Crossroads to the Adriatic - Tirana - 3rd day, 18 Apr 2023

 

Crossroads to the Adriatic - Berat, Albania

Optional tour to Belshi & Berat - 

18 Apr 2023

Map showing drive to Berat with midway stop at Lake Belshi

Enjoyed our breakfast about 8am.  Shared a bowl of rice pudding with Rich.  We'd been wondering what it was!  Jan was off on her on today to go to Kosovo.  It looked like a nice tour, but OAT was offering us an Optional trip to Berat, the 9th most populated city in Albania.  Since this was an opportunity for our southern most excursion in Albania, we elected to do this tour, both to enjoy the drive & to see the city.  It was a lovely day with clear blue skies and temps in the mid 60's.  First stop was a tiny community on a lake, called Bleshi.  We mostly just stopped for a potty break & to stretch our legs.  George & I walked along the lake shore & into town to get some Albanian cash.  Erion, Rich, Georgianne & the driver stayed at the little cafe to use the toilet & have a cup of coffee.  I had hoped to see some birds, but Muted Swans was about it.

The remainder of the drive was uneventful.  We did stop to throw a couple of eggs in the water, but didn't manage to get any pictures of it.  It was getting a little flatter.  This is considered the southern half of Albania, much more rural & calm than the upper half.  Erion gave us a history lesson as we drove, which I promptly forgot.  I am really bad with remembering things like that!!!  

It felt wonderful to get to walk.  Pretty strenious uphill walk, but even Rich managed easily.  Folks actually still live within the Castle walled area.  The castle was built during the 13th century and is at 700" overlooking the Osum River & the town.

Stopped at one of the larger shops for some explanation about their specialty felted hats & the rug weaving.  In some areas, the shops have been taken over by Turkish, but this one is own/managed by Albanians.

Views from around the castle were glorious.  The river cuts the city below into 2 distinct parts.

We certainly didn't see many people as we wandered the streets.  There are supposed to be about 200 people living there.  

Visited the museum of the "Michael Angelo" of Albania.  Honestly not too impressive!  He only painted icons.  

Continued our tour of the small town, ending at a family restaurant for a late lunch.  Sat upstairs on the balcony even though it was a little chilly, to make sure we didn't have any smoke issues for Rich.  We were the only ones there anyway.  The family had moved to Greece during the socialist years, but had come back in 2014.  The Mother served all the food.  The older son kept coming up to talk to us.  They served a wonderful pumpkin squash soup.  And throughout the meal the son kept saying he had made a special dessert.  It was an ice cream like sweet cream with almonds.  It was indeed yummy.

We walked back down to where we left the bus & took the short ride down to the bridge between the 2 sides of the city.  They call this town the City of 1000 windows because of the way the houses line the mountain sides with glass shining in all the windows.  It really is beautiful.  Our guide ran into someone he knew that had him hold onto his dog for a while!  We let him join our group picture!!  After we walked to to the small open public area, we gathered around the egg.  Joked that our eggs had floated down the river to land here in Berat!  

The drive back to Tirana & our hotel was lovely & uneventful.  Stopped once to pee & most of us snoozed a little.  The scenery was just as beautiful on the way back north!  Arrived back at the hotel about 5pm and spent the evening relaxing in our room with wine from the hotel bar.  Still can't believe it's only $2 a glass!  Crazy!  Turned in the name for our ICBDA dance!  Last night in Tirana.  Tomorrow we move north to Shkoder!