Daily Sabah, a nationwide publication based in Turkey has
published the article about Albanian Riviera. Ernest Whitman Piper is the
journalist who saw and wrote about the beautiful beaches of our country.
“Snuggled between the Adriatic Sea and the Balkan Mountains,
Albania has just as good a Mediterranean Riviera, with comparatively fewer
tourists and Mafiosi, and is about a zillion times cheaper. It's got a pinball
history of tribal conflict, time under the Ottoman reign, and paranoid,
isolationist midcentury Communism. What's not to like?”, says Piper.
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| Durres -Albania Holidays | | | |
Durresi : After
arriving at the Airport of Tirana, they head to coastal town of Durresi: “The coastline upon first glance was
a rugged thing, pale jagged rocks jutting out above green slopes. It was
astonishing: parabolas of green earth curved up and closed us into the valley.”
Himara: The town
of Himare was a single avenue along a walled beach, with a tangle of
residential backstreets sliding up the coastal slope.
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| Himara-Albania Holidays |
Borsh: Our next stop was through the village of
Borsh, where the men were selling milk from tractors in the road. A bunch of
hollowed-out resorts stood on either side of the single lane road, and we
followed a dirt path through what looked like a jungle to the beach. Finally, a
real beach, although still completely deserted. There was a small cafe/bar and
some beach chairs and we took out our shorts and read books on the beach
chairs.
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| Borsh -Albania Holidays |
Saranda: We
almost didn't stop in Sarande, but they had a neat castle (called Lekures).
It's situated right outside the city proper on a summit overlooking the
coastline.
Our trip across the Riviera had to stop here, since Sarande
was the last town before the Greek border and we were out of driving time. But
if you wanted to extend your trip a little bit, there are a few good cultural
options outside of Sarande. There's the ancient city of Butrint, a UNESCO world
heritage site. It's the remains of a Roman city, stone pillars and standing
churches on a forested peninsula. There's also the Monastery of Forty Saints,
or the Ksamil islands, or the ancient town of Finiq (named for the Phonecians,
naturally). We were overloaded on concrete, so we opted for the Blue Eye Spring
as a change of pace. I find it amazing that one can traverse the entire
Albanian Riviera, stay in derelict hotels where all the plaster flakes off in
huge chunks, have a beach to yourself, and then go visit some long-ignored Roman
ruins and hike all over them.
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| Saranda, view from Lekursi Castle |
