Eastern Europe - Days 61 & 62 - Berat, Albania

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It's my birthday. It's my birthday. I'm sorry, this isn't the most conventional way to start off a blog entry but "it's my birthday and I can if I want to!!!"

Anyway so today is my birthday and I started the day off most plesantly with some surprise presents from Kris and Susie that Stuie had carried all the way from Dubrovnik I was totally overwhelmed (even with a small tear in my eye) as I totally didn't expect to get any actual presents today, let alone two or three gifts from such lovely people. After breakfast, and the wee present opening, we headed off in a couple of taxis to the local bus station. Now I need to mention a word or two about this taxi ride as it was quite an interesting experience. There were 3 taxis for 13 of us which meant that 5 of us had to cram into one taxi. I can only attest the fact that we accomplished this feat to the fact that we must have the country champions of twister with us on this journey. Somehow we managed to fit 5 people, 1 large backpack and 3 only slightly smaller daypacks as well as Pugsy and Pugsilina into the taxi. Luckily the taxi ride to the bus station was relatively short.

The bus ride to Berat was relatively short, being only 3 hours, and the bus itself was actually really quite nice. Although I may have a slightly warped perception of nice buses these days after my trip through India.

Berat is a gorgeous little town. It is perched on the sides of some rocky hills, inland in Albania and has an interesting history. In the past the town was split up into different sections and the different religions had to live in the different sections of the towns as the Turks didn't want the Christians mixing with the Muslims and Jews etc. When we arrived into town we had a brief orientation tour with Barbara, who pointed out the major sights, and then we headed off to have a wee spot of lunch. The only problem was that by the time we were ready to have lunch most of the lunch places had closed down for siesta. And the only place that we could find open was this slightly dingy little place that was a true 'local interaction' experience. There was a very limited menu, and the place wasn't the cleanest, however the food was amazing and the owner and serving staff were just lovely.

After lunch Stuie and I headed up to the castle on the hill to take a look around. The rest of the group were going to meet at 4pm to go up and take a look, but I was a little concerned by the rain clouds that seemed to be gathering so I wanted to head up a little earlier, so we didn't get caught by the same downpours that have been happening every day in Tirana. The walk up to the castle was really rather steep and slippery, being on an insane cobblestoned road. However the experience at the top was worth it. Stuie and I wandered around the top of the castle for a little bit and then we stumbled across this little local bar at the top of the fortress. So of course we stopped in to have a wee drink to celebrate my birthday. And while we were there one of the guys from the bar, Peter, totally adopted us. He sat at our table and spoke to us for quite a while and then he took us on a wee tour of the ruins of the acropolis (where we saw the old water cistern, the mosque, and his house!). In fact Peter had taken such a shine to us that he took us actually to his house and then asked us to wait while he got changed and he then escorted us back out of the fortress down into the city. Nattering to us all the way. He even told us a couple of myths about how the river of Berat came to be. I must admit however that my mind wasn't really listening to poor old Peter as I was absolutely busting to go to the bathroom and that was all I could concentrate on.

This evening we had a 'lovely' birthday dinner out on the balcony of our hotel. The balcony is on the 2nd floor and has the most delightful view out over Berat. The birthday dinner was full of the most yummy food. We had greek salad followed up by burak, followed up by a mixed meat dish with potatoes, followed by cake, followed by birthday cake. So never fear mum I had a birthday cake (with candles) on my actual birthday. Of course I have no objections to having another cake when I get home again (perhaps a super big one for the 3 birthdays that I have missed over the last couple of years 😊

It is now tomorrow and I am writing on the day after my birthday 😊 Today has just been amazing. This morning we were picked up in a mini van and taken for an hours drive out into the countryside of Albania (outside of Berat obviously) into a national park. We were heading for a local waterfall that was about a half hours walk from the drop off point of the van. Well at least that was what they said but I think that Albanian time is somewhat similar to Indian time as the walk took us about an hour. However it was a glorious walk. We had 5 river crossing and I have to say that the water was some of the coldest that I have been in for a little while. It was lake Whakatipu kind of cold. I had worn my togs as I thought that I might go swimming at the waterfall, but after crossing the stream a few times there was a big 'hell no' on the swimming idea. The walk was also full of the most beautiful butterflies. I have never seen so many glorious butterflies in so many lovely colors. After we had trekked up and back from the waterfall we sat down in a little cafe where the van was to pick us up and had drinks and ice cream, which were very well deserved after the walk.

On the drive towards the waterfall the van stopped for a few moments at a viewpoint where we could see a huge factory complex below us. Nellie, our guide, told us that this factory made 'biscuits' for many years. What it actually made was weapons and ammunition, however because this was a communist country what they were doing was all very hush hush and the local people who worked in the factory were not allowed to tell anybody what the factory actually made.

When we arrived back at our hotel I grabbed a quick burek lunch (yes I have become very fond of the Eastern European version of the good old kiwi pie) and headed out for another couple of walks. First of all I tried to head up to a little church (St Simeon I think) up on the hill under the fortress. However I somehow managed to miss the signpost and the main steps to this church and ended up going up a small, complelty overgrown little path that scraggled its way up the hill. After about 5 minutes I joined the main path, and boy was that a whole lot easier. The walk to and from the church only took about 20 minutes, so I headed off across the river into Gorica to try and find my way up to the hill just behind the settlement. Apparently there are some Illyrian ruins up there. However I got lost in the town 5 minutes after setting foot in it. After finding myself in about 5 different people backyards, I finally stopped a local and asked for directions on how to get up the hill. As the lovely local lady spoke no english this involved quite an extended version of charades as I tried to mime myself walking up a hill and then pointed to the hill. She finally understood me and then showed me what looked like another path to someones back yard. However this did in fact turn out to be the path so up I trotted. I walked for about 50 minutes until I came out into a clearing and what appeared to be a modern building site of someone house. Someones abandoned building site actually. It almost looked like a modern day ruin. However this did mean that I hadn't managed to find the Illyrian ruins and from the modern day ruin I couldn't see any path leading further up the hill. Also by this stage I felt that my arms were getting a little pink so I decided to abandon my quest for the ruins and decided to head back to the hotel for shower and something to eat and drink.

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Comments

[Chris]

:)
Really nice story. And love your pics. btw. Especially those of you :)