Last Updated on June 24, 2019 by PowersToTravel
From Apollonia we headed south through Fier towards Vlorë. It seemed that a remnant of an old and different civilization awaited us at every turn: Illyrian, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, even the Italian Occupation of WWII.
In Vlore we finally met Albanian history. In 1912, representatives from the various regions of Albania came together to sign the Albanian Declaration of Independence which declared their separation from the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
The town has a great statue in Flag Square representing the various Albanian regional groups. One man has his arm raised. We are sure the sculptor meant to convey triumph, however my husband turned to Kledi, “I wonder if he ever got his question answered?”
The weather was still damp and instead of taking the prescribed walking tour, we did a quick pass through the Flag Square, past the Independence House and Muradies Mosque, and then drove to the seaside to visit the National Museum of Independence.
I had been worried in planning this trip that extra costs would creep in. Some agencies will fully document a detailed invoice identifying every expense/activity the fee covers. Jimmy had responded so immediately and exuberantly to every email. I had asked for an invoice and instead had gotten a brief itinerary that in places didn’t properly flow, as if it had been cobbled together from boilerplate text. So I had worried a little about additional expenses. No such thing happened. In Vlorë, as we stared dismally at the raindrops and our missed city walking tour, Kledi said “Let’s go!” and off we went to the museum. He handled all money affairs, so what he paid extra we had no idea.
The Independence House was a small two-story building on the waterfront. A number of bronze busts line the courtyard. I really enjoyed admiring the busts and statues. They seem to convey such energy, as if the sculptor was trying to commemorate “Leadership.”
We received a guided tour and saw the “Betsey Ross” flag. Well, it was actually the flag flown on independence day – a black double-headed eagle on a red background. We seemed to see the woman seamstress in every gift shop in Albania, a woman on a stool, looking down, sewing the flag. She and Skanderbeg were just everywhere.
After the tour we headed south to our hotel. Originally we had been booked into a hotel in the city center, but a the last minute I had changed to a seaside hotel. This is rather embarrassing to write, however about two weeks before our trip, Albania hit the international news – illegal immigrants from Africa had been stopped in the port town of Vlorë and detained and suspected of carrying Ebola. The quarantine period was twenty-one days, so there was no way of knowing if it was for real. I focused on our hotel, and realized that there were seaside hotels to the south of the city and decided we did not want to be in the city itself. I wrote to Jimmy simply saying we would rather have a particular seaside hotel which I had researched on Trip Advisor. As usual, he wrote back affirmatively.
However, as we drove south after Vlorë, I saw the requested hotel go by and we did not stop. I said to Kledi, “That’s our hotel!” He quickly checked his itinerary and said “No, it’s further on.” We finally arrived at the Grand Hotel. He called Jimmy and was told that this hotel was brand new, better than the one I had selected, and most importantly, was directly on the beach. My original choice was on a bluff overlooking the sea.
Somewhat suspiciously we allowed ourselves to be checked in. Our room had a nice balcony with beach view. There was an awesome blue light / blue skylight feature in the room. I relaxed and took a walk on the beach.
On my return we decided we would like a blanket on the bed. We searched and finally found a chambermaid, make some motions and received our blanket. It became apparent that few staff spoke English. I didn’t feel disconcerted because I knew Kledi was right down the hall.
After dinner we decided to shower and found NO hot water. Dinner had introduced us to the one staff member who spoke English, a waiter. So I wandered downstairs, into the kitchen, and with various hand motions indicated I wanted the English-speaking waiter, but not food. He came upstairs, tried the faucets, realized that indeed we did know how to turn on a faucet and that the fault was with the hotel’s plumbing. He said it would be fixed. We waited and waited and still no hot water. Finally we decided to shower in the morning. Then morning came and still no hot water.
Kledi came to join as at the end of our breakfast. He looked so bright-eyed. “You shaved in cold water?” Greg asked.
“Cold water? What cold water?” Apparently only our room, or our corridor, was affected by the outage. Jimmy was very apologetic, through Kledi. He had hoped to improve on my request, by giving us beach front. He was quite generous and made up for it by giving us an upgraded hotel at the next location, again, right on the sea, and this time with hot water! He also gave us a complimentary dinner at the end of the trip.
Not surprising, the Ebola story never re-surfaced, and apparently had not made the news in Albania itself. However I did not regret our waterfront hotel, in spite of the cold water!
Qemali – the first President
Diabetic Travel Tips
As beautiful as the beach appears, it is a small pebble beach, not sand. We were there immediately after the last weekend in summer, so the beach was almost deserted. There were some families just outside the picture. They didn’t seem bothered by the texture of the beach, but with my tender, neuropathic feet, I was unable to walk the beach. I had to wear my waterproof sandals. The issue then became that the little pebbles would jump right into the side of the sandals and I found myself unable to walk at all. My biggest regret of the trip is that I didn’t bring my real surf shoes. I had figured that waterproof sandals would solve all my needs, but they failed me here.
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Check out this article of mine too:
Albania Travel Blog – Itinerary, Impressions and Diabetic Travel Tips
