Ferry in Fjord, Refreshing Dip and Accursed Mountains
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Travel day today! This meant no hiking or canyoning - just making our way to the northern town of Valbona in the Accursed Mountains at a leisurely pace, including a gorgeous ferry ride with a near miss accident on it.
Leaving the castle was much easier than getting there. It was early though because we had to drive 2.5 hours to catch our ferry. We also had to get cash because there is not an ATM in Valbona and almost all places here in Albania only accept cash - no cards.
Looking out from the castle grounds. Our room was in the top yellow building.
A nice view of the city of Kruja from the castle.
Narrow roads leaving the castle.
We grabbed breakfast on the road at a bakery - yum!
We think this was a fish farm.
Driving onto the ferry
Our car on the ferry.
Dan finally got his coffee in the morning before the ferry left.
The 2.5 hour ferry ride was like going through a fjord. The mountains were beautiful with lots of steep cliffs going down to the dammed up river.
We watched this boat heading straight toward the ferry - it was a close call that we have a terrible accident.
After the ferry ride, we drove another hour to Valbona, small town nestled in the mountains. But since it was a travel day, we took our time. We saw a small pull-off on the side of the road and stopped. To our surprise, we found this beautiful spot for swimming and jumping. The water was so blue, but definitely not warm. Weirdly, there were only guys there. A group of guys from Kosovo offered us a beer and we chatted with them for a while - a few of them spoke some English. I asked them where all the women were and he said that the women just didn't want to hang out where all of the guys were. An observation we have had is that there are always lots of guys at bars and other places drinking. We have also observed many women working their biscuits off. We later asked an Albanian couple about this and they told us that women are just not used to going out and doing adventurous things, so they stay home or meet up with each at cafes rather than exert themselves physically. We found this really interesting.
We found this cool spot for swimming and jumping on the side of the road to Valbona.
Check out the color of the water!
The water was beautiful but not warm.
Dan was not a fan of the water temperature.
I jumped a few times. I don't know if the guys there quite knew what to think of me.
The guys from Kosovo wanted us to take a picture with this guy they called the Bear.
The place we stopped at for lunch/dinner on the way to Valbona.
Pizza and salad - yum!
The sign for our guesthouse with big mountains behind it.
The Accursed Mountains seem very similar to the Dolomites and Slovenian Alps - they were formed out of the same materials and the same way. They are rugged and beautiful! The idea of hiking up them is daunting. However, we are planning on staying at this guesthouse for 4 nights, which will feel luxurious compared to moving around more. The plan is for a big challenging hike tomorrow, so we will rest up before our 5:00 wake-up.
Dinner at our guesthouse. The food in the mountains is much more basic.
Last year, Dan bought a book about canyoning in Albania, so that's how we ended up deciding to go adventure there. I read about the beautiful mountains, but what tipped the scales in Albania's direction was what I read about the food - it's kind of a mix of Greek, Italian, Turkish, and more. And with a mountain range named the "Accursed Mountains", we kind of HAD to check it out. Before we left, we had to get our ducks in a row, including creating our "geriatric garden" (raised beds) and putting the plants in the garden, getting and training a puppy, packing a lot of gear, wrapping up things things at school for my work and putting together the master spreadsheet for our trip. And before we knew it, it was time to depart. It was a long travel day, but we finally made it to Dhermi, Albania. We said goodbye to our pups, Maya and James and then headed off to catch the Concord Coach with a quick stop to get the salads that we always get for flights at Market...
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