We awoke to beautiful sunshine on the morning of our trip to Berat. Considering we took a taxi from Tirana to Durrës as our last mode of transport we decided to go back to our favourite if not slower form of transport being the local bus to get us to Berat.
Luckily for us the bus terminal was only about 50m from the hotel and Tim had done some research so we should have been able to catch a direct bus from there. We did ask the man at our hotel before leaving and he said we couldn’t and we had to catch from outside of town. We thought we would give it a go anyway and on arrival as per usual of bus stations we were accosted by a combination of bus drivers wanting to know where we were going and a line of taxi drivers offering us a fare. The bus drivers either told us we had to go back to Tirana (lie) or get a connection from Durrës (true), the next hurdle was trying to work out where to catch that bus. Some said the town centre (lie) but one man told us just around the corner. Judging by the dirty looks he got from the taxi drivers and other bus drivers we thought he was telling the truth so we headed in that direction like the pied piper with a line of taxi drivers following us and the further we got to the right spot the lower the price got. We got confirmation from a lady that we were in the right spot who actually apologised to us that she couldn’t speak English, only Albanian and Italian. As if she was lacking. Crazy.
One taxi driver was bantering with us the whole time until the bus arrived telling us the tourists can’t catch the bus and a direct taxi was much better. This ended with a clap on the back for Tim and a nice to meet you as we boarded the bus. This took us to another bus station where we easily found our connection to Berat.
The drive from Durres was quite lovely with white capped mountains in the background, rolling hills covered with olive and orange trees and the occasional cement bunker which was a left over from the Communist era. Apparently Hoxha was obsessed with being invaded and so he built over 100,000 of these around the country to protect the troops.
We thought we would book an apartment for the 3 days we were in Berat to get a more traditional Albanian experience and to get a little more room than just a bed. Ironically when we arrived we did have a whole apartment but the only heating in the place was in the bedroom and it was cold while we were there so we spent majority of our time while in the apartment in the bedroom!
The sun was shining on our day of arrival and it was supposed to turn nasty the next day so we thought we would get out and about and make the most of it while we could. Berat is one of the oldest cities in Albania and is situated around an old castle on a hill. The hillside below is dotted with old Ottoman style white houses and therefore gets the knickname of town of a thousand windows. The narrow cobbled streets were like a rabbit warren and we often got lost but it was fun just wandering around wondering what would be around the next corner.
We also managed to enjoy another delicious lunch of local Albanian cuisine and this time we were sitting near a group of 4 men in their 70’s and 80’s getting pretty sozzled on rakia which is the local spirit fermented from grapes. Every time they went to drink they started belting out some songs and eventually got the speaker from the restaurant to play the tunes so we had an impromptu Karaoke season. It was very entertaining and luckily for us they all had pretty amazing singing voices!
That night was the celebration for Albanian Independence from the Ottomans and in the main square we got to experience an Albanian concert with traditional dancing. Well it was one dance that went for ages which consisted of a large circle where you went around completing intracate foot movements that got faster and faster. This was accompanied by a singer and a clarinet player who was amazing. When we first arrived he was just standing in the middle of the stage looking quite uncomfortable and we thought he was pretending to play along in the previous song. But what we think he was doing was warming up his reed for the next song. Anyway when he did step up and play we certainly stopped making fun of him. He was very impressive!
The next day we awoke to the rain tumbling down so thought we would have a relatively easy day and tick off a few of the local museums. The first one was the ethnographic museum which when we arrived we found out it was closed for renovations. Next was the medieval town which included two mosques. We didn’t know if I could enter them as I didn’t have a head covering and mosques usually have a male and female entrance. We had heard that you were allowed to enter all mosques and churches in Albania but I didn’t want to risk offending. But when Tim went in he was met by a lovely man who said he would take us around the mosques but he said his English was not great. He told us the mosque was open to all so in we went. He disappeared for a few minutes and soon had an Albanian lady who was also a tourist and her Italian boyfriend coming on the tour with us and he had kindly asked her to translate for us, though to tell you the honest truth his English was pretty good though he said he only spoke Albanian, Italian and Greek.
We got an amazing amount of information from him in regard to everyday religious life in Albania. The major religion is Muslim though he was very adamant that everyone lived together harmoniously whatever the religion. The Muslim women were not required to cover their heads unless in the mosque and to show just how liberal they were he explained that they could even go to the cafes and drink coffee and smoke. Very liberal indeed. 😳 But we did understand what he was saying and it is something that we have noticed with our time in Albania. The two mosques that we visited were side by side and one was a Sunni and the other Shiite and there was an Orthodox Church just down the road yet everyone worshiped harmoniously. There is a definite ethos of being entitled to believe what you want just so long as you don’t effect others. Apparently Albania cut all ties with Iran as the Albanians didn’t like their religious extremism and didn’t want it coming into their country. I think it is an after effect of the communism era where any religion was persecuted so now they are just all happy to be able to practice their faith and will never begrudge another for doing the same.
We finished the day off with a very memorable dining experience. Tim found a local restaurant situated on the hill in the old town and with the wind and rain pelting down we set off. On arrival we had our doubts as to whether it was open but were greeted at the door by a very friendly man who led us into his garden for dinner. We sat in a ramshackle lean to sheltered from the wind and rain and spent the next hour or so mesmerised and entertained by Lili’s antics and then wowed by his wife’s cooking. We even had some red wine homemade by his father which was actually not too bad. He also made us have same rakia which in truth I am not a big fan of but it’s very hard to say no to someone who is offering you some as a token of their appreciation and hospitality. We left with full bellies and big smiles on our faces. Berat has definitely been another highlight of Albania with its stunning architecture, wonderful food and beautiful people. S
