Albania by Road – Tirana to Gjirokastor

The following morning, we woke after a surprisingly restful sleep, I say surprising because normally having spent a week onboard Seaclusion with varying degrees of rocking, it normally takes a while to adjust to absolute stillness. After our 2nd super long and hot shower, again something most take for granted but when spending most nights on anchor, water is a definite premium, it was a luxury, anyway our kindly manager then walked us out of the hotel, around the corner to a cafe for breakfast!

After that, we spent a couple of hours wandering around central Tirana, taking in the sites, and appreciating that it is likely to look very different within a few years… Now it is a fascinating mix of Ottoman, Italian, and communist-era influences, reflected in the architecture everywhere you go. But it is clearly one of the fastest developing cities in Europe and we could see it with all the development around us, where they are adding colour and unique shapes to its building designs.

We also had time to wander around the old market area, that hopefully won´t change in time, despite it being surrounded by old clearly communist era buildings.

Tirana

After a couple of hours, we checked out and had a surprisingly easy drive out of the city, much to David´s relief. An hour later we arrived at ….

Berat

Berat is said to be one of the most beautiful places in Albania, with its stunning bridge crossing the River Osum that unites two hillside neighbourhoods, lined with cobbled streets and immaculate Ottoman Style houses.

Sat high above is its Castle, now inhabited by townspeople. Within its walls are Byzantine churches, a Mosque, lots of homes, only God knows how they drove up and along the steep cobbled streets, bars and quirky little shops selling carpets to fruit and veg.

Berat Castle

It was very peaceful walking through the village, luckily we arrived before hordes of other tourists, so we could soak up the atmosphere, have a beer then wander back down to the car….to continue southwards.

The drive was so much better than yesterdays, the road winding along the River Osmun which runs I think almost the whole length of the country, between the two huge mountain ranges that also run the length of the country, it was stunning!

En route we came across a place called Tepelene, which actually only made up of one stylish modern hotel overhanging the river, and by a waterfall, man made albeit, to stem the flow of water from high above in the mountains. We had to stop and have a nose, camera in hand of course! We are sure there must have been a town associated with it, but we didn’t come across that as we got back in the car and headed on further down the valley.

Tepelene

Finally we arrived at our last destination of the day… without much help from Waze which decided to try to take us a very steep cobbled road, having stalled once and left a fair bit of rubber on the road in trying to navigate we got to Gjirokaster, otherwise known as the Stone City, because of the intensive use of stone in building the houses, which look like small fortresses. The streets of cobblestone, which all lead to the Bazaar area at the foot of the castle. We understand that most of the wealthiest Albanians have property here, we can see why, the houses were all large and immaculately cared for!

Our little hotel, funnily enough called the Stone House, was in the heart of the Bazaar area, it was a bit of a nightmare to find having parked the car in the only public parking area at the entrance to the town, so much so another phone call for help and directions was a necessity. Having checked into a quirky room, with its own private bathroom, but one that you had to walk out of our room over a small mezzanine balcony to get to, hence remembering to cover up or potentially be seen by other guests if they happen to be coming down the stairs to the entrance. Bags dumped we went to check the town out, as you do..

Gjirokaster, by evening

An Albanian version of a Pina Colada cocktail, never to be repeated, followed by a not so good meal, didn´t dampen our spirits, but we are not sure we can recommend traditional Albanian food, it was time for our bed, but it was only then that we realised that our room was right above the loudest bar in this tiny quirky place…. perhaps we should have stayed out for more cocktails! Thankfully, as seems to be the rule here in Albania, all music stops dead at 11:30pm, even in the resorts that we encountered, so it wasn’t so bad after all, and another still and peaceful night was had!

7th July 2023