Dubrovnik, Croatia

We had breakfast at the big hotel in Luža Square. It was excellent, they also had good tea :)

Made reservations there for tomorrow’s breakfast in case not much was open on Jan 1. Later on we also made reservations for lunch at Lucin Kanton. So we were all set for food for tomorrow :)

We had plans to walk around the walls of Dubrovnik today, but then found out that the wall was open Jan 1, so instead spent today browsing for souvenirs and art.

There’s some good quality art in Dubrovnik. We were welcomed in one gallery with festive drinks and nibbles, celebrating their opening of an exhibit. We ended up buying an oil-on-canvas by a local artist, it was their first sale of the showing, about which they were quite pleased.

We had reservations for lunch at Bota Sare, a popular oyster and sushi bar. Good thing, cause when we arrived at 2pm they were full. As the Lonely Planet says, you don’t usually associate Dubrovnik with sushi, but they do know fresh fish here, so it makes sense.

We sat outside, with heat lamps and a blanket for our legs. There was a large boisterous table beside us, which made the patio lively. The patio was tucked in an alcove off an alley, with a view into a small square down below.

We had their sashimi and oysters, both were exceptionally fresh. Had an espresso and dessert after.

We wanted to try to catch the sunset from the top of the hill, and had about 30 minutes after lunch. So rushed back to our Airbnb, threw on our warmer jackets, and walked over to the cable car, about five minutes away.

Unfortunately the last cable car runs at 3:30pm (which seems odd, you would think it would run until just after sunset). We were resigned to trying again tomorrow. Another couple in the 20s, visiting from Bosnia, also came by to try to catch the cable car. As we were all walking away, they came back and offered us a ride to the top in their car! It was very nice of them :)

So we whisked up the hill. We had already missed the actual sunset, but still saw the sky turning orange / red, and then dark blue. It’s a beautiful place to watch the sunset over the Adriatic.

After, we rested back at the Airbnb and then later went out for a drink on a patio. There was another band playing tonight for NYE. (We liked yesterday’s music better.)

We aren’t much for staying up for the countdown at midnight anymore, so went back to our Airbnb and called it a night. We were awakened at midnight with fireworks that seemed to be exploding right over our heads. Happy New Year!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

We were on the road today, driving from Kotor to Dubrovnik via Trebinje.

Had breakfast in Kotor and packed up, and then pulled our suitcases around to the parking lot just outside town. We had booked our parking through the hotel, so it was cheaper, 10 EUR per day. (We also had in-and-out privileges, which I guess is useful if you’re exploring the surrounding area). There was a little box to drop off the parking card as we left the lot.

We drove north from Kotor, around the bay. It’s a beautiful drive. There’s small little villages along the shore, and the views of the water are amazing. We stopped at a couple viewpoints for pics of Ostrvo Sveti Dorde (the small island with a church).

Eventually we branched off inland for Trebinje. There were multiple checkpoints getting across the border. First we had a stop to pay a 3 EUR road toll. Next was a passport check at the border to Republika Srpska (one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other is the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). A few km later we had a customs and immigration check, where the guy asked to see our passports, car registration and green card (which allows us to take the car across borders). We got our passports stamped and were on our way! There was no line-up at any of the stops, in fact we hardly saw any other vehicles.

It really looked like another country after the last checkpoint. I don’t know if that’s due to geography (we were slightly inland) or economics. But it had a distinctly different feel, like stepping back in time a bit.

We arrived in Trebinje around noon. Found a public parking space, exchanged some Euro for marks; got a parking pass from the machine for an hour and then set out touristing.

It was very windy and cold today in Trebinje, about 3C. I think unusually windy, cause there were lots of small tree branches and twigs on the ground. One four-foot piece actually snapped off and fell on my head! I was okay though.

There was a traditional dance recital in the main pedestrian area. We watched them for a few minutes, per Heather they were very good.

Walked to see the old arch bridge, which is similar to the more famous bridge in Mostar. However the wind was causing whitecaps on the river (!), not very conducive to getting a full circle between the bridge and reflection. Oh well.

Walked through the old town. It’s in early stages of being restored, I can see Trebinje becoming a bigger tourist draw in the future.

Got back to our car and drove a few km to Stara Herzegovina, a restaurant recommended by our Airbnb host in Dubrovnik. It was excellent. We both had lamb ‘under the bell’. This is a cooking style in the region where the ingredients are placed under a terracotta lid and the lid covered with coals. It was delicious, some of the best lamb we’ve had outside of Turkmenistan :) Had a muddy coffee to finish, and then we were back on the road.

It’s under a 45 minute drive to Dubrovnik from Trebinje. The border crossing was straightforward with no line-ups entering Croatia (although lots of cars in the other direction, looked like could be an hour wait).

Google Maps has us enter the city from the north end which threw me off at first. I guess cause we were parking at Gruz Port it made more sense.

I had prepaid for parking at the port over the web, but couldn’t figure out how to use the permit, so just parked at the port and we’ll figure it out on the way out. It’s only 10 CAD / day.

Grabbed a taxi (metered) to Buza Gate, which was 80 kuna (about 8 CAD). I texted the Airbnb guy that we were at the door, he took about five minutes to arrive and let us in. He was rather talkative and took forever to describe the place and where to eat etc. Finally he left.

The sun was just setting so we rushed out to explore and take pics. Dubrovnik is an amazing place to see. Inside the walls, the town is bowl-shaped with all streets leading down to the middle. There was a band playing in the main square (part of their winter festival). It seemed like restaurants and cafes spilled out into every alley and street. Unlike Kotor, which had a very random layout, the streets here are laid out in a grid and it’s much easier to get around.

Anyways it was still very windy and cold, so we didn’t stay out much past sunset.

Later in the evening we went back out for dinner at Dalmatino, a restaurant recommended by the Airbnb. We didn’t much care for it.

Walked down to the main square for the live music. We really liked the band, Urban & 4, a popular Croatian rock musician. It was getting late (for us) so we called it a night.

Kotor, Montenegro

Today we hiked up the Ladder of Kotor, an ascent of 940m.

We dressed in layers. It was about 8C outside, which is perfect for hiking. We started in the morning so the first part was in the shade; at the top it was pretty windy (and probably a few degrees cooler), and on the way down we’d be in the sun. We were glad we took our toques - the wind was pretty cold at the top.

The trailhead starts outside the walls, near the Northern Gate. The path is quite obvious once you get on the trail; if you take a wrong turn trying to find the start (like we did), the locals are quite helpful in pointing out the way.

The trail zigzags up the hill, at a gentle slope. It’s covered with gravel and loose rock, very easy to hike.

At about castle level (260m), we could see the cutoff that leads to the castle wall, where a ladder was propped up to get through a window into the castle itself, where it’s then possible to take the steps down back into town.

We continued up. The path narrowed to about a cow width. Unfortunately there were also a couple cows walking up the path ahead of us so we were limited to their pace. The cows could actually walk up quite quickly, it’s just that they stopped frequently to munch on greens, chew their cud and look back disinterested at the tourists.

The views were great all the way up. Finally, we reached the top! The path continues further to the village of Njeguši, but we were keen to get back into town and have lunch.

We took a selfie (which we don’t do very often - maybe once or twice a trip), and then retraced our steps back to town.

It took us a total of 2.5 hours to walk up and back down, including time for pics along the way. The cows added about 15 minutes; so it’s probably just over a two hour round trip. (This is based on off-season - we saw less than ten other people the whole time.)

We tried another place for lunch, based on tripadvisor. It was average. I think most places inside the walls are varying shades of average, which is typical of a high tourist area. The best restaurants are outside of the walls.

After lunch we walked about 20 minutes around the bay to get pics of the walls at sunset.

Had drinks later on at Cesarica. It was a cosy place with nice atmosphere. Their food was okay but the draft beer was good!

Kotor, Montenegro

Breakfast was so-so at the hotel. I was surprised they had a buffet with so few guests, I thought it would have been cheaper for the hotel to offer à la carte.

There’s a couple of popular walks in Kotor. The shorter walk, variously called the Walls of Kotor, is up the city walls to the castle of San Giovanni (260m); the longer walk, the Ladder of Kotor, follows an old horse path through to the pass to the village of Njeguši (940m).

We did the shorter walk today. It’s off-season so there were hardly any other people on the walk (there were less than five other people at the castle at the top while we were there), although later in the day there were maybe 20 people. It’s also a much more comfortable temperature in December for walking. (It was a high of 11C today).

There’s stone stairs the whole way up (single file), and it took us about 30 minutes to get to the top, including lots of photo stops. There’s great views from the castle.

The pics were better on the way down (it was about 11am by this point) cause the winter sun had finally swung around the surrounding peaks to shine on the whole of the old town.

We went back to our hotel to clean up and change out of our trekking gear, and then headed out for lunch.

Decided to try Galion, around the bay, to get views of the old city from the outside. Turns out they had a five-course tasting menu so we didn’t even look at the rest of the menu.

The food was excellent. Our favourites included the grilled octopus, a mushroom broth, and a seafood risotto, although we really liked every course. We took pics of each, and when we counted them after, there were actually eight courses. No wonder we were full. Six of the courses were matched with wines, all from the Balkans.

After lunch, we did some souvenir shopping in the old town. Heather bought a cool-looking cat bag (a bag with an image of a cat). Kotor is another ‘city of cats’ and they do love their cats here.

We were too full for dinner, so later in the evening just went out for a quick drink. Ended up at the wine bar we saw the first day. They were playing tunes we liked (Manu Chau) and the place had a cool atmosphere. It ended up being a rather full unplanned day!

Kotor, Montenegro

We had a good breakfast at our hotel in Bar, then walked down the boardwalk to check it out. It was fairly busy with locals. Bar is a stop on the cruise ship circuit, and the ocean-front restaurants are built to handle the peak rush.

There’s websites where you can see the cruise ship schedules by port of call. There’s not that many at this time of year so I was able to book our trip to avoid the cruises.

Checked out of our hotel and drove to Stari Bar (‘stari’ means ‘old’). In 1979, the original location of Bar was hit by an earthquake and they relocated the town about 4km to the waterfront. Stari Bar is now slowly being restored as a tourist draw; it’s cool to wander around the ruins of the old castle that overlooks Stari Bar.

It was then a 90 minute drive to Kotor. Having learned from a couple other stops on the trip, this time I contacted the hotel ahead of time to figure out the parking situation.

Along the way we drove past the Sveti Stefan hotel island. You’ve probably seen pics of this on Instagram. It’s a very high end hotel, and only guests are allowed on the island. There was a convenient lookout point on the side of the road so I stopped to take a pic.

We also passed through Budva. When researching the trip, one of the options was Kotor vs Budva. A few travel blogs recommended Budva. Having driven through it, I’m glad we chose Kotor, it’s more to our liking. Budva I think has a better beach scene but that’s not our thing.

Google Maps showed 6km to our destination and I still couldn’t see the steep hills that surround Kotor. Then, we drove through a 1.6km long tunnel. Ah, that’s why I couldn’t see Kotor on the approach!

There was a bit of traffic entering the city centre. There was a cruise ship leaving at 5pm, the only cruise we’ll encounter.

Parked our car in a lot just outside the old city walls, and rolled our suitcases to our hotel (much easier than carrying backpacks).

Checked in, and then went to explore the old walled city. It’s really magical walking around the narrow alleys. Found a restaurant for lunch, and enjoyed fresh seafood and a bottle of Serbian white. It was excellent.

The sun was just starting to set (it was about 4pm) so we walked around taking pics with the dusk lighting. We just wandered - you can’t get truly lost cause of the walls.

We relaxed back at the hotel. We were still full by 8pm so just went out for some small bites. Had the most excellent olives. I tried a local draft beer which was refreshing.

It was a long-ish day, both of us had forgotten that we had visited Stari Bar in the morning. Also, in case Gerry or Tanya are reading, it’s country number 92 for me :) We were actually in Montenegro yesterday, but I forgot to update the country count until just now.

Bar, Montenegro

It’s a long drive from Berat to Kotor so we broke it up with a transit stop in Bar, Montenegro. Bar is part of the Montenegro Riviera on the coast of the Adriatic, and about a four hour drive from Berat.

We drove through some nice scenery on the way up, with the Adriatic on our left, and snow-capped peaks on the right.

We crossed the border to Montenegro at Muriqan - Sukobin. There was a five-minute wait, and then it was straightforward. I had to buy a Green Card which allows us to take the rental car across borders. It was 40 EUR for fifteen days, covering all of Europe. We did get our passports stamped on entry!

The last 30 minutes stretch to Bar was on a minor road, with barely enough room to pass oncoming traffic. We had to pull onto the shoulder for buses.

And then we were in Bar! There was some confusion driving to the hotel as the street it’s on is now pedestrian-only. So parked nearby, walked over and sorted out parking.

It was almost 4pm, just in time for a sundowner watching the sunset over the Adriatic. It was very nice, it did get a bit chilly (8C) once the sun disappeared.

We relaxed in our room until 8pm, and then went down for dinner. We’re on the coast so it was seafood for both of us, very fresh and tasty.

Berat, Albania

Merry Christmas! I think only once over the past eight years (since we started traveling over Christmas) have we actually had a fireplace (and thus a chimney) in our room. Our room in Berat was warm but didn’t have a fireplace, so no visit from Santa for us, lol.

Breakfast was in the same dining room that we had dinner. The room catches the morning sun and has great 270* views. The food was good, the coffee so-so.

After breakfast we headed up to Kalaja, the walled fortress on the hill, about 200m above Berat. It’s a steep climb up, with the occasional car going by. It took us about ten minutes to get to the main gate of the castle.

Normally there’s a fee to enter but not today, not sure if that’s because it’s off-season, or because it’s Christmas.

There were a couple other groups of people visiting too. We all started in a clump but then eventually spread out on our own ways. It’s an actual village inside, where people live, so really it’s just like walking about town. The highlight was Onufri Museum, set inside an 18th century church with a beautiful iconostasis, and 16th century religious paintings. We’ve recently seen similar artistry in Cyprus and Belarus; Onufri was the best we’ve seen.

Walked back down into town and had lunch at the same place as yesterday (we both had gyros). Called into a woodworking shop we had seen yesterday, to buy a wood carving we really liked, but he was closed. Walked down the pedestrian-only Boulevard Republika. One side is filled with restaurant patios, although somewhat sparsely used at this time of year (it was only 15C today). Heather picked an excellent coffee place where we had coffee and snacks.

We tried to find our way up to St Michael Church, this time using Google Maps, and we found it! It was closed (which we knew, it’s only open from 11am-noon) but it was more about the great views (it’s about 100m up).

On the way back down we tried to find our way out closer to the hotel. Somewhere along the way, I must have rubbed up against a lamp, and an enterprising lady popped out of her doorway like a genie. She started into her sales pitch for jams, preserved goods and raki. It was like watching an infomercial in a different language but still getting the pitch. Actually, it was like being in said infomercial. We had a sip of raki from a plastic water bottle cap (makes me strong), a sip of something else which had some benefit that I forget, anyways, it all made sense in the blur and I think we were lucky to escape with just buying a jar of fig jam, before the lady disappeared back into her doorway.

The spell wore off as we walked home. We threw out the fig jam in case it was a bad luck potion (we actually did throw it out, but just because we don’t trust the canning abilities of random people).

We had our Christmas dinner in the hotel restaurant. Tried a couple other mains, both were excellent.

After we walked down the pedestrian street and checked out the town’s Instagram-ready decorations. There were also classic rides like a merry-go-round. It was very festive.

Berat, Albania

We woke up with the sun shining for the first time on this trip. Had another large breakfast with great cappuccino, and then walked up to see the Zekate House (about ten minutes from the hotel).

The Zekate House is over 100-years old and an example of the great houses from the era. We had help to track down the caretaker (the opening hours are somewhat loose during offseason). There was a movie that had been filming on location and some of their gear was still in the house, for which the caretaker was very apologetic. The house itself was okay to see; the main room upstairs was the highlight with stained glass windows and carved wooden ceiling (it reminded us a bit of the Palace of Sheki Khan in Azerbaijan).

We walked back to the hotel (had excellent views of the castle and old town centre), checked out, and were on our way to Berat by about 11am.

The road was mostly in good shape, except for the cutoff to Berat. I suppose the Gjirokastër-Berat route is only common for tourists and not a major commerce route.

As we approached Berat, we could see the walled city atop the hill overlooking Berat. Then we turned the last bend and had our first view of the white buildings and went whoa, it looked really cool. (Later we read this blog, they had the same reaction).

Our hotel was accessible by car here so it was much easier to park and unload our luggage. Had a welcome drink (Turkish coffee), then freshened up and headed out to see Berat!

We walked across the Gorrica bridge to the southern side of the river, and then through the cobblestone alleys. Visited St Thomas Church (Orthodox Christian), it was okay. Checked out some craft shops on the north side of the river, and then tried to visit St Spiridon Church, but it wasn’t open even though the sign insisted they were open every day (maybe we were at the wrong entrance?). The sun was setting (around 4:15pm this time of year), got some sunset pics.

We tried to find our way up to St Michael Church, but go lost in the maze of alleys. Found our way out of the maze very close to our hotel! so called it a day.

We had made reservations at our hotel restaurant back when I planned the trip, because I wasn’t sure what was open on Christmas Eve, and also cause it’s one of the top-rated restaurants in town.

Dinner was excellent, I tried some lamb dish wrapped around sweet meats (a local specialty), Heather had tavë kosi, another local dish. We also had a bottle of Albanian white from the region.

So far it’s been a great time in Albania!

Butrint National Park, Albania

Today was a road trip to Butrint National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Over the centuries there were various empires that occupied the site, including the Romans. It got me wondering how many countries we’ve seen Roman ruins together. (Only seven as it turns out: Albania, Egypt, Italy. Jordan, Lebanon, Morroco, Portugal).

The weather was beautiful, sunny and about 15C. It’s a 90 minute drive south from Gjirokastër to Butrint, climbing out of the Drino Valley through the Muzina Pass (572m) back down to the coast. The views are really cool, especially of the blue-green waters of the Bistricë river near the pass. It’s also pretty fun to drive, with lots of gear shifting and steering.

We arrived at Butrint around 11:30am. We bought our tickets (300 lek, about 3 CAD) and entered. The ticket lady said we were the first guests for today. So, another day, another site to ourselves!

The ruins are spread out over about a 2km circle, very well marked for independent visiting (most UNESCO sites are like this). Our favourites were the baptistery, the basilica and the museum in the castle, which contain some very well preserved statues from 1AD. The ruins are surrounded by forest which adds to the mystique.

It took us about two hours to walk around, and luckily we had sunny weather the whole time.

We were close to the sea, so stopped in at a seafood place rated highly on Google maps, but it was closed for the season. So went to another place in the centre of Sarandë, which was excellent. Sarandë was a hopping little town, with lots of people walking along the boardwalk. This area is called the Albanian Riviera, it’s very beautiful.

It just started to rain as we got back into the car. It poured for most of the hour drive back to Gjirokastër. This time we were ready and had umbrellas in the car :) and not buried somewhere in our suitcases.

(Because we have a car for this whole trip and it’s all through urban areas, we took suitcases rather than backpacks so we could roll them, except we’re mostly in old towns with cobblestone and have had to carry them around so far).

Relaxed and cleaned up, and then went out for dinner. We ate at Odaja, a cosy little family-run place. It was really tasty (I had the grilled rack of lamb, Heather had sausage in a red pepper sauce). We tried to walk around after dinner but there’s not much for streetlights outside of the old centre, so we just headed back to the hotel.

Gjirokastër, Albania

We were able to sleep not too poorly considering the time difference (all of the places we’re visiting in this trip are six hours ahead of Toronto).

It was still raining. According to the forecast it was 100% chance of rain every hour, as far out as my iPhone gave forecasts by the hour. Luckily we had planned mostly indoor stuff today.

First up was breakfast, in the hotel restaurant seated beside a cosy warm fireplace. Breakfast was huge, which was good cause I was hungry. They made excellent cappuccinos too.

We bundled up for the rain and cold (about 13C) and headed out for the Castle of Gjirokastër. The old town is very compact - it took us about five minutes to walk up to the main gates.

Unsurprisingly, we were the only tourists at the castle today. It was amazing having the whole site to ourselves. Although, the castle has a very dark history, still within memory of current residents of Gjirokastër.

The entry fee includes admission to a couple excellent onsite museums. It took us a couple hours to see the whole thing. The rain and leaky castle walls added to atmosphere, especially in the prison cells.

Next, we attempted to walk to the Zekate House, but it was still pouring and the slate streets had turned into rivers, soaking our shoes through. So we called into a couple craft shops on the way back to the hotel, had lunch at a random open place (which was really good) and that was it for the day.

We were running out of places to hang our wet stuff between yesterday and today. Showered to get warm and clean, relaxed for a bit.

The hotel had recommended a couple restaurants for dinner, of which we tried the pizza place tonight. It had finally stopped raining when we walked to the restaurant - it was an odd feeling not being pounded by rain.

The pizza place was busy with locals. There was also what appeared to be two other tables with tourists! So we weren’t the only tourists in town :) Dinner was okay; we preferred the lunch place.

It was raining again as we left the restaurant so we just went back to the hotel instead of walking around town a bit. The forecast for tomorrow looks better, and then supposedly sunshine for the three days we’re in Berat. Let’s hope!

Gjirokastër, Albania

So we’re off again for another trip, two weeks over Christmas to the Balkans. We’ll be spending most of the time in Albania, and then to the port towns of Kotor (in Montenegro) and Dubrovnik (in Croatia).

We flew last night from Toronto to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. After takeoff from Pearson we had great views of downtown at night, flying over the 401 and then south around the DVP. Too bad my camera was in the overhead bin cause it was a great photo op.

We landed in Frankfurt at gate Z17 and our next flight to Tirana left from gate Z19, right beside it! But we had a three hour layover so it really didn’t matter :)

The sunny morning helped with keeping us awake and getting over jetlag. Had some snacks in the lounge. I’m always amazed at the number of people having a beer in the morning in airport lounges. (Although, they could have flown in from a different time zone.) There was also a line up for frankfurters at a booth in the terminal, which is another thing I don’t think I could have in the morning, even in Frankfurt.

The flight to Tirana was on a 90-seater Bombardier, a bit of a change from the 747 we flew over the Atlantic in. The airport in Tirana was also considerably smaller than FRA. After landing in Tirana we just did a U-turn on the runway and taxied to the terminal.

Got some Albanian leks while waiting for our luggage. The immigration guy was very friendly. There’s no visas required for Canadians (nor was there any entry fee, although the Albanian consulate website said it would be 20 EUR). Unfortunately no passport stamp either :( Still counts as a country though, number 91 for me!

We picked up our rental car (a Fiat), and were on our way to Gjirokastër, about three hours south.

It rained the entire drive. It looked like it could be very scenic if not covered in dark clouds! We passed through some small atmospheric towns along the drive, arriving in Gjirokastër around 5:30pm. Google maps took us down a couple narrow streets before we gave up trying to get exactly to the hotel. Instead we parked nearby and walked over.

The hotel proprietor met us just outside, and warmly welcomed us. (We wondered later if word got out in town about the lost tourists and he went to find us, I think we might be the some of the only tourists in Gjirokastër right now). He showed Heather to our room, and then went back out in the rain with me to pick up our luggage. We also moved the car to a better parking spot.

We cleaned up a bit and then went out for dinner. While we were in Frankfurt, I had sent a message on Facebook to Gjoça Restaurant to reserve a table for 7pm. Good thing I did, not cause it was packed, but because it’s normally closed in the off-season!

Dinner was tasty, all traditional Albanian dishes. In particular I was hoping to try qifqi, which is a sort of arancini with mint, found only in Gjirokastër. It’s on every menu here. Sure enough it was one of the dishes suggested by the restaurateur. Everything was delicious. Finished with some complimentary raki, the digestif of choice in the Balkans.

All in all it was a great start to the trip!