Revisiting Albania

Leaving the Peloponnese after 6 weeks we felt like we still had unfinished business and with so much left to see, we look forward to returning to this region of Greece in the future. But, with a long way to go to get home and after taking six months to get to this point we only had 1 month to make it to Calais in time for our pre-booked ferry crossing.

The first question was how to cross the Gulf of Patras. We had taken the bridge on the way over but this time we wanted to try out the cheaper ferry option. It was well sign posted – until you got down to the dockside, and then there were no signs at all and ferries in a number of different places. We somehow managed to figure it out and drove onto a waiting ferry – although we were a little nervous as to whether we had chosen correctly until a man appeared at our window with the tickets.

The ferry was much cheaper (you pay once onboard) and it only take 20 minutes. The views of the bridge are much better than when you are on the bridge and we were soon across to the other side.

We decided to spend the night in a free park-up on the beach just near the town of Nafpaxtos, where we were all alone and had a great view across to the Peloponnese. After a refreshing swim in the morning just a stones throw from the camper, we headed off to explore the town.

Nafpaxtos has a lovely old Venetian harbour where a few small fishing boats are moored surrounded by cafes and bars and just a short walk from the town square. We stopped here for what turned out to be a very good hot chocolate and some idle people watching.

On a hill above the town sits an imposing Venetian Castle accessible via the narrow, ancient streets. It’s a very nice town for a stopover and I think in season the fish restaurants along the beach would be heaving.

We needed to get some miles under our belt but couldn’t resist stopping off at the Roman Aqueduct of Nicopolis, near Preveza, for a quick poke around. The aqueduct was one of the most important structures of the Roman period in North Western Greece. It was built to provide Nicopolis with clean water and runs for 50 kms from the springs of Agios Georgios. If you take the staircase and then scramble up and along the hillside a short distance you can see the channel through which the water travelled, a short section of which is complete with an arched roof.

Our last pitstop in Greece before hitting the Albanian border was Ioannina, where we stayed in the same lakeside spot as last time when we were heading South. Only this time there were no other campers – the season is definitely over. We even revisited the same restaurant as before and enjoyed their amazing gyros, but this time we were sitting inside with the fire blazing.

We weren’t having the best weather this time around and late that night the wind really picked up. With the camper rocking from side to side sleep seemed unlikely, so we made a late night call to get up, get dressed and move away from the shoreline, finding shelter further along the road behind a huge hedge where we were better protected from the elements.

And that was it for Greece, the next day we drove the short distance to the Albanian border for some unfinished business.

This time around getting border insurance was much easier with sellers at the border. So after only 5 minutes we were across the border and on our way, with a plan to visit some of the lowland towns that we had avoided last time due to the extreme heat.

First stop – Gjirokaster, a regional capital and ancient town perched on the side of a very steep hill. Cycling into town from our campsite was a real challenge. We definitely took a wrong turn (or two) and ended up on a cobbled street with a gradient that must have been around 30%. Needless to say, we got off and pushed our bikes.

The old centre of town is lovely but very small, consisting of only a couple of streets lined with cafes and souvenir shops.

Our first destination was actually just outside the old centre behind the townhall, where the entrance to an extensive cold war nuclear bunker is located. Tours were on the hour and tickets can be bought from the townhall.

The nuclear bunker was built in the 1970’s to house 300 government officials and party elites. It was unknown to the locals until the 1990’s after the Hoxha government had fallen. When it was discovered, the angry local populace stripped most of the fittings from the bunker leaving the bare rooms and tunnels that we see today. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the bunker is that there were only 4 toilets for 300 men – I am not sure how they would have managed but luckily it was never put to the test as just like Tito’s bunker in Bosnia, it was never used.

We also toured a really interesting traditional merchants house – the Skenduli house, which is still owned and run by descendants of the original owners. This was a traditional Ottoman townhouse of a wealthy family, that was built in the 18^th century.

The woodwork, fireplaces and windows were beautiful and the secret stairways were fascinating but without doubt the most stunning feature of the house was the so called “Men’s Room” which was only used for family weddings. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed in this room but it was very ornate and richly decorated.

At the top of town, there is, like in most towns, a large castle, built from the 12th century onwards.  The castle was built to defend the river valley it overlooks, which was a key strategic route. It fell into Ottoman hands in 1419 and Ali Pasha significantly expanded and remodelled it, including adding the clock tower which was built to enable people to see the time for prayers easily. During the communist era it was used as a prison but ever since has been refurbished as a heritage site.

Displayed in the castle is the wreckage of an American fighter jet, a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, which was supposedly shot down during the cold war. The pilot was initially held as a spy but he was eventually released to return home.

Gjirokaster is a great little town and we really enjoyed our time there but if there is a next time, we definitely won’t be cycling!

Next up was the archaeological site of Butrint, but on our way through we stopped off at the famous Blue Eye Spring. This is the second Blue Eye that we have visited in Albania and was just as busy as the last one in Theth.

The Blue Eye itself is a 2km walk from the car park although they do rent bikes and escooters to make it easier and in peak season there is also a tourist bus. The site itself was fairly small and must get completely overwhelmed in the summer but the colour of the water was amazing.

The water absolutely pumps out of the spring which is said to be more than 50m deep although no one has actually dived to the bottom. The flow rate is 18,400 litres per second and the water is only a few degrees above freezing, however this does not deter some locals from swimming despite the numerous no swimming signs.

The Butrint Archaelogical park is well worth a visit and we spent a good few hours wandering around the site and museum. It was one of the most important Roman towns in Albania and is located on a headland on the coast that is surrounded by water on all sides other than a narrow access road. The town is directly across the sea from Corfu.

However Butrint remained important well after the Romans had departed as both the Venetians and the Ottomans used it as a port with their fleets sheltering in the lagoon behind the town. It did eventually fall into decline as rising water levels regularly flooded the area and it wasn’t rediscovered until the 1900’s.

Having explored Butrint, we drove along the coast and up over the scenic Llogara Pass at 1,027m. We found a lovely secluded meadow away from the road and while watching the sunset were treated to a sighting of a young deer. This was a great park-up for the night, our only problem was getting back to the road the next morning. It took a few attempts and some road re-building with rocks in the vicinity, but we eventually made it up the short but rough access path with grit, wet earth and loose stones flying everywhere. Sometimes we forget we are not still in The Beast and the poor Beastlet gets a real workout!

Once back on the road and down the other side of the pass you reach the busy town of Vlore. We didn’t explore Vlore itself but we did stop briefly to visit St Mary’s Monastery, which is built on an island in a lagoon and connected to the mainland by a boardwalk. It is a pretty location but the site itself is small and there were swarms of bugs, so with no reason to hang around we carried on to our next destination – Apollonia.

Apollonia was founded in the 7^th century BC and was a prosperous city that flourished until it was partially destroyed in the 3^rd Century AD by an earthquake. At its peak the city housed over 60,000 people.

The site is fairly small with much of the remains of the city unexcavated and under brush. There is however a decent small museum at the entrance to the site which is next to a church and the most interesting ruins are concentrated around the Bouleuterion or city council building which was modelled on a temple.

Apollonia makes a pleasant diversion but it is definitely not an essential stopover.

Inland from Apollonia is the city of Berat, otherwise known as the “City of a Thousand Windows” due to the architecture of the old town.

There is a new town that sits next to the river but from here you can’t actually see the old town and so, on first sight we were a little underwhelmed and wondered what all the fuss was about, especially having visited Gjirokaster which has similar buildings. However, if you follow the course of the river you reach the old town area where on both sides of the river, the old style buildings can be found which give the city its nickname.

But first of course we cycled up yet another steep hill to a fortress overlooking a town, although this one also encompassed a town within its own walls. From here you get views across Berat new town but it is much more difficult to see the old town itself which is nestled directly below it at the foot of cliffs.

Unfortunately we were a little underwhelmed with Berat, which I find is often the case with the very touristy places where our expectations have been raised from all the hype. There isn’t actually much to do in Berat and although it was nice to wander the streets we felt Gjirokaster was without doubt the more interesting place to visit.

Having been on the move for a while we were feeling in need of some rest and laundry facilities, so we left Berat and set off back towards the coast where we settled down at Sunset Camping for a couple of nights. It was definitely low season as, apart from 1 other camper, we had the place to ourselves.

After a little time relaxing we girded are loins to head into Tirana, the capital of Albania but captured a couple of interesting sights on our way.

A remote castle and more interestingly an old cold war submarine base, although we got shouted at for photographing this so made a very hasty retreat! It is signposted and on google maps so we weren’t really sure what the problem was but with angry men gesticulating and shouting in a foreign language we weren’t about to stick around and find out.

We decided to spend a couple of days exploring Tirana and based ourselves at a hotel that let us park in the gated parking lot just a few kilometres from the centre of the city.

First up was the Djati Express cable car. A 4,670m long journey which takes you to the top of the Djati mountain at 1613m above sea level. There are views of the city from here but it was pretty hazy so they were not the best. At the top of the cable car there are a lot of things to do, although they are focussed mainly around families. The one thing we were tempted by (crazy golf) was closed. It was quite expensive to ride cable car and not really worth the money however it did get us a parking space in the area which we needed to go to the nearby Bunk’Art.

Bunk’Art is Hoxha’s main nuclear bunker for the government of Albania which has been preserved in good condition. There are a number of art installations in the bunker but most of it is just touring round the bunker as it was in the cold war era. The most surprising part was the full theatre which was designed to fit the entire Albanian government at one time.

It always surprises me in these bunkers how basic the accommodation is, even for the President. I think if it had ever come to it, trying to survive in these bunkers would have been pretty hard. They also only seem to have had three months worth of supplies so venturing out 3 months after the nuclear holocaust would have been pretty grim.

On our second day in Tirana we cycled from our hotel down a steep, fast and busy main road into the flat centre of town. We had gone in on a Sunday, our favourite day to explore capital cities as they are generally much quieter.

There are lots of modern buildings in the centre of the city and actually not many old structures. In fact the oldest building we saw was a mosque right off the central square. This was the busiest place in the city and seemed to be the no.1 destination for any tourists.

We enjoyed a really interesting visit to the House of Leaves museum, which started life as an Obstetrics Clinic, before being occupied by the Gestapo during WW11 and later as the headquarters of the secret police during the Hoxha years. This is a great museum which explores the surveillance and interrogation of the population during the communist years. The surveillance was widespread and very high tech for the times and a very large number of people were highlighted as a danger to the state. Of these a substantial number were arrested, interrogated and ultimately executed.

It was a good example of the way Communist states ruled by terror in those years.

On our way out of town we stopped off to look at Hoxha’s old house. You can only peer at it over the fences but it is quite nice. Apparently it was linked by tunnels to some of the key government buildings including the House of Leaves.

Not wanting to cycle back up the steep, busy main road to the hotel we decided to cycle back through Tirana Park just outside the centre of town. It is a lovely park with winding cycle and pedestrian paths but of course it was uphill and it became a bit challenging when our path became blocked by the President’s residence. Needless to say we got lost and ended up having to cycle/walk up a narrow trail through some gardens before finding the right road to get back to Hotel Baron where we had left the camper.

Tirana was our last place of interest to visit in Albania but before heading across the border back into Montenegro, we spent our last night in Albania at Camping Australia. This is a lovely new campsite set on the Buna river just outside Skhoder. We had a nice dinner here where we chatted with the friendly Albanian/Australian owner who was actually flying to Australia the next day to escape the winter. We have the same idea but first we need to head North and home.