Category: Albania

I decided to stay on in Albania a little while longer and took the bus yesterday to Sarande with a really nice couple from the USA, Mairin and Todd, whom I met a couple of days ago and who are themselves currently touring Europe in a van (although they are following a different route to me).

In Albania too the bus services are frequent, regular and cheap and for just 100 leke each we were soon in Sarande, a fairly sizeable coastal town some 8 miles to the north of Ksamil. I passed through it on the way down here.

There is not a great deal going on in Sarande at this time of the year but we had a very pleasant afternoon; starting off with a brief walk along the promenade; followed by a leisurely walk to and from the mostly derelict Lekuresi Castle (which sits on a small hill at the back of the town and offers sensational views) and; finally, relaxing in a seafront restaurant (with a litre of the local white wine, a pretty good pizza and some fried squid &  prawns) waiting for the sun to set. Then it was time to take the obligatory sunset photos and take a taxi back to the Van for a proper drink.

Sarande sea front

These silly one man pill boxes are everywhere, even in the town centre. It seems more than 750,000 were built – nice contract for someone

The entrance to the Lekuresi Castle and a view of a part of the castle which has been converted into a restaurant 

Two views from the Lekuresi Castle. Had the restaurant been open we would have stayed to photograph the sunset but it wasn’t to be…

… but the sunset from the promenade wasn’t bad

Mairin & Todd are heading north tomorrow and we therefore took it fairly easy on the alcohol; a bottle of Albanian Berat (or was it a Fernet Branca?), a bottle of Amarone from Italy, Bailey’s with ice, a couple of cask strength Ardbeg Whiskies and then Todd produced a very unusual and very nice raki (Raki me Arra from the Cobo Winery in Albania) which tastes unlike any other raki I have tasted, probably because it is mixed with various unripe nuts and herbs.

All the best Mairin & Todd. Stay well.

Ksamil is a small town on the peninsula of the same name about 8 miles south of Sarande. Just 3 miles further south in the National Park on the shores of Lake Butrint are the archaeological remains of Butrint city.

Butrint is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (and has been since 1992) and, while it was off limits to the general public under the communist regime (because of fears people could be tempted to flee the country by swimming the short distance to Greece), it is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Albania. It will inevitably be busy in the summer but it really is a “must see”. I consider it to be one of the most fascinating places I have seen during this tour.

It is different from many archaeological sites because in this one place you can see structures from so many different eras (especially Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman civilisations) and it has, rightly, been described as a microcosm of history. It costs 700 leke (just over 5 euros) to enter the site and with your entrance ticket you get a pamphlet which identifies various walking trails that showcase both the different cultures that have occupied this area and the scenery. This is a National Nature Reserve too. You don’t need a tour guide because the pamphlet with it’s trail map, the museum and numerous information boards in Albanian and English tell you all you need to know.

Too much has happened at this site over the years for me to recount in this blog so, I will simply say that there is evidence the site was occupied in prehistoric times but it was about 1200 BC when a first proper settlement was established (reputedly by the Trojan exiles Helenus and Andromache) and it was under the Greeks (starting around 400 BC) and especially the Romans (228 BC) that the city really developed and grew. It declined with the demise of the Roman Empire and, most especially, following a 3rd century earthquake which saw extensive flooding and caused the formation of malarial marshes around the city. Indeed, most of the city was abandoned at that time but the area was still of strategic importance and what remained changed hands many times between the Byzantines, Angevines and Venetians (who all left their mark on the city) with the ultimate victors, the Venetians, then having to develop various military installations in an ultimately failed attempt to fend off the Ottoman Empire.

In 228 BC the Romans took the city from the Greeks and the Greek Theatre was “Romanised”. Over a period of time, most especially under Augustus, the Romans more than doubled the size of the city adding an aqueduct, fountains, baths and villas

The city was already in decline when the Byzantines built their Great Basilica and, especially, when the Venetians started on their Triangular Fort the other side of the Vivari Channel (which connects Lake Butrint with the Straits of Corfu)

The grounds of the 14th – 16th century Venetian Fortress which now houses the museum and sits on the hilltop where the Acropolis used to be, have been turned into delightful gardens

The Venetian Tower and the Lion’s Gate 

I suggested in an earlier blog that Albania is a place of total contrasts and I see yet another example of that in Butrint  because I really cannot understand how a place can be so tranquil and yet exude such feeling.

Cicero said it all in letters to Atticus when he wrote it is “… the quietest, coolest, most pleasant place in the world”. He’s not far wrong.

Ksamil Beach on the way out

Ksamil Beach on the way back

Collected on the way in. I feel a Gin & Tonic coming on

Going to have to think about moving on to Greece.

The roads in and around Vlore are no better than those experienced yesterday. I was going to visit a monastery, the Manastiri i Shen, which is on an island just off the Zvernec Peninsula near Vlore (you have to use an unusual and rather fragile wooden walkway to get to the island and I thought it would be fun and it would make for some great photos) but the town road to Zvernec was simply too dangerous. It’s bad enough having to cope with pot-holes the size of small wells but in the towns you also have to contend with the fact that manhole covers and the iron grates over most drains have been removed (presumably taken for scrap value) leaving seriously deep holes to the side and in the middle of the road that you cannot see because of flooding.

Just go for it and hope…

I’m pleased to say that everything improved after I made the decision to move further south to the small town of Ksamil, not far from the border with Greece. It was an adrenalin filled drive around the hairpin bends as we (the Van and I) moved south but the quality of the mountain road was much improved over the town roads and with the temperature well up in the teens I wasn’t worried about the snow on the higher hills- that’s what the winter tyres are all about.

Nobody seems to give a damn about the 20 kph speed limit on the hairpins; it’s like being on a helter-skelter

En route to Ksamil, just before the coastal village of Borsh , I stopped to investigate a small castle on an island in a bay. It was the Porto Palermo Castle built by Ali Pasha Tepelena in the early 19th century with the help of some French military engineers. Ali Pasha subsequently executed the engineers but that’s another story. I parked the Van up outside of a restaurant/cafe that I thought was closed but there were 2 Albanians sitting inside drinking from a bottle and in a combination of Albanian, English, Italian (sic) and, mostly, sign language they required that, prior to leaving my Van in their care, I should partake of some of their bottle. It was a home made Grappa and not bad. Of course, after visiting the castle, I felt obliged to reciprocate and insisted they drink a dram of 10 year old Ardbeg that I had in my hip flask. I stopped in a lay-by thereafter for a strong coffee. There’s no doubt the Albanians are a most friendly and generous people.

Porto Palermo Castle. The last photo is of Ali Pasha’s personal quarters

By the way, Ali Pasha got his comeuppance when on 21 January 1822 he was himself treacherously killed on the island of Ionnina. You reap what you sow.

Yer man himself

Currently parked up in Ksamil. More about that tomorrow.