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.
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