The Unexplored Albanian Coast

Himare

Albania. Definitely one of the strangest countries we have ever visited! Admittedly, we only spent time on the Albanian cost and we did not have the time to visit any of the major inland cities. Our fist impression of Albania was the most terrifying and painfully long bus journey I have ever experienced. We boarded a bus from Ohrid and after only an hour the driver stopped (for almost an hour) to chat with his other mini-bus driving buddies. Here it was discovered that we were the only ones on our bus heading to Vlore (on our way to Himare), so out of laziness our driver cooked up a scheme to stick us in another bus so that he did not have to make this detour. We were shoved in a bus that was already full and had to sit in this horribly cramped space on top of other people's luggage for the best part of 2 hours. 

Since we arrived late after our one hour break (for no apparent reason) we missed our connecting bus and had to wait two hours for the next bus. The bus we got on spent almost an hour stopping and starting and we only made it 4km in an hour - I could have run there and back in that time! Finally we got going BUT then we had another break! Ah! They love their senseless breaks! Once we got on our way again we were at a section of the Albanian coast on which the roads are located at the top of a massive mountain, this means incredible views of the beaches below but I was too busy fearing for my life to actually take in any of the views, why? The bus driver was not only smoking but he was talking on the phone and drinking a beer simultaneously! This meant he only had his hands on the steering wheel SOME of the time while he was navigating narrow, windy roads on a clifftop...... it was actually the scariest journey of my life and I was sooooo glad to get off that bus (after several more stops and the driver taking off down the street while everyone sat on the bus with no clue as to what was happening!)

Fortunately when we arrived we were greeted by our Air BnB host and he took us to his apartments and one of the first things he showed us was his balcony with this incredible view!!!

The beaches and coastline of Albania were definitely a redeeming factor in this instance! Our Air BnB host then sat down with us for a bit of a chat before giving us some of his home made raki (this is supposed to be a liqueur made from grapes but wow, this was strong), he was absolutely lovely and our day was looking up!

We absolutely loved the balcony and the amazing view of the beaches below!

The colour of the ocean in this part of the world is absolutely incredible and so clear that you could almost see the ocean floor from the balcony! Unfortunately this photo unveils my horrible tan lines - it will only take a week or two in London for any colour I have accumulated to disappear!

From here we had one thing on our to do list: head to the beach!

The town of Himare is really small and a true beach town. There is one main street and you can walk through it in about 5-10 minutes and that's if your having a leisurely stroll.  The main esplanade along the beach was really pretty (Michael and I are standing on it in these photos) and they have stalls further along and even a small concert the night we were there. 

Finally we had found an amazing and SANDY beach! It was such a shame we only had one afternoon to spend here!

Beach selfies and Michael (that little head) taking a dip - the water was amazingly clear!

For dinner we headed to a local restaurant that served traditional Albanian food. Michael got himself a big glass of ouzo and I got a bottle of wine. We also ordered a huge salad and two main meals (including a seafood platter) and the total price was less than £10 - AMAZING value! Suddenly Albania had some genuine perks! Haha!

Our Air BnB host put on a lovely breakfast with home made jam and fresh eggs, the place we stayed at had turned out to be a total gem! Unfortunately we did not get to spend much time in Himare and I wish we had booked another night! This is Michael standing at the entrance to our lovely little apartment feeling really sad about having to leave!

Sarande

From Himare we headed to the bigger town of Sarande, which is further south down the Albanian coast. This time was bus ride was actually on time and not nearly as scary. Once again we had rented a private apartment (because they are so cheap in Albania) and once again we hit the jackpot!

We arrived in the later afternoon and were greeted by the Air BnB owner's mother, who was lovely but did not speak a whole lot of English. She pointed to the balcony and no words were needed!

This is the AMAZING balcony view of our private apartment in Sarande! Life was GREAT! As you can see was was extremely relaxed and totally content - all that was missing was a cold cider (which don't seem to exist in Albania, sad face). 

Some more shots of our amazing balcony, this time with Michael relaxing with a cold beer. 

We did not do a whole lot of anything in Sarande, aside from relax - isn't that what holidays are for? Unfortunately this means a lot of not so exciting scenery photos - apologies in advance!

This is the view from our balcony looking towards the centre and port of Sarande - an amazing view of the Albanian coastline! Once again the water is an absolutely stunning colour!

This time we stayed in an apartment with it's very own private beach! There was not a lot of actual beach but this was actually a really cool place for a swim!

As a bonus, our apartment also provided us with an absolutely breathtaking view of the sunset each evening! WOW! This is one of my favourite photos from our trip, I love the reflection of the sun on the water!

It's safe to say that, if nothing else, we definitely utlised the balcony well!

The next day it was time to hit up the private beach! This is Michael jumping from the not so small peir - we estimated that it was about 7m high. Throughout the day we saw lots of people chicken out but also some people diving and doing trick jumps.

I absolutely love this view from the pier, it looks like Michael is standing at the end of the world!

A shot of the little 'beach' belonging to our apartment block, it doesn't look like much but it was actually really awesome and the water was the perfect temperature!

Me; checking out the jump before chickening out. Heights are really not my thing...

... so I decided to take a seat and admire the view instead haha!

Finally, we decided that as difficult as it would be that it was time to get out of our apartment and have dinner out. We didn't go anywhere fancy, just a small restaurant right on the coast but we got another amazing view of the centre of Sarande as the sun set and got some very delicious and very reasonably priced food (I think I had a whole pizza for less than £2 - bargain!).

Looking back it seems like we did a whole not of nothing in Albania, aside from appreciate the views and swim at the beach but hey, it was relaxing and enjoyable so if you ask me that's a win!

From here we headed via ferry to Corfu in Greece, which we could actually see from our balcony in Sarande!

xxx