Travels in Albania

Travels in Albania

Well, Albania turned out to be quite an experience.  Durres turned out to be quite a surprise, having several high-rise buildings, a pleasant waterfront with many restaurants and the people were all very friendly.  The cost of food is incredibly low, an excellent meal for the two of us costing around $10.00 (including wine). We  wandered around the town and took a stroll around the ancient amphitheatre.  Unfortunately the locals have taken advantage of the empty ground and there are several houses built right inside the amphitheatre.

On our second morning in Durres, our agent (we needed a ‘ship’s agent’ like big ships, to clear customs), Ilir Gjergji arrived to check that all was OK with us.We invited him for lunch and he arrived with his wife, Antigone. She turned out to work for the Department of Cultural affairs and after lunch she took us for a personal tour of both the amphitheatre and also their delightful little museum.  This consists of three floors – the first has ancient Illyrian, Greek and Roman artifacts.  The second and third floor exhibits are not yet in place but they will cover the Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman periods. The little museum turned out to be the highlight of our trip.

The next day we sailed to the one and only marina in Albania, Marina Orikum, near the town of Vlorres, further down the coast.  This marina turned out to be rather sad.  It only has around 30 boats in it, we and a Dutch gentleman were the only people onboard and the place was pretty run down.  We rented a car as we wanted to go to the town of Sarante, near to which are the ancient ruins of Butrint. This area was occupied from Illyrian times, through to Greek and Roman, Venetian and was finally abandoned when Napoleon took it.

We battled along the Albanian roads in our little car which seemed to be about to die. The clutch plate was very suspect and there was no suspension left to speak of.  The roads in Albania are an interesting mix.  Down the centre of the country is a dual carriageway freeway, with a shoulder and good macadam.  However, there are no overpasses and each time a road crosses it, one has to slow down to 20km.  The rest of the roads in the country are simply amazing.  They are full of potholes, one lane each way which often comes down to one lane only in the towns and no verge. People swerve around the potholes onto the wrong side of the road, there are bikes and donkey carts on the road and I have photographs of numerous animals on the road – dogs, cats, donkeys, cows, sheep, goats, geese, ducks, pigs and even a tortoise! The locals double park on narrow roads, cross to your side to pick someone up, swerve unexpectantly, and once all the people involved in a minor accident got out and started fighting! Our car came with a seatbelt buckle unattached, which we realized was to stop the car seatbelt warning going off if you choose to drive without a belt. Clearly Albanians have a well-developed death wish!

The hairpin bends through the mountains gave us spectacular views of the coastline and the high peaks. 

  We came across a restaurant which is built right in the middle of a waterfall!

We visited a old Medieval castle, with a small town in it’s wall and the most beatifull Byzantine church (10^th century) with icons by a local famous iconographer. There are many Orthodox Christian villages, as many Greeks where forcibly resettled here by the communists during the Greek civil war (1944) Their Greek is poor, but they stick to the Greek diet and have remained Christians in a Muslim country. They have made their villages prosperous, and they are much neater and prettier than their neighbours.

We were told that the Albanians have just passed a law, fining any foreign boat that has been in the country for more than six months.  One German boat was made to pay €40,000 to get his boat out.  As there is only one marina with few boats, a guard day and night and one has to sail past the Port Police in Vlorres, I would imagine it would be very difficult to just leave unnoticed.

It was with some relief that we crossed the Greek border on our way out as our marina had cleared us only to go to Sarante (despite our request to clear for Corfu!) and not to Greece!

Next instalment – Greece.

That’s all for now folks.

Arti and Dimitri

s/v Artemis V