We get off a metro bus at a bus station a few km outside of Tirana's city centre and get hassled by taxi drivers as soon as we step off the bus - "Nah mate, nah mate we're here to catch bus" - this is typical of the Balkan's. We cross a busy highway via the pedestrian crossing and about a dozen blokes are across the road "Berat, Berat" "Shkoder, Shkoder" etc... we are hesitant but I say yeh we want to go to Berat. The bloke grabs Amy's bag and charges through a crowd and heading past a heap of buses with different destinations displayed in their front window. He takes us to a bus with a Berat sign, helps us load our bags under the bus and points to the door suggesting we get on - righto...
A few other passengers wander on, along with a few the bloke keeps bring to the bus. No need to go to the bus station to buy a ticket it seems...
Its around 10am and eventually we begin to leave the bus station, the little sprooker bloke hangs out the middle door of the bus "Berat, Berat" as we leave the station and start to drive along the highway at walking pace. This continues for about 1km up the road. A couple of passengers sort of run along the side of the slow moving bus and jump in while old mate keeps singing out "Berat".
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| We caught this from the bus window - a bit of home butchery just on the side of the highway. |
Known as the town with 1000 windows, Berat is a world heritage listed old city in south-central Albania. We were only planning a couple of days at a time at this stage, and after speaking to a few of the people at the hostel in Tirana, we decided Berat would be a good place to head next as we work our way north-east to Romania.
We didn't book a hostel, just thought we'd rock up to Beret Backpackers. Lucky we weren't a couple of days later because it shuts over winter! We were the only ones there other then the Albanian desk keeper who welcomed us with a Rakjia shot and some information about the town, it was mid-arvo so we headed out for a little look and some tucker.
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| The 1000 windows, heritage listed old town. Berat itself is pretty big at 60,000 people. |
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| Semi-traditional kebab sandwich for lunch. Had to get something quick and easy for lunch. Albanian tucker is definitely greek inspired. |
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| $3AUD hair cut from old mate barber - we conversed via hand signals, smiling and the thumbs up. Classic. |
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'panic' mid-cut...
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Berat Castle
Burnt down by the Romans in 200BC, rebuilt during the 6th century by the Byzantine's and used many years later, the still-standing fortifications and cultural monuments inside make for a pleasant mornings adventure. She's a pretty steep walk to reach the castle but it gives ripper views of the surrounding housing and area. Entry to the castle was - $2AUD.
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| Looking over the river to the smaller section of the old town - our hostel was over this side. During winter this area only sees 10min of sun per day since its blocked from the mountain behind. |
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| There are plenty of walls to climb and explore. |
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| Bought a couple of mandarins from this bloke inside the castle. BEST MANDARINES EVER! There seems to be plenty of residents still living inside the castle walls, souvenirs, coffee and bits and pieces. |
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| Views from the walls of the old fortified walls, the Holy Trinity church and entrance to the citadel of Berat on the left. |
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| Farmland and plantations of fruit trees etc. as far as the eye can see. Hard to make out in the photo but those hill are lined with planted trees of some sort, and its like that in every direction!! |
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| 13th century Byzantine church of the Holy Trinity. |
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| Still using the donkey in Albania. |
Later in the arvo (maybe like 4pm since the suns is starting to set early...) we walked up the hill behind the hostel to get another view of the castle and town, to fill in a couple of hours an get active.
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| FYI Albanian sheep. |
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| Sun setting on some of the mountains outside the city. |
Two nights was ok in Berat before heading to Macedonia. If we'd added an extra night to our visit we would've hit up a local winery and maybe looked to get onto a hike, but we were keen to keep on moving. The Hostel was pretty cold but comfortable, due to its position it only sees a few hours of daylight at this time of year... We had plenty of rugs and the hostel gave us a couple of electric oil heaters which did the job.
The second night at the hostel a couple of other randoms rolled in off the street - two solo traveling Aussies, and a bloke from Hong Kong. Along with us and two Polish women who had stayed the night before and the Albanian host it made for a pretty interesting few of hours. We all got stuck into a couple of beers and Rakjia supplied by the Hostel. What I most enjoyed about this was how we were all talking about our trips and experiences, hearing about what people had seen, like and disliked... Its pretty cool that other then us four Australians, english was the other travellers second language but english brought us all together for a yarn and a laugh.
Still getting a buzz out of the blog. After reading it, I can close my eyes and imagine I'm there.
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