ALBANIA DAY 7. December 20, 2017. From Berat to Gjyrokaster.
Greetings from cold (but sunny) Berat – and onward to Gjyrokaster
It was 30 degrees last night when we walked downhill from Hotel Desaret to the Mangelimi restaurant on the main street. Once again we were the only patrons of the restaurant – one of the “upscale” (by Berat standards) eating places in town. The waiter even had white gloves!
They had an extensive menu and didn’t note that anything that was listed could not be prepared, which was very surprising. We were actually still a bit full from the huge lunch that Lili’s wife prepared. But we figured — “you gotta eat!” We tried to ask for small portions but that didn’t go too far. So we started with the Albanian version of tzatziki (yogurt, cucumbers, spices) which was good, but with far fewer cucumbers than we are accustomed to.. It was served with great bread (bread is really quite wonderful throughout Albania, so it is difficult to turn it down and to think about any sort of diet here). We then had two main courses which we shared (naturally!) – a veal shish kebab that came as two separate large skewers with fairly large pieces of veal and red peppers; the plate included a good salad with thick juicy slices of tomato; and we had a wonderful eggplant dish that was baked in a casserole. We had a half-liter for red wine (local – which means a blend of many different grapes – but thus far all of these local wines have been very very good) and he tempted us with a simple ice cream dessert. – Total bill: equivalent of $17.00… So once again, Albania is looking like a possible retirement destination! – if and when either of us ever move to that step in our lives.
We head to Gjyrokaster in a few hours and I’ll finish up this note from there tonight – after we celebrate Mike’s birthday at a restaurant recommended by the foodie folks in Tirana (so I’m assuming it will be quite good). They also recommended a second restaurant for our final day in Gjyrokaster.
By the way, for those who were sweet enough to ask about the baby (Mike’s grand-nephew?) – he looks quite adorable and we are anxious to meet him when we get to Geneva.
So, we left Berat at about 10:30 this morning.. after breakfast at Desaret – they did not disappoint; yet again a terrible breakfast, despite the fact that we are the only guests, or perhaps because we are the only guests. They had granola which was fine, but then they brought out crepes – stuffed with what appeared to be an entire jar of Nutella and because I think they thought they were making it special they included a few slides of banana (fine!) and also corn flakes!! And on top of the crepes they poured chocolate syrup. Always embarrassing to leave food on the plate – especially when traveling. So we tried to eat some of it.
Anyway, we left and headed toward Gjyrokaster. It was pretty cold and no sun, so I guess it felt even colder than the 38 degrees. The first half of the drive was on pretty miserable roads with minimal directions, lots of pot holes, and such… but we managed to make pretty good time, especially once we hit the brand new road which went for the remainder of the drive until we got to Gjyrokaster’s environs. The drive was interesting as we went through many small villages and roadside developments — all along the way we saw men “hanging out” on the roadside .. very much what you see in other Muslim countries. Men smoking, having strong coffee, and talking – sometimes in cafes, sometimes on street corners, and in rural areas, on the road. Women always seem to be bustling and working — walking in and out of shops, waiting for buses, etc. The landscape was truly beautiful – lush, green, and with snow capped mountains in the distance.
As we approached Gjyrokaster, we needed to rely heavily on GPS – taking us up limestone cobble streets where there was barely enough room for a single lane of cars, but it was two-way and we always seemed to be going in the direction against the rest of the traffic, so we needed to find places where we could step aside to let those cars come down the hill as we went up. This was a slow and tedious process and for a while we thought we were on a one way street in the wrong direction. Alas, we eventually made it to Hotel Argjiro – a recently renovated hotel, originally built in the 1850s. It has 49 rooms and – you guessed it – only one room is occupied – by us!!
We were greeted by a sweet young man whose English was amazingly good. We dropped everything in our room (best in the hotel!) and then headed up those same cobblestone streets for lunch at the top of the hill, next to the city’s large mosque.
Lunch was great and the place was set up like you are eating in a grocery store with shelves lined with jars of preserved and picked peppers and olives and wine. We had three “traditional Gjirokaster” dishes (a marinated eggplant salad, veal skewers, and a sort of arancini accompanied by wine and sparkling water – food was quite good. Total cost $14.00. From there we roamed the town (which is only partially open given the weather and lack of tourists). Stopped in at a very cute store that sells only products from the region – olive oils, vinegars, jams, etc. Trying to figure out how and if we might bring a few things home. Returned to the hotel, rested a bit, did some work (yup, real life must go on). And then we headed out to dinner. I had arranged a dinner place for tonight (Mike’s birthday), using the newly developed and emerging group of friends here in Albania. So we were to go to Kodra (located in the hotel Kodra). We asked for directions at the front desk (which is operating totally for us). Seemed pretty simple – about a block and a half – we can handle this.
About 15 or 20 minutes into our walk, we realized we were very lost and stopped in a little bar (naturally all men drinking and talking). Very few people speak English except for hotel management once you leave Tirana, so communication is a bit of a struggle – but very interesting as we all use bits and pieces of every language we each know and sign language is always useful (reminds me of traveling in the Soviet Union many decades ago, when Mike and I drew pictures to show what we wanted for dinner). We kept repeating Kodra (K-Oh-Dr-A).. and then one of the men appeared to know where we were headed. His new directions seemed really strange since it put us back on the path we had walked to get to where we were. Well, turned out the restaurant was about a five minute walk from the hotel, and we had already been walking about 20 minutes. Anyway, made it to Kodra for Mike’s birthday dinner.
Kodra was a very informal restaurant inside (with a large outdoor patio that is probably wonderful in the summer). Food was good, not great (but probably good for winter in Gjirokaster. We were the only foreigners (naturally) but there were two or three tables of people – once again men – drinking, smoking, and chatting. Seems like rural Albania is a great place for older men — lots of socializing, hanging out, and “deep discussions?” .. For women, not so sure.. There seemed to be many things on the menu that looked quite interesting, but they were out of a lot of them (I think they pare the menus down in the winter (good thinking), but don’t change the menus. So you get a pretty comprehensive list of options, but they really only have a few of them at this moment in time.
What did we eat? We had spankat (sort of a savory pie with spinach – not flaky like spanakopita – but I think definitely in that family), pasta arabiata (which was ok but not as spicy as what we consider to be arabiata sauce), and pork kebabs which were quite tasty (they use a lot of interesting spices), and Albanian wine (which we are now quite fond of)… and the waiter brought out a dessert – oranges with a very nice sweet cheese with pomegranate (they are very big cheese eaters and every menu has lots of cheese options).
The walk back to the hotel was a breeze since we now really knew the route well… it was also under the twinkle lights that spread across the main street and up the entire two block walk… Made it a bit magical.
All the best — Fern..
More on Gjirokaster tomorrow.
Fern's Travel Notes 