After another night with a Saya that sleeped uneasy (she woke at 2 crying at said that the dog was teased her) we woke up at nine. We had agreed with our host Dorian he would pick us up at ten and we had to get ready, I used a bit of time to clean my Handpresso and get it to work - and after it did, it really did make perfect sense to bring it along. My mornings will be perfect from here on out.
Our host arrived perfectly on time and after a bit of a talk he took us to a hotel above the city, it was build like a castle, and was almost in good taste (cough). He said the used to have a bear there - but they could not get the right food for it, so they could not have it anymore.
We insisted on giving him a cup of coffee and talk to him. He told us about Albania, from his perspective, and what have happened. In 97 the residing government was overthrown (a quick wiki search tells us it was due to massive government sanctioned pyramid schemes to launder money and hide arms trafficking) and the country was thrown into five years of chaos, where criminals essentially took over the country. In 2005 things started to go back to something more "normal". This is his account of the happenings - we need to check up on this. (Watch this space we will read up on the resent history) - but he said that these years in between where dark years, of fear and blackout, and only just the resent years things have stated to pick up here. As we have seen the infrastructure is being updated in massive scale around the country, where old holed roads are turned it to new highways. As he said, do not trust a GPS if visiting, since the change is so fast that they do not have time to update them. A very fitting story he told was of a man that drove in the night where there was no light, and he drove fast. He drove into a farmer with his donkey and carriage. They both were killed on impact, and the man was thrown 100 meters down the street. It seems so fitting on what we have seen and experienced in Albania. The development is so fast some places that it do not seem thought though, in our taxi drive in Sarandë we saw collapsed buildings. The growing economy will without a doubt help and is helping Albania, but maybe it is going to fast some places, and will eventually destroy what is unique about his place. It would be interesting to see how things look here in five years time. Dorian told us that he has a university diploma in history and geography, and can do electrical work, but there is no job in the first one and no money in the other one, so he is looking out for his sisters rent out house (we are renting) until something better comes along. He said that Albania is experiencing Greek and Italian migrations workers coming to Albania to try to get work which makes it hard for someone like him to get work. He dreams of going to Dubai, USA or Japan to work.
We have noticed that there are a lot of EU and American flags here, Kosovo have a lot of love for Clinton, Albania have a lot of love for Bush, since he was the one that ended up saving Albania in 2005 (which I actually was unaware of).
This is what we really enjoy about traveling places like this, besides the rich history (both resent and "old") is the possibility to get this story told by a local and how they have experienced it.
After getting told some actually not so pleasant story's in a very pleasant surrounding, we decided to drive to a wineyard outside of town. Saya struggled with the trip, but she understands that it is important to look out the front window and tell us when she is not feeling well. We had a short break (what turned out to be right outside the place we were going) and arrived after about 30 minutes. One of the things i have mentioned earlier is that Albania is a fertile country, and that was very apparent when we came to the wine-yard. Lemon and pomegranate trees was lining the road up the house, with full grape bushes lining behind them.
The place was very nice, we got a tour of the place the brew and make the bottles and it was beautifully made. We got a taster of four wines and a raki, with some bread, cheese and olives. We got a bit tipsy and ended up buying five bottles of white wine (of which i am drinks a glass right now) - Dorian only drank water, he insisted, a very conscious man. Happy and some lek poorer we drove back to Berat. Saya was in a bad mood so we decided to get a cup of coffee (some strawberry ice cream for her, since she insisted that is had to be red ice cream) and go back to the house for a short break.
We played around, read some books, washed some cloth and releaxed, which seems to get Sayas mood good again. We then went to hotel (Derseret) - which was a bit of the the beginning of the road that lead to the castle. Another place with a wonderful view of the city, where we had an amazing meal. It is like the general food we have here, simple but tasteful. The hotel was a humble place (far from build finished) but the food was amazing, and cheap! For 125 kr (17 Euro) we got thre main courses with a sideorder to the two of them, two deserts and two beers. It is so nice to be in a part of the Balkans where they actually can cook (The Novi Pazar experience from last year is still haunting me) It does seem an odd mixture of Greek and Italian, but it works, it just works, the two things combliment each other very well.
After the meal we went home, got Saya to sleep, and here we are. I have cleaned up the pictures and get them sorted today or tomorrow, this blog is slowly building up.
Our host arrived perfectly on time and after a bit of a talk he took us to a hotel above the city, it was build like a castle, and was almost in good taste (cough). He said the used to have a bear there - but they could not get the right food for it, so they could not have it anymore.
We insisted on giving him a cup of coffee and talk to him. He told us about Albania, from his perspective, and what have happened. In 97 the residing government was overthrown (a quick wiki search tells us it was due to massive government sanctioned pyramid schemes to launder money and hide arms trafficking) and the country was thrown into five years of chaos, where criminals essentially took over the country. In 2005 things started to go back to something more "normal". This is his account of the happenings - we need to check up on this. (Watch this space we will read up on the resent history) - but he said that these years in between where dark years, of fear and blackout, and only just the resent years things have stated to pick up here. As we have seen the infrastructure is being updated in massive scale around the country, where old holed roads are turned it to new highways. As he said, do not trust a GPS if visiting, since the change is so fast that they do not have time to update them. A very fitting story he told was of a man that drove in the night where there was no light, and he drove fast. He drove into a farmer with his donkey and carriage. They both were killed on impact, and the man was thrown 100 meters down the street. It seems so fitting on what we have seen and experienced in Albania. The development is so fast some places that it do not seem thought though, in our taxi drive in Sarandë we saw collapsed buildings. The growing economy will without a doubt help and is helping Albania, but maybe it is going to fast some places, and will eventually destroy what is unique about his place. It would be interesting to see how things look here in five years time. Dorian told us that he has a university diploma in history and geography, and can do electrical work, but there is no job in the first one and no money in the other one, so he is looking out for his sisters rent out house (we are renting) until something better comes along. He said that Albania is experiencing Greek and Italian migrations workers coming to Albania to try to get work which makes it hard for someone like him to get work. He dreams of going to Dubai, USA or Japan to work.
We have noticed that there are a lot of EU and American flags here, Kosovo have a lot of love for Clinton, Albania have a lot of love for Bush, since he was the one that ended up saving Albania in 2005 (which I actually was unaware of).
This is what we really enjoy about traveling places like this, besides the rich history (both resent and "old") is the possibility to get this story told by a local and how they have experienced it.
After getting told some actually not so pleasant story's in a very pleasant surrounding, we decided to drive to a wineyard outside of town. Saya struggled with the trip, but she understands that it is important to look out the front window and tell us when she is not feeling well. We had a short break (what turned out to be right outside the place we were going) and arrived after about 30 minutes. One of the things i have mentioned earlier is that Albania is a fertile country, and that was very apparent when we came to the wine-yard. Lemon and pomegranate trees was lining the road up the house, with full grape bushes lining behind them.
The place was very nice, we got a tour of the place the brew and make the bottles and it was beautifully made. We got a taster of four wines and a raki, with some bread, cheese and olives. We got a bit tipsy and ended up buying five bottles of white wine (of which i am drinks a glass right now) - Dorian only drank water, he insisted, a very conscious man. Happy and some lek poorer we drove back to Berat. Saya was in a bad mood so we decided to get a cup of coffee (some strawberry ice cream for her, since she insisted that is had to be red ice cream) and go back to the house for a short break.
We played around, read some books, washed some cloth and releaxed, which seems to get Sayas mood good again. We then went to hotel (Derseret) - which was a bit of the the beginning of the road that lead to the castle. Another place with a wonderful view of the city, where we had an amazing meal. It is like the general food we have here, simple but tasteful. The hotel was a humble place (far from build finished) but the food was amazing, and cheap! For 125 kr (17 Euro) we got thre main courses with a sideorder to the two of them, two deserts and two beers. It is so nice to be in a part of the Balkans where they actually can cook (The Novi Pazar experience from last year is still haunting me) It does seem an odd mixture of Greek and Italian, but it works, it just works, the two things combliment each other very well.
After the meal we went home, got Saya to sleep, and here we are. I have cleaned up the pictures and get them sorted today or tomorrow, this blog is slowly building up.