Adventure in Albania

Ever considered an Adventure in Albania?

Albania is a great option if you want to visit the Mediterranean in Europe at one fifth of European prices.

We started our Albanian Adventure by renting a car in the capital, and heading down to the famous Fortress & Churches at Berat.

The cobblestone street where our B&B was located was under construction, so we squeezed past the workmen and parked the car on a 45 degree incline at the side of the road ~ you definitely need to make sure the emergency brake is working, and it was a huge relief to see the car was still there in the morning !

From Berat, we headed southwest through the mountains past the infamous Blue Eye and the Albanian Riviera.

The scenery through the mountains was spectacular, roads were non-stop hairpin turns, and the voice on google maps kept directing us to smaller and smaller roads ~ it seems like everytime we recorded a video we missed a turn-off & had to ask for directions in “Pidgin” Albanian.

We wanted to be “off the beaten tourist path”, so we stayed for 3 days in a little village on the Ionian Sea called Ksamil ~ boasting sand beaches & crystalline turquoise water right outside the front door with Spectacular Sunsets from the private balcony.

Our B&B was a 2BR apartment with a full kitchen literally right in front of the beach and included breakfast with warm homemade bread ~ for $22 USD per night !

The prices were insanely cheap, but we quickly discovered that NO ONE accepted credit cards ~ not the hotels, the restaurants, the gas stations…

And even the bank ATM’s wouldn’t accept our debit cards ~ so we had to email my Mum to get her to send some cash via Western Union. She asked me to call her to verify, because she thought it was one of those spam emails asking to wire money because we were on vacation and our credit cards didn’t work.

We spent a day soaking in the history of the ruins at Butrint ~ it was comparable to the ruins at Ephesus in size with multiple layers of Medieval Venetian and Roman architecture and amazing mosaics, set in a strategic coastal location.

Since we had to go into Saranda to get our money from WU, we went down to the port and discovered the island of Corfu in Greece was only 5 miles away by fast hovercraft, so we met the Albanian Captain, who told me I could sit up in the cockpit with him & I wouldn’t feel seasick.

You can definitely see the influence of the cruise ships stopping in Corfu ~ we meandered through alley after alley of souvenir shops and boutiques, selling everything from Greek handicrafts to Chinese toys to Balinese wraps to Paris designer clothing. There was an unending choice of little restaurants and outdoor cafe’s featuring fresh fish & seafood scattered throughout the town in historical old buildings.

And they even accepted credit cards !

We made out way up the Albanian Riviera, stopping at the ancient castle Ali Pasha built for all his wives in Porto Palermo, and ending up in Himare Beach for the night.

When we stopped for lunch, Jessica was the only soul on the 5 mile Borsh Beach, other than the fisherman who not only caught the lobster in his boat that morning, but served it to us in this deserted piece of paradise.

We discovered a gorgeous beach in Drymades where the young couple had built their hotel on the end of the beach & had an arch leading to another private cove ~ really the blue water, white pebble beaches and rock formations were just the same as the Greek Islands, but cost a fraction of the price in Albania, with incredibly friendly locals.

Leaving the beaches, we took another road of hairpin turns (this one actually didn’t even exist on google maps), up to the Llogara National Park with stunning views of the beach on the way up, a cloud forest going over the pass at the top, and then lush forests with charming hamlets all the way down the other side.

There was never a dull moment ~ from the “Boat House” we passed, hours away from any body of water ~ not sure it would float in case of a flood???

To the hundreds of thousands of bunkers all over the country built during the communist regime, a reminder of the isolationism and Partisan government in power for so many years.

Really, the Albanians we met during our exploring were so friendly, would bend over backwards to help us even with the language barrier when we got completely lost, and embracing foreign tourists.

I would highly recommend it to anyone !