Albanian day-tripping

In one of the many tiny, beautiful, super old churches in Berat

I am writing currently from our secluded rental flat in the southern Albanian beach town of Himarë, which I will write all about in the next adventure instalment. For this post, however, I will play catch-up, detailing two day trips we took as a family of five (while still using Tirana as a home-base), before the seven of us packed up and headed south. 

The beautiful rainbow flowers on Faye and Derrick's patio, with the bustling city in the background

The title picture from this post is from a day trip the five of us took to a mountain town called Berat. Like many places around this country, one of Berat's main attractions is the remains of a large, impressive castle.  What makes this one particularly interesting, however, is that there is a whole thriving community that still lives in and among the castle grounds and ruins.  It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, boasting a unique style of architecture, influenced by several coexisting civilizations over the centuries, and is riddled with small but amazing churches and mosques, most of which are many, many hundreds of years old.

The main entrance to the castle. 

We decided to try our luck and drive up the very long, steep hill to see if we could find parking near the castle itself, and were rewarded by what looked like the one last spot, just for us. We parked, exited our nicely air conditioned vehicle into the extreme heat, and immediately heard music greeting us from the small 4-man band set up in the shade on the side of the road, playing some traditional music. The instruments:  clarinets, an accordion, and a drum. 

Immediately inside the gate, there were a whole lot of ruins that we were free to climb and explore, much to Linden's delight.

Linden felt these walls were sufficiently high to meet his exacting expectations. 

Hazel posing on one of the lower outer walls

Climbing as high as felt safe on the crumbling stones

Hazel climbed all those steps on her own, without claiming that her legs no longer worked!

After having our fill of the castle walls, we followed signs to the museum that was on site - appropriately enough, it was one of the larger churches, with a combination of original furniture/decor and art/artifact exhibits.  We weren't technically supposed to take pictures, but I sneaked a few:

After the museum, it was lunch time.  We had actually packed a full lunch to have picnic-style, but at that point in the day, the lunch motivation was not so much what we ate, but rather where we ate it. It was the heat of the day, and there were no outside spots that offered enough shade and breeze to make them an acceptable choice.  Instead, we were ushered inside by a very enthusiastic restaurant employee, who promised traditional Albanian food, and air conditioning to go along with it.  Sold!

Waiting for the food to arrive. Hazel was really keen to take our picture.

Mid-meal: the smiles...

... and the requisite silly pose.  Hazel will only smile if she's promised a follow-up silly shot.

The meal was actually delicious, and we were so pleased to finally have a chance to sit down to some traditional Albanian fare. We ordered their recommendation, which was 3000 Lek for a bunch of shared dishes: A fresh tomato/cucumber/feta salad, stuffed peppers and eggplants, fava beans, a cheese/tomato curd, a big plate of chicken on rice, a "cannelloni" (a kind of crepe with tomato sauce and ground meat rolled into it), and a spinach-filled pastry, akin to spanakopita. It looked like too much food for all of us, but the kids (ie, Juniper and Linden) pulled their weight, and we pretty much polished it all off. 

Hazel uses Juniper's phone to apply her "lipstick" post meal.  This lip gloss was one of her scant birthday presents, but it was a real hit!

When we stepped out o the restaurant back into the sticky heat, all three kids voted to go straight back to the car and head home.  But it was a long drive to get there (almost 2 hours), and we had seen so little of it that Clark and I both pulled veto, and we strolled deeper into the town, to check out the winding cobblestone streets, and at least a few of the churches for which Berat is so well known.

Hazel in front of some cool old doors

From inside a small church, looking out

Linden was really taken with the clay roof tiles that are so ubiquitous around here, so I took a close up of these ones

All the little streets and paths are steep and narrow and cobbled (and slippery!  Thank goodness it wasn't raining)

One of the more captivating churches was playing a recording of chants that you could hear as you approached, and a monk that knew enough english to describe what we were seeing: an amazing mural painted all along the inside by a famous painter in the 16th century, and in spots that were peeling away, you could see the 13th century fresco that had been painted over.  The 13th century church had been built on top of one from the 5th or 6th century. There was also a large cistern that had once supplied the city with water inside the church itself.  

When Clark and I could no longer persuade the kids to keep trekking around the town in the heat, we agreed to head back to the car. Hazel REALLY wanted to buy something, though, so I convinced her to wait and see if the gentleman who had been selling some hand-made beaded jewelry on the way in was still there on the way out.  He was, so Hazel chose a pretty necklace, and was brave enough to give him the money AND let him fasten the necklace around her neck. 

Donning her pretty new necklace

The town and the mountains below, as we were driving back down the hill from the castle

The next day we opted for another day trip, albeit a much shorter distance.  On Faye and Derrick's suggestion, we drove to the base of Dajti mountain (which you can see looming in the distance when you look off of their patio), where we then paid to have a gondola take us way up, up, up - almost to the very top.  The views, as you can imagine, are specular.  Once up top, however, there is actually not a whole lot to do, other than play a round of mini golf (which we purchased as part of our gondola ticket price), or take part in the "adventure park" activities (which seemed to include horseback riding, shooting balloons with air pistols and partaking in a ropes course - which we did NOT pay extra for, much to both Linden and Hazel's chagrin).

On the gondola ride up

Having a picnic lunch in the shade.  It was actually quite nice way up high, in a shady spot in the breeze.

Unfortunately, there was a haze over the city, but you can get a sense of the spectacular view from up top

Group shot just below where the gondola lets you off at the top

Mini golf!  It was, somehow, Linden's first time playing.  He'd like everyone to know that he won. It was the hottest game of mini golf I've ever played.

Hazel's shot! She likes taking pictures of us, I guess.

Committing to their silly faces.  They take it very seriously

I wanted a non-selfie family shot, but this one ended up being way too backlit.  Ah well.  We'll get one yet!

Another attempt.  But for some reason, four of us are leaning wayyyyyy over???

Linden looking cute

The silly face commitment gets stronger with each picture

But it's worth the smiles after!

On the way back down

Dajti mountain receding in the background 

Hazel let me take this selfie...

... if I got in on the silly shot afterwards.  I've learned from the best.

I got this shot out of the tiny little window at the top of the gondola.  The kids then spent the rest of the ride down debating if I would retrieve my phone if it fell out said window, and how much hiking it would take, and if it would be broken if I found it, and on and on and on.  It stayed safe in my hands, in case you were wondering.

After getting off the gondola, we decided to fit one more thing into our day trip - a visit to Bunk'Art1.  Much like Bunk'Art2 (which I described in the last post), this was a bunker turned museum/art installation.  Interestingly, this one had a different feel.  For starters, it was much bigger (sporting, for instance, a large gathering area and a big theatre), and it was tucked away and hidden (rather than right in the middle of the city).  More than that, however, the museum portions seemed to focus less on the atrocities (though certainly there was still a healthy dose of those), and more just the straight up history of the communist regime. I took way more pictures this time, to get a feel of what it felt like inside. 

The tunnel leading to bunker area

Presumably the uniform worn by whoever was posted on guard duty outside the bunker

We finally found the entrance after trekking through the woods a bit

One of the many impossibly thick concrete doors

Enver Hoxha's room

A picture of a picture of Hoxha. These framed pictures were scattered throughout the rooms of the bunker.

Oxygen generating mechanisms

Movies and images projected onto the walls as you walked down the stairs

A typical hallway, with tiny little bunker rooms all along the sides

Surveillance material

A scene with barbed wire, meant to recreate where Albanians would try an flee the country 

Recreation of typical room

This was from the chemical warfare room. There was (I kid you not) a button that said "push here for recreation of chemical gas attack". Sadly, that particular button was out of order at the time.

A horse gas mask!

Art installation depicting the close ties between communist China and communist Albania at the time

Another art installation

A room dedicated to all the people who died making the bunkers, with a smattering of pictures of some of the completed ones. Apparently, there had been over 220,000 bunkers planned, but just shy of 175,000 completed.  175,000 bunkers in the small country - no wonder you catch glimpses of them everywhere you go!

OK - that wraps up our day tripping adventures. Next up will be beach vibes, all the way.