Nov 4th - Nov 8th
We left the island of Corfu on an early and very rainy Monday morning. We were lucky enough to find a ferry called the "Flying Dolphin". It was a super fast hydrofoil that rose up onto of the water and zoomed us over to Albania.
We landed in the town of Saranda. It is a small town in the south of Albania. My dad really wanted to visit this country for two reasons.
1. He used to watch a TV show called Cheers and in it the guys sang this song about Albania. Anyway, my dad has been singing it for years...
2. Second reason was that when my dad worked in Mexico, his work partner was a man named Ludwig and he was from Albania. So he always wanted to see where Ludwig was from.
So now we are here and we have set out to explore this interesting country. Albania is on the Adriatic Sea and was controlled over the many years by the Greeks, Romans, Serbians, Venetians and Ottomans. It wasn't until 1912 that Albania got its independence. However Albania was occupied by Italy during WW2 and after it became a communist state. The regime collapsed in 1990 and the country experienced great hardship for many years. Albania is beginning to renew itself as a tourist destination and they are currently applying to join the EU. Although it is a beautiful country, you can still see evidence of the Italian occupation across the countryside.
Albania is a majority (~ 60%) Muslim country and it was beautiful to hear the call to prayer again. We haven't heard it since Egypt. There are also many orthodox churches and the people seem to be living in a state of harmony currently.
When we arrived in Saranda, they had just experienced a huge storm and the water was filled with mud, floating trees and branches and lots of garbage. The beaches were filled with plastic bottles and lots of washed up trees and things. It is so sad to see the plastic garbage everywhere. My mom and I have talked a lot on this trip about how much plastic garbage we have seen, we have been learning about the big problem of single use plastics.
When we get home we area going to be making some big changes in our lives.
The town of Saranda is a summer beach town, and so it was mostly closed up and so now just the local people were around. Shopping, working and the kids were going to school. We have had some really nice food here so far. My parents had a great local fish supper one day and we all really love the Gyros - Both the Greek and the Albanians make amazing Gyros!
The boys were getting pretty long hair and they were complaining that it was getting shaggy. So we found these great barbers and they made Brendan and Liam look very handsome again!
We walked up to a famous monastery that called the Monastery of the 40 Saints. It was built in the 6th century and was a pilgrimage site. The 40 saints , or martyers were Romans killed in 316, by the Roman Emperor Licinius. Most of the site was still standing until the 1940's, but during WW2 it was bombed extensively.
From the top of the mountain, where the monastery was built, you can see the whole bay of Saranda. We did some sketching while we were up there. It was so pretty to see the hillsides.
We also got to meet and talk to a local shepherd. There are many people who still herd goats and sheep in the hills of Albania. He was really nice and gave us oranges to eat.
We left the town of Saranda on Nov. 6th and traveled by min bus up to the port town of Durres. We had a great drive up through the country, over mountain passes and down across huge valleys. We even saw a man hearding Turkeys!
Durres is an interesting town, in the summer it has a huge beach that is full of hotels and is very busy, however at this time of year the place is a ghost town!
We stayed in this hotel and we were the only people in the hotel! The only person working was the night watchman. He was so nice though, took us to our room, and the next morning her made us a full big breakfast! Anyway we were only staying here to meet up with my Dad's friends who were coming over on the ferry to do some adventuring with us!
We meet Chris and Joanie at the ferry port the next morning and then after big hugs and coffee (and a few phone calls) our rental van showed up.
We traveled by van to a little town of Elbasan. It is an industrial town in the middle of Albania and is kind of a little run down. There are many old factories that are being torn down and the town is very industrial. But there is always something neat to find and we sure did. Although it was pouring rain, we wandered out to get some food and found an old castle.
This castle and the grounds it is built on is very famous. This was the overland route from Rome to Bari then across the Adriatic to Durres (Dyrrachium) to Istanbul for the Roman Armies. It is known as the Via Egnatia. The Castle was built much later in the 15th century. It is now a site to some beautiful gardens and restaurants.
We are starting to get a little fed up with the rain - lets hope it lightens up as we continue our journey!!
Onwards!
Tia and Mari
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