Albania anyone?

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WHL
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Albania anyone?

Post by WHL »

Well that's Albania off my wish list :shock:
Seriously I have been to Albania, and this doesn't surprise me.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... MILES.html
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Dominic
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Re: Albania anyone?

Post by Dominic »

Reminds me of this:

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Living in Polemi, Cyprus with my wife and daughter.
WHL
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Re: Albania anyone?

Post by WHL »

Re the Restaurant owner, im not surprised, a few years ago, whilst on a cruise , the ship docked in Albania, a place called Saranda, some of the other passengers, warned us not to visit the place, you will regret it they said, against our better judgement, we got off, first problem was trying to get through twenty odd sweaty smelly taxi drivers, after that we had to try and get through every beggar and scammer known to man, once through that lot, there was a litter strewn water front with quite a few tatty cafes, as we were being harassed by a bunch of beggar kids, we took refuge in a cafe, for a cool drink, whilst trying to read the dirty sticky plastic, menus.... out of the back walks the chef, holding some pitta breads, he went up to the Donna kebab machine, picked up his large knife, and ''wait for it'' placed the pitta bread, under his sweaty armpit, while he started to cut the meat, I kid you not, we shot out of there like a Usain Bolt, followed by the beggars, moral of this story is, if someone gives you some good advice then listen to them.
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PhotoLady
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Re: Albania anyone?

Post by PhotoLady »

We did it as a day trip by boat from Corfu to Sarande - we had to queue above the stairway to the engine room with the hatch open for about 30 minutes whilst the one armed "customs" officer single handedly (literally) managed to stamp all of the passenger passports.
We were taken around the area, visited the synagogue, the basilica and the archaeological remains and were lucky that we were there at a time the mosaics were uncovered for us to see.

Afterwards we were transported through the town to a lovely beach where the biggest food table I have ever seen was groaning under the weight of the food. Considering the Albanians were extremely poor, they put on a great spread and the ham was the nicest I've ever eaten.

The Corfiots where we were staying weren't totally impressed we had been to visit Albania and made remarks that the locals there all came out to watch the traffic lights changing as it was the only entertainment they had - this would have been the summer of 1996 as it was the first holiday I used my tour operator concessions on when I was working at First Choice Holidays.

There was talk of boats being stolen by the Albanians from Corfu Town areas as it was closest to reach by sea and a couple of weeks after our return, I believe a guy was killed when he found them trespassing on his boat.

I would be interested to return to see how much Albania has progressed since then.

Saying that, I would be happy to go back to Corfu too - we really enjoyed it with it's very pretty little coves and rugged coastline especially at Paleokastritsa and the little trip we took out by boat to the caves/grotto there. We went at the end of August for 2 weeks and they had a couple of very spectacular storms during our stay. One was the day we found Paleokastritsa but it cleared just after we got soaked running up the river of rainwater flowing down the footpath to the closest restaurant from where we parked the jeep. It was gloriously sunny and hot after that, hence our little boat trip.....

The next storm was when we were heading off for a morning of scuba diving (not me - my husband and his friend were going to dive) while I stayed on the boat, but we hit a massive storm as we were descending from the high roads that came at us out of nowhere. A wall of water hit us like going through a car wash as it buffeted our minibus from side to side. When we reached the bay where the diving was to take place, the water was all stirred up and murky so the dive was called off and we were returned back to Sidari.

As we arrived into town our resort rep boarded the bus outside the local FC office and apologised to anyone who was staying at the Zafiris Apts (our accommodation) as it looked like a bomb had hit it (her words). It sat on the edge of the limestone cliffs and the storm had hit it full force - one row of roof tiles had been torn off our top floor 2 bedroom apt and the maids were in clearing the water and the debris in the living room/kitchen when we got back to it. Luckily, it hadn't damaged any or our belongings or reached the bedrooms.
The pool was completely green with half of the sunbeds and poolside furniture being deposited into it by the spout which had hit it. The pool bar was just being opened for the day apparently, and the lady doing it dropped the shutters and headed for the main building - when we saw the shutters, they looked like they had been hit by shotgun pellets. Peppered with holes from the hailstone which came in on the storm.

Ah, I really know how to pick my places don't I?
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Richard Dastard-Lee
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Re: Albania anyone?

Post by Richard Dastard-Lee »

We took the day trip Corfu to Sarande last August and I would highly recommend it. There was enough people on the boat to fill two coaches when we got there and the coaches were split by language, one English/German coach and one Greek/Italian coach. I am still surprised to this day that we were the only native English speakers on the coach, despite there being a large number of Brits holidaying on Corfu it seems that we were the only ones adventurous enough to take the trip. The ferry company took care of the immigration formalities.

The trip to the archaeological site at Butrint was the highlight, quite a large site including a castle that looks exactly like Kolosi Castle and some impressive mosaics. The guide was very knowledgeable and spoke good English.

We had a very nice buffet style group lunch on a roof terrace overlooking the bay and free time to wander around Saranda. It is much like any other modern mediterranean coastal town, we weren't hassled or hussled once and walked in town and along the promenade with no problems whatsoever. Small villages we passed through on the coach up to Butrint looked much like Cyprus villages.

Menu's were all in English and very reasonably priced and looking at Trip Advisor there are some nice hotels in Saranda at very reasonable prices. If we go to Corfu again we would definitely go to Albania and stay for two nights in Saranda and take a trip up to Girokaster which looks stunning. This could easily be booked on-line.
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PhotoLady
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Re: Albania anyone?

Post by PhotoLady »

Sounds like we're definitely going back then!
Thanks for the information on a more recent visit than mine 🙂
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cyprusmax47
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Re: Albania anyone?

Post by cyprusmax47 »

PhotoLady wrote: Tue Aug 20, 2019 10:08 pm Sounds like we're definitely going back then!
Thanks for the information on a more recent visit than mine 🙂
Yesterday I watched a program in German TV, ZDF, about a must go Restaurant in Tirana where they cook the old traditional Albanian way and produce even their own flower, pasta etc.

Even the reportage is in German language it is interesting to watch the video: Revival of the traditonal kitchen...
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/heute-in ... e-100.html

Max
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