Mark and I caught a Friday night bus to Vlore, another beach town in Albania. This bus ride was closer to three and a half hours though, with a toilet stop in the middle (thank god). When we got off the bus we were about a ten minute walk from our hotel, so we made our way there quickly. After checking in we set out to find food. The hotel staff was super friendly and gave us a paper map (yay!) labeled with popular restaurants, bars and things to do. We headed straight to a traditional Albanian restaurant for dinner and damn was I impressed. My dish was called tasiapop (not how they spell it here in Albania, but that's how I phonetically understood it).
After, we went to an Irish Pub for a drink. The decorations were very eclectic and the music was really loud.
We wandered along the ocean to make it back to our hotel a little before midnight. The next morning we had an exquisite breakfast. There were fried eggs with sausages, bread with jam and cheese, tomatoes and chocolate croissants and it was all included in our stay. Damn was this place great!
We planned on seeing the monastery in the sea and kanine castle. We needed a car to do both because it's "off season" so companies aren't currently booking any tours. First we went to the monastery. I was very nervous the whole ride because Mark was driving a stick shift car and the only experience I have with gears resulted in me breaking a wrist. We made it safely to the monastery but had to park next to a huge heap of garbage. Trash is a big problem in Albania because littering isn't frowned upon, in fact, it's engrained in many people's heads as the easiest way to rid yourself of unwanted papers and plastics.
Anyway, we were able to see two bunkers hiding in the hill before we crossed the bridge through the water to the monastery.
The monastery is on a small plot of land that has chickens. Some of the buildings were locked, but the small church was open and there were candles burning inside. (We weren't allowed to take pictures on the island with the monastery, so these are photos of the bridge and countryside surrounding it.)
After crossing the bridge back to the mainland we decided to stop to use the toilet. There were a lot of signs along the twisty forested road pointing to hidden resorts and restaurants. We turned down one of the side paths and followed it down until it dead ended into the ocean. There was no resort or restaurant here, but there was a campground. We found outdoor toilets that weren't glamorous but did the job. Before entering the toilet I heard something in the grass and I asked Mark what it was. He said it was nothing and hurried me into the bathroom. When I came out of the bathroom he told me not to look in the grass and to walk to the car- he'd meet me there. Once he got back to the car he told me there was a snake in the grass and that he wasn't going to tell me when I came out of the bathroom because he knew I'd freak out and not let him use the toilet. Anyway, we both made it safely back into our vehicle. There was only one problem now... Mark couldn't figure out how to shift the car into reverse. There were metal bars in front of us marking the parking stalls so reversing was our only option. Shit! If we didn't figure this out fast the snakes were going to descend upon us and start demolishing our car piece by piece until there was nothing separating us from their venomous fangs. Thank god for google. Mark had the car reversing in no time and our lives were spared from the snakes. We used our handy dandy paper map to locate a seafood restaurant and headed there for dinner. There were two full fish on the menu that our waiter recommended although he wasn't able to tell us the difference between them, so we decided to try both. They were really delicious and while they were way smaller, they definitely reminded me of the fish I got hot off the grill while I was in Thailand.
After filling our bellies, and the kitty's who was sitting under our table, we got back in the car and drove up the mountain to kanine castle. By the time we arrived the castle was closed, so we walked around the grounds at the top and took a few pictures.
The plan was to watch the sunset from the top and then drive back down the mountain but the twists and turns we endured on the way up were a bit much for me and I was really scared to do them in the dark so Mark drove us back down almost immediately after we arrived. We then continued along to drop the car back off at the rental agency. They were shocked that we were back so soon. We decided to stop at a few cafes to break up the walk back toward our hotel. We stopped at a really nice outdoor place with big tv screens and yummy snacks. We then continued on to a bar on the pier that jutted out into the ocean and finally ended our evening at an outdoor patio along the sea that was overcrowded with locals. It was a beautiful night to spend outside, safe and sound on the ground.
We got up the next morning and had another fantastic hotel breakfast. Then we spent some time sunning on the beach. Because it's off season there was no one working the chair rental so we were able to sit in chairs with an umbrella and a table for free. We watched the ocean waves wash in and out as the sun rose higher in the sky.
We had pizza at a local cafe and then hopped on the Vlore bus that took us to the station for buses bound for Tirana. We were early so got to enjoy a quick coffee before boarding. During our ride we stopped at a gas station so I assumed it was time for a bathroom break but no such luck. The driver would not allow me to get off the bus even though we were stopped. Mark took out the deck of cards and tried to distract me for the next two and a half hours by playing go fish with me. By the time we got off the bus I was racing to find a bathroom. Surely a gas station would have a bathroom. That's like a universal thing, right? Wrong. Well, unless you consider a bathroom with no light, no toilet paper and no toilet seat a bathroom. This was not Asia. I was determined to find a proper bathroom. Mark found a bar that was three stories up so we raced with our backpacks and thank goodness. This bathroom had a light, a toilet seat and toilet paper. Woo! Albania for the win. We had to take two buses home from this area, so by the time we arrived it was after 7. Luckily for us we came home to no power. What? Why? Mark looked for the fuse box but couldn't find one. He went downstairs and played with the communal apartment fusebox but had no luck.
We knocked on our neighbors doors only to find that they had power, so I texted our landlord. He wasn't sure why we were out of power, but did let us in on a very important secret: the fusebox in the apartment was hidden behind a painting on the wall. Thanks, Elton. Forty five minutes later the lights were on, but everything in our fridge was spoiled.
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