Greece to Albania summary

 We left Greece on 31st May having spent a very good almost seven weeks there in the house in Korfos.  For the last three weeks there the weather was stunning, and, until yesterday, has continued thus.  Two days ago glorious sunshine and 32 degrees - today rain and 23 degrees!.

Our travelling has taken us through Albania and Montenegro, and we're now in a little town called Loviste at the very tip of one of the Croation peninsulas.  Just now it's fairly deserted - we are currently in a 'Pansion' which has ten apartments, only three of which are occupied!  The place is right on the seaside with a ladder down into the sea.  Alright when the tide is high, but I had great difficulty getting out of the water when the tide was low, because the lowest step on the ladder was so near the surface and my knees don't bend that much nowadays.  I had to swim along a bit and climb up some rather slippery steps, grazing my foot on the way.

Albania was fascinating.  I think I told you we had an itinerary planned by a nascent travel company called Drive Albania.  We hadn't received much information from them until two days before we left Korfos, and then only when we reminded them we might be out of internet contact for some days.  They sent some useful information and maps by email.  Kit saved them all as pdfs and re-saved them on a wonderful app called 'Wireless Drive' on our iPads which meant that the information, and more importantly the maps were available when we're off-lline on the iPads.  I could even size the maps so that I could read names of tiny places.  We left Korfos with enthusiasm and confidence that we'd be getting an interesting experience designed by people who know Albania.

Sadly Drive Albania were not really ready for clients and after three days of their itinerary we sacked them and have made our way by ourselves.  The first spot they chose, Girokastra, was, however, an amazing town.  Very steep cobbled streets - not ideal for my knees, but beautiful - and a stunning castle on top of the hill.  We had a guide for the afternoon and she gave us lots of historical background to the city.  She also took us to a most impressive private merchant's house, showing us all the secret hideaways and passages where the young women could have a peek at their intended.  Also where the women of the house could see how many coffees etc to prepare without having to mix with all those men!!  Our hotel in Girokastra was fantastic - and we'd never have found it ourselves.  We had a beautiful room with an almost private large terrace - it was shared with other rooms, but there were few other guests - with a view of the whole city.  We had a truly awful lunch in a cafe suggested by our guide.  My plate looked fuller when I'd finished than when I started eating.  We had a wonderful dinner in a different restaurant with a Girokastran speciality - egg and rice balls.  I think they were baked in the oven.  But the centrepiece of the dinner was deep fried mussels.  They were scrumptious!  However, the idea of part-cooking mussels so they open, shelling them, and then frying them for six guests sounds a bit too much.  Maybe a tiny starter plate?  Our breakfast of omelette - the main breakfast offering in Albania - was served on the terrace.  We rather wished we'd had another day in that hotel.

Then to a 'homestay' - this is where Drive Albania and their chap, Ed, came unstuck.  The drive to the village of Queparo was along the coast until the last bit.  It was then up a three kilometre narrow mostly unmade road with hairpin bends, no crash barriers, and as steep as the North face of the Eiger.  The place we had to meet our host was then approached by a very steep (even steeper) roughly cobbled bit of road that challenged our old VW Passat Estate and our nerves.  The host was not at his cafe when we arrived, but his wife gamely served us a chilled milky drink while we waited.  Neither he nor she spoke English.  Our people at Drive Albania were no use in letting us know where we were actually staying, even though I was able to phone Ed's colleague who is Albanian but claims to speak English.  We were saved by a grandee type of elderly man who arrived and spoke in English who said we were staying in Xhoxhi's  (George's) house - the host- and that we had to go back down the same steep road to get there.  We arrived and parked on the flat roof of the house - on a steep hill - and realised very quickly that their guest apartment was not ready and that they had vacated their house to let us stay there.  They left us sitting on the terrace overlooking the sea - jolly nice - and arrived back a couple of hours later with our dinner (freshly fried fish and a massive salad), then disappeared with rucksacks, only to be seen again the following morning when they arrived with our breakfast!  Breakfast was delicious.  Madame had made her speciality - puffed dough balls with thick honey.  The hosts were charming and welcoming but  not ready for visitors!  However, we were looking forward to our next stop.

The following day was crunch day.  We set off for a short day's driving to Dhermi, a seaside resort where we were to spend two days.  The highlight was to be an early morning fishing trip on the second day with the owner.  When we arrived the only person at Hotel Luciano was a waiter, who brought us a glass of cold beer each - we told him we had a reservation - and we waited.........  Eventually a man arrived saying he was the manager.  He said there was no booking and he'd never heard of Drive Albania!  Telephoning Drive Albania's Ed (call me any time day or night) proved fruitless.  His phone wasn't working.  The manager said he had rooms, and we went to look, but they were dirty, tiny, no plugs in sinks or plugs in walls to charge iPads, no wifi, and an open drain for the shower.  We said no and departed.  We sent Ed a text saying we'd not be continuing their itinerary. Eventually Ed phoned us on someone else's phone, but by then we'd found ourselves a lovely hotel in Himara - a 4* with a 30 metre pool, and few other guests!  We paid about €290 for three days with, breakfasts, some lunches,  two dinners (and lots of wine at meals and in the bars!) and almost exclusive use of the pool!  To give Ed his due, when he eventually talked to us he was embarrassed and swiftly paid back all the money we'd paid him.

After Himara we though we couldn't leave Albania without visiting the capital, Tirana.  While we were in Himara we found the details of an old-fashioned type of hotel right in the centre of the city, but with private underground parking - a must as our car is full of stuff.  Pushed the boat out and booked a suite for two nights - about €140 euros!  We had all the relevant maps, but hadn't prepared for the lunatic driving in Tirana.  We followed the map directions as well as we could, but in the end stopped a cyclist who scratched his head, but led us to a chap with a beat-up Mercedes, who agreed to drive and lead us to the hotel for 500lek (about €4).  He tried hard to keep us in his mirror but I can only say I'm so glad Kit was driving.  Got to the hotel eventually.  The suite was sumptuous.  I've never slept in such a big bed!!  The rooftop pool turned out to be about 8 metres by 4 and no use for real swimming!  We got lost sightseeing and I asked a policeman, as any good English girl would.  He was charm itself and walked with us to the Pyramida (lots on the internet) asking us if we had time for him to buy us a coffee!  He introduced us to one of his colleagues, and was seemingly very taken with having new English friends!  We decided to have dinner in the hotel restaurant because we were tired after sightseeing without much expectation of a good meal.  We were wrong.  The staff were knowledgeable and attentive.  The food was delicious - our main course was described on the menu as 'piglet in balsamic sauce' - it was very tender pork in a sticky, spicy but delicate sauce served with grilled vegetables.  The tiramisu was clearly home-made and light as a feather.

Without exception everyone we met in Albania was welcoming and friendly.  Hotel staff were thoughtful, and we were approached in the street by really nice people asking if we needed directions, help etc on a couple of occasions.  And everything was so cheap!

After Tirana we prepared to cross into Montenegro, a tiny country we knew very little about.  We stayed in Budva for two nights - a big mistake.  This was Blackpool but worse.  However, our apartment was lovely and clean and we were looked after well by our hosts.  Also luckily the season hadn't really started so it was moderately quiet.

As we left Montenegro we headed for a small town in Croatia called Cavtat.  We hadn't realised when we booked it how close it was to Dubrovnik, by boat or bus, or we might have booked more than one night.  Having just an afternoon we spent the time in the old town of Cavtat.  The guest house is so nice (also cheap),  and offers free transfers from and to Dubrovnik airport, that we're thinking of a late Autumn long weekend there to do Dubrovnik in cooler weather.

Then we came to Loviste.  We had seen it on tripadvisor and it sounded idyllic, so we booked three nights in the hope that it would be as good as it sounded.  It IS WONDERFUL!  So we've booked another week here and will be setting off for our drive back to the UK on 21st June!

We'll be driving back via Trieste, near to Venice (not visiting - too difficult with our own car), then across the Southern Alps and into France.  We'll visit the chateau as we pass to pick up some boxes of stuff from the loft to take back to Oxford.  Then three months in Oxford before deciding what to do with October before returing to La Brossardiere!