You beautiful, dirty Albania

As I have already told you, we took a rental car on Wednesday to start a small road trip through Albania. Today we arrived back in Tirana and I want to share my experiences with you. The roads are mostly very good to drive on, although there are also a few extremely damaged roads with potholes. The traffic is a bit crazy, typical for southern European conditions. There is not really a right of way rule, whoever comes first goes, or something like that :D After some getting used to, I could get very well used to the traffic and we made good progress relatively quickly. We drove from Tirana to Durres, the first city on the Adriatic Sea. As quickly as we were there, we drove on. Durres is a dirty port city without any real highlights. On the beaches, you can't see any sand anymore because of all the umbrellas and loungers, so there wasn't really much for us there. Then we continued on to Vlora, where we also spent the first night of our road trip. This city, on the other hand, seemed deserted and the long pebble beach was almost completely empty. We took the chance, parked our car in a side street, and jumped into the clear, cold water. The water quality was very good and you could see the little pebbles on the bottom. After swimming, we drove to our accommodation and visited a nearby nature reserve in the evening. The next day we drove on to Dhermi. The route to Dhermi went through the mountains, but always with the sea in sight. We really liked this route and we had a great view all the time. On the left were the mountains and on the right, we could see the beaches and the sea, really beautiful. We also received a tip from our hotel manager in Tirana for a beach that was near our next accommodation. According to him, this beach should hardly be visited because you have to walk about thirty minutes, relatively strenuous. So we drove a very remote dirt road with big potholes to a parking lot. When we saw the number of cars, we quickly realized that this beach would not be empty. Nevertheless, we paid the equivalent of 1.50€ parking fee and started walking. The beach was incredibly beautiful in a bay. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people there and umbrellas were already everywhere. The water, on the other hand, was very clear and super beautiful. Because of the sweaty path, we still spent several hours there and only walked back to the car in the evening. In our accommodation, we jumped into the pool again and in the evening, we went to Dhermi to get some food. The city didn't have any other highlights for us. The next morning, we continued on to Ksamil, a city far to the south. However, we didn't like it there at all because tourism is booming there. Everything was built up, the beaches were very small and completely crowded, and we didn't stay there for long. After Ksamil, came the ruins of Butrint. For about 5€ entrance fee, which is very expensive for Albanian standards, we could walk through an old Greek settlement, later taken over by the Romans. This was very interesting and a great change from the usual beach visits. We spent quite a lot of time in Butrint and explored the ruins. The highlight was the view from the castle, where you could see as far as Corfu and Greece. In the afternoon, we continued on to Saranda, the ultimate seaside resort for all Albanians. Unfortunately, Saranda is very similar to Ksamil and there is one hotel after another. However, we were lucky with our hotel and still felt comfortable. In the evening, we walked along the beach promenade and went to eat something, unfortunately not of the same quality as elsewhere in the country, but we didn't expect anything else. Saranda is indeed a tourist hot spot and resembles some cities in Mallorca. This morning we went back to Tirana. However, we made a detour via Gjirokastra. This city has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a very well-preserved castle towers over it. So we drove to the visitor parking lot and climbed up the very strenuous stairs. This was also very worthwhile because we were rewarded with a beautiful view once again. In the castle, there were some war artifacts from the Cold War, including several cannons, an American plane, and a tank. After that, we went back to Tirana without much detour. All in all, we had a very nice road trip. The landscape, the beaches, and the views regularly take your breath away. Unfortunately, Albania is also very dirty, there is trash everywhere, and it is very difficult to take photos without seeing the trash. Really on every road, on the beaches, and in the towns, trash accumulates. In the end, this leaves a somewhat bitter taste, although the potential is very high. Albania still has one good thing. The Albanians we have met were all very friendly and nice, and we had a lot of fun with some of them. Tomorrow we will continue from Tirana to Ulcinj. Ulcinj is a city on the coast in Montenegro. So stay tuned and you will find out how we fared in Montenegro.