Devin's Travels: Saranda and Berat

We left Ioannina bright and early in the morning and made our way to the boarder with Albania being fairly confident that we would be able to find on ward transportation to Saranda from there. Arriving at the boarder we were disappointed to find that no buses serviced the boarder post and so we were at the mercy of the taxi drivers to take us for the 45 minute drive to Saranda. Picking a driver we quickly set off to our new destination and enjoyed our first sights of Albania. Driving through the countryside we quickly decided that it was fairly beautiful and also the Lonely Planet didn't lie about the fact that there are bunkers everywhere. Just on the short drive to Saranda we past by what seemed like hundreds of small grey concrete bunkers scattered all over the landscape (according to Lonely Planet there are about 700 000 bunkers in the tiny country of Albania).

Arriving in Saranda we found a beautiful hotel right on the beach and went for a walk along the waterfront. We found a very helpful tourist information centre and after finding out that we could visit the ancient ruins of Butrint in about an hour or two we took off for them. Traveling about 45 minutes south of Saranda on the bus we arrived at the ancient ruins and started to tour around them. The first major site that we came to was the Greek Theatre which was fairly well preserved and surrounding the theatre was Ascelpius' Temple, the Agora and the small public baths. After these ruins we continued on to the Christian Baptistery which supposedly contain some beautiful mosaics but they were all covered with sand so we couldn't see them. Past here we came to the well preserved Basilica which sat next to the start of the Cyclopean wall. Climbing up through a gate in the wall we continued up to the Acropolis which sat at the top of a hill. Here we were rewarded with some great views over the countryside including a view over the river to a triangle shaped fortress. In the Acropolis we saw the castle which sat at one end of the top of the hill. In the castle was a fairly well done museum describing the history of Butrint and how the city evolved over the years that is was used in. Climbing back down from the Acropolis we made our way back to the exit where we proceeded to wait an hour for a bus to take us back to Saranda.

Back in Saranda we took a short break in our hotel before heading out to join the locals wandering all along the waterfront seemingly just enjoying the weather and other peoples company with no destination in sight. We thought that this was due to the nice location next to the sea so we joined them to enjoy it also. Along the waterfront we also eventually found some dinner and enjoyed our meal in Saranda before heading to bed.

The following morning we got up and made our way straight to the bus station where we quickly boarded a bus bound for Gjirokastra. Arriving in Gjirokastra we eventually found a place that would store our bags for the day and could tell us what time the bus to Berat departed that afternoon. As a result we took off into the city and started by climbing up the side of the huge hill to the castle perched on top. Climbing to the top we entered the castle, which has been converted into a "museum" although really all there is to see is to wander around the old buildings and get some nice views of the city. After wandering around the castle we left and decided to spend our remaining time just wandering around the steep cobblestone streets of the old part of town looking at the Ottoman style houses. The area that we wandered around was quite nice although from the description in the Lonely Planet we were expecting it to be slightly eerie and vampireish, which it definitely wasn't. Returning back to the bottom of the huge hill we collected our bags from the restaurant that stored them for us and boarded a bus bound for Berat. The following 4 hours were spent on the bus and we finally arrived in Berat just as the sun was starting to set. So we quickly found a hotel for the night and went out to find some dinner. Leaving our hotel in the evening we again found a street that was absolutely packed with locals just walking the length of it, seeming to just walk from one end to the other and back. We were very fascinated with this and since we also saw something similar in Saranda we figured that there has to be some national activity to go walking at night.

Berat is one of the most famous towns in Albania and the old part of the town has been extremely protected for about the past 50 years so this means that the city is full of beautiful Ottoman style houses. The next morning we set off to explore this town and started off by climbing up the hill to the Citadel which is a walled off area of the city on top of a large hill. Entering the citadel we decided to wander around the streets where people were still living in beautiful old houses with superb views out over the rest of the city. Also within the citadel are 12 churches (only one of which we could enter as it had been turned into a small museum) and the ruins of an old mosque and old fortress. Descending from the citadel we started to wander through the narrow and steep cobblestone lanes in the old part of town and gaze upon the beautiful houses there. Along with the houses there are a few mosques and a couple of churches which survived throughout the communist reign in Albania when religion was outlawed. Other than just wandering around the town there wasn't much to do other than visit a couple of small museums so we didn't get up to much else. That evening we again went and joined the hundreds of locals strolling along what we started to call "The Walking Street" before enjoying dinner and then heading to bed for the night.

The next morning we got up and made our way straight to the bus station where we quickly boarded a bus to Tirana, the capital city of Albania and our next destination.