Albania has a very diverse climate and landscape for a small country. In my last post I discussed exploring the wetlands near Divjakë. From there we drove along the coast and then climbed high up the winding road to Llogara National Park.
While considering renting a car and driving through Albania, it was the thought of this treacherous, winding road that made me most nervous. One of the first things I did upon learning how to drive as a teenager many years ago was brake too hard on a switchback and skid off a hundred meter drop and I haven’t forgotten that fall. After a few days of Albania driving, though, I felt confident and the road was a delight to drive as it twisted through thick pine forests to the quiet cabin we rented at the top of the mountain. We relaxed and watched the sunset over Orikum Bay a thousand meters below.
Hiking trails lead off from numerous spots along the road at the top of the Llogara pass. In the morning we drove around with the thought that any trail would do so long as it had decent parking. All along the narrow coastal road and here as well, drivers simply parked blocking the road and I didn’t want to do that.
One of the Llogara hiking trails leads up Mount Çika to an elevation of over 2000 meters. Others lead to amazing coastal views. We did neither of these, but rather enjoyed a serene hike through quiet forests before getting back in our car and beginning down the other side of the mountain to the Ionian Sea. This side of Llogara is even more magnificent with amazing views of the coast for the entire snaking descent down the rocky face of the mountain.
At the bottom of the mountain, the road continued to weave through olive groves and villages until we reached our guesthouse near the village of Borsh. The owners, a middle aged couple, watched us arrive from their garden and then put down their hoses to come greet us in Italian. They speak some Italian and Greek, but no English.
NG quickly noticed a cute kitten and took off after it. The man poured me a glass of homemade raki, a strong and fragrant grape spirit, and the woman picked some cucumbers for Tola. Along the way, ND had been talking about cats and cucumbers. I guess he saw a YouTube video of people surprising cats with cucumbers and the two kids were discussing it in the car, wondering why cats were so afraid of them. Sitting drinking my raki while Tola wandered the garden, I nudged ND and pointed in turn to the cat and the cucumber Tola had left on the table.
Our host saw ND pick up the cucumber and, thinking he was going to eat it as people here commonly eat them like apples, insisted he wash it first. He showed ND to the garden hose where ND washed the cucumber. He sat back down smiling at me and poured himself another glass of raki as ND made his way over to the cat, cucumber in hand.
Suddenly, ND threw down the cucumber next to the cat. The man leaned forward out of his chair with a very confused look on his face, craning his head in ND’s direction. The cat barely glanced at the cucumber. The man looked at me as if I could explain what was going on and I just shrugged my shoulders and took another sip of raki.
The rugged Ionian coastline of villages and olive groves, of mountains and goats and quiet seas evokes a sense of the past. Maybe the market a kilometer up the road wouldn’t have been selling bottled Elbar beer and Coca-Cola two thousand years ago, but the terrain is little changed, the olive groves remain and the goats still wander the rocky hillside.
The owners of our guesthouse know a local fisherman who brings by some freshly caught Sea Bream, Koce in Albanian, and it is cooked up for us in an outdoor wood oven along with vegetables picked from the garden. I have to ask the name in Albanian because I want to make sure to ask for this fish everywhere I go. It’s perfect.
A lot of things are perfect on Albania’s Ionian coast, but most perfect of all is the shimmering turquoise sea. On a hot August day there is nothing more delicious than diving into the refreshing cool water.
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