Toronto, Canada

This was a shorter trip than most for us, two weeks in southwest Balkans. It turned out to be a pretty good itinerary, with lots of variety of sights and activities. We flew into Tirana and drove south to Gjirokastër, and then hopped along the coast north to Dubrovnik before heading back south to Tirana and back home.

We spent about half our time in Albania, and really enjoyed it. It's still under-touristed relative to other countries in the Balkans. It's best to rent a car to get around; the distances aren't that great (we spent on average two hours driving between cities), and outside of Tirana, the driving is pretty calm. If you can, Dubrovnik and Kotor are best visited when there are no cruise ships in port. There's sites such as this one where you can see the schedules.

After we were trying to figure out our favourite thing we saw; we had lots of favourites but there wasn't one site that I would say if you could only see one thing, see this. You could choose from any of a number of the places we saw and not go wrong. Here's our list of highlights:

• Walking about the streets of Gjirokastër *
• Gjirokastër Castle & Museums
• Ruins at Butrint National Park *
• The drive from Gjirokastër to Butrint
• Seafood in Sarandë
• Walking about the streets of Berat *
• Ruins at Stari Bar
• Walking about the alleys of Kotor *
• Tasting menu at Galion in Kotor
• Hiking up the Ladder of Kotor
• Driving around the Bay of Kotor
• Walking the walls of Dubrovnik *
• Restaurants in the staircase alleys of Dubrovnik

* UNESCO World Heritage site

We were very lucky with the weather. In December / January, it's supposed to rain about 50% of the days. After we got through the rain in Gjirokastër, we had sunny weather pretty much the rest of the trip.

There was a fair amount of variety on the trip too. When I was planning I thought it might be too much of 'UNESCO old towns', (for example, the Baltic capitals blurred for me after a while), but they are all very different. We liked the food everywhere; we also tried & liked the local wines. The coffee was excellent, it seems like every small restaurant has a serious espresso machine. Maybe because of the variety, overall, the trip seemed like much longer than two weeks!

Vienna, Austria

Homeward bound! We had a flight to Austria at 2pm, which meant we could have a relaxing breakfast, pack, and get to the airport without rushing. We rejigged our luggage cause we were overnighting in Vienna. We had booked through Expedia, and weren't sure if our journey was considered one continuous flight where our baggage would be checked through to Toronto. So packed the carry-on for what we needed in Vienna, and everything else in the bigger suitcases. We didn't have any bulky souvenirs so it was an easy pack.

Checked out of the hotel and drove to the airport. Google maps dropped the pin to the airport at some back entrance, and was trying to take us down some dirt roads. We ended up ignoring Google and just followed the major roads to get to the airport. Neil Stephenson in Reamde describes it much better:

The GPS unit became almost equally obstreperous, though, over Richard's unauthorized route change, until they finally passed over some invisible cybernetic watershed between two possible ways of getting to their destination, and it changed its fickle little mind and began calmly telling him which way to proceed as if this had been its idea all along.

The car rental guys were waiting in the parking lot, so it was pretty quick and easy to return the car.

It's a small airport and check-in didn't start until two hours before our flight. We browsed the souvenir shops and drank our water while still outside security. Finally the counter opened. Turns out our big suitcases did get checked through to Toronto, so it would be easier for us in Vienna.

We flew Austrian Airlines to Vienna. The flight was just over an hour, long enough to be served a heated meal, which was actually really good!

Got another passport stamp in Vienna. Then just walked through to the exit and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. This traveling-with-just-carry-on thing is pretty convenient!

The sun had already set by the time we reached our hotel. Quickly changed into our warmer stuff (boots, scarves etc) and headed out for a whirlwind tour of downtown Vienna. I felt like I should have read the in-flight magazine, where they have stories like 'Twelve Hours in Vienna'.

It just started to rain as we left. It was also very windy so we didn't bother with umbrellas, just our hoods. Walked towards St. Stephen's Cathedral, about 20 minutes from our hotel. I was surprised by the number of tourists out and about, particularly in souvenir shops. We found the one souvenir we wanted, a snow globe. Snow globes were invented in 1900 in Vienna; the original company still makes them.

St. Stephen's had a mass in progress, but luckily they still allow tourists in at the back. It's a huge cathedral, one of the landmarks in Vienna. At some point we'll be back in Vienna and will see it properly. For today we settled for some exterior night-time pics, sheltered from the wind and rain in an ATM overhang, and the brief visit inside. We also walked by a few other highlights, including St Peter's Catholic Church, the Hofburg, Albertina Museum and the Vienna Opera House.

We had dinner at Plachuttas Gasthaus zur Oper, apparently one of top places in Vienna for schnitzel. Good thing we had reservations cause they were non-stop with people, mostly tourists who probably googled the same sites as me :) We both had the schnitzel, conveniently highlighted on the menu. (Some other tables had ordered other items, which also looked good, but I think here you're supposed to have the schnitzel). I'm no aficionado, but it was excellent. I had a Marzënbier which went quite well with the food.

The next morning we had time for breakfast at the hotel, before heading back to the airport. We were already checked in, so just had to go through security and get to the gate. The flight home was uneventful, the end of our two-week trip.

Tirana, Albania

We slept in a bit for this trip till 9am and then went down for breakfast in the hotel’s nicely appointed dining room. (I think our hotel has a highly-rated restaurant for dinner, except it’s closed in off-season.)

Breakfast was quite good, and they made a decent cappuccino too.  There was an orange tree on the patio (we had to walk through it to get to the dining room), it was so full of oranges, that we just had to stop to take a pic.  We thought about just plucking an orange for the road but didn't.

First stop for touristing was the Pyramid of Tirana. It used to be a museum, and then converted to a conference centre. It looks like they had a big fire cause it was all fenced off, with the windows blown out. Oh well.

Next on our list was the National Arts Gallery. It too looked like it was under restoration of some sort, covered in brown fabric. On closer inspection it was actually covered with coffee bean bags stitched together, as an art installation of sorts. Unfortunately the doors were still locked, although it was 15 minutes after the scheduled open time. So far, 0 for 2 for touristing :(

We followed the pedestrian boulevard, and came across Bunk’Art 2, a history museum in a former Communist-era bunker. It was very well done, documenting the dark history during communism.

After we went back to the National Arts Gallery which was now open! At first we were puzzled cause about 90% of the paintings were covered under screens. Later we asked and it too was part of the art installation, a statement by the current curator. It’s interesting as an installation, except now we just paid admission to see a bunch of coverings. The paintings that we could see were similar to the Soviet-era art we saw at the Belarusian National Arts Museum, the style of which I really like.

We walked around some of the lively pedestrian areas.  The cafe patios were full with people enjoying the nice weather (relatively, for January) (It was about 12C and sunny).

We tried to find a little restaurant listed in the Lonely Planet, supposedly a classic Tirana place, near the food markets. It was closed (permanently or for the season, we couldn't tell), but there were plenty of other happening restaurants nearby.  We picked the one with the least number of smokers on the patio, and ordered off the menu. We should have just pointed at other tables; the most popular item was the qofte (ground beef and spices, grilled on skewers), served with a salad and draft beer.  We ordered a mixed grill and I had a 'large' beer, which turned out to be in a 1L glass! At least we had a sampling of all the types of sausages we had seen in the markets :) . Found another place for an espresso.

On our way back to the hotel, we walked through a carnival of sorts in Skanderbeg Square. There were classic rides, almost antiques, such as a double-decked merry-go-round and bumper cars. The kids activities were in the centre of the large plaza, surrounded by pop-up cafes and bars.  It seemed much more genteel than some other hectic carnivals we've seen.

We also stopped in at the Resurrection of Christ Orthodox Cathedral. Its 46m bell tower is a landmark visible from most of the centre.

The sun was setting and the temperature dropping, so that was it for the day. Relaxed back the hotel, and later went out for dinner.  We had reservations at Padam, which we didn't need as there was only a few other diners. The food was so-so. We were both tired, and had our flight to Vienna tomorrow, so it was an early night.

Tirana, Albania

Neither of us slept very well, I think cause we were afraid of sleeping in. We had planned an early departure, hoping to complete the six-hour drive to Tirana during daylight.

We finally woke up around 7am, and left the Airbnb just before 8am. The nearest taxi stand was a seven minute walk; Heather flagged down an empty taxi passing by almost immediately.

Got dropped off at Gruz Port, where we had parked our car. There was a hotel across the street that was serving breakfast, so we had a quick bite, using up our remaining kuna.

Paid for parking at the machine (I still don’t know how the prepaid parking works that I bought on the web), and we were on the road by about 8:45am.

We drove along the coast most of the way, mostly retracing our route. Got some good pics of Dubrovnik at sunrise.

Instead of driving all the way around the Bay of Kotor, we took the ferry across the narrow mouth for 4.50 EUR. It also gave me time to relax from driving.

There was no lineup to cross the border to Montenegro. Got both an exit stamp from Croatia and an entry stamp to Montenegro!

We bypassed Bar, and then to the border of Albania. Here there was a huge lineup, which took us just over an hour to get through. No stamps at this border; in fact we haven’t yet had a stamp at all for Albania :(

We continued south to Tirana. It got busier about 10km from the centre; including a couple of very busy roundabouts. (At this point we decided to not try to drive to the Skanderbeu Museum tomorrow, about 45 minutes out; I was done with driving).

We reached our hotel, near the hip Blloku area of town. Parking was just across the street in a secure lot, one of the easier parking locations for this trip.

Checking in was very fast and efficient, the opposite of our experience with our Airbnb host in Dubrovnik. The receptionist gave us the spiel as he carried our bags to our room, basically said here’s your room and then left. I wish all checkins were like this :)

We were tired, hungry and thirsty from the drive. Plus the sun was in our faces most on the time and we had headaches. I showered first and then went out to buy some water. Ended up at a bakery, where I also bought a cheese and tomato sandwich to split with Heather. It felt like the tastiest sandwich ever.

We had reservations tonight at Salt, a very trendy restaurant in Blloku. I think you need to book weeks in advance. We planned our trip in July so it was easy for us to get in.

Dinner was really good. Service was excellent. There’s restaurants like this in Toronto, we just can’t get into them :)

Walked home feeling better than when we first arrived. We fell asleep pretty quickly.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

We were actually up before our alarm this morning. We were early for breakfast (the restaurant only opened at 9am) so walked around to the front of the ramparts. Dubrovnik was very peaceful at this early hour, although I suppose most of the world is quiet on Jan 1 :)

Breakfast was excellent again. To our surprise, when we asked for the bill, the waiter said that it was free for us! We asked him if he was joking, cause it made no sense. But it was true! We have no idea why; other people were getting their bills. Maybe they saw my number of followers on Instagram :). Or maybe they’re big Bollywood fans?(I had a fake brush with stardom in Indonesia years ago, cause a lot of locals mistook me for a Bollywood star). In any case, it was a pleasant start to 2020.

So onto the walls! There’s three access points, we started at the entry in the southeast corner. Paid our 200 kuna each (I had read that it was kuna only; but they did take credit card, although no Euro) and we were in!

We had the walls pretty much to ourselves. There were a handful of other people, but we quickly passed each other. The views from the top were spectacular, you really get a full perspective of the walled city. In particular, the view from Tvrđava Minčeta, the high point of the wall near Pile Gate, is amazing. It makes my list of one of the top things to see in the world. (Kotor was also amazing overall, but there’s not really a single viewpoint, which is the criteria for my list).

The sun was mostly pointing at us, so not so good for pics. The western side of the walk, where the sun would have been properly positioned, has views primarily of the Adriatic and not of the city.

It took us about an hour to walk around. We had seen Buža Bar from the walls, which is snuggled on an outcrop of rocks facing the Adriatic, accessed through a small passage in the wall. So we went there for a drink. It looked like a better experience than it was; the glare of the sun is pretty strong, and there’s gusts of wind that can spill your drink. We left after a few minutes.

In the main square, the city was serving champagne and oysters for free; and the orchestra was playing on the main stage. We had lunch reservations so didn’t stay too long.

So next was our lunch at Lucin Kantun. We were seated outside on the alley stairs, it was the archetypical view of a European restaurant. It was perfect.

Lunch was equally as good as the atmosphere. We split a bunch of tapas, all of which were excellent. Our favourite was the lamb skewers served with a honey lavender side. Overall it was the best meal we had this trip, with the exception of the tasting menu we had in Kotor.

We had plenty of time to change into warmer clothes and walk south along Ul. Kralja Petra Krešimira IV, to watch the sunset over the walled city. We had sort of seen it yesterday whilst rushing to our Bosnian friends’ car; today we walked to a vantage point with a clear view and watched the sun go down. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the sun set over such a clear horizon.

Got back to our Airbnb, and relaxed. Later went out for a drink to celebrate the starting of the end of our trip. We start heading back to Toronto tomorrow, first to Tirana for a couple days, and then a layover in Vienna.

Unrelated to anything, Dubrovnik has some of the best tasting tap water in the world imo.