An Albanian Winter Holiday

Day #10 Thursday January 5, 2012
Up for breakfast and there are more people staying at the hotel this time. The waiter who looks like some actor, remembered what we liked to drink and got it for us. This place had the best breakfasts. We have until 1 p.m. or so Our daughter is going to work out and said that there are regular people who work out there and also a staff of the massage ladies who kind of hang out and wait for customers and get them as well. There was a local patron in the gym who didn’t appreciate that she took a long time running. (she runs about 2 hours) Heavy sighs.

After she was done in the gym we wanted to go to the National Museum which was on the square right across the street from us. We started over there and walked up to the door around 10 and it was closed. Bummer. My husbandl had come out without a coat and it was cold enough that he went back to get a coat but while he was going back for his coat, it had started raining enough to be uncomfortable and the hotel desk had never heard of the idea of hotels having umbrellas so we just gave up on going anywhere at that time. We went into the gift shop of the hotel and found some of the Cobo winery Raki which our daughter got as a gift. There was some lovely jewelry there as well which was silver and gold though so rather expensive. The guide books had said there would be silver and copper jewelry but we never really found any other than the kitsy cheap looking tourist stuff. So while the guide books had gone on and on about the handicrafts and the locally made items, we never really found any that were much different from any other tourist kind of place and never found anything truly unique besides our wooden double headed eagles.

We finally went out again after it stopped raining and I wanted to walk down the street past the museum and see if there was anything to be seen. Was pretty much a street of travel agents. Albanians must travel a lot plus seeing the news around the holidays, there were tons of people coming home for the holidays and then going back and the queues at the Greek border where atrocious.

We did pass several shoe stores and my daughter was looking longingly at the shoes and I finally said we don’t know that they aren’t going to fit until you try them on. Myself, I don’t get the shoe thing but maybe that’s because I have a lot of foot problems but my daughter is well into the shoe addict culture. So we went into the store and she came out with three pairs of shoes. She could have done much more so it is a good thing we waited until the last day to get the shoes. One was a pair that said it was Italian leather. I suppose it certainly could be and probably is although Klodi didn’t think so. But not sure he would know anything about women’s shoes. They were all nice pairs and all about what I would expect to pay for shoes in a country like Albanian and expect to pay 3 or 4 times the price in the states.

So now we have to go back to the hotel and finish packing and that means we have 6 bottles of wine between my husband and me and one bottle of Raki and our daughter has a bottle of Raki. We looked up on the internet to make sure we could come in with this much from a non EU country and we were ok. Sure did almost tilt our suitcases though.

Klodi comes to fetch us on time and we wind out way out of the city through the traffic with the useless police men paying no attention to the stop lights. Klodi dumps us at the departure door and shakes hands all around and we give him an envelope with his tip. The guide book had said 10% of the trip cost but we all felt that was a bit too much because he didn’t do anything the last 4 days except drive plus when we asked him about all the signs all over the place that said “this castle that way and this church this way” he was very, “Oh, nothing much there and it’s probably closed” but we certainly could have driven out to see if it was closed or not and maybe seen something rather than sit in our rooms in Korca or Gjirokastra or especially Saranda. Anyway, he got a nice tip for what he did.

By the end of the trip, Klodi was rolling his eyes at our requests a lot, which were stopping for lunch or stopping for fruits and vegetables or asking the restaurant to cook our own vegetables (yet this was his suggestion in the beginning and I’m thinking that if he knew that restaurants would cook your veggies for you, he has done it before for other tourists) By the end of the trip, it was obvious that Klodi would much rather have been somewhere else than taking us on a tour. Still, we did have a very good time and did learn a lot from him.

We check in without a problem. So nice being business class. Could have told her not to bother putting the priority tags on the suitcases since it doesn’t seem to matter in the order of them coming off the plane. Then we did a quick run through of the duty free, nothing, and then up to the lounge where we were the only ones there. We did get some nice snacks though and they had a nice but odd cake.

Finally it is time to board so we go downstairs and wait for another 10 minutes. They had called for families with children and business class first. We shuffled our way to the gate and they were putting people to one bus or another as we walked out the door. The plane is 100 yards away but we are going to be bussed over there. At first I thought we were getting the business class bus because usually, nice airports, have a bus for first class, a bus for business class and then a bus for the riff raff. But after about 10 people were in our bus, they kept filling it until it was full and then it went. We did go first though and most of the children and families were in the second bus so why have them go through the gate first???

Luckily, the flight was not totally as full and not as many kids and not as many whinny kids so it wasn’t too bad a flight. One of the nice things about business class and British airways is they try to accommodate you, even with odd and unusual requests. I always ask to keep the coffee cup on British Airways. So this trip, I managed to snag all the British airways coffee cups this time. Now I have a set of four.

Into Gatwick and we get through immigration rather quickly but then we stand in the baggage claim area for at least 10 minutes before we even know what belt our luggage will arrive. Then we are not coming out first like priority. I had gloated in Albanian when my suitcase was the first of our three to arrive. This time it was last. Karma! Our driver calls me while we are waiting for our luggage.

Finally we get our luggage and get outside with it. Our driver takes off with two of our bags and we get stuck behind some slow walkers and the driver is disappearing with our suitcases into the parking garage but we catch up finally. He is in a sedan and has a hard time getting everything into the car. He drives us home and stays in the fast lane almost the entire time. While it got us home faster, made me nervous to be flying that fast down the M25! So very nice to get home. So very nice to see our kitties. So very nice to be warm in our house and have plenty of hot water.

That’s our trip. We enjoyed it. We were very glad we went. We think Albania is a lovely country and full of good things to see and visit. We think we will not ever go in the winter again and would advise people to stay in the “high tourist” season for a few more years until they catch on that people like to visit at all times of the year.

Day #8 Tuesday January 3, 2012
My daughter and I wanted to hit a couple of stores this morning as it did look like there were some interesting shops here and of course they were closed yesterday but maybe today. We had breakfast in the hotel, nothing fancy, and walked up the cobblestones to the first turn we had made yesterday towards the castle. There was a wood carver shop we wanted to visit. He had some really nice pieces. He had a cut out of the double eagle of Albania. We both got one and I got a small key chain as well. He and his wife very carefully wrapped them up separately in paper and gave them to us. They didn’t have a lot of English but asked where we came from. We said the States and sometimes that doesn’t register as well so we said America and the man goes “Obama! – good”. Huzzah. People overseas like our president again. Nobody ever liked Bush.

We start back but have a few minutes so we look at some postcards and get some cards and I get a magnet. My daughter has been looking at the purses women are carrying but we have not found a good purse store. She has also been looking at the shoes and they look lovely but she thinks there will not be any in her size especially after she had to go with Large in the clothing store.

We get back to the hotel and the men are waiting for us. We take off about 10:15. Our guide is very nervous about the road today. He has asked the locals and other drivers how is the road as he says this will be the worst road to drive over in terms of snow and if any driver had said it was bad, we would have gone the other way which probably meant back to the coast.

So today we are going to Korca (pronounced Korchah) and supposedly we will see a nice mosque and a museum of medieval arts BUT Klodi has already warned us that this place will probably be closed. It is, after all, only the 3rd and people don’t like to go back to work yet. This has become his theme song with each singing of it becoming a day longer that things are closed and another day of our vacation that we could have spent somewhere warm!

There are some truly magnificent views as we are driving. The mountains are snow covered, the trees are green or brown, nothing in between, and towns are nestled in valleys and quite lovely. Driving in the shadows there are some slippery spots which Klodi drives over at about 5 mph. In places where the sun is shining, he goes about 10 mph if there is snow on the side of the road. We stop one place to look at a valley where there is a waterfall. Kind of hard for me to see it but the valley is beautiful. I finally make out the waterfall. There was a herd of goats there too and they kept coming up the steep hill to the road. At first, it didn’t seem like there was a shepherd but he finally showed up and he is walking up the cliff about the same as the goats do. Just looking at how steep it was made me fall off balance!

We finally get to a spot in the road that is in shadow and there is ice on it and the car can’t get a grip to get up enough momentum to get up the road without sliding. Our guide backs down and tries again to no avail. He backs further down and no luck. It is not a wide road and there are cars behind us and cars coming towards us and we are pretty much in the middle of the road and stuck. Klodi gets out of put on chains.

I don’t think he has ever put them on before and they were not a design we knew. Usually, you lay down the chains and rive over them and then lock them. He was putting them on and trying to reach behind the wheel to lock them. Men were coming up and offering advice and helping with the chains and all. One man talks to us and offers my husband his card (he was actually talking to me too) and he is a doctor at one of the hospitals. He was quite friendly and didn’t seem to mind at all that he was stuck on the road behind a stuck van.

Our guide is getting frustrated and rips off the chains and acts like he is going to try to drive up the hill again with the men pushing the car but then several of the men take the chains and manage to put them around one wheel on the left hand rear. So how many Albanians does it take to put on one tire chain??? In our case, it took three! We get back in the van. Men walk up the road and direct the cars coming towards us to the side so we have a full road. Then several men push and we slide a bit but the chain holds and we get up and over the hill. We keep driving with the one chain and it is flapping as it goes around but we can’t be going over 10mph. We come to a small restaurant and coffee shop by the side and our guide pulls in there and says we will have a break.

The men get busy and take off the chain and attempt to put it back in its case, then Klodi has to put the van back together because he had gotten out the jack as well in case he had to jack up the wheel to get on the chain. All the men who had helped us come driving by us now in their cars and they all wave.

There are bird cages in this small restaurant too. There is a fire in one room and we stand by the fire. There are men working on a car outside and then they are out there holding a rifle and I thought they were going to shoot something but Klodi said they were just posing for photos with the rifle as if they had shot something. It is quite cold in this small restaurant because all the men going in and out working on the car and taking photos of each other holding the rifle always leave the door open. It’s about 2C outside and we are very cold so we are as close to the fire as possible without climbing into it! The door usually gets shut about ½ ways but each time a new person comes in or goes out, there is a chilly breeze into the room.

So my daughter and I are waiting for my husband and our guide and somehow we got into talking about honey. This place was known for its good honey for sale so we each got a kilogram of honey for something like 10,000 Lek which is a bit under $10. We finally continue our journey to Korca. As we pass over some hills and see these little towns and small cities tucked into the hills in nooks and crannies, there is a haze hanging over a lot of them. At first, it wasn’t a great haze so wasn’t sure if it was haze or clouds. When we got further into the mountains and there would be valleys surrounded on all sides by mountains, it because quite apparent that these were smoke hazes hanging over the towns. When we arrived in Korca, it was quite hazy and this town smelled very much like damp wood smoke and peat fires. We had to spray all our coats when we got home because of the smoke smell from this place.

We got into Korca late as it was getting dark already. But then it was getting dark by 3:30 or 4 p.m. We went to the Hotel Regency because this was the only place I had asked for a different hotel as the reviews of our originally assigned hotel was the Kocibelli and it didn’t have good ratings on trip advisor. I was supposed to pay extra for this hotel as it was more expensive. I gave that money to Klodi the next day and he pocketed it so not sure if he got an extra tip or not. Hotel Kocibelli was just around the corner from us and actually looked nicer. The hotel is a nice little place with a fish tank in the middle of the lobby that has a large carp in it that has to jerk itself around about 3 times in order to turn and swim the other way. Also a couple of huge plecostimas We did manage to ask where restaurants were and our guide told us how to find the ones around the main square where the cathedral was and said we couldn’t’ miss it. The restaurant in the hotel was closed. Then he was gone and we were on our own for the rest of the day. No touring today, no sightseeing today, no anything but riding in the car and crossing the mountain. Ah, but there was shopping this morning. I guess that’s something.

We go out to find the restaurants. We find the main cathedral but it’s very, very cold. The cathedral is lovely and lit up at night with some holiday greeting. We see a couple of restaurants on the side of the cathedral so feel confident that we know how to get something to eat. We head back to the hotel and stop at some small shops on the way and find some snacks and drinks. We are accosted by a couple of boys who think we should give them money. This is the only place where we have bit hit by kids wanting money other than some of the obvious gypsies. After our guide had discussed with us about how he told the lady at the mosque in Tirana that she shouldn’t be begging but should get a job and get help from friends, we were surprised that these boys approached us. They weren’t gypsies and in Albania, it seems that gypsies begging is ok but everyone else, it is not.

We head out again about 6 I think. We’re hungry and ready for food. We make our way gingerly back to the square and cathedral because the walkway is icy and slippery in spots. We make our way across the square and pick the restaurant on the left and head into it. It is pretty full of people on the ground floor and someone directs us upstairs. It wasn’t until later when our daughter said something that I realized we had been directed to the women’s bar upstairs. Yep, this was not a restaurant but a bar. We ask for a restaurant and they direct us around the corner. We go around the corner and find a place that says bar and restaurant. We walk in and ask if it is a restaurant and he says yes and directs us into a room with tables and then leaves. We sit there for maybe 5 minutes or longer and then he comes back and says they will not be cooking yet for another hour! I guess he was happy to have us sit there for an hour or so but we didn’t feel like doing that. Sooooo.

OK, we are out of there. We walk back across the street and back down the slippery sidewalk and stop at the small stores again to make sure everyone has something to eat for dinner because we’re not coming out again in a hour in this cold and this smelly, smoky town and that ends our night in Korca, total waste of time to go there really and the tour agency should have known things would be closed. Could have shortened our trip by several days!

Other things we have noticed. Most Albanians look rather surly and will stare at you. When I smile and give a nod, they totally transform their face and smile back at me. They seem to love it when I try to say thank you. The first few times after I had it written down, I still wasn’t doing very well but got pretty good at the end. They laughed a lot too at the beginning. Faleminderit (pronounce all letters including the t at the end and the e’s are accented and sound like short a’s). There is no zoning and no anti-litter laws. Trash is everywhere and the worst of it is thrown into their waterways. Several streams and rivers had high water marks in the trees lining their banks and the markers were odd bits of plastic bags and trash that would be stuck in the branches all at the same level and all ‘flowing” in one direction.

Not only are they heat challenged but they are door challenged too. Even on the coldest days, a lot of people walk in and out of stores, restaurants, bars, hotels and just leave the doors open. It’s no wonder that all the shop keepers, bar keeps, etc. are wearing heavy coats inside their stores.

Usually we saw shepherds with just sticks and dogs but in the mountains, sometimes there were shepherds with rifles and other long guns. Twice shepherd dogs came over to our daughter to be friendly. The one in Antigone got in trouble for it, I think. We have had Klodi stop for fruits and vegetables many more times than he has wanted to, I think. Now he rolls his eyes each time we say we need to stop for fruit. But in spite of all the heat problems and food problems, it is a lovely country.

Day #7 Monday January 2, 2012 Out of Saranda to head towards Gjirokaster today. We make Klodi find us a fruit stand before we leave Saranda. We are following the same route as we took to the Blue Eye ... [Continue reading this entry]