Hotel Riviera Vlore

... bewoelkt ist ist es immer noch 30 Grad und recht schwuel.

Berat besteht aus einer Burg auf einem Berg. Diese enthaelt ebenfalls Kirchen und auch heute noch bewohnte Haeuser. Am Berghang gibt es dann einen alten Vorort und auf der anderen Flussseite, durch eine Steinbruecke verbunden, einen weiteren Vorort. Drumherum gibt es heute aber natuerlich auch eine moderne Stadt mit guter sozialistischer Architektur.

Gruss
Ralf

... and sometimes struggle to start.

The ride is very bumpy but shows how rural population lives. Most people have used their yards as gardens, growing grapes, corn … Many buildings are half built. Effigies are common but can't tell what they are for. Deserted factories. Trash everywhere. Concrete military bunkers are all over the strategic locations (eg, town entrances, hills, bridges). I am taking photos from the bus but ...

... is another little ripper with amazing views of the valley from its back deck. I’m out there right now and its so peaceful. I wish I had some more time in this region as I am rushing through it madly at the moment but now that I am out of the madness that is the Adriatic coast I am feeling more and more settled on the road. Tomorrow I think I will head into Macedonia to see Lake Ohrid and after that it will either be a crazy stint in Corfu Greece or some travel through Bulgaria.

... choose to sit by the roadside cafes and watch, but not the women. I guess since they are the main attraction of the show, they have no rest.

As soon as I entered the countryside, I started to notice the concrete bunkers. Mostly they are in pairs by the roadsides; each of them is small and has a round top, look a bit like an oversized mushroom. After seeing so many of them, I decided to find out what kind of deal they are, and discovered an entertaining story ...

... enjoyed the people and the food thoroughly, and even got a little more than a tourist insight through our volunteering.

Scott is an English ExPat who was looking to open a hostel somewhere that has a lot of tourism potential. He fell in love with sleepy Berat, and bought a world heritage building to convert into a hostel. What he needed from us was some finishing touches. During our ...

... country in old times. They are also likely to be a bit stubborn especially in the villages but friendly though. The beaches near Vlora are very popular in Albania and preferred by a large number of tourists mainly Albanians coming from other regions of Albania as well as from Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro. We can mention beaches like Plazh I Ri, Vilat, Radhime, Orikum, Dhermi, Himara, Jale etc. Around ...

... a wide panorama of the town below in the valley, with the hills rolling off towards the distant mountains beyond. This was a good thing, as the church itself turned out to be locked! The girl that I hiked up with - Caterina from California - outpaced me a bit since I kept halting for photos and the like. After negotiating a couple downright hairy gravel paths along a cliff edge, I made it up to the castle walls and climbed on in. It seems like no one ever uses the ...

... over a large serf population of mostly Illyrian origin. The city grew rich on the slave trade and local agriculture, as well as its large harbour, said to have been able to hold a hundred ships at a time. Apollonia, like Dyrrachium further north, was an important port on the Illyrian coast as the most convenient link between Brundusium and northern Greece, and as one of the western starting points of the Via Egnatia ...

... Une jam Onufri, dhe vij nga qyteti i shkelqyer i Beratit (I am Onufri, and come from the town of Berat). Onufri's style in painting was inherited by his son, Nikolla (Nicholas), though not so successful as his father. In Onufri's museum are to be found works of Onufri, his son, Nikolla and other painters'. There are also numbers of icons and some fine examples of religious silversmith's work (sacred vessels, icon casings, covers of Gospel books, etc). Berat ...

... couple, read, and napped.That night we got to watch a comedian named Kate Clinton(no relation to Bill) who was hysterical. We keep thinking that we will go dancing in the disco that opens at midnight, but we are just a couple of old married ladies now and crash early every night. We have done so much walking this trip that we need plenty of beauty rest. Next stop, Pula, Croatia!