ALBANIA – ON THE ROAD

APRIL 9 – 13, 2025

The name “Albania” comes from an ancient Ilyrian tribe called Alban. Ptolemy mentions the it in the 2^nd century.

First and foremost, the roads. The main highways are pretty good, but the secondary roads are crazy winding and narrow. The average speed on the secondary roads is only about 40 kph.

The modern roads are toll highways. They are faster, but not nearly as interesting.

The landscape is gorgeous. We drove through some wicked mountains as well as tranquil valleys.

There were large sheep and goats flocks being watched by shepherds. At times there were flock traffic jams.

There are lots of very colourful buildings.

Most of the houses are three stories high and have big balconies.

There are old bunkers throughout the countryside and in the cities.

There are lots of beehives, with lots of roadside stands selling honey. There were also specialty honey shops.

The grass is not cut to promote biodiversity.

You can buy a whiskey or a coffee at the petro station.

Life can be simple if you allow it. These guys were having their coffee beside the gas pumps.

We had to pull off the main road to get this picture of this small river under the house.

People park anywhere and go for a coffee. There are at least 10 coffee shops for each restaurant.

Kuçovë

APRIL 13, 2025

This town had oil wells in nearly every yard. Some still had operating pump jacks. It looked like it was a major oil town in its heyday, but now it looked rather pathetic. We only drove through.

ELBASAN

APRIL 13, 2025

There was a castle in Elbasan that the tour books touted. We had a difficult time to park but once we did we bought some sandwiches and cookies then went to a nearby park to eat our lunch. After the snack we headed to the castle. It was built in the 4^th century. It has three metre thick walls and 9 meter high (30 ft) towers.

However, the inside of the old stone walls were now filled with high end restaurants and shops. We were not interested in eating or shopping. We walked through, took a few pictures then headed back to the car.

Vlorë

APRIL 15, 2025

We took a side trip to Vlore to see our Aussie friend, Gavin. We met in El Salvador in January 2024, then again, a few weeks later, in Suchitoto, then again in Istanbul in November 2024. We went for a “short walk” then stopped for lunch. We caught up on where we’ve been and what we’d seen. He had some good suggestions for other parts of Albania.

He also said to check out the 70 year old tunnel in Vlore before we left town. The tunnel itself was not much, but the walk around it proved very nice.

There was a beach

and beautiful old staircase (barb-wired off)

I put “short walk” in quotations because Gavin suggested a restaurant only 1.2 km away. After walking for over a half hour we asked where this restaurant was. We had already walked 3 km. It is now a standing joke that it is just a “short walk”

We said our good-byes and headed for Gjirokaster…..

Our car had no PARK!!??