Sorry for such a delayed update on my trip. I made some really close friends that you will be introduced to in this post and have spent nearly the past month traveling with them. My free time has been pretty limited and wanted to make the most of the time I have with them before leaving. With that being said, I am planning to get back on track with these posts and should be seeing more coming in the near future now that I am back to completely solo again.
Monday May 13th: $41.41 spent (Berat, Albania)
In my last post, I was just finishing up my time in the capital city, Tirana. My next plan of attack was to head to the south of the country and hit the beaches, but my first stop was the charming UNESCO Heritage Town of Berat. Another American girl I met two nights ago in my Tirana hostel (Emma) had plans to head to Berat the same morning as me and we both found out that we happened to book the same hostel as each other in Berat as well. We decided just to take the bus there together. The Albanian bus system is a bit of a wacky but a cool experience. I would describe them as no more than just a large van where they pack in as many people as possible. There were even times where no more normal seats were available on some journeys where they just get a stool and put it in the middle walking aisle. Anything goes in this country it is pretty mad. The trip to Berat was only about a 2.5 hour journey so it was pretty bearable.
Right after we arrived in Berat and checked into our hostel, I went to go get a much needed beard shave (for only $1.07) before going to explore the town. I was only spending one night here so I had to try to get everything in. Emma works remotely on a US time schedule so she worked up until dinner as I went around the town. She had planned 3 nights here so she had other days to be able to go see the sites. The first place I went was the famous Berat Castle to explore the inside and also get a great viewpoint of the town from above. The castle was created in 200 B.C. by the Romans and is one of 5 castles left in all of Europe that are still inhabited by people today.
After the castle I went to walk around the two historical districts of Berat, the Mangelem and Gorica. Each are separated by a river that runs through the town but each neighborhood is filled with tight scenic alleyways and beautiful architecture. Each neighborhood is built on hills and there is no car access to go around the neighborhood. I spent a few hours exploring and walking around each neighborhood and realized why it is considered a UNESCO site. I loved my time there. Also Berat is known at the “Town of 1001 Windows” due to the distinct and prominent windows stacked on top of each other in each of the neighborhoods.
After walking around for a while, I decided to refuel on a nice espresso as well as the pastry pictured below. Then I spent a couple hours resting before heading to dinner where the main dish that I ordered was the national dish of Albania. It is called Tave Kosi which directly translates to “lamb in milk”. Essentially it is extremely tender lamb that was coked for many hours in a yogurt type of cream sauce. Very unique but the perfect way to cap off my evening in Berat.
Tuesday May 14th: $60.71 spent (Berat and Sarande, Albania)
Today I was planning to take a 5 hour bus to get to the beach town of Sarande in the very south of Albania. Before that though, Emma and I signed up for a 2 hour walking tour to learn some history of the town from a local. Most of the time spent with the guide were places around the town that I had already seen the day before but he gave some interesting historical context to many of the sites that I had no idea about. The tour is a pay as you wish but Emma and I were the only two people with him on the tour so we each felt bad and gave him quite a big tip (about $20) to make his time well worth it. He was a really nice guy and a long time local so I was happy to give him that much. Typically on these walking tours, you only really need to give anywhere from $2-5 though.
After the walking tour, it was time for me to get my stuff around and get to the Berat bus station to catch my bus to Sarande. Of course it started pouring rain right when I left the hostel to get to the bus station but luckily I wasn’t out in the elements for too long. Then I was off on my decently long 5 hour journey where I met and talked with an Australian guy and two Indian dudes who sat in the back row of the bus with me. It was pretty late once I got to Sarande and I was very hungry so I checked in to my hostel, got a kebab nearby and called it a night.
Wednesday May 15th: $34.24 spent (Sarande, Albania)
I really didn’t get up to much today besides just walk around the town of Sarande, eat, and see the beaches but didn’t get up to any swimming. The beaches in Sarande weren’t really the greatest, but I heard some towns outside of Sarande have great ones that I was planning to go to in the coming days. I started off my day by going down near the water and getting a pizza with a view of the main walking street. I ended up getting into about a 2 hour conversation with a guy sitting at the table next to me who was a mid 30 stock trader from Atlanta. He had a lot of cool stories and we talked about football/basketball for a very long time. He actually went to high school and was friends with Chad Ochocinco (he showed me many pictures of the two of them) who is one of my favorite Bengals of all time and was first cousins with Frank Gore who is #3 on the all time NFL rushing list.
After the lengthy convo, I decided just to walk around the town some more. I ended up walking all the way across town to a highly rated seafood restaurant which turned out to be an amazing choice by me. I ordered the Seafood Linguine which had shrimp, mussels, calimari and a creamy sauce. Meal was very filling. Also was given complimentary bread with a very tasty pesto cheese spread. One of the best meals I’ve had so far on the trip up to this point.
Thursday May 16th: $46.33 spent (Sarande, Albania)
Today I took a bus about 30 minutes south to another UNESCO site called Butrint. Butrint is an ancient Roman city with archaeological records dating back to 12th Century B.C. It was really interesting to walk around the ruins and seeing the ampitheater, bath houses, government building, palaces, etc. They have the site laid out perfectly to be able to walk the entirety of the site in a big circle and you could easily spend many hours here. I only spent about 2 hours because I wanted to head 15 minutes back north to a small beach town called Ksamil which is regarded online as the best beaches in the entire country.
I got to Ksamil and luckily it wasn’t too busy. May isn’t quite their high tourist season but also it was slightly overcast which might have deterred people from the beach that day. I found a great bar spot with lounge chairs for free as long as you order drinks so I had a few beers and enjoyed a 3 hours there and did some swimming. The water was insanely clear and perfect temperature. I had a great relaxing afternoon of just enjoying time by myself and taking in the moment.
Friday May 17th: $43.55 spent (Sarande, Albania)
Today my main goal was to take a 3o min shuttle outside of Sarande to a hiking spot referred to as the Blue Eye. The Blue Eye is a beautiful water spring phenomenon where water comes from the earths core with extremely deep depths. The water is so extremely clear and you can see up to depths 50 meters below. The furthest someone has been able to scuba dive down was also around 50m but they expect it goes down hundreds of meters. The water was around 38 Fahrenheit so it was not really swimmable at all. The hike to get there and back from the shuttle drop off was about 1.5 hours only. I went by myself but something sort of crazy happened within the first 5 minutes of me leaving the drop off point. I recognized a Scottish guy (Ziggy) who stayed in my hostel room in Berat and had a lengthy conversation with him there. He was with a group of 4 others from his current hostel but said I should just join in with them for the rest of the day. We did the hike and saw the beautiful views. Literally was the most clear water I have ever seen in my life. I took the shuttle back to downtown Sarande and go the extremely average pizza below and did some laundry and pack up for the next day where I’d be on the move to a new town, Gjirokaster.
Saturday May 18th: $17.11 spent (Gjirokaster, Albania)
I took the hour long bus from Sarande to get to the other UNESCO town called Gjirokaster today. I only had one night planned here so I tried to make sure that I saw all of the main sites to see. The ancient town is built up onto a really really large hill and where the bus drops you off is at the base of this massive hill. The old town and where my hostel was located, was basically near the top of the hill just under where the Castle was located. It probably was in my best interest to get a cab from the bus station to my hostel but I am so anti cab and just powered through my 30 minute walk straight uphill with both of my big backpacks.
I dropped off my things at my hostel and went out to explore the old town. Luckily my hostel was just steps from the main old bazaar so it was easy to get around. My first mission was to find some food so I decided to get the staple Cevapi which is essentially a balkan meatball with a yogurt sauce that you can find across the Balkans. After that delicious meal, I walked up to the Gjirokaster Castle and spent some time exploring the old castle walls. This castle was unique because at one point there was a large prison enclosed inside the castle that still remains that you are able to explore today. I didn’t really do to many activities in the town and it was fairly small so I just wandered the streets of the old bazaar for a few hours. At one point a torrential downpour started where I camped out under a shed for at least 30 minutes before I braved it and headed to get pasta at a highly rated restaurant in the town. I capped the night off with a dessert that looked way more enticing than it turned out to be. I would say as the small towns are concerned, I definitely preferred Berat more than Gjirokaster just because I thought it was more sceninc and had a little more charm, but I was still pleased with my decision to head there for this night.
Sunday May 19th: $74.64 spent (Himare, Albania)
Today is the day that would sort of completely change the trajectory of the upcoming weeks of my trip and I had no idea going into the day. I planned to leave Gjirokaster early in the morning and catch a bus back to Sarande and then transfer to another bus to get to the small beach town called Himare. There was an Formula 1 race happening in the afternoon at 3pm and my goal was to arrive in Himare before then to be able to watch the race. After a couple hours on the bus, I did make it to the charming beach town and checked into my hostel at around 1:30pm.
Settling into my room is the moment that would change my trip. I was wearing a Formula 1 jersey and a guy who was also in my room (Fin) noticed and started asking if I enjoyed F1. He was from England and Formula 1 is really popular there. He was really surprised with my knowledge of the sport especially being an American. We then made plans to watch the race that was happening shortly. In between us meeting and the race, i had learned that he was traveling with another good friend of his from England (Tristan) and an Australian girl (Amy) they met in Gjirokaster a few days ago and had the same trip route planned. Tristan was out shooting drone videos so I wasn’t able to meet him yet but Amy was also at the hostel so we got introduced to each other. Fin, Amy and Tristan had been planning to get a group together for a sunset boat party later that night and really wanted me to join because we were all getting along really well and matching each other’s energy. Going into this trip, I told myself that I was going to say yes to everything as long as it is safe and reasonable and sounds like a good time so of course I said that I would join. Before though, I needed some food so I picked up a quick Chicken Souvlaki and lots of alcohol to bring on the boat trip.
There were 8 of us on the boat trip: myself, the 3 I introduced already, a french girl Madeleine who Amy met earlier, an Australian guy Alex who was in Fin and I’s room, and 2 Canadian girls who I don’t remember their names. The Canadians didn’t drink but between us other 6 we finished 4 bottles of Raki on the boat. Raki is the local Balkan spirit and I would say like a fruity vodka. We stopped at a lot of popular beach spots while on our boat trip and also some caves that we were able to swim through. There were really great speakers on the boat too so we created our own mini rave. It was nice because myself and the 3 others all have very very similar music taste. I have really great videos from the boat trip but unfortunately this website will not let me upload any so I am sorry about that. Tristan ended up persuading the guy who was driving the boat to let him drive which might not have been the smartest idea looking back but it turned out fine. I just remember laughing harder than I ever have in my life because Tristan was just one of the goofiest and most fun people to be around. It was a great start to the night.
After the sunset and getting off the boat, the 6 of us (everyone but the Canadians) decided to continue the partying and go to Tristan’s airbnb he was staying at. For some reason he didn’t want to stay in the hostel with Fin but got his own airbnb which turned out great for us because it gave us a place to go drink more. We bought 3 more bottles of raki and 2 bottles of wine. At one point well after midnight we decided to leave the airbnb and head to the beach to finish our wine. At this point it felt like a genuine friendship was beginning with Fin, Tristan and Amy as we all just gelled perfectly together. They were all planning to head up to Tirana together the next night and then after going up to north Albania to do the famous hike that many people do. I was planning another night in Himare, then a night in Vlore, a night in Durres before heading up north to the mountains, I would have been about 2 days behind their itinerary to do the hike. They were begging me to move up my itinerary so that I could do the hike with them since we were all getting along so well. I decided that I would stay tomorrow night in Himare since I wanted more time there but the following day to bus straight to the city of Shkoder and meet them there which was the starting point for the hike. It was the best decision I could have made. We ended our night around 4am and I said my brief goodbyes since they would be getting a bus early in the morning but I knew I was going to see them again in 2 days.
Monday May 20th: $43.78 spent (Himare, Albania)
I had a pretty slow morning today since I was incredibly hungover. Most everyone I met the day before had left besides the French girl Madeleine so we decided to head to the most famous beach in town. The beach is called Filikuri beach and was about a 45 minute walk away from the main town and also required a bit of a sketchy rope descent to make it to the beach but it was so worth it. Literally the most beautiful beach I have ever been to. I have never seen water that clear before. It also wasn’t too busy. Maybe only 10 others on the entire beach besides us. We stayed there for a few hours and I swam quite a bit. The water was a little chilly but easy to get used to. And I’d say my only gripe with it is that it was a rock beach and not a sand beach so not the most fun to walk around on. Still a 10/10 experience and made my trip to Himare completely worth it. After a couple hours there, Madeleine and I decided to make the 45 minute walk back since were were getting pretty hungry at that point. I got some calamari that you can see below and then I took the rest of the afternoon to rest a bit. There were a group of Americans that came to town in the afternoon and staying at our hostel that I decided to go to dinner with that night and I pretty much just chilled around the town soaking in the beach vibes and called it a night. I had a big travel day tomorrow to try to make it to Shkoder in one day so I needed some sleep.
Tuesday May 21th: $48.22 spent (Shkoder, Albania)
I got up early today and caught my first bus to take me to Tirana where I was going to need to transfer to another bus to Shkoder. The views were incredible and my picture below does not do it justice. We drove through the famous Llogara Pass. Other than that it was about an 8 hour journey before reaching Shkoder where I checked into my hostel and met up with Fin, Tristan and Amy. We booked our hike and accomodations for the hike through the hostel and called it a night since we had a big and very early day coming up.
Wednesday May 22th: $66.56 spent (Valbona, Albania)
Today I had an early 5:30am wake up to get my stuff around and be ready for breakfast at 6am before leaving for our first bus to the mountain town of Valbona after breakfast. The hike my friends and I were going to do was the famous Valbona to Theth hike where you hike over a mountain pass from one town to the next with all of your stuff with you. I have brought a large 55L backpack with me on my world trip and a north face day pack. Most people leave and store their big bags at the hostel in Shkoder and only bring their day packs with enough clothes for the amount of nights they will be in the mountain. This just makes it easier so you are carrying a lot less stuff through the mountains. The journey to reach the town where you start the hike in Valbona is a bit of a complicated one to get to. We first took an early morning bus which took us to Komani Lake. Then you take a ferry all the way across Komani lake where you then get on another bus for anout 1.5 hours to take you to the small mountain village of Valbona.
The ferry across Komani Lake is considered one of the most beautiful parts of the country. It kind of gives me a similar feeling to many parts of Southeast Asia and my friends agreed with me. Unfortunately the first hour of the ferry trip, it was dumping rain down on us hard which meant everyone had to get cramped inside the very small covered part of the ferry. There was a large speaker so Tristan decided to connect to the bluetooth and start our own rave with all the other old mostly Italian tourists that were also on the ferry with us. The bathroom situation was also a bit rough and had no toilet paper which gave Tristan some problems since he was in a dire situation being stuck on this almost 3 hour ferry. After the ferry we had one last bus to get on before reaching our beautiful guesthouse in Valbona. We settled into the guesthouse and just explored the area and river nearby and had a great feast later that night and meeting the rest of the people that we would be doing the hike in the morning with.
Thursday May 23th: $36.88 spent (Theth, Albania)
Today was the big hike day. We were set to head over the mountain pass to make it to the town of Theth. The journey would be a 15km length with about 3000ft of elevation gain. Definitely not a walk in the park by any means and even difficult for people in incredible shape. We had a quick breakfast at the guesthouse and packed lunch with the breakfast foods provided before heading out to start the journey. It started on a flat road path before we hit the forest part to start the steep uphill climb. It was about an hour of steep uphill before we hit the rock scramble part. It took us by surprise right away. I think our group stopped 7 times for breaks in the first 30 minutes which was pretty sad on our parts but Tristan has been battling with an acute meniscus tear from a snowboarding accident in Japan months ago. By the end of the trek it was really bothering him a lot. Living in Seattle the past 3 years, I gained a new love and passion for hiking and the mountains. This blew away my expectations and was possibly one of the most stunning regions I have ever seen even coming from the beautiful Washington state. We hiked with another friend, Jane and her mom Lisa. Tristan, Amy and Fin actually became friends with her when they were in Gjirokaster at the same time together and no all of our trips aligned again. They are from Alberta, Canada right near Banff and both Jane and her mom agreed that this part of Albania was just as stunning as most parts of Canada. The pictures I have below look insane but don’t even do the place justice.
The hike took us about 6-7 hours to complete before arriving at our beautiful guesthouse in Theth. We decided that we wanted to do another 2 hour roundtrip hike to the famous waterfall near Theth called Grunas Waterfall. I was keen to get in but it started raining and was pretty cold when we arrived at the waterfall. Jane and Tristan decided to get in though. We had to make sure to make it back to the guesthouse to make the dinner at 8pm that they were providing for us. It was a pasta dinner with many side dishes.
It was my favorite day of the trip so far and the vibes were immaculate. Unfortunately for one family staying at both of our guesthouses that we met, it wasn’t. They were Dutch and some of the nicest people I have ever met and got to chatting with the dad from the night before extensively at dinner. They were 28 and had the cutest and most happy baby. They arrived at our guesthouse in Theth not until 9pm and were in a bit of a panic. The story is that they reached the peak and the mom got extremely light headed and fainted. She was carrying their backpack with all of their stuff and he was carrying the baby. While she was falling, we flung the backpack off of her which flew off the mountain cliff. Luckily she did not fall off the mountain herself or was not carrying the baby but they lost EVERYTHING they had. All their clothes, baby materials, electronics etc. Luckily the dad had their money and passports in a cross body belt so they didn’t lose those. Everyone felt terrible and the guesthouse did a fantastic job contacting people to make sure they could get some clothes, diapers, a backup backpack and other things they needed to get back to the Netherlands in the coming days fine. They were still so positive about the situation as they knew it could have been way worse. He told me later that night that it will just be a funny story to look back on 5 years from now. That really put everything into perspective for me. Things can always be replaced, but memories will never be forgotten.
Friday May 24th: $50.24 spent (Theth, Albania)
We decided to stay another night in Theth since it was so beautiful. Fin actually had to go back to Shkoder this morning because he left some medication for his skin that he needed to go back and use. We decided to do another hike to the famous blue eye. It was a 6 hour roundtrip to do the entire hike but we had to wait until 2pm to start the hike. Tristan has a drone and wanted to do some drone photography there. One of his propellers broke the day before and he had no spares. He knew someone who was doing the Valbona to Theth hike this day who he texted and had an extra he could have. But we had to wait on them to reach Theth before leaving for the hike. It put us in a bit of a timing pickle so we decided to hitchhike most of the way there because there was a road that would cut off about 2 hours each way of the journey. It was a road not traveled very much but the first car we saw picked us up. He was an older British guy also headed to go see the blue eye. He said he would be happy to take us back too so it worked out perfect. We got to the blue eye and it was the coldest water I have ever felt. Only 36 degrees F. I only put my feet in and within 15 seconds they were completely numb and began to really hurt after 30 seconds. It’s not really water that anyone is able to swim in. We headed back to the guesthouse with plenty of time to spare before dinner and spent our last night taking in the scenery and stars around us. It capped off the perfect couple weeks in Albania for me and I grew to really love this country.
