Dhermi & Drymades beaches - Albania

Trip Start Oct 30, 2007
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Trip End Nov 20, 2009


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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Back to the coast via Apollonia, "a ruined city from 588 BC, set on rolling hills among olive groves, with views that expand for miles across the plains below" (yes, yes, lovely - read : worth a 20 min lunch stop) through to Vlora, a built up tourist town with a beach (wow : cram 'em in!) and south down the "treacherous road" to some beaches we'd heard were really nice, and completely unspoilt (a tough call in Europe). 

Now at the border of the Adriatic and Ionian seas, the sea was a most beautiful blue, just like we'd seen in Croatia, and the area really undeveloped.  The road wound up and through the beautiful Llogaraja mountain pass over to a most beautiful sight - dazzlingly blue waters and white shores of Dhermi and Drymades beaches.  In the distance across the millpond-like waters was the island of Corfu. We negotiated a 4WD track down to the beaches (couple of small restaurants, one or two beach bars and a handful of private rooms - that was it and just what we wanted).  Albania was finally delivering the goods.  We stayed for 3 or 4 days between the two beaches, soaked up the sun (easily 35 degrees), swam in the incredibly warm, clear, still water, and enjoyed cold beers at sunset.  We stayed up til 3am one morning having a dance party for two in the van, consuming way too much local wine, speakers blaring, and decided then that we were definitely not too old to go hard for 4 days (read : all nighters) at Europe's biggest music festival in Serbia in two weeks time.
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