Week 3 - Plus a trip to Albania

15/07/24

Today I started proof reading and theming a new interview, of a woman called Hatmone Haradinaj, who was a part of the first protests for Kosovan independence that were started in the university of Pristina in 1981. 

We then explored some more of the city going further into the older Muslim part of the city, where we entered the Great Mosque, or Xhamia e Madhe in Albanian. Before I could look around, the scent of incense welcomed me, I then lifted my head back to see the beautiful, curved ceiling looming above me. There were about five other people inside so we kneeled and sat down, although I am not religious, I could not help but feel the calmness and tranquillity that sent me into a state of mindfulness. As we left the building a man came out to speak to us, he was curious as we were clearly not Kosovan and wondered whether we were Muslim. We explained our situation and that we weren’t Muslim but I have Muslim heritage. We discussed our our interest in these forms of culture and our desire to experience them. After an interesting conversation we left and headed towards the market where I bought a Kosovo football shirt for 10 euros, which I was pretty happy with – the man I bought it off didn’t speak English but still manged to take the piss about England losing the Euros when he realised where we were from! 😆

This week it was extra hot and humid, reaching 36 degrees, so we returned to a huge outdoor swimming pool that we found the week before. The pool is on the outskirts of the city, situated in Gёrmia Park, it is surrounded by forest covered hills that stretch out into mountain peaks. It was the perfect place to be after work and walking in the heat of the city.

Trip to Albania

Today is Friday the 19^th of July we about to embark on an 8 and a half hour bus journey to Saranda, a coastal town in the South of Albania, where we would be staying for 3 nights - I was able to get the time off work my colleagues were also going on holiday to Albania. 

I am now writing this from Albania: the bus left at 10:30pm and was due to arrive in Saranda at 7am. When we got on the bus it was already dark so it was difficult to tell where we were and to see any of the landscape. After attempting to keep myself busy for a good few hours I eventually got in a position where sleep was possible. The sleep I did manage to get wasn't ideal for most of the journey but in the early hours I slept solidly, until I woke up at around 6am when I looked out of the window and cranked my neck back to the imposing view of a mountainside. It felt like I had woken into a fever dream. We were driving along the steep sides of a mountain along winding roads through a valley. As we exited the valley the rising sun could be seen peaking over the mountain range in the distance and illuminating the the sides of the mountains closest to us. This was something I'd never seen and truly made me feel humbled and privileged.

We arrived in Saranda at around 7am, the bus dropped us right on the beach and as it was already about 25 degrees we decided to go down and sit by the water (see right photo). After a long bus journey it didn't seem real that we were there. We had to wait for a couple of hours before the Airbnb was ready so we went for a swim as the water was too inviting. The temperature was perfect - I've lived by the sea my whole life so this was the something I'd been missing and I welcomed it with open arms. We then got some food, I ordered a lovely seafood linguine. For the rest of the day we chilled out and explored a bit of Saranda, straight away it was noticeable how much more touristy it was to Pristina. The busy seafront was full of tourists and activities for them, including the bright party boats in the harbour (see below). 

We then got involved in the tourism by booking a boat tour for the next day.

21/07/24 - The boat tour. We met for our boat tour on Saranda harbour at 11am, we were joined by an Australian, an American, a Kiwi, a Brit and a few Albanians. They took us out on a speedboat to travel north up the coast, the first stop was called Turtle Cove - although I didn't see any actual turtles. We stopped for around 15 minutes to get some pictures and go for a swim, it was clearly a common route as there were about 5 other boats around us. 

The next stop was another cove, this time a larger one with a small beach at the end. Again, we just had 15 minutes here to go for a swim so I just laid in the crystal blue waters feeling the sun beat down on me. Only after diving in off the boat of course, here is an action shot of Tom doing just that.

The main attraction of the boat journey was the stop at Kroreza beach. We had 3 hours to chill in the sun on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to. The turquoise water washes up onto gleaming white sand, the whole thing being surrounded by a mountainous cove that stretches as far as the eye can see. We bought a sun bed because the sand was genuinely too hot to sit on, as it did reach 39 degrees. The water was glorious and I must have stayed in for at least an hour, this was partly because me and Tom got talking to an Albanian guy called Kane, it turns out he went to Bournemouth University and was still living there! What a small world. We had a hilarious conversation about our experience of Bournemouth with him and got his contact details to try and meet up in the future. 

After our time at Kroreza beach was done and an unbelievable tan achieved, we got back on the boat and headed back to Saranda. We stopped in two other places on the return journey for a quick dip, I still couldn't get enough of being in that water, it felt so good! 

Monday 22/07/24

Today, Tom and I decided to hire out mopeds, they were 125cc and as an added touch, yellow 😁. First we took them up the mountain in Saranda to the old castle, from here we could look over the whole town from the mountains behind to the curving beach. After taking in the view, we set off out of Saranda and south along the coast. We were heading for Ksamil, another coastal town, the road there was straight, we had the view of a huge lake to our left hand side with the mountain range backed behind it. It didn't take us long to reach Ksamil so when we got there we decided to keep going, this took us on to a beautiful winding downhill road. We literally got to the end of the road because to get to the other side of the river you had to ride on a makeshift barge. This was in a tiny village that seemed quite historic. It was super tranquil so we sat and chilled there for a while. We left and took the same road back to Ksamil, although it is a small place, it was extremely busy and touristy. We parked up by the beach at sat down on a sun bed ridden beach, again the sea was amazing so we stayed for a while and took a dip. 

Tuesday the 23rd was our last day in Albania and we still had our mopeds for until later that day. We decided to go north this time and took the coastal road out of Saranda. Safe to say it was a good idea. The road began on the inland side, it took us up and along the side of a mountain, winding along what was basically a cliff edge and to our right was a complete view of the mountain range. We stopped and took a photo, see below. After this things only got more crazy, we drove through a mountain village that took us around the mountain and it opened out to a breath taking view of the ocean and a stretch of mountainous peaks along the coast that we were about to drive along. I have never even seen a road like this before, let alone driven a moped along one. We continued up and down and around the mountains, all the while having the stupendous view of the glistening ocean to our left. I genuinely couldn't believe what I was seeing, or doing, I was just trying to take it all in. It was quite overwhelming. 

We probably drove for around an hour and a half along these roads, until we reached Borsh, another seaside town that was nestled in the shadow of huge looming mountains. We went and had a relax on the beautiful beach. I would have loved to stay longer but we had to make it back to Saranda in time to catch our bus, so we set off on the journey back, which was rather exciting knowing the road we were going to travel on. We managed to get back in time and caught our bus back to Pristina, another 8 hour journey. This time, however, it was through the day so we could sit and look at the ridiculous Albanian landscape as we travelled through and beyond the mountains. I will add some photos to the bottom of the page from the bus journey.