Albania and Montenegro - Christmas in June?

These are not already Christmas decorations. ... we were wondering the same when we saw these in the shops....We were told that St Nicholas is the patron of sailors and voyagers. You will find more details on this under the Montenegro section further below. Map including Albania and Montenegro. Just in case you do not remember where these countries are 😊.

Albania

Durres (our port of entry into Albania)

Albania has limited facilities for yachts people. You have to engage an agent who completes the paperwork for police and harbour authorities. Using an agent made our check in very quick and easy. We were able to do it before arriving (all by email). After docking on a tyre protected pier, we were told, that we are free to head into the city. We bought a local Sim card as a first priority.

While changing the courtesy flag, I made a bikini out of all the country flags we have used to date (Sven said that I would never post this and he therefore lost a dinner!)

The sailing yacht next to us was from Melbourne, Warrandyte (suburb next to where Caroline used to live). When the Melbourne Yacht left, another Australian Yacht arrived, this time from Freemantle. Durres is a very commercial port.

Albania is a new country for both of us. Here a few facts.

• Albania is a small country with a population of just 2.8 million! In 1989 it peaked at 3.1 million. The external migration was prohibited during the communist era. 900,000 people left Albania during this period (600,000 of them settling in Greece)

• Albania is rated as one of the poorest countries in Europe

• The most common religion in Albania is Islam, with the second-most-common religion being Christianity. However, Albanians are very accepting of any religion.

• Many European languages originate from Greek, Latin or Slavic families, but not Albanian, it is unique. Here are a few words: përshëndetje (hello), faleminderit (thank you), gëzuar (cheers) and mirupafshim (goodbye).

• The most famous Albanian is Mother Teresa.

Local currency is the Albanian Lek. (Below is approx. Euro 42.-/ AUD 62.-)

Our impressions:

• Albanians are very friendly and helpful. We felt safe and welcome wherever we went.

• Food and traveling is very affordable

• The few cities we saw had a communist feel to them, however, the streets were clean and lined with trees

• It is not a touristy place at all but this will probably change soon

• We did only daytrips from Durres port and did not explore this country as it deserves it. There are beautiful springs, mountains and national parks we would have loved to visit.

Tirana

We decided to take a public bus from Durres to Tirana. It was an old Ex- German Mercedes Travel bus (they never repainted/rebranded it). Before departing, a guy entered the bus, selling bananas.

We both decided to sit next to a window to enjoy the view. We had some lovely Albanian Ladies sitting next to us. The end station was a bus terminal out in nowhere and we had to take another bus to the city centre.

Not so long ago, graffiti and street art were unknown in Albania. The art was heavily controlled during the communist era. Yearly MuralAL Fests (starting in 2018) attracted artists from around the world. The artists aim was to help Tirana become more colourful. The street art is still tightly controlled by the government.

George Kastriot Skanderbeg (the man on the horse below) is a national hero. He fought against the Ottoman Empire for almost 30 years.

The "Katedralja ngjallja e krishtit"

We had a small lunch in Tirana. We hand signalled that we would like to have a bit of everything. The bill for food and drinks was Euro 6.-

We hired a car for 3 days.

Bazar like shops.

Tirana has two interesting “Museums/historical art centres” called Bunk'Art

Bunk Art 1 was a Former Cold War bunker, now a contemporary art & history museum. It is a 5 floor underground palace with 106 rooms and an assembly hall. It showcases the Albanian life during the 45 years of communism.

Bunk Art 2 was a Communist-era nuclear pit bunker and has now been turned into a history museum. It was built between 1981 and 1986 for the Ministry of internal Affairs (it could only be accessed from inside the Ministry building). It consists 24 rooms, an apartment reserved for the Minister of internal Affairs and a large hall It was built to withstand a potential chemical and nuclear attack.

After a history morning we decided to drive to the Dajit mountain to have lunch, We ended up in a fish farm where our lunch was taken directly from the water.

Our hiking app did not show any walks in this area and there was no path through the forest......everything looked so the same. Sven informed me that there are brown bears in Albania. I googled it to verify and read that in addition to brown bears, there are also wolves, beautiful Balkan Lynx, the Nose-Horned Viper (the most poisonous out of the 3 poisonous snakes which can be found here), as well as the Mediterranean Black Widow spider… I (Caroline) looked at my open hiking sandals with the feet deeply covered in leaves and said ” I don’t think so” and headed back to the car.

We came across many Bunkers. By 1983 there were 173’731 concrete bunkers scattered across the country. The bunkers are of various sizes and types: mountain sites, buildings and pits.

A drive into the mountains

It's all so exhausting...😊 ... we had a quick nap in the forest.

Below pictures were taken through the car window while driving.

We were amazed by the manual labour in the fields. Hay was cut and turned by hand and fields were turned over without machines. The second picture shows a street vendor selling cherries on strings!

Berat

We enjoyed the drive to Berat (also called city of a thousand windows)

Berat is located in the south of the country. It is surrounded by mountains and hills.

Berat, is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008 due to its unique style of architecture. It also has an old fortified city filled with churches and mosques.

You could still see snow on the mountain top.

The National Iconographic Museum "Onufri" is dedicated to Byzantine art and iconography . It is location inside the Church of the Dormition of St Mary. So glad we went inside. It was amazing.

Walk back from the castle to our car

A well deserved local Albanian Beer called "Korca"

Sven had some coins left (approx Euro 1.-). The lady was gratefully smiling at Sven and was so sweet with me. She obviously did not notice that I had my phone in the hand and the video on. Check out how friendly she was (and of course also many other people we have met)

It is not always all smooth sailing!

When we came back from dinner we noticed a terrible rotten egg / sewer smell. Smelling the air outside, then following the smell down into our bedroom we realised, that one of our batteries was badly overheating and leaking/fuming. Lucky that we came back when we did and were on land. Also glad it did not happen during the night as the boat batteries are under our bed!

Sven disconnected the faulty battery and moved it outside.

Montenegro

It took us less than 10 hours to sail from Albania to Montenegro.

Bar was our first Port of entry. We flew the courtesy flag and the yellow flag again (to signal to customs and immigration that we request clearance) . The check in process took 2 hours (visits to the Customs and Harbour master buildings), The Tourist office was closed and we were told to pay the tourist tax in our next location.

Tivat

Wow, Tivat was a bit of a shock after Albania. It is a luxury spot with high Marina fees, luxury brands and fancy restaurants. A little St Tropez in Montenegro!

There is lot of mud on the sea bottom and we struggled in several locations with our anchor. We caught a cable twice (other sailors pulled out a shopping trolley...)

Kotor

Kotor is a fortified town in a bay near limestone cliffs. We did not want to hike up the internal stairs (busy) but preferred the windy road outside the Fortress . This was not a nice move as we avoided paying the entrance fee of Euro 11.- each.

Instead we climbed up some wooden stairs and entered through a window next to a sign saying we should not do that... but so many seem to know about this. We did take the stairs on the way down. so had different views walking back.

Our boat is in the bay on anchor.

After our little excursion we bought delicious smoked beef at the market. The friendly fisherman shared his life story with us.

The medieval old town has lots of winding streets and squares.

We were seeing these beautiful St Nicolas statues in the stores. These hand carved and painted statues cost between Euro 50.- and up to Euro 1'000.-!

As previously mentioned these are patrons of sailors and voyagers. Other stories tell of Nicholas saving his people from famine, sparing the lives of those innocently accused, and much more. He did many kind and generous deeds in secret, expecting nothing in return. Within a century of his death he was celebrated as a saint.

The dogs belong to a couple from Botswana. They also live full-time on their boat. They came to say hello.

The meal below was simple, reasonably priced and so delicious. It was served with various sauces including Ajvar, and some other spicy relishes.

Our boat with lovely mountains in the background.

Perast

We sailed past Perast and its 2 tiny islands (one natural and one man-made).

The Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Skrpjela) has a church on it and visitors are welcome.

On the other island is the monastery of St . George (Sveti Djordje). Visitors are not allowed to visit.

Morinj

Sven told me that he would take me to a very unusual place for lunch and it was.

We anchored in a bay and took the dinghy up a river which lead to below restaurant.

on the way back the jetty was under water.... oh the tide coming in from the ocean...

It's a rainy day..... and the boat got a great wash. 3d picture was our last port in Montenegro and time for us to do our country check out.

Our heading in our last blog read: ."Italy- someone is missing". What was that all about? Well, typical Sven. He decided he did not want to be on any picture on that post! On one picture he was sitting on a bench in the background... and even on that I had to draw a moustache on him and make his hair black so nobody would recognise him!! Why?

Here is his answer: "I bet, there will be less views without me on it because people will not go back a few times to see me....." 😂😂😂😂 (I love his confidence!!)

However, I must admit his theory may be proven correct, as we had fewer views from our families and friends!!!! 🤣😆😂

Next country: Croatia

❤️ Sending our love to you our families and friends ❤️