For this year’s new year, well technically last year’s, all I wanted was to be near water, and not a lake like we have in Macedonia, although the lakes are beautiful here. If you read my last post, you will know that I am seeing Selami, a Turkish volunteer living in my same town. Because it’s difficult to get a Visa for any EU country, Albania was our only choice to go someplace with a coast. So we packed our bags and headed west, only having planned to go anywhere south on the coast!
First interesting thing about Albania: there are no bus stations. Even in Tirana, the capital, there is only a big parking lot where buses park headed to different cities. There is no number to call or company that has a schedule of certain bus times. You just show up and there are different men shouting various Albanian cities. Once you hear your city you walk towards them and they guide you to the correct bus. Then, once you’re on the bus, you pay for your seat once the journey has started but don’t receive a ticket. So, when we arrived in Tirana, after some confusion with a couple taxi drivers, we arrived at this said parking lot and immediately found our bus to Vlore and it left 10 minutes later-not too shabby!
First interesting thing about Albania: there are no bus stations. Even in Tirana, the capital, there is only a big parking lot where buses park headed to different cities. There is no number to call or company that has a schedule of certain bus times. You just show up and there are different men shouting various Albanian cities. Once you hear your city you walk towards them and they guide you to the correct bus. Then, once you’re on the bus, you pay for your seat once the journey has started but don’t receive a ticket. So, when we arrived in Tirana, after some confusion with a couple taxi drivers, we arrived at this said parking lot and immediately found our bus to Vlore and it left 10 minutes later-not too shabby!
| We arrived in Vlore after dark and ended up staying in a studio apartment on the 8th floor with a balcony that overlooked the sea. We woke up the next morning to an amazing view-a great start to our New Year’s Eve celebration. That first day we spent the day on the beach, ankle deep in the water and collecting sea shells. We couldn’t have been happier. The water was even warm enough to swim but sadly we didn’t. After exploring the city and enjoying the sunshine, we spent the evening cooking dinner and were asleep by 8pm…but luckily we woke up at midnight to the best fireworks show I’ve ever seen. There were fireworks everywhere, and I mean everywhere-people were shooting them from their apartment balconies, from their front porches, from the beach, from hill sides, literally everywhere there were fireworks. Definitely illegal in America, and so very dangerous, but it was worth it (hopefully no one was hurt during this show). It lasted for about 20 minutes and we were smiling from ear to ear the entire time. |
The next day we hiked to the Vlore castle, about 3 miles away. The views of Vlore were wonderful and kept getting more beautiful as we walked higher. At the top, we were greeted with a herd of sheep and about 20 baby lambs! Then, we ended our day exploring the city center and visiting an old mosque from the Ottoman times.
The rest of our trip we spent in Berat, a 2,400 year old city that is inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list. There, time has seemed to have stopped when you’re walking through the tiny cobble stoned streets with the Tomoria Mountains hovering in the background and hearing the Call to Prayer from the old mosques that are scattered among the city. Currently these are the only photos I have of the view from where we were staying, but I will be adding more of walking through the old part of town called the Mangalem district.
Overall, it was a long journey from Skopje (about a half a day of travel on both ends of our trip) but it was worth it.
Also I sadly left my phone in a gas station bathroom on our first day, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin our fun! Albania was very good to us and we returned with great memories. I forgot to mention that Albania wins for some of the best, fresh break I've ever tasted. And I've tasted a lot. Way to go Albania!
XOXO
-R
Also I sadly left my phone in a gas station bathroom on our first day, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin our fun! Albania was very good to us and we returned with great memories. I forgot to mention that Albania wins for some of the best, fresh break I've ever tasted. And I've tasted a lot. Way to go Albania!
XOXO
-R