Sunday, June 9, 2019

Buses, Buses, Buses to Berat

June 7-9, 2019

Mark and I left Friday afternoon for Berat, Albania, for a river rafting trip with friends. It consisted of me taking the orange TEG bus in order to get to the white Wilson bus where I met Mark. We boarded the white bus together but after 30 minutes of sitting in traffic got out and walked the rest of the way to Eagle Square. There we boarded the bus that would take us to Berat. After two hours, we transferred from the Tirana bus to the local city bus that dropped us about 5 minutes from our hotel. Woo. What a trip!


Needless to say we were ready for a cold one by the time we arrived so we hurried in to drop our stuff. We were staying with Callie and Andrew, who had arrived before us and had already checked in. Mark and I had a good laugh when we entered the room because the layout was as follows: 1 twin bed on the left side of the room, 1 twin bed on the right side of the room, and 1 double bed in between the two. Our group had booked the hotel solid so there weren't any other room configurations so this would have to do. Mark and I headed to meet Callie and Andrew along the main strip in Berat. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. We sat outside and enjoyed beers and pizza while we joked about who would be sleeping in which beds. My personal favorite was Mark and Andrew sharing the middle bed so Callie and I could each have our own. We walked back to the hotel and climbed to the roof where there were a lot of tables and chairs stacked in the corner. A group of 12 of us unstacked them and had a few beers before heading to bed. The next morning we were up early so we could have breakfast on the terrace before being picked up by the rafting company. The 18 of us packed into a furgon and we were on our way. The roads through the mountains wound on and on and quite a few of us weren't feeling so hot. After about 2 hours of driving we finally arrived at the boat house. It was literally a small glass enclosure, big enough for gear storage and a few toilets. We were all hoarded inside and then given wetsuits, jackets to wear over the suits, and life vests to wear over the jackets. To top it all off we were each given a helmet.


Did
I mention it was 92 degrees Fahrenheit and there wasn't a cloud in the sky? There were definitely some murmurings regarding whether or not we HAD to wear this gear. Then, we all got back in the furgon, gear and all, to drive to the rapids. Thank god this ride was short or I think there would have been a few heat casualties. We exited the furgon and were so excited to see the water... but it was just a tease. We had to stand onshore to receive our rafting instructions and safety briefing.



 By the time we were finally allowed to get in the rafts we all took turns sitting on the edge dunking our heads under the water to cool off. Callie, Andrew, Mark, myself, Kevin and Szoey were in a boat together. Our guide was a huge albanian man who was very friendly. As we rowed he pointed out the beautiful scenery surrounding us and usually added funny names to it. I was a little nervous since I'd never been rafting before but this was a perfect intro. We were told that the rapids were a class 3 but many of the people who'd been rafting before said that these waves were tame in comparison to previous trips. I had a really enjoyable time and never once felt like I was going to fall out of the boat.




After we paddled the 12km we had sandwiches and apples on the shore. Being onshore for 30 minutes after getting out of the boats was more than enough time for Mark to burn his shoulders. (We didn't put sunscreen on because our entire bodies were covered by the gear. Little did we know we'd be getting out onshore and shedding it all before heading back.) Once we arrived back at the small glass enclosure we grabbed our things and braced ourselves for our two hour ride back. All in all it was a great day and I really enjoyed my first rafting experience. Once we arrived back in town we bummed around a bit-- we cooled off with iced coffees and ice creams and then picked up some fruit to munch on. My sunglasses were bent beyond repair so I stopped for a new pair that Mark helped me fit to my face. After showering at the hotel we headed up to the roof where we played cards and dominoes with everyone before dinner. Mark, Callie, Andrew, Ian, Mira and I had made a reservation at Lilli's, a local restaurant that's received over 200 rave reviews. We definitely weren't disappointed. Lilli and his wife run the restaurant out of their home--- the 4 tables that they have are located on their back patio and surrounded by rock walls. Lilli takes all of the orders and delivers all of the food while his wife cooks. The menu is small but AMAZING. Everything is made from scratch. We ordered one of everything and weren't disappointed by a single dish. Even dishes we'd already tried didn't compare to the way that Lilli made his. He also brought us wine and raki which were both made by his father. I'm not a fan of raki but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. It was a truly lovely evening and I'm so glad we got to meet Lilli while spending time at his home and enjoying some of his wife's cuisine, that you could tell was made from the heart.


 Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast on the terrace before heading to the bus station for our long journey of buses back home. It was an awesome weekend away!

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