Days 1-8: In previous posts
Day 9: Shkodër (this was supposed to have been Theth National Park) (overnight in Shkodër)
Days 10, 11: Valbonë a.k.a. Valbona (overnight on day 10). Return to Shkodër and drive to Golem (overnight in Golem)
Day 12: Return to Orikum by 8:00 a.m. to return rental car (we aren’t counting this day in our road trip)

Today’s post covers the last three days of our trip.

We awoke on day nine of our trip excited to drive to Theth National Park. Actually, we were especially excited for our last three days because we would be in the fantastic Albanian Alps with options for hiking.

So we hopped in our rental car, turned the key and . . . nothing. The fan, radio, and instruments came on, but the motor didn’t make a sound. The lights had not been left on, so we didn’t think we had drained the battery; plus, it would have at least tried to turn over.

I sent a message via WhatsApp to the rental car company. They were convinced it was the battery and told us to hang tight. So we did. . . for about three and a half hours. Long story short, a new car was delivered to us. The problem was that by the time we received it, it was too late to go to Theth. That was quite disheartening, I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t want to drive there just to take a peek and turn right around. I wanted to hike. And I didn’t want to drive the winding roads back to the hotel in the dark.

Luckily, we were at a lovely resort, so we decided to take the day off and relax. I swam, we sat by the pool and read, and we had a lovely dinner. Not Theth, but we managed to salvage the day.

Our plan for the next two days was to travel to Valbonë, spend the night in a guesthouse in the Albanian Alps, and come back from Valbonë. The majority of the pictures we will be sharing with you are from the traveling portion of the trip. To get to and from Valbonë, you take a minibus, ferry, and another minibus. The entire trip is supposed to take about six hours, but it took seven and a half each way.

We booked this trip through Albaniabus.com, which we recommend. Here’s the logistics of the trip:
— Board minibus at the Razafa Hotel in Shkodër at 6:30 a.m. for drive to Koman
— Take the ferry from Koman to Fierze (about two hours)
— Board new minibus for drive to accommodations in Valbonë. ETA: 1:00 p.m. (We arrived at 2:00 p.m.)

For the return trip, the minibus picks you up at your accommodations in Valbonë and you do everything in reverse, arriving at the Rozafa Hotel at about 5:30 p.m.

We only had two days left in our trip so we only had one overnight in Valbonë. We could have booked this with a different return date, or no return date at all.

The views along the way are spectacular.

And we were at our guesthouse! The name is Drinos Guesthouse. It is fairly new. Drinos is the proprietor and a very sweet and welcoming one at that! He offered to bring us each a glass of Raki, which we readily accepted. He came with treats as well. 🙂 Our room was nice and the bathroom has a sink that wants to be noticed.

If you are wondering why I captioned the picture above “Door opening the regular way.” Here’s why. If you move the handle horizontal to the floor as you see in this picture, the door opens like a regular door. However, if you continue to twist the handle until it is vertical to the floor, the door does this:

We saw windows and doors such as this at most (if not all – we didn’t always pay attention) of the hotels we stayed at in Albania. We are told that they have them in Greece and Spain as well, so they probably appear all over Europe. We didn’t stay in more than one hotel in Greece (and I don’t recall paying attention to the windows), so we can’t speak to their usage there.

We were actually kind of sleepy by the time we got settled. Neither one of us had slept very well the night before for some reason. And we were hungry. Plus, I couldn’t find a trailhead near the guesthouse, so maybe nature was telling both of us to chill yet again! So we did. We soaked in the beauty and thanked our lucky stars for being in this paradise.

We ate breakfast inside the restaurant the next day – as opposed to the outdoor/yet covered seating area. I simply had to juxtapose these two images for your viewing pleasure:

The minibus picked us up at about 10:30 a.m. The drive went well until we got to a particular town, the name of which I do not know. The bus stopped, and we thought it was time to walk down to the ferry. But that wasn’t it. We were just told that the buses “were told to stop here.” There was quite a line of buses about 15 minutes later.

After about 45 minutes, we were told to get back on the bus. But the bus turned back the way from which we had come! I asked the other passengers if they knew what was going on and they told us that the town was holding a protest because some company was building a plant “next door” to them and it will stink. The townspeople don’t want it to be built. So the town had blocked the road. Okay, what now?

After about 10 minutes of driving, we arrived at a restaurant and the bus drivers (there were several buses) talked to a man who presumably worked there/owned it. And. . . we turned around and went back the other way again. Hmmmm. We were curious to see whether the road block had been opened. It had.

Our bus driver seemed intent on getting us to the ferry ASAP. He blasted his horn until other buses got out of the way and, rather than stopping at the top of the hill, he drove – with horn blaring – right down to the ferry. We were laughing and thanked him when we got off the bus.

We met a lovely couple from Catalonia on the ferry and spent the entire time talking to them. They invited us to contact them when we get to Catalonia so we can get together. We will! Of course, I found a few new pictures to take on the ferry and the second minibus ride back to Shkodër.

Before we knew it, we were back at the Razafa Hotel. And, boy were we hungry and thirsty! We marched right to the hotel’s beer and ordered beer and treats. We tried a new beer as well as a dessert I had been itching to try: Trilece. Trilece is a popular dessert in which a very light sponge cake is soaked in three kinds of mils – Evaporated Milk, Condensed Mile, and Double Cream. It is toped with dark caramel. This is the Albanian version. Trilece is similar to the infamous Tres Leches Cake of Mexico.

My friends, that completes the epic tale of our 11-day Albanian road trip. Yes, we stopped at Golem to spend the night, but it was just to spend the night. We got the car to the rental store by 7:30 a.m. the next day.

Here’s what I would have done differently to make this a perfect road trip:

1. Spend two days in Triana (that increases this from an 11-day trip to a 12-day trip)
2. Take the “sane” route from Gjirokaster to Berat so we would have had two full days in Berat, one of which we could have used to visit the Bogove Waterfall and Osumi Canyon. I would have taken the time to hike to the waterfall as well.
3. First of all, get to Theth, then spend one night there so we have more time to hike. (this changes it to a 13-day trip)
4. Spend an extra day in Valbonë for hiking (that changes it to a 14-day trip)

Actually, my dream would have been to hike from Theth to Valbonë or vice versa, but some hikes are just no longer an option for us due to the length/difficulty/rise in altitude/temperature and Michael’s health. He is a trouper and will do way more than a lot of heart failure patients, but there is a limit.

But if you ever go there, take a hike!