One of the obstacles you face in traveling through Albania and seeing the sites is the lack of good transportation options. For this particular trip the most practical way to make it was how we did it—hire a car and driver. The car was, of course, a Mercedes, and the driver, Leonardi, was a local who spoke pretty good English. We left Tirana Friday afternoon, on road that was alternately fairly good to under construction. (More evidence of the effort Albania is putting in to developing its network of roads) The road followed a coastal plain to the port town of Vlora, where we spent the night.
VLORA
Books describe Vlora, the second largest port in the country, as a much fought over prize whose strategic position only 45 miles from Italy, enables it to control maritime access to the Adriatic. Occupied by Romans, Normans, Ottomans, Italians and Germans, it was at Vlora in 1912 that an Albania delegation declared independence from the Ottomans. It was also at Vlora in March 1991 that 20,000 young Albanians commandeered ships and took them to Italy (our driver was among those men). It was in 1997 that riots in Vlora developed into a period of country-wide civil anarchy. And it was until a crackdown in 2002 that Vlora was effectively controlled by armed gangs and was the center of an international mafia-type network of human trafficking. Quite a history—but now safe and an enjoyable destination for sun and surf.
THE ALBANIAN RIVIERA
Saturday after breakfast we drove the Riviera. The road was good, the terrain rugged, and the views spectacular. Most of the way the beach was some distance below the road and some of the way a long ways down. It wound up 3,000 feet through the pine forests of Llogaraja National Park, then plunged down to the sea.
The 75 mile trip took over four hours to drive and along the way we passed castles, beaches, and a cave used to hide submarines during WWII. They say development is on the way, and I am certain it is, but we were glad to see the area before the invasion is too intrusive.SARANDA
Saranda is a smaller town, nestled in a bay that marks the boundary between the Ionian and Adriatic Seas. It has a beautiful seafront promenade and many large and small hotels. Ours cost $15 per person, breakfast included. But before settling in for the evening we made a quick trip a few miles further south to visit one of the prime archaeological sites of Albania—Butrint.
THE LIONS GATE-BUTRINT
While not the largest nor the most impressive building site I have seen, the natural setting of this ancient fortress-city was unique and its ruins particularly interesting as they included Illuryan, Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Venetian aspects—a diversity that is very unusual.Sunday’s trip back to Tirana was something else. We took the much easier inland road rather than the coastal route, and passed through a wide valley from which we could see the snow-capped tops of the mountains of central-eastern Albania. We stopped at Gjirokastra, famous for its fortress castle and steep streets which were described by Ismail Kadare, an Albanian writer, in this way: It was a surprising city, which seemed as if it had come out of the valley unexpectedly, one winter’s night, like a prehistoric being, and clambered up with difficulty, stitching itself on to the side of the mountains…A quick walk through the town and a coffee and we were back in the car heading for Tirana.
CAFE IN GJIROKASTRA
Albania is a small country. But Albania is a surprising country in its geographical diversity and historical interest. In just two days we drove through over half of the country (north-south) and saw much. Speed does not characterize travel here, and neither does modern or clean. But interesting and beautiful it is—and we are grateful to God for the time and resources to experience it. Plus we want to see more…
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