Një Maj

We started today with an absolute feast at the homestay that we were staying at. The hosts were so kind and absolutely adorable. They spoke very little English and we spoke zero Albanian but we got by! We were fed traditional Albanian pancakes, fresh homemade jams and juice made from fruit from the garden and freshly baked cake! She must have been up so early preparing it all. We felt like we were visiting family as it was so homely!

We left quite early and headed up to the castle in Berat. So glad we had a car as the path to get there was so steep! When we got to the top we realised it wasn’t just a castle but a fortified town! It felt like we had stepped back in time. Cobbled streets, hidden lanes, incredible views, amazing smells of Albanian cooking... so authentic. There was hardly anyone around too- I’m sure it would get busy in summer but at 9am in low season, we felt like we had the place to ourselves. We came across an old Albanian man who was so friendly and wanted to take a picture of us, so we spent a while trying to teach him the basics of taking a picture on my iPhone (first, removing fingers from the lense and pointing it at us...) I’m sure you can imagine the difficulty never mind the language barrier. He was so sweet though and we got there in the end- see photo below. :)

We continued our drive down south to Gjirokaster. There was a castle up on the hill here so it had incredible views of the city and mountains in the background. We met a local selling jam so bought some fig and watermelon jams to try. The rest of the day was spent driving towards the coast. We took a wrong turn and almost ended up in Greece! We also only just managed to avoid so many accidents as we tried to work out the road rules over here. In the end I think we have worked out that there are no rules. The police pulled us over at one point which was a bit scary... but as soon as we said “hello” and they realised we weren’t Albanian they let us go. Strange, but we weren’t complaining.

Tonight we are staying in another homestay on the coast that is run by a Greek couple. Such a lovely place and incredible value at only €22. I’m going to miss these cheap prices when we arrive in New Zealand!Read more