St. Mary's Monastery on Isla Zvërnec

The sun came out today (yay!), so after breakfast we drove up to Isla Zvërnec, a small island in Narta Lagoon just north of Vlore. The lagoon isn't deep and there's a walkway between the mainland and the island, which used to be a religious hangout. The lagoon is quite large and the home to flocks of flamingos. Unfortunately they were hanging out too far away to see properly, but still kinda cool knowing they were there.

The island isn't huge, but quite beautiful with large pine trees as a backdrop to St. Mary's monastery, which is enclosed in a walled compound. We "talked" to the lone security guard for a few minutes and we must have impressed him as he gave us the key to the gate at the back of the compound which gives you access to the rest of the island. What a treat walking through the pine forest to the far side of the island where we came across another small church, St. Trinity's.

We made our way back and after we said our goodbyes to our new friend we went back to Vlore to visit the old town. Mind you, it isn't really that old nor very big, but it had an interesting collection of restaurants. After that, we just walked around the waterfront until another storm blew in. All in all, another great day in Albania.Read more