Untapped Albania: The Southern Riviera (Days 5-15)

It’s time to utter a big statement…the Albanian Riviera has OUR FAVORITE beaches in Europe…at THE best value. Let’s start with the “wow”… Along Albania’s Riviera we found beaches which produced the most hypnotic aquamarine colors intertwining with coves and sandy stretches of irresistibly inviting sapphire splotches of water. Then, there is the ‘ahhh!’…Swimming. With only lightly lapping tides to slow your entry into the surf, it’s as easy going as swimming gets. Then, after your dip comes lounging on some breathtaking powdery stretches of white limestone sand or pebble beaches for as long as you can stand to stay horizontal on them. And, if you’re in need of serene solitude you don’t have to walk far.

Ok. Ok. Sound like your own private paradise yet? It gets better! The real reason to run to visit the Albanian Riviera is that the beaches are not yet saturated by tourists. Our estimation are that the crowds are like Croatia 20 years ago or Montenegro 10 years ago. Add to all this is the extreme affordability of a beach stay in Albania compared to anywhere else in the Mediterranean. Albania’s beaches will be undoubtedly be discovered by mass tourism. And, it’s not a matter of if but when. So go now! Our stay on the Albanian Riviera, included a one week stop in the southern end of the Riviera (near Corfu, Greece) in the village of Ksamil and four days in Himare, in the central area. Eleven days, but oh, we could have stayed a LOT longer.

Ksamil

Albania is proving to be one of those places where you just sort of stand and gaze, questioning… “why the hell aren’t more people coming here?” But for us, this, of course, is a very good thing. Right now, Albania is still to most, virtually unknown as a tourist destination. To reach the southern coast we travelled by bus from the mountain town of Permet to the small seaside community of Ksamil, just outside of much larger Sarande, which is the “big” city on the southern Albanian coast. Sarande, has become quite popular as a quick day trip destination for tourists who visit the Greek island of Corfu, which is a quick 20-minute ferry ride and only 2k (at its narrowest) from the Albanian mainland.

Although South Albania normally boasts 290 days of sunshine a year, thanks to the wonders of climate change, this is the wettest spring on record. This view in this picture was rare for us in Ksamil. But when the sun did make an appearance, that…water…did…glitter…WOW!! It was especially remarkable to be here in May, before the summer crowds arrived, we had this beach all to ourselves.

This statue is in the center of Ksamil (X-ah-mill). We don’t know much about it but we loved its playful attitude! It’s just happy…and a wonderful presentation of the Albanian upbeat character. Even more amazing a feat, when you understand what they had to endure for 54 years at the hand of a tyrant dictator named Hoxha…Ksamil is a small community of about 3,000 people which has a tiny resident population for most of the year, but then swells significantly in the summer months with tourists. Visit in April or October and you will be the only tourists in town however. Ksamil has some truly gorgeous seaside beaches that seem inexplicably plucked from the Caribbean or from the Yucatán and deposited here, in Albania.

Ksamil IS beginning to realize its tourism potential with smaller scale development happening at a frantic, somewhat troubling, pace. The beaches and sea, the beauty of the surrounding Butrint National Park landscape all come together to make a true piece of paradise ready for the developer to pluck. The rush to develop and capitalize on the beauty here is understandable, but we hope is done smartly. There appeared few guidelines regulating the development, despite confusingly the fact it’s on national park land with sprawl and refuse dumping already happening. We were told that between 1992 (after the fall of Communism), and the early 2000’s, Albania’s government was essentially caught off-guard with few regulations and no laws governing new building. Meaning it was a mad dash… anybody who could build whatever, wherever, or tried to. Fortunately, it seems the government and municipalities are wising up with various building restrictions and permits to gradually curtail the unfettered building projects.

Spending a week in Ksamil really gave us a chance to live as a local and experience Albanian life in a local home. As with every Albanian we’ve met, our hosts were incredibly hospitable, and always, always smiley. We kicked off our time with a shot of mandatory homemade raki with them, and complimentary conversation assisted by google. For the record, Albanian Raki, which is essentially a fruit brandy (usually made with grapes) and a close cousin to Italian Grappa, is distinctly missing the anise flavor found in Ouzo in neighboring Greece. All Albanians seem to have a huge personal stash of homemade raki, usually filled in repurposed clear plastic or glass bottles and stockpiled in a kitchen cabinet. The grape made Raki is potent at 40%-65% ABV, it is clear and slightly woody or tannic with no smoothness on the way down. It’s not for the weak stomached! We took no great pleasure in getting to the bottom of our shot glass.

In this picture, you can also see our studio apartment where we stayed ($18/night) and our laundry line. (Side note: Three laundry essentials we recommend when traveling longer term…1) a sink stopper, we’re using a silicone lid we bought for cooking as a one-size-fits-all drain plug, 2) a paracord rope to use for line and 3) when we don’t have a sink we use our Scrubba, which is a silicone-based sealable wet bag and all-in-one that you put your laundry, water, and soap in for a portable washing bag.

Settling into the ‘home’ life in Ksamil involved several trips to the wonderful market. Mouth-watering super fresh fruits and veggies, everything grown in Albania (as best as we could tell) is bio/organic, and all readily available. Its strawberry and mulberry season here now, and they run about $.80/pint.

Just in case you have a urge to experience a ride on the water in the most outrageously sick paddle boat you can find… look no further. These little dream boats are available to hire in Ksamil; helping you to fulfill all your sweet ass paddle boating desires.

And more… but somewhat less sweet rides…these paddle boats, some with slides(?!), look like obnoxious LEGO’s tossed into the water. Talk about tarnishing the scenery.

Ahhh! Much better 🙂 The calm before the storm is certainly upon Ksamil and we’re so glad we got to appreciate it when we did. The big island you see offshore here is Greece’s Corfu.

The other beautifully green islands in front of it are Albanian, wonderfully natural and undeveloped because they are part of the Butrint National Park and the strictly enforced closed frontiers employed by the communist Hoxha regime. Although they are easily swimming distance from the shore, no one could easily set foot on these islands before the 90’s. Because of the proximity to Greece, they were very much off-limits for everyone to prevent escape. Some compare the communist dictatorship that was in Albania to what is in North Korea. It was a brutally enforced authoritarian state. The Hoxha regime regularly shot dead any would-be escapees. But, as if death were not enough of a deterrent to escape communist Albania, if you somehow did manage to escape all of your immediate family and extended family members (cousins, aunts, in-laws) paid the price. They were punished for your desertion and brutally reprimanded, denied goods and services, thrown in prison, tortured, or even executed… and the punishments/reprimands went on FOR THREE GENERATIONS! This means if your grandfather did something bad, his grandson could pay for it! Imagine looking across the sea at Corfu so close, yet knowing you were utterly trapped. It must have been so unimaginably hard.

It is difficult to go very far without seeing Albania’s national symbol, a wicked double-headed eagle.

When you’re wandering through Albania something peculiar will likely catch your eye when you glance at the roofs of buildings and houses… some sad and weary-looking stuffed animals hanging ‘suicide-style’ off the edge or harpooned on the rebar. You see, Albanians are actually very superstitious. They believe that if you hang a stuffed animal off a building under construction, it acts as a sort-of talisman to ward off any evils spirits and discourage any feelings of envy from your neighbors. This sad Santa here, is complete with a necklace of Dracula-esque garlic is doing an excellent job.

From Ksamil, it’s a short 25-minute local public bus trip ($1) into the large port city of Sarande. It’s a nice enough city with a big beach area and promenade, but we definitely were pleased we’d chosen to stay in the smaller more homely community of Ksamil. However, it was great to have Sarande as a nearby hub for services like getting haircuts ($6.50), dental check-ups, and onward public transit options.

About those dental check-ups in Sarande…since we’re traveling long-term we can’t neglect our teeth and we were due a cleaning. So, with Albania being a popular dental tourism destination frequented by Italians, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to see Dr. Eni Shehu for a cleaning and check-up ($13). We found Dr. Shehu after a quick google search and through her very good quality English website. We set up appointments via email and voila! It’s that easy. She was tremendously personable, spoke excellent English, and had a sparkling clean clinic with modern dental equipment and materials. This positive experience (and low cost high quality of service) also led Mandy to decide to have some much needed updating done to her veneers in Tirana, but more on that in the Tirana post.

From Ksamil, it’s an easy 8k (2hr.) walk south to Ali Pasha’s castle. Although we walked, you can also hop on a public bus heading towards Butrint ruins and ask to be let off at the short 2k trailhead through the Butrint National Park to the castle viewpoint. The view looking out onto the saltwater marshland of Butrint National Park was jaw-droping, made all the more impressive by the vibrant wildflowers surrounding us in full bloom.

The open water of the marshland was so glassy smooth it looked like you could skitter a stone across it as if it were ice. In the middle left, we get our first view of Ali Pasha’s sublime island castle. We’ve never quite seen a castle perched in such a serene an isolated spot, totally entombed by water. What an efficient moat!

Ali Pasha, a.k.a. the “Lion of Ioannina”, or “the Balkan Napolian”, was an Ottoman Albanian commander who became pasha, or ruler, of western Rumelia, the Ottoman Empire’s European territories including much of the Balkans and Northern Greek/Macedonian region during the early 1800’s.” (Wikipedia)

It wouldn’t be a proper post about Albania without mentioning the infamous (and truly oddball) Hoxha bunkers. During Hoxha’s reign and beginning in the 1960’s, driven by a paranoia that Albania would be invaded by either Russia, or the USA, or both, he embarked on a nationwide construction campaign to build 750,000 of these ridiculous pre-fab concrete bunkers. Hoxha had the bunkers installed across the Albanian lands, with particularly high concentrations along the coast and borders. Most weigh around 5 tons and are built to withstand direct tank mortar fire. The nearly indestructible reminders of the Hoxha regime, still pepper the landscape to this day. Most would’ve held 2-4 militia men, and were meant to be used as sniper shacks to defend Albanina from any would be imperialist conquerors.

When this megalomaniac (Hoxha) had these bunkers constructed, he wanted to make sure they were indeed indestructible, as his chief engineer had insisted they were. So, rather than take the engineer’s word for it, Hoxha ordered him to go inside the prototype bunker. Then, Hoxha ordered a tank to open fire on the bunker. Fortunately for the engineer he did a superior job constructing the prototype bunker and survived the test of his ingenuity. Constructing 750,000 bunkers crippled Albania financially, and robbed them of countless resources. While this bunker madness was going on thousands upon thousands of Albanians went hungry, were put on food rations, and grew more and more destitute.

You can pretty much find them everywhere. We even found a super-sized luxury model with a million dollar beachfront view.

The inside of a bunker…about 6’ tall and 6’ diameter. Hmmm, not quite big enough for a bed & brew guest room…although bunker & brew does have a nice ring to it.

It’s too easy to fulfill your vices in Albania. Gelato (yes, Italian quality) is $.28 a scoop and beers are $.82 from the market. At a restaurant a beer will cost you about $1.40.

Spending some time at the beach. No crowds, no hawkers, no bugs, no charge. Seriously, what is not to love?!

One of the idyllic sunsets we watched from the beach at Ksamil. Ironically, as we were watching the sun slip into the Adriatic, a giant cruise ship came from Corfu and went right in front of the setting sun. So we missed it. Ugh! More parting gifts from Greece. 🙁

Himare

Moving up north on the Albanian Riviera, we spent four nights in the lesser known small seaside town of Himare, about 1 1/2 hours north of Sarande by bus. Our home in Himare was perfect; a little studio ($28/night) cutely decorated with Mr/Mrs signs so we didn’t forget our sides of the bed, a functional little kitchen, and a lovely GIANT balcony overlooking the sea.

Perfect for doing some yoga on.

It really was a beautiful view. From here we could not only gaze at the sea, but the gorgeous mountains that surrounded, up to Himare’s Old Town, high on the bluff.

One meal we grew accustomed to making in Albania was pasta with “Fergese” sauce, which is a uniquely Albanian delicious blend of cheese curds, tomatoes, peppers and olive oil. Not sure if it is meant to go with pasta, but it worked for us!

Himare had the perfect seaside promenade for an enjoyable stroll, or for Mandy to more ambitiously run by the sea. The Albanians seem keen to spruce up and redesign their public spaces for the better… we were impressed with all the newly planted trees, frequent trash collection, and city sweepers. Seems like a great place to live!

You can even get your fish directly from the fishermen at the docks every morning. Love this!

We were surprised and especially delighted to happen upon a (new?) trail infrastructure that has popped up along the coastline. We discovered there’s a very well-marked coastal trail that runs from Himare, for at least 15k, north to Dhermi. We did about 6k in an afternoon but this trail is so far a complete unknown tourist draw, and not mentioned by the (very few) guidebooks that exist on Albania. Hmm. We might be back to test this trail out more thoroughly in the future.

Thanks to the trail, we discovered aqua blue swimming holes like this one.

And it also led to barely touched secluded beaches, such as Lividhi Beach

It was here we decided to try getting in the sea again. The temperature was warm enough to invite a dip, but the water still was just a little…chilly. Greg’s swim lasted only a couple of minutes, and Mandy’s, even shorter!

For those interested in a little bit more of the luxury splurges on the Albanian coast, here is your infinity-pool inclusive hotel for about $40/night.

Featuring beach views like this one!

Another reason we love Albania is because we can afford to eat out on our budget again!! Yay! Some food on the coast we ordered: grilled veggies ($3), a shishkebab platter ($2), and fresh-caught haddock and veggies ($7).

Himare has a really interesting Old Town, up on a bluff overlooking the “new” Himare town below. You could walk between the two in about an hour. Worth it for the tremendous views and the amazing ancient castle!

Also we saw some of the oldest churches from our tour of Himare old town. Church ruins, or churches in general, are not too easy to come by in Albania. When Hoxha came to power, he actually forbade any religion and tore down hundreds of churches and mosques. It then became the world’s only atheistic country. Today, an estimated 70% of people worship Islam, although you wouldn’t know it, and we’ve been here during Ramadan.

Exploring the ancient Himare fortress was actually one of the highlights of staying in Himare for us. Parts of it are still inhabited, and walking in the narrow windy cobbled stoned streets was thrilling. We were free to wander the abandoned and ruins with absolutely no one to compete with. And the views were spectacular!