Blue Eye

We gave ourselves a well-deserved sleep in, but this was once again interrupted at about 9 am. However, instead of an annoying checkout we had to make, we were actually excited to get up. Today was the quarter finals of the women's world cup, and Australia was vsing France, the former champions. This was a high-energy, incredibly stressful match that had all three of us screaming as loud as we could, probably to the frustration of our neighbours. We were far too engaged with the game to care, however. It went all the way to penalties, and after an incredibly stressful and heart-wrenching shoot-out , Australia beat France and progressed. It was one of the longest and most intense shootouts I've ever witnessed, but boy, was I glad it was over. My heart could not continue to watch it.

After this, we headed to one of my biggest bucket list items from this trip, and that's the Blue Eye near Sarande. I have heard amazing things about the beautifully clear water that springs from the earth. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were met with a 2km walk, and in the heat we were experiencing, it was tough. But when we arrived, it was definitely worth it as the water was even more colourful and beautiful than I had imagined and seen in photos. We then learnt that you are not supposed to swim in the water, which was disappointing. There were plenty of people doing it, but we felt it took away from the appeal in many of the main areas, so we just found a quiet place where people couldn't see us, and jumped in there to experience the water. It's hard to describe the feeling of the water because it really just felt pristine to the point that you wanted to drink it. The water was also incredibly cold, which is good given that we had done quite a bit of walking before this to explore the area. But it once again took the breath out of you. It wasn't as cold as in Theth but cold enough to ensure I didn't stay in too long. The photos do a horrible job of painting a picture of the clarity of the water, as you need to be high enough above that you can see the colours on the bottom. Meaning, any photo taken from eye level turned out shit compared to how it really looked. I did get a few good ones but not as many as I would have liked. Not enough to pain a picture of the beauty. It was a great experience, and it was definitely something I'll remember forever. But it wasn't a massive area, and after a few hours, we were ready to move on. So we headed back to the car and drove to our accommodation in Sarande.

When we arrived, we got very lost as we were in the hills of Sarande, and the roads were basically dirt and rock for the most part. When we pulled up to the location we thought we needed to be at, a man walked out, and we figured he was a good person to ask. He didn't speak a word of English but understood Villa Mehmeti (where we were staying). Without being able to speak to us, he just got in the car and began to direct us to the villa. We were very confused but trusted his judgement. He eventually got us there with hand gestures and grunts. When we got out we tried to offer him a lift to wherever he was going but it turns out he was coming to Villa Mehmeti, to catch up with his wife for a drink with the owners of the hotel. It was hilarious to listen to the exchange between the wife and man as he got out of our car. Even though we didn't speak Albanian, we understood the gist of the conversation. We then went to the shops and made ourselves a noodle dish that was cheap and decent enough to keep us going before heading to bed.Leer más