September 27, 2022

📍Himare & the Coast of Albania 🇦🇱

This is your sign to add Albania to your bucket list of places to go.

Day (night) 1: We made it back from Greece and had our last dinner in Sarandë.

Fueled and happy, we made the trek to Himare. It’s not far, but the winding, narrow, mountain roads that shouldn’t be a two-way make it a longer (and scarier) drive. We arrive to our Airbnb by around 10:30 pm and settle in.

It wouldn’t be a proper arrival without a quick “snack” for J (or as normal people call it a “meal”). Yes, this was AFTER we had dinner. That’s my boyfriend!

Day 2: We woke up and enjoyed our balcony until we got hungry, and it was time to see what this Himare food was all about.

For the rest of the day, J worked because, shockingly, we have no offers for anyone to financially support our lifestyles. Meanwhile, I began planning a few other stops on the trip. We spent the nice relaxing day with views we couldn’t beat. Before we knew it, it was somehow dinner time. We went to Guma, which is an outdoor restaurant right on the water.

Because what’s dinner without dessert the size of your head.

Day 3: Back to exploring. We found a hike to a private beach that we had to try. Only problem was there wasn’t much instruction on how exactly to get there. So, off we went!

Moussaka to fuel the hike from **Hercules Restaurant**.

Along the route we went, there was a restaurant/bar in the middle of nowhere, RIGHT on the water. Noted. We made our way to the beach successfully and it was beautiful.

After a long swim, we began our walk back to the Airbnb, but we are not ones to pass a restaurant and not stop. So, a quick pit stop at the hidden restaurant we found on the way to the beach. Great decision.

The sun was setting on the way back, and we have yet another another perfect sunset! Overall, good day.

We watched the moon from our balcony and then had dinner at To Steki sti Gonia.

I’m gunna say the official name of this plate was a Greek quesadilla. (It was really called “covered pita” but I feel like they just could’ve done better with the name.)

Greek mozzarella sticks (also official name, obviously).

Day 4: I’m not sure where time went, but it was already time to leave Himare. J had been craving an “American breakfast” so when he saw the restaurant next to our house (Manolo) had pancakes, we made a mandatory stop before we left.

We began our journey back to Tirana, but not before stopping at every beach on the coast on the way back.

Quick lunch stop at the beach in **Vlore**.

The journey back consisted of what felt like 3,000 very narrow switch backs up a very large mountain. I’m not sure if everyone in Albania is also a professional NASCAR driver or what their Driver Ed includes because they are NOT phased by being on the edge of a cliff with another car and going 60mph. (Not to mentioned everyone is driving stick shift.) Seems safe.

We made it to the very windy top of the mountain, safely.

If you zoom in really, really far you can see the beach we had just come from allll the way down at the bottom of the mountain.

We watched a few hang gliders take off. Now adding hang gliding to ~~the~~ AK’s bucket list.

As we leave, J turns to me and says, wanna go on an adventure? Now is the perfect time to explain how a “J adventure” goes in 8 simple steps. Strap in, it’s always a wild ride.

Step 1: Get in the car and start driving, aimlessly usually.

Step 2: End up somewhere, that typically has zero other people.

Step 3: See something exciting along the way.

Step 4: Stumble upon some random places very off the beaten path. This site happed to be the **Monastery and St. Mary of Divinity Church**.

This is where things get interesting (as if 1-4 were normal).
Step 5: Take our small, not 4 wheel drive, car off-roading.
(Sir, you have a whole country to drive on and you choose here!?)

Continue step 6 with a smile on your face.

Step 7: Explore by foot to ensure the car will make it on the next step. (And decide you can.)

Step 8: After 20 min of off-roading, find out you were in fact wrong in step 7 and cannot make it further. Go back to previous beach spot and get to see the beautiful sun set.

We made it back to civilization and headed towards our Airbnb. The host greeted us when we arrived and we asked him, shockingly, if there was any place still open to grab food because it was a bit late. He told us to follow him and brought us to this amazing outdoor restaurant on the beach with a live Albanian singer. We could get used to this!

We got to see everyone dance and sing as we enjoyed dinner.

Day 5: We woke up (only because it was time to check out) and spent a few minutes on the balcony.

We then decided it wouldn’t be right to leave Albania without confirming the pizza was as good as we originally thought. You know, for science.

Confirmed. It’s just as good as we thought.

We walked around Golem and found the most perfect bar. We stopped in for what we thought would be a quick drink, but we got a little comfy in the beanbags.

Once we peeled ourselves off the bar furniture, we continued our drive to Tirana. We made a quick stop to check out the town of Durrës and walked around for a bit. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and most shops were closed. We continued on our way and made it back to Tirana (finally). Since it had rained on our first few days there, we decided to go back into the castle with better weather. It was so lively and every one was sitting outside eating and drinking. Naturally, we join. We randomly chose a restaurant, sat down, and received no menu. Why? Turns out it was a prix fixe 7 course Albanian meal. We were a little excited and totally forgot to ask how much it was. Too late.

The food was great and the best part: the entire price for 7 courses was UNDER $35 total. For two people! Confirmed, forward our mail to Albania, we will not be coming home.

We call it a night and go check into the airport hotel to sleep a few hours before our early flight to Greece 🇬🇷! Stay tuned!

PSA: Albania was amazing and we highly recommend booking a trip there ASAP.

Until next post! 👋🏼

AK & J