We had a nice sail from Mljet to Korčula. . . after the rain stopped. We knew we would be motoring in the rain initially, and boy were we! It poured! Michael was a gentleman (or, was he thinking “happy wife, happy life?”) and took the helm during the entire rainstorm, except for the times he came inside to warm up a bit.
But once we left the rain behind us, we had a lovely sail, like with the sail up kind of a sail. We anchored on the south side of a small island near the main island. It started to pour five minutes after we anchored. That timing was lucky. It had taken about eight or nine hours to make the trip, so it was later in the day when we arrived. We stayed on the boat for the rest of the evening.
This is a good time to note our progress: We had traveled 6100 nautical miles at this point in our journey.
Here are some pictures of the rainclouds and the eventual calm.
And here is a picture of the lovely rainbow that shone after the rain stopped, and the sunset from our boat.
Michael decided to stay on the boat today (the 28th) because he got quite overheated yesterday. I was originally thinking I would do the same, but – really – when will we be in Dubrovnik again?! So, I planned a little itinerary for myself. My plan was to ride the cable car, visit the War Museum, check out the Foundry Museum, then stop for groceries on the way back to Seahike.
I walked this time, rather than taking the bus. It was much quicker. I took a few pictures along the way. I love this one of the coastline.
As I passed one small section of chain link fence, I saw all of these padlocks on it. I had no idea what they were but took a picture. I am glad I did, because I looked it up later and it is a sweet thing. It is Dubrovnik’s Love Lock Wall.
The fence is awash with pledges of undying love from all over the world. Padlocks with the initials, messages, hearts and poems are snapped into place on the fence and the keys are then thrown in the sea. It is the modern day version of carving your names in a tree trunk, but one more environmentally friendly.
“Love U 4ever,” from a Swiss couple – “Be my Valentine” in French and “U complete me” from Juan in Mexico. The Dubrovnik love fence is as international as the guests that land every summer.
We decided it was time to try out a new restaurant near the marina in Albania. We walked a short distance down the road to Naos Bar-Restaurant-Pizzeri. Naos is right on the beach, so the view is nice. The food is also good. We ended up eating there twice, once on our own, and one with a lovely couple we met in the marina, Jeremy and Joyce.
And now let’s talk about my hair. This is mandatory from time to time. My hair, at this point, is not in good shape (any more than my skin) due to the salt-filled air, sun (which I try to stay out of, but can’t), and strong breezes. I am not sure it was even growing longer at this point based on the status of the ends. Split to smithereens! I decided it was time to take action.
Michael has a hair clipping set that includes a pair of really good scissors. On August 23, I was wearing braids. I cut off the bottom of the left braid, then the right braid. Okay, the right braid was shorter now, so I cut some more off of the left braid. Better. When I took my hair out of the braids, I asked Michael to fix any ends that appeared to be quite out of place with the rest. He did. It looks good enough for me:
Now that we’ve talked about the bottom of my hair, let’s talk about the bottom of Seahike. After a month in the marina, she had a lot of growth on her bottom. We hired a diver to clean off the growth. He worked hard! Took him about 1.75 hours and we could hear him scraping. We gave him a nice tip.
Here are the before and after pictures of Seahike’s bottom:
BeforeAfter. Clean as a whistle!
We stayed one more day than our month-long contract while waiting for a weather window. Michael went to the office to pay for the extra day. After the two people working there chatted with each other for some time, they told Michael that we didn’t have to pay for the extra day. Then they jokingly each said it was their idea and they had to convince the other. But how nice of them to give us a free day!
So, on Friday, August 24, we had lunch with Jeremy and Joyce at Naos, then headed for Vlorë to check out of Albania. We said goodbye to the marina.
Goodbye marina. The skies look pretty dark, yes? Goodbye boat near the entrance to the marina, that seems to serve no purpose.Goodbye water near the beach.
We anchored the same place we did when we checked into Albania and took the dinghy to shore. Speaking of the dinghy, actually the motor, you will recall that the shift handle is somewhere in the Ionian Sea near Corfu. You might also recall that we were unable to find a new shift handle so after visiting several hardware stores and chandleries we bought a door handle. You know, for an indoor door. We use the part of the handle that goes inside the door to go inside the motor.
So this was our first chance to use our make-shift handle. I always drive when we’re in the dinghy because we need Michael’s weight up front. I couldn’t get the handle in the little hole, so Michael had to do it. It worked just fine. He shifts, removes the handle (which has a string on it that is attached to the dinghy, I might add), I drive. When it is time to shift again, Michael steps up to the plate. It is a tad clunky, but it works!
It was a Friday night, and there were a lot of people out and about in Vlorë. This is the picture of the shore from Seahike:
Vlorë on Friday night. It was fun to be next to the activity!
And the other side of us was calm:
Peaceful and calm looking the other direction from Seahike
It was roughly 150 nm from Vlorë to Dubrovnik, where we would check in to Croatia. We left Vlorë at 7:00 a.m., expecting to arrive in Dubrovnik the next afternoon. It wasn’t too long before Michael decided we should arrive earlier to avoid winds that were now predicted to pick up quite a bit the next day. So we ran both engines to go 7+ knots. As a result, we arrived before the sun came up the next day. This picture of this bridge, which is very close to where we checked in, was taken at 4:08 a.m.
Coming into Dubrovnik under the cover of darkness. Another view
We docked and Michael went ashore to check us in. We’d read that Dubrovnik was a very good place to check in and out of Croatia due to their efficient and friendly nature, and that was true!
We waited until about 8:00 a.m. before contacting the marina – which was just across the water about five minutes away. We med moored and kicked back a bit before heading into Old Town to walk the Dubrovnik Walls.
The Croatian flag is flying on Seahike!Med moored at Marina Frappa
We decided to take the bus to Pile Gate, one of the gates you can use to access Old Town. The walk to the bus station was about 2 km. It was already quite hot. We got to the bus station and waited for our bus. Nothing. Maybe it was late? We waited for the next bus. Nothing. Finally (only about 20 minutes had passed), I got smart and asked someone for help. Turned out that the bus stop for our bus was on the adjacent street. No prob. Our bus arrived a couple of minutes later. We got on, took off, then asked the people sitting next to us if we were on the right bus. I mean, the number was right, so we figured we were. Well, right bus, wrong direction. So we got off at the next stop and walked about 50 meters to the bus stop on the other side of the road. Bingo!
We were at Pile Gate in no time. We weren’t sure where to go up to walk the walls, so this time we were smart and asked someone right away. We were already at the right place. We just had to walk up a long flight of stairs.
The Dubrovnik walls run uninterrupted for 1940 meters (6365 feet) in length, encircling most of the City, and reach a maximum height of about 25 meters (83 feet). Okay, those are facts. But the really cool thing about them are the views you see from every possible angle! I took a LOT of pictures. I won’t bore you with all of them, but I am still going to share a lot.
Before I do, I should note that in doing my homework for this visit, I’d read that throughout most of the seasons of Game of Thrones, Dubrovnik had been the setting for Kings Landing. And that’s not all! Apparently other scenes were filmed in Dubrovnik. In fact, you can take a Game of Thrones tour to see all of the filming locations in Dubrovnik.
I have never watched one minute of Game of Thrones.
So, I didn’t care about that, but I wanted to include that in this post in case anyone reading this is a Game of Thrones fan. In fact, before we get to the walls, here are just a few of the pictures of store windows in Dubrovnik Old Town, proclaiming that they sell Game of Thrones paraphernalia. It almost made me wish I was into the Game of Thrones.
And now, let’s get to those walls! Let me just say that it is difficult to take a bad picture from the walls. Everything is interesting. You will discover that I like two main types of pictures: looking out at the sea, looking in at rooftops. Here we go!
Pile Gate
I think I owe Game of Thrones fans this picture of Kings Landing:
If you walk the Dubrovnik Walls or go to Dubrovnik Old Town, don’t make the mistake we did: wear your swimsuit!! There are numerous marked off places where you can sit in a lounge chair then jump into the sea. Had we known, we would have dressed appropriately.
We were quite hot by this time and ready for lunch. Time to take the steps down to Old Town. We ate at Mea Culpa. As per usual, we supported a local brewery. We are so selfless. 😉
Beers before lunch
Old Town has wide streets and narrow streets. Apparently some scenes from Star Wars VIII were filmed on one of these wide streets. I cannot tell you which scene. Nothing looked familiar to me and I am a BIG Star Wars fan!!
Same street, Stradun looking the other wayThis is the street “connected” to Star WarsNarrow street with lots of stairs at one endRector’s Palace on the left. We didn’t visit it that day.
And now it was time to hit the pool! Yep, the marina has a pool! And you can have an adult beverage while in or near the pool.
It might not surprise you that I ordered an adult beverage after swimming some laps. Then I sat on one of the stools in the corner and read my book while I sipped on my rum and Coke Zero. I was about halfway through my beverage when some kids playing in the pool threw someone that knocked over my drink. The bartender who served me just happened to be talking to someone a few meters away from me. I looked at him and he told me that he would replace it. That was kind of him. So I got 1.5 drinks for the price of one.
Back to Seahike for the night. I like the blue lights on the walkways in the marina.
Day one in Dubrovnik is done! What a wonderful day!
We will share day two in Dubrovnik and our visit to Mljet in the next post.
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.
Relaxing, readingAdult pool, good for swimming lapsMichael’s seafood pasta dinnerSpinach ravioli filled with cheese and possibly more spinach. The cheese sauce was to-die-for good.Big wine pour!Continue reading →
Days 1-7: In previous posts Day 8: Kruje, Shkodër (overnight in Shkodër) 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 day eight.
I couldn’t stop myself from taking a picture (I didn’t even try) of this building that looks like it is from a fairy tale. It is built on the edge of a drop-off and half of it has no ground beneath it!
The “half built on air” building
Now, a quick stop at the town of Krujë and its castle.
The Krujë Castle is a castle in the city of Krujë, Albania and the center of Skanderbeg’s rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. The castle was built in the 5th or 6th century, perched on Krujë hill.
I looked at a variety of sources to learn about Skanderbeg, and found that Wikipedia offered a good summary:
The Albanians’ resistance to the Ottomans in the 14th century and especially in the 15th century won them acclaim all over Europe. Gjon Kastrioti of Krujë was one of the Albanian nobles and clan leaders who submitted to Ottoman suzerainty in 1425. He was compelled to send his four sons to the Ottoman capital to be trained for military service. The youngest, George Kastrioti (1403–68), who would become the Albanians’ national hero, captured the sultan’s attention. Renamed Iskander when he converted to Islam, the young man participated in military expeditions to Asia Minor and Europe becoming one of the main Ottoman generals. When appointed to administer a Balkan district, Iskander became known as Skanderbeg. After Ottoman forces under Skanderbeg’s command suffered defeat in a battle near Niš (present-day Serbia) in 1443, Skanderbeg rushed to Krujë and tricked a Turkish pasha into surrendering the Albanian fortress. Skanderbeg then embraced Roman Catholicism and declared a holy war against the Ottoman Empire.
On 1 March 1444, Albanian chieftains gathered in the cathedral of Lezhë with the prince of Montenegro and delegates from Venice and proclaimed Skanderbeg commander of the Albanian resistance. All of Albania accepted his leadership against the Ottomans, but local leaders kept control of their own districts. Under a red flag bearing Skanderbeg’s heraldic emblem, an Albanian force of about 10,000-15.000 men held off Ottoman campaigns against their lands for 24 years when Skanderbeg was commander in chief, until 1478, 11 years after his death.
Days 1-6: In previous posts Day 7: Tirana (overnight one night) Day 8: Kruje, Shkodër (overnight in Shkodër) Day 9: Shkodër (this was supposed to have been Theth National Park – it wasn’t) (overnight in Shkodër) Days 10, 11: Valbonë a.k.a. Valbona (overnight on day 10). Returned to Shkodër and drove 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 day seven.
Do you remember the story we told about losing the shift handle for our dinghy’s outboard motor? We have not been able to find a new handle anywhere. We’ve even looked for something other than an actual handle that we could use as a proxy. Well, Michael Googled “outboard motor” in Durrës and found a store. We decided that this was the day to go there since: 1) they would be open, 2) it was close to our next actual designation (Tirana), and 3) it was the only place we’d found when Googling outboard motors.
Durrës is both a big city and a tourist destination. It apparently has super good beaches. That meant that traffic was crazy! Plus, the Google Navigation Lady kept telling us to go the wrong way on a one-way street to get to the store. So I dropped Michael off on a street corner so he could walk to the store and I drove around. It took me at least five minutes of ignoring the Google Navigation Lady’s bad directions before I got near the store. By that time, Michael had found out that they didn’t have a handle, but the guy who worked there suggested a store that might. We went to that store and struck copper. (Not gold, but copper.) This is what we bought:
This, my friends, is a door handle. But the square part just happens to be 7 mm wide, which does the trick. We have tied a string to this so we can tie it to the dinghy in between uses. We will insert it into the motor just when we need to shift. This should do the trick until we can find an actual shift handle. 🙂 🙂
We also bought a metric tape measure and some gloves that will protect my hands when managing “slime lines” (mooring lines). We had to use the head while we were there. We see this type from time to time. I think I first saw one when I was in my twenties. I remember wondering how I was supposed to use it. 🙂
Having sort of successfully completed our shopping spree, we gladly left the congested traffic of Durrës behind and headed to Tirana. We’d read that one should try to avoid driving in Tirana, so we stayed in the Granda Hotel, a bit away from the town center. I will say that I don’t think the traffic was worse than any other I’ve driven in before or during this trip, but it was nice not to manage it and try to find a parking space (the latter can be problematic in the tourist spots).
Days 1-4: In previous posts Days 5 and 6: Berat (overnight two nights) Day 7: Tirana (overnight one night) Day 8: Kruje, Shkodër (overnight in Shkodër) Day 9: Shkodër (this was supposed to have been Theth National Park – it wasn’t) (overnight in Shkodër) Days 10, 11: Valbonë a.k.a. Valbona (overnight on day 10). Returned to Shkodër and drove 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 days five and six.
The time has come. It is time to share the biggest misstep of our road trip.
Day Five: What a Mess We had originally planned to drive the relatively short distance (2.5 hours) from Gjirokaster to Berat (to pronounce Berat, think of “grin and bear it“) and spend two days in and around Berat. We wanted to take a day trip to see the Bogove Waterfall and Osumi Canyon one day. These sites just happen to be two of the most popular things to do when visiting Berat. Let that sink in for a minute . . . .
But Cindy (that would be me) got this absolutely spectacular idea that we should take a different route to Berat so we could see the waterfall and canyon along the way and save some driving time. If there was a way to check the quality of the road, I either misread it or didn’t do it.
You see where this is going.
The road was perfectly fine for quite a while. Then the Google Navigation Lady took us to a very narrow road. At least it was paved. All good. Then the pavement ended. The dirt road wasn’t bad. Still good. Then the dirt road went south (and by “south” I mean “really bad,” not the opposite of north) pretty fast. We’d continued for probably 15 minutes, avoiding boulders, drop-offs, gullies, uneven surfaces, potholes, big rocks, etc., when we arrived at a particularly challenging section of bad road. Michael got out of the car to try to figure out how to navigate it while I took a closer look at the road ahead on Google maps. And what did I see but some small print that said: “off-road vehicles only.” Michael was just about to tell me how we could get through this nasty patch of road when I told him that we needed to turn around.
Days 1-3: In previous posts Day 4: Gjirokaster (second overnight in Gjirokaster) Days 5 and 6: Berat (overnight two nights) Day 7: Tirana (overnight one night) Day 8: Kruje, Shkodër (overnight in Shkodër) Day 9: Shkodër (this was supposed to have been Theth National Park – it wasn’t) (overnight in Shkodër) Days 10, 11: Valbonë a.k.a. Valbona (overnight on day 10). Returned to Shkodër and drove 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 dayfour.
You will recall that we arrived at Hotel Fantasy after dark the previous night. We had a full day to spend in Gjirokaster the next day.
Gjirokaster is a small town located in the southern part of Albania. It is well-known for its steep hill that you have to climb to get to, so much that many people called it the City of Thousand Steps. (Of course, we drove there, so no 1000 steps for us.) And one of the most iconic and prominent landmarks that stands right at the top of the city is Gjirokaster Castle, a massive stone fortress.
Before we get to the castle, we want to share some pictures of the wonderful views from the hotel. You will also see how close the hotel is to the castle. (We stayed in Old town.)
We walked through a few of Old Town’s streets to get to the castle. They make good use of the narrow streets where no cars are allowed: shops on either side, dining tables sometimes in the middle . . . every single one is a hill. If you love to shop, you would love Old Town.
Days 1-2: In previous post Day 3: Butrint Archaeological Park, Ksamil (for the beach), and the Sarandë Blue Eye. Drove to Gjirokaster in the evening (overnight in Gjirokaster) Day 4: Gjirokaster (second overnight in Gjirokaster) Days 5 and 6: Berat (overnight two nights) Day 7: Tirana (overnight one night) Day 8: Kruje, Shkodër (overnight in Shkodër) Day 9: Shkodër (this was supposed to have been Theth National Park – it wasn’t) (overnight in Shkodër) Days 10, 11: Valbonë a.k.a. Valbona (overnight on day 10). Returned to Shkodër and drove 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 day three.
Day three consisted of Butrint Archaeoloigcal Park, Pulëbardha Beach (near Ksamil), a quick stop at the Sarandë Blue Eye, and a drive to Gjorikaster to spend the night.
The Google navigation lady took us to Butrint from a direction that proved to be advantageous. It took us first to a Venetian Castle. It is possible we would have skipped it entirely had it not been the first stop. Well, that and the fact that the small ferry that only carries four cars at a time across the lake to Butrint was already full when we got there. Michael suggested that we see the castle first.
If you read farther up in this blog post, you will see a reference to Porto Palermo having “the same triangular plan with round towers found on the Venetian fort at Butrint.” This is the fort to which they are referring. This is a picture of the Venetian Castle (or fort) at Butrint from above. Look familiar?
And here are the pictures we took from inside the walls:
And now it was time to take the long ferry ride (about 60 seconds) across the lake to Butrint.
Our road trip consisted of adventures, misadventures, bad roads, good roads, in-between roads, and a lot of interesting and beautiful sights. Before we get into the details, here is a summary of what ended up being our itinerary:
Starting and ending point: Orikum
Day 1: Pick up rental car. Llogara Pass, Lamani Beach, Himarë a.k.a. Himara (overnight in Himarë) Day 2: Porto Palermo, The 40 Saints Monastery, Lëkursi Castle, Sarandë a.k.a. Saranda (overnight in Sarandë) Day 3: Butrint Archaeological Park, Ksamil (for the beach), and the Sarandë Blue Eye. Drove to Gjirokaster in the evening (overnight in Gjirokaster) Day 4: Gjirokaster (second overnight in Gjirokaster) Days 5 and 6: Berat (overnight two nights) Day 7: Tirana (overnight one night) Day 8: Kruje, Shkodër (overnight in Shkodër) Day 9: Shkodër (this was supposed to have been Theth National Park – it wasn’t) (overnight in Shkodër) Days 10, 11: Valbonë a.k.a. Valbona (overnight on day 10). Returned to Shkodër and drove 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 first two days.
Let me first say that this was an aggressive and optimistic road trip. We wanted to see a lot of the country since we will probably never visit here again. So, we decided to go with the “drink from a firehose” approach. Ideally, this would have been a two-week road trip. It worked out – except for when our rental car wouldn’t start so we couldn’t go to Theth National Park!! – but it would have felt a tad more leisurely had we had three more days. We will tell you what went well, what went awry, and we will encourage you to visit this astounding country!
First, we needed a car. We rented a car from a store in Orikum. We paid 50 euro/day, which was about what we expected.
This is just a random picture of the countryside. We are sharing it because it displays the all-too-familiar sight of rows of trees, clearly planted that way. We also saw many fields of corn, olive groves, and some grape vines.
