Turning East, Albania pt 2

By Bea
Leaving Ksamil we, in fact, headed just a little further south along the coast to one of the most important and largest archeological sites in Albania.

The Greco-Roman ruins in the Balkans at Butrint. The city was abandoned in the late Middle Ages after a brief occupation by the Venetians and previously by a Greek colony, a Roman city and a bishopric. The ruins represent each period. It was pretty cool place to visit and we spent some time here wandering around admiring each site. Well laid out, informative notice boards and well protected.

It was now time to actually turn, well, after heading a little further south crossing the Butrint river on a floating pontoon pulled back and forth across the river with a couple of cars at a time - to me it didn’t look like it would hold “Charlie” (by the way our van name is ‘Charlie’ - formal name Charlie Miller: Charlie, is an English colloquial name for a fox and Miller as in the beer commercial that inspired our website name). Safely on the other side we really did turn east, leaving the coast behind us.

We rose gently up the coastal hills through the autumnal forests to Syri I Kalter “Blue Eye” a natural spring within the Kast hills where the water is an incredible neon blue and the plant life in the water surrounding it are vivid reds and greens. The colours are stunning through the crystal clear waters. The actual depth of the cavern is still unknown, divers have made it down 50m so far, but they think it continues much deeper. The water bubbling from the spring is a constant 10 degrees all year around and you are welcome to swim in it.

Of course we had to try - just to say we had done it. OMG it was like jumping in a bath of melted ice!! It certainly was a heart starter or stopper!
We free camped in the parking area right beside a small river. It was very quiet, we were the only ones there... well us and the stray dogs! I am amazed at how many stray dogs and cats we have seen throughout Albania. The cats don’t bother you, the dogs though are overly friendly and continually hang around, one even slept on our door mat.

We sat outside for a predinner drink and snacks, but with winter coming and the clocks now forward it was getting dark and cold very quickly. It was so cold, I was in my tracksuit pants, hoodie and even my beanie! Wasn’t I swimming at the beach only a day or two ago?

The next morning we continued to Gjirokaster famous for its castle and well preserved Ottoman era town. At a small campsite about 2km from the centre we were greeted by the friendly owner, who assisted us with dumping our grey water and chemical toilet, having been free camping recently they were pretty full and getting a bit on the nose. We set up camp then wandered into town, stopping at a small hole in the wall bakery for a delicious meat filled filo pastry Byrek .

We traipsed up the steep cobblestoned roads of the old town to the Castle, have I mentioned before how the castles are on the top of the mountains? I’m so over castles right now! This one was 336m above the valley though I must admit it was worth the slog. The Castle, originally built in the 12th century but considerably modified by its various occupiers, is pretty much in tact, preserved with out being restored.

It is now a rather informative museum that not only tells its long history, it was still being used as a prison by the communists until 1968, but also houses a small military museum including canons, tanks and even American plane (that has 2 stories of how it got there, depending which side tells it).

We continued through the streets of the old town admiring the heritage listed shops and houses, it was a incredible to see how much work had been put into restoring the town and it was still continuing. We came across a restaurant that was serving local delicacies. We were hungry and it was time for lunch. We had some Qifqi (a fried stuffed rice balls); grilled zucchini, meatballs and a tzatziki. Very delicious and very cheap!

After lunch we headed to Skenduli house, a well preserved house built in 1823. Under the communist it had been confiscated and turned into an ethnographic museum but it had recently been returned to the owners (minus most of its furnishings) who have restored it and opened it to visitors. A small group of Austrians were just starting a guided tour and the guide allowed us to join. It was a very interesting tour and an amazing house to view.

She explained local customs of that era, especially in relation to men and women being segregated in the house, the newly wedded couple who get their own room until another family member gets married and how the house has summer and winter areas.
After the tour we zig zagged our way down to the bottom of the hill and the new town. We had seen a butcher on our way up the hill that had some great lamb chops and promised to come back to him before he closed at 3pm. We suddenly realised the time... it was 10 minutes to 3... so we ran! We got to the store and he had already closed - no way! It wasn’t 3pm yet! We called a phone number on the door, the owner answered and said he would be right down, he actually lived above the store. Unfortunately the chops he had on display were all sold out so after some sign language and google picks he happily carved 6 lovely chops from the whole carcass he had hanging behind him!

Over the road from the campsite was a local taverna specialising in lamb. We had seen the whole lamb slowly cooking on the spit as we headed into town, it was too hard to pass up for dinner. It was a great local restaurant, the waiter spoke a little English and was very keen for us to try several of the local foods. Obviously we knew we had ordered way too much food, but most of it would make good for leftovers! As it turned out we took away enough food for breakfast, lunch and part of dinner the next day! We ordered a spinach and egg pastry that was a side dish (also made a great breakfast); plate of the slow cooked lamb (leftovers used for lamb sandwiches at lunch); grilled mixed vegetables (leftovers in sandwiches and used for dinner); local sausages (leftovers for lunch and snacks) washed down with a carafe of house wine. The meal was so cheap and we got 3.5 meals out of it! Bonus. Waddled back across the road to bed.

After our morning coffee and the spinach pie, we hit the road for Korce. It was a memorable drive along roads that were only a lane and a half wide, though they had painted a line down the middle anyway. We wound and bumped our way, following a blue green river through scenic valley’s, rugged gorges with layered, slate like, sides and autumnal forests.

These gave way to the Firs of Hotova National Park and its craggy mountains. I was overwhelmed by their size and scale, I felt I was in the land of the giants. We drove through a small attractive town, hoping to find a bakery.

We noticed a first floor window with a whole lot of loaves on its sill so I went up the stairs and greeted by an absolutely heavenly smell of baking bread and lovely Albanian Nona selling bread through a hatch in her door, Super cool! With a warm crusty loaf in our possession we were on our way but finding a nice location to eat it proved more difficult, by late afternoon we gave up and just stopped in a lay-by for lunch.

We camped that night in an NGO carpark / turned campsite on the edge of Korce. This company looks after homeless and those in crisis. They opened the grounds of their building to campers to get a bit of extra funding. We were happy with that. It was cheap and the money went to a good cause. The showers were hot and toilets were clean. Dinner that night were the fresh lamb chops we had bought in Gjirokaster.

Korce was an interesting town, not quaint, not classically picturesque but an eclectic mix of dilapidated communist era hosing, restored medieval neighborhoods and little to try hard modern glass and aluminum corporate buildings. It also had a couple of buildings by renowned architects Bolles & Wilson. It had a take us or leave us vibe that was nice.

In the local parks groups of older men gathered playing dominos or deep in debate and coffee shops were filled with young guys.. okay where are the females in this town!?

It is also proud of its cultural and artistic heritage that, as one local noted had been assisted by proximity to the Greek border as this had allowed a little more freedom especially during the turn of last century and during the isolationist era, Die Fledermaus was playing at the local theatre.

The covered market and a small section of the old town around it has been recently restored and is now a oasis of bars, cafes and boutiques. They have done a nice job retaining its character of the community, especially around the small squares, the locals seem to be embracing it as well as the tourists. The refurbishment of the center piece, old market, is unfortunately a real disappointment.

During our ambling we stumbled across a museum dedicated to the Photography of Gjon Mili, who was born in Korce. It was free to enter and the manager was super friendly and passionate about Mili, his photography and style. He was keen to share information about both the photographer and life in Korce and Albania. Many world famous photos were taken by this photographer. He was famous for his use of light and was the first photographer to explore strobe flash photography. He also took a pictures of Picasso using a method called “painting with light”, for a small price, you could try your hand at this style and have it printed. I gave it a go, keen to understand how it was done. It was pretty cool to be able to move about in front of the camera making light shapes but in the final print you aren’t blurred!

We drove for about an hour to the border following Lake Ohrid where people on the side of the road were waving fish at us, strange, I think they were trying to sell us the local trout!

We arrived at the border for North Macedonian, and, as we had done at about 10 borders so far, handed over all the required documentation - both passports, the car registration papers and the “green card” which is the insurance for the car showing coverage in European countries. The officer started to scrutinise the green paper and obviously he felt there was a problem. He took it to the officer inside the building and we were called for questioning. It appeared that there was a problem with the green card and the lady said we could not enter. She said it was not completed properly and we could not enter. Pete tried to explain we had already crossed many borders with it, and no issues. But she playing by the book and would not let us enter. She suggested we go around to the other side of the lake to the other border crossing where we could ‘purchase’ separate insurance.

Annoyed but not able to do anything we turned around and went back into Albania! After a 45 minute drive, a call to the people we bought the car from and a reassuring photo from WorldRoamers of exactly the same green card, we were at the other crossing. We handed over our documents and absolutely no problem, in fact the only delay was the officer having to wait for his computer to process the information!

As night fell we entered North Macedonia a little later than expected and headed to Ohrid...on lake Ohrid!