Day 59/60/61/62 - Gjirokastra

I planned to take a bus to Gjirokastra at 10am. Despite proper research and asking around locals, I couldn't get reliable information about bus departures and was told it's best not to rely on online information. 😅 So the hostel guy told me to just go to the bus stop around 10am. By bus stop he meant the road where the bus is driving along and probably stops if someone is waiting there. It's not actually a station, they stop on the road, causing even more chaos. 😂 On my way out of the hostel, the hostel dude ran after me telling me that there is a guy driving to Tirana by car and he will drop me in Gjirokastra, which is kind of on the way. He was also a traer from Saudi-Arabia with a nice rental car, another guy from Egypt also joined the ride, which took around an hour for me. We had to stop along to way to let hundreds of goats cross the street, but other than that no interruptions. 😁
Arriving in Gjirokastra, it was pouring (!) rain and I realized that the city is build along a hillside. Not sure where the hostel is located, I thought I certainly won't have to climb that hill - I was wrong. Soaking wet I arrived at the hostel, where I quickly got changed into some warm clothes.
Once the rain stopped in the afternoon, me and another German guy Fred from my dorm went off to explore the city together. It's got beautiful old town with Ottoman style stone houses similar to the ones in Berat. I think from the looks of it, Gjirokastra is my favorite place in Albania. :))

Fred and me also went to visit one of the 300+ year old traditional houses, Skenduli house, which was worth the 1.70€ entrance fee!! We were strolling around this massive house by ourselves for about 20min, kind of making up our own mind about what we're seeing ("this looks like the kitchen", ...), when a free tour started just as we were just about to leave again. We joined anyways and were so surprised about all the rooms we missed (we thought we've seen them all), their actual purpose, and all the details that turned this place into a proper history lesson. 😁👌 It's funny how the perception of a place can change once you know more about it.. we explored the city a little more but since it was starting to rain again, we soon went back to the hostel. Fred and a few others from the dorm hat to catch a bus to Greece at 5am the next morning.. so I already knew it's gonna be a short night in the dorm for me, too. 😅

The next day, me and another Australian girl from the hostel went to the Ali Pasha bridge together, which is a 30min walk outside of Gjirokastra. We were hoping for no rain but this wish wasn't granted unfortunately on the way there. Being soaked already we thought there is no point in turning back now, so we continued our little hike. It led through cute little neighborhoods of the city very high up on the hill. The locals there were living in amazing old buildings with heavy stone roofs, vegetable gardens around the houses and chicken running around everywhere.😁 Soon we reached a little path leading towards the bridge, the rain had stopped and it was a little misty. The perfect atmosphere for this kind of sight!! There were only two other people there at first but soon we got the bridge for ourselves. When we were about to leave, another girl arrived and we started talking. Turned out she's also a solo bikepacker (second one I met on the trip!! 🎉), Lea from France. The tree of us decided to hike back a different route back into town together and soon were joined by a very cute stray dog (she walked with us for at least 40min), and two other German guys in the middle of nowhere that looked suspiciously familiar to me. Turned out we met already at the bar of Sun Bakers Hostel in Himarë. 😅 As I said, small world in Albania and too many drinks. :D
Once we got back to the hostel we split ways with the guys again and the three of us went for a coffee. It was amazing to see how once the rain has stopped suddenly life comes back to the streets of Gjirokastra: We were sitting in the area of the old bazaar with lots of coffee shops around. Once the rain stopped, dozens of tables and chairs were set up again in the middle of the road within minutes. :)
Back at the hostel for some rest, I met Nele and her friends, who also met while travelling. We decided to go for some traditional food in a restaurant together later in the evening.
With people bringing people we were a big group of people in the end. Unfortunately, the food we ordered (we were all having vegetarian mixed plates, so little bits of everything for a fixed price) wasn't that great at all. It was a lot of pastry goods that didn't seem to be freshly prepared unfortunately. I couldn't eat pastry goods (especially spinach burek) anymore for a long time after this experience, kind of ruined it a little. 😅 We still had fun though. :)

Since the weather wasn't getting any better anytime soon and there was so much to see in Gjirokastra still, I decided to stay another night but relocate to another hostel the next day. The stone city hostel is honestly one of the best and most beautiful hostels I've ever stayed at!! It's in one of the old historical buildings with thick walls, stone roof and beautiful authentic interior. :) Once moved, I met up with Nele again. We planned on hitchhiking to the Blue Eye, a natural spring with crystal clear water and beautiful colour 40km outside of Gjirokastra. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain again and we decided to to try again the next day (it was supposed to be less rainy). Instead, we went into a cozy little coffee shop, tried multiple snacks and drinks over the course of some hours. While Nele read her book, I was trying to catch up on this travel diary.. ;) In the afternoon I went on a free walking tour provided by the hostel, which was amazing. The Dutch guy giving the tour has lived in this city for over 10 years and knew so much about the Albanian history (Ottoman times, communism and atheist campaign, fall of Yugoslavia, establishment of democracy), it again changed my perspective of the place a lot and helped understanding the country a little better. :) Being pretty tired and having a fiest going on in my hostel kitchen with every guest involved, I stayed in this evening.

The next morning, Nele, me and some more people I met during dinner all wanted to go to the Blue Eye together by bus. Since there are two routes back to Sarandë but only one going past the Blue Eye, we though it's best to join forces in convincing the bus driver to take the old route. Funny story about buses again: we got to the bus station 11:50am, bus was supposed to leave at noon. Almost there a taxi driver asked us we need a ride, we said we'll take the bus at 12 to which he replied there is no bus, next one is at 1pm. But we saw the bus already, so we got in thinking it would leave in 10min. Well, it didn't it left at 1pm. 😅 But at least we were somewhere inside, it was raining heavily again..
It was still raining heavily and we were soaked and cold when the bus stopped for us at the Blue Eye. Since we had to pay full ticket price to Sarandë anyways, we decided to stay on the bus and skip on the natural spring. The weather was just miserable..

Back in Sarandë, Nele also checked in the same hostel. I was happy to find my bike and stuff untouched even though I stayed away much longer and a nice new crew of volunteers and guests at the hostel. It was a cool vibe. Nele and me were cooking together and later played shithead with the hostel crew (Victor, Fabio, Dimitri, Mike, ..). :) So much fun!!Read more