June 27: Berat, Albania

Given the relatively slow going and because we were still a bit unsure of the condition of the roads further south we decided to take a route back up through the center of Albania to head east to the Macedonian border (our next destination). This drive took us through what seemed like the heartland of Albania. There was much less random development, like we saw down the coastline, and instead we were driving through the agricultural areas, mostly dominated by olive groves, vineyards, cornfields various and sundry types of produce and even bee farms (is that what they are called?); we stopped along the way to buy some honey from one of the stands manned by young boys.

Along our drive we also passed through Albania’s oil fields, which was quite odd. All of the sudden there was a completely noxious smell of petrol, at which point we realized what we thought were electrical towers where actually rusted old oil rigs, which must have been leaking oil all over the place. We had no idea that Albania had its own oil resources. As we passed through various towns and villages, we were generally impressed with the state of them, we definitely did not see much of the abject poverty that is said to exist here. This clearly must be concentrated in the north and more remote areas away from the ‘main’ roads). In fact, we were even surprised to see the abundance of relatively nice homes and hotel / restaurants along the way (albeit in pretty random locations). W eeven saw one most impressive house (picture included in the slide show) shaped exactly like a ship… it is odd under any circumstances, but especially in a rural area of one of the poorest countries in the world.

Armed with a good map, and the fact that the roads are pretty well signed, we made it to Berat in only a couple of hours. I suppose it also helps that Albania doesn't have all that many primary or secondary roads, so if you are on a road of any size, you can be fairly certain it is the right one.

In the towns however, it is a different story, the street names are merely rumors, and no one seems to know them if you refer to them. So after circling a couple of times, unable to find out B&B we asked a police officer. Instead of just pointing us the way, he jumped in the back to take us there… which was very kind of him, even if he did not smell so fresh!

Our B&B was a cute restored ottoman home, definitely own of the places with the most chracter that we have stayed in… though unfortunately the plumbing reminded us a bit of China and the mattresses had a few springs sticking out of them… but hey, it was very clean and this is Albania so it was much better than we expected.

Berat is actually a Unesco Heritage City, known for its well-preserved ottoman homes both along the banks of its river and within the castle walls on a mountain overlooking the rest of the town. We hiked up to the castle town to explore the old ottoman city. This was a completely different style of architecture and town planning than we had seen before. The homes were built of field stones or some kind of white material with wooden roves and trimmings, much different from the Roman and Austrian influenced old cities we had seen to date. What also struck us about this site was the lack of any toursim whatsoever. This was a completely living city with not even a small stand selling drinks and postcards. Instead there were turkey and chickens and sheep roaming around… and of course, it had its fair share of Mercedes!!

From the old city, there was a fantastic view of the lower town with homes of the same style clinging to the sides of the mountain below and on the sister mountain across the river. From here one could also see the newer part of town, which while buiolt in that ugly cement block style, actually looked nice in the evening sun which lit up the bright colors of the buildings (the bright color mandate was obviously carried out throughout the country).

We then took a long stroll along the river of the lower town, and we really were captivated by the pace of this place. It was about 7PM, the sun was going down, and everyone was done with their work and school for the day. It seemed like all of Berat was out enjoying a stroll along the river and one of the main roads that had been closed to traffic. Families were out walking, having ice cream, teenage girls were out in groups – giggling at the groups of teenage boys. Old men were hanging out on the bridge watching their comrades fishing below. It was really reminiscent of an older pace of life, which we had not seen much along this trip.

We were a bit sad to only have a day to spend in Berat as we could have easily spent one more soaking up the atmosphere. But we enjoyed one long dinner on the roof deck of our B&B overlooking the city below.