the bus to fill up, and bang on 8am as it was scheduled, it departed.
The journey was good, and towards the end I got talking,
The Blue Eye
Near Sarandëwith the aid of my trusty Google Translate app, to a very friendly local chap who works as a bus driver between Vlorë in Albania, and Genoa in Italy. Arriving in Sarandë, it was a bit of a frustrating experience checking in to my accommodation there. The host had not responded to my messages requesting check in information that I'd been sending for the previous couple of days, and the only address details I had for the place came from reviews on booking dot com, with many other people saying it was difficult to contact the host. Still, I'm glad I persisted, as as soon as I messaged on my day of arrival to say that I'd arrived in Sarandë, he messaged back straight away, for the first time, to say that a lady was on her way to check me in. Thirty minutes later she'd arrived, and I checked into a serious bargain of a place. This was a top-floor, two-bedroomed apartment with lounge, kitchen, bathroom and large balcony overlooking the bay of Sarandë directly over the port below. The view was stunning, and the place was a real bargain at just £13 per night. Again, I'm glad I
persisted!
Bags downed and self-catered shop completed at a nearby Spar supermarket, I soon headed off to take the local bus to nearby Butrint, Albania's star archaeological attraction 11 miles away to the south. With no available bus timetables to speak of, I was fortunate that I only had to wait half-an-hour for the two-hourly bus there. I arrived at the site at 3pm, an hour before the museum closed, and two hours before the gates would shut at sunset. The next, and last, bus back to Sarandë would leave at 5.30pm, so I had two-and-a-half hours there - perfect!
Apart from a few people at the beginning, I literally had the whole place to myself. Apparently it is heaving in the summer, including busloads of day trippers heading over from nearby Corfu, which you can see over the Straits of Corfu, just over a mile away at its nearest point to the European continent in Albania. But not on this day. The ruins were just magical, and were added to by the evocative reclamation of nature going on there, making it akin to something from Tomb Raider or a Tolkien novel. Grey stones, covered with green moss,
Selling Live Turkeys on the Road Side
For New Year's Eve, Furgon from Berat to Sarandë and surrounded by a lush forest and peaceful lagoon - the setting was just perfect! On one side of the peninsula there was complete and delicious silence, on the other, distant bleating and bell-ringing from a large herd of sheep. On this side, there was also a small pontoon-boat, the Butrint Ferry, which carries cars and pedestrians over the hundred-metre wide entrance to the Butrint Lagoon. It was seriously atmospheric, from a different world and era, and a wide variety of archaeological ages were represented - from the earlier Greeks, Romans and Byzantines, to the more latterly Venetians and Ottomans.
I didn't enjoy my visit so much towards the end however, with it getting darker and darker, and my realisation again that I was very much the only person there - this took on a whole different meaning as the sun went down. The shadows took on different forms, and the ever-present worry of stray dogs pressed on my mind. Fortunately there was only one, towards the entrance, and it seemed quite peaceable. I left the site around 5pm to head to the bus stop 200 metres up the dark road, bidding farewell to the friendly security guard. At
Lovely View
Furgon from Berat to Sarandë the bus stop, around five stray dogs started barking like mad at me from a nearby deserted building, and I hot-footed it back to the Butrint entrance and the security guard as the barks rang in my ears. I was darned if I was going to wait there all alone in the pitch black with them pesky dogs for half-an-hour for the bus to come. The security guard was very understanding and friendly, and pointed out the road that the bus would come down when it was on its way. Sure enough, ten minutes later, it came down the road, and I bade farewell once more to the security guard, gingerly making my way back to the bus stop. Upon arrival, the bus was already there and the passengers were getting off - the dogs were going crazy, but at least I wasn't the only one around. I also had the safety of the bus to sit in while it waited for its 5.30pm departure. I was more than relieved to be making my way back to Sarandë and civilisation again. The dogs were not an issue at all when I arrived earlier in the daytime. It seems these strays
take on a whole heap of confidence as darkness sets in in this country.
Back in Sarandë, I headed back to my amazing apartment to settle in for a beer, and a self-catered dinner of sausages, ravioli pasta, pesto, tomatoes, avocado and olives. I enjoyed this with the accommodation's awesome view over the port, the bay and the town beyond, with the added bonus of New Year's fireworks going off. Speaking of which, Happy New Year 2024! 😁 In actual fact, I learned at midnight that my apartment was right above the place in Sarandë port where the municipal fireworks were due to be set off. Being on the top floor of the building, about six storeys up, the fireworks were actually exploding at eye level directly opposite my balcony, which was a little too close for comfort and sent me indoors again pretty soonish!
The next day was just incredible. I booked a local Tour Guide to do a day trip of four local sights for me. After the friendly hotel guy's advice back in Berat, I had initially planned to visit nearby Gjirokaster for the day using public transport, which then morphed into a plan to
Sarandë
Port and Beach hire a car for the day to fit in local natural phenomenon "The Blue Eye" (thanks for the amazing recommendation fellow Travel Blogger Alan!), when I learned my accommodation in Sarandë was right above a local car rental place and would only cost €35 for the day. Upon learning they'd be closed on New Year's Day though, as was pretty much everything else, I spotted a sign in town for this local Tour Guide and contacted him. His name was Ilir, a popular name in Albania apparently paying homage to the ancient Illyrian tribes which inhabited the region before the Romans. He offered me a special price of €70 for the day, which I thought was a real bargain. It would normally be €40 per person with a minimum tour group of four people. Ilir offered me this fantastic price for a solo day tour as it was New Year's Day, and he considered me a special guest as his first tourist of 2024! I jumped at the offer, and thoroughly enjoyed the day, as well as wonderful conversations with him, he was a gentleman. I highly recommend Ilir, and you can find his details on one of my photos
Sarandë
Albania uploaded to my blog entry here.
We first visited the Ottomon-era Lëkurësit Castle, high up on a hilltop overlooking Sarandë below, and with awesome views towards the Butrint Lagoon to the south, and the hulking mass of the Greek island of Corfu just a hop, skip and a jump over the Ionian Strait to the west. We then headed to the 13th century remains of the Monastery of St Nicholas. Although it wasn't possible to go inside, it was attractive enough from the outside, with some interesting reliefs of an eagle and some dragons.
Next up was the gorgeous "Blue Eye", a spring of clear water so-named due to its electric blue colour in the middle, turning green around the outside as an iris of the eye is also a different colour. Ilir told me thousands of tourists visit this place each summer, but on this day I was again the only person there for my whole half-hour spent at the pool! It was gorgeous, and so peaceful. The visit starts with a lovely mile-long walk around a beautiful lake fed by the spring, surrounded by hills, forests and mountains. The Blue Eye pool itself is really quite
Sarandë
Albania small, but so perfectly formed. There was an observation balcony right above the place where the spring comes bubbling up from 50 metres below the surface, and the water is so clear you can see right down to the bottom! It was indeed the purest and deepest of blues there, turning green indeed around the outside. Thankfully there were no stray dogs there, just a couple of stray cats which I don't mind. However, there was a sign which was repeated in many places literally saying, presumably in poorly-translated English, "Meet mammals like the wolf, jackal and fox". Er, no thank you, I'd rather not, particularly as I'm the only human being for miles around! Aside from the two stray cats, there were quite a few birds, but thankfully no wolves, jackals or foxes this time! I was pretty sure though, that some rather large canine-related paw prints etched into some concrete on the way there, probably when it was wet and drying, belonged to something larger than an ordinary dog though...!
During the tour, we also stopped at some of Albania's notorious communist-era concrete bunkers, of which some estimates state there are up to 600,000 of in the
whole country, or at least enough to house three people in each one. These were built by the isolationist communist government of "The Dictator", Enver Hoxha, as a means of defence for its citizens should his paranoid visions of a nuclear attack and full-scale invasion of the country come to fruition. As he distanced and isolated his country not only from the west, but also latterly from the Soviet Union and then China, the man to my mind probably just went crazy. This seems to be what power has done and still does to a man. I noticed during my time in the country that no-one calls him by his name, but rather simply "The Dictator". This seems similar to calling Voldemort, "he who shall not be named" in the Harry Potter series. Or my own calling of the c-word situation, rather than using the c-word itself. Naming something only serves to give that something power and right to existence. Perhaps this is what Albanians think when they avoid the name Enver Hoxha.
Speaking of which, our final stop for the amazing day was beautiful Gjirokaster. The town is infamous for being the birthplace of The Dictator, as well
as 70% of his communist cronies apparently. It is also more positively famous for its stunning, Ottomon-era Old Town at the top of a hill with far-reaching views over a wide plain and mountains on all sides. It is nicknamed both "Stone Town" and "The City of a Thousand Steps" for, well, its abundance of stone and steps. Crossing a mountain range to get there from milder Sarandë and the sea, the weather had completely changed to damp, drizzly and foggy. I had two-and-a-half hours to explore there, and during the first half of my visit the fog completely blocked out any views to be had. In addition, all official museums and sights were closed due to it being New Year's Day, and thus its famous Gjirokaster Castle, Ethnographic Museum (housed in a building built upon the site where The Dictator was originally born), and Cold War Bunker were all off the cards for my visit. This to my mind was far preferable than trying to visit gorgeous Butrint when it was closed on New Year's Day. And not to worry also though, as I could still take photos of Gjirokaster Castle and the Ethnographic Museum from the outside, I
My Tour Guide in Sarandë
Details there if anyone is in town and would like a fantastic tour with a fantastic guide, Ilir enjoyed a lovely wander through the town's lovely stone-paved streets made more evocative and atmospheric by the thick pea soup fog all around, and found that an amazing 19th century Ottoman fortress-house called Zekate House was actually open as it belonged to the descendants of the original Zekate family who originally built it, and who live in a slightly more modern adjoining cottage. After an intriguing wander around this beautiful building, hardly altered in 200 years with its furniture and carpets all still in position and evoking scenes from Turkey and a Thousand and One Arabian Nights, I enjoyed a seriously strong Turkish coffee brewed for me by the owner on a table overlooking both the Old Town of Gjirokaster across from me and its Castle sitting atop the next hilly ridge over. This was just as the fog was lifting and the stunning views of this town situated high up a hillside were revealed in all their glory - the appreciation of how high I was up the hill overlooking the surrounding plain really became clear at that point.
Meeting up with Ilir again, we drove back to Sarandë to say farewell and part ways after a seriously
Sarandë
Albania wonderful day of explorations around this lovely southern Albanian town. It was also again a pleasure to have met Ilir and to hear his story.
The next day I was heading on to Albania's capital city, Tirana, for the final two nights on this lovely adventure. I was looking forward to this very much, as I had heard so much about the country's powerhouse urban centre throughout my time thus far. I was excited to see and explore the place now with my own eyes.
But of course, I will write up about my time there in my next one.
Until then, thank you for reading, and all the very best for now.
Alex
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Dogs after dark...
perhaps the dogs were more fearsome at the end of the day when they didn't have anything to eat that day, and this was their last chance.