Here are two more videos of our amazing time in Albania. We ended up stopping through the Permet Hot Springs (which are not only AMAZING in terms of location, and upkeep), but also entirely FREE. There was also a very very cool bridge next to the springs and many local fishermen hanging about.
Entirely empty... couldn't ask for a better spot
Nice and warm.. the perfect temperature for me.. not exactly a "hot" springs though
Awesome stone bridge
Our first night was spent in the streets of Permet, a mountain town famous for hikes and the like, which we never got to enjoy due to the deluge of rain that would follow us up and down the coast for the next week or two. Joys of traveling off season right? In any case, we managed to work out a SIM card (we'd discovered it was much cheaper just to get normal local SIM cards than to use the KeepGo SIM that Phil had purchased in the states), and our car insurance (we had to go to a tourist information center and ask the one person in the town who could speak english to write us instructions in Albanian, which we then brought over to the one man insurance company on the main strip). We also discovered the Byrek, a delicious breakfast puff pastry that's stuffed with things like onions, leeks, cheese and/or meat. Little did we know, we'd be seeing this particular dish all the way around the Balkans! Then it was onwards to Sarandë, a beautiful coastal town, where we hoped the weather would be more cooperative. On our way, we stopped by the famous "Blue Eye," a deep blue pool that spilled out into a river.. famous for the brilliant color of the water.
The National Monument: Blue Eye
All sorts of amazing shades of blue
That night, we scored a sweet spot overlooking Sarandë next to the Castle Lëkurësi at the top of a hill.
Checking out Castle Lëkurësi
All alone in the parking area!
Can't beat this view
Took a break at a waterfront cafe. Tried a local dessert: Parfe
Sheep are an everyday part of life in Albania, as are Mercedes Benz.
On the beach across from our campsite one night
Zvernec Monastery.. requiring an bumpy backroad drive and interesting boardwalk crossing
Two other major places we visited, Berat, an amazingly historical town, also known as the town of A Thousand Windows, or Windows on top of Windows due to the many tightly packed houses that look like they sit directly on top of one another as they crowd the bottom of the Fortress hill. We went with a personal guided tour for the day, led by a local history buff, Isuf, who showed us around all of Berat and even invited us into the house of his best friend's mother to try homemade Gliko (a fruit preserve) and Raki (very strong homebrewed alcohol).
Town of a Thousand Windows, the Mangalemi district
Inside the beautiful Halveti Teque, where a particular form of Sufi Muslim is practiced
Walking around the Fortress with our guide, Isuf
A baked eggplant dish that was amazingly delicous at one of the most famous/oldest restaurants in Berat: Hotel Mangalina
View from inside the narrow streets of the Mangalemi district
The way they build these houses to jut out like this allow for more living space and the ability to have the houses built so close together, creating the thousand windows effect
On the main drag
The, currently shut down, University of Berat, now a grazing field for sheep
After a heavily historical time in Berat, we ended up heading to Tirana, the capital of Albania. We first stopped by BunkArt, a government sponsored museum, created in the old bunker headquarters of the Communist government led by Enver Hoxha. Highly paranoid, his former friendly relationships with Russia, Yugoslavi and then China, were eventually cut, and Albania became as closed off to the world as North Korea is today until the end of Hoxha's reign. As a result, bunkers were built all over the country, some with weapons stored in them, and without any official list of where and how many exist. We found out during a walking tour in Tirana that cars for the public had not been allowed in Albania until 1991 which was why roads have been in such poor conditions, and also, we thought, may be why driving in Albania feels more like organized chaos than actual driving.
The now abandoned Cultural Center in downtown Tirana, which had been mandatory for school children during the Communist reign
A piece of the Berlin Wall as a monument to commemorate the similarities of Communist Isolation
Enver Hoxha's former place of residence in Tirana
Tirana is a fascinating place, blowing up in population and infrastructure a very short period of time. Its current Prime Minister is also an artist, so it's common to see very brightly colored buildings, and interesting things on the street, such as these colorful crosswalks!
After spending some time climbing at the only climbing gym in Albania (woot woot!), we stayed another night and then started heading north. On our way, we stopped through Krujë, home of Skanderberg's (a VERY prominent figure in Balkan history) castle and their famous bazaar, and ended up in Shkodër, after a short and sketchy detour that led us to abandon our plans to stay at a campsite outside of town.
Since we wanted to do something outdoorsy, and the weather was finally cooperating, we decided to do a hike in central Montenegro. Phil originally found this hike for Mrtvica Canyon from two other blogger's websites: here and here. Their descriptions helped us immensely, but we still went through a bit of confusion along the trail.
We drove from the coast inland, past Podgorica, and along the beautiful E65, a mountainous highway that followed the Moraça River with some spectacular views of the gorge. Instead of camping in the area, we stayed overnight at a huge pullout a few miles before the turnoff to the canyon. The next day, we turned off the main highway into the small town of Medjurecje, which was more a gathering of houses dispersed amongst fields. Since the Moraça river ran with the E65, we could see exactly where it branched off towards the canyon, becoming the Mrtvica River. Following some painted signs, tight turns and a patch of narrow, unstable dirt road, we turned i…
As always, purchasing a vehicle in a place that you are not from is always an adventure. Here, I'll try to hit on the big points of how we made our purchase across the pond.
To begin, we did do our fair share of research before deciding we should purchase our camper in the UK. (We had seriously considered shipping our beloved Element over, but the import taxes and shipping made this idea prohibitive as an option). At the end of the day, it seemed that the process of purchasing, registering and insuring the vehicle would be easiest done for us in the UK. Generally this was because a) we would be purchasing and dealing with all paperwork in English, b) we have an excellent friend who is letting us use their local address for our car registration, c) we found via another website, an insurance company who cover americans or australians campervan touring around europe.
Step 1: Finding your campervan
We used gumtree primarily to find our campervan. Phil had be religiously searching for …
Just a few weeks ago, I took my first paid vacation since 2012. Call me spoiled, but even though I was heading to Japan it was only for a short 7 days. Traveling for two years without any time restrictions really spoiled me. Nevertheless, Vanessa and I got to meet and travel for the week with one of our favorite traveling buddy Keith, who is currently cycling around Japan.
I thought I would go nuts on spending money for this vacation now that I am getting a paycheck every two weeks, but I still miss the backpacking lifestyle. Vanessa and I still travel the cheapest way as possible. We feel that it is more exciting and definitely make any trips more memorable.
To break down our cost for the week a bit...
Car rental for 7 days including insurance - $470 USD
Food and Gas- $300 USD
Flight from Tokyo to Sapporo for 2- $189 USD RT
Total= $959 for two people for the week.
Not too bad considering it is Japan. Of course, if time wasn't a factor, $1000 USD would probably last us a whole mon…
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