Ingredients: two days off, a car, a traveling companion, stunning scenery! Here's how a weekend discovering the beauty of southern Albania.
The weather is already bad and it rains on Saturday morning, but the atmosphere is the same right to leave. Unpretentious, with no particular expectations. It goes south, then if the weather will be much better friend così.Prima goal? It is not known, we go down south, the more we'll see. First stop
Fier. Son already spent more time there. Leaving the highway, well then you are just a highway, you notice the sign of a zoo. Of course private. Intrigued we decide to stop and see. The show is the worse. In a few hundred square meters are locked up in cages to say the least narrow, animals of all kinds. Bears, antelope, deer, monkeys, snakes, wolves, and three pairs of lions. Stuff of creepy. Families who bring children to see the animals probably do not realize that is not human to keep the poor animals locked up in that way. I'm tempted to explain all the usual reasons that in this year helped me to digest many quirks of this country. We are in Albania, and here it works for people is normal.
But this time, not enough to justify such an atrocity. A zoo worker takes to the feet the body of a peacock now stiff, as if it were normal, Who knows how many animals get sick and die in those crates.
back with a little 'bitter taste in the mouth. We go down again, our goal will be Gjirokastër. We stopped for lunch at Tepelene, where roadside fresh water flows, which is then bottled and sold throughout Albania.
Under the road a beautiful river is threatened by the mountains of rubbish they throw careless travelers during a stop at the source.
Passing through muddy roads destroyed and Gjirokastër arrive in mid-afternoon.
The castle on the hill overlooking the new town built at his feet. The stadium is the first thing we see. The local team is playing. We stopped to watch the match under a shower after all also nice. The game is not very funny, the rest of Albania is the second category, but it's nice to watch the game cheering on spalti.Finita we head towards the old city, not even time to park that already offer us a place to sleep. A beautiful B & B in a restored house with character. The carved wooden ceilings and antique furniture make the room very nice. We set off to discover the center of the city that we have already grown dark. The cobblestone streets and buildings features are wonderful, fortunately modern building has not caught on in the center, except for a hotel and some construction but not stona.Ci move in search of a bar, a few minutes and play the Roma! Of course, needless to say the game simultaneously with that of Milan not submit anyone.
finally found a cozy bar where two men asked the owner to change the channel and put the match for us. We sit at the table with them. After twenty minutes you already understand how it will end, and then we begin to chat with two nice gentlemen who are respected by good Albanians who offer us the second beer. Meanwhile, the patrons of the bar would prefer to see the semi-finals of the basketball world. After an hour of chatting and having lost count of the beers is now available to eat something and go to sleep.
The second day begins not with the best wishes, a thick fog covers the city, you can visit the castle, but the breakfast prepared by the owner already puts me in a good umore.Cominciamo with a brief visit to the ethnographic museum, set up inside the birthplace of Enver Hoxha, the terrible dictator who ruled the country for decades with one of the most vicious Communist regimes that history is a guide ricordi.La lady who speaks good English, she was fortunate because during the regime has had the opportunity to study and work. While the dictator tells us about life as a child, explains that in her opinion a person should remember the good things than bad ones. Also tells us that she lived communist regime is that the capitalist system, and has no hesitation in saying that in her opinion it was better the first. Maybe he does not remember, however, the conditions under which his countrymen lived.
left us behind Mrs. nostalgic we set off to Saranda! The road is one that goes straight to Greece. At some point you turn right there and climbs into the mountains that separate the interior from the coast. Thirty miles of curves between the barren hills, and at one point, when you least expect it, after the climb begins the descent, but a steep descent with a blue background. The sky and the sea mix on the horizon, bright colors so you do struggle to understand the boundary between the deep blue sea and clear blue sky now clear.
Even the palaces built near the sea to prevent the clear waters remain enraptured by those who never would have imagined being able to find those parts. Saranda, however, is too contaminated from construction to stop. And then you continue to Butrinti, famous peninsula in a lagoon. Here is the most important archaeological excavation of Albania. But even before you get just can not resist, the first beach we see a little 'out of town, we stopped in less than a minute and we are already there that we swim in those waters so clear that being able to distinguish one by one the algae lying on the seabed. A lunch of fish in the sea is what we want before proceeding. A few kilometers on a road full of potholes and terrifying, and here we are at Butrint.
The beautiful lagoon and the island of Corfu are the perfect backdrop to the ancient city, first Greek, then Roman and Venetian. The peninsula has preserved most of the ruins of each of the periods of domination. After the walk through the amphitheater, and the Venetian fortress, we decide to leave. Of course those places are worth visiting with quiet, other attractions make the region attractive, but there will be so again.
The journey is long and the working Monday approaches. However we choose to take the path of the coast that probably is longer but more beautiful. The choice turns out to be right. A constant up through the hills of the coast and small islands with great beaches deserted fortresses. But the most beautiful and certainly the edge on Llogara.
The road climbs on this mountain literally, delightful open views over the sea, which remains for most of the trail a few hundred meters away. Even the weather was our friend. The day was lit by a blazing sun of a September is not too hot. But the best surprise as we climb the mountain. The clouds for a while 'threatening rain decide to blow off steam just before we abandon the view of the sea creating a surreal atmosphere. The gray sky and clear sea on the mountain. The rain almost horizontal and the light of the sunset through the drops you can almost count them one by one. The icing on the cake, a huge rainbow that frames the peak montagna.Scendendo other side toward the bay of Vlora, the vegetation is not of what you expect, and pine forests are the constant of Llogara National Park.
now it's dark when we arrive in the Gulf, but now we move away from the sea in the direction of Tirana, are ten o'clock when we return to the capital.
A weekend to explore new places, without programs, unpretentious but in the end it was the ideal drive to start a new week. The first of my second year in Albania!
