Rinse and Repeat in Sarandë + Birthday Dinner

It's Sarah's birthday today, so it won’t be a complete rinse and repeat. We'll try to add in something special for her. But the day starts with our fairly typical morning walk along the promenade—which, to be honest, is a great way to begin any day. The fact that it finishes with a short rest and a quick change into our togs for a swim at our local beach is the icing on the cake.

This means we’ve both been out of the country for our birthdays this year. Mine was on Koh Samui, Thailand—which feels like it was many birthdays ago. Who would have thought we’d be spending a birthday in Albania? Until six months ago, we wouldn’t have even considered visiting here.

There are lots of little children swimming at our usual beachfront, so we decide to move 100 metres further along. It turns out to be even better there. The slope into the water is less steep, which makes the pebbles less harsh on our feet. There are hardly any waves today, making floating about much more peaceful than on our last couple of visits.

A nice swim, and then back for a morning coffee and to start thinking about lunch. It's a tough life on some of these flashpacking days! 😂 That bus ride to get here is almost forgiven and forgotten now.

The afternoon disappeared quite quickly and included one game of Five Crowns—which I won again. No favours for the birthday girl when cards are involved. 😉 Trip score is now 6–5!

Late in the afternoon, I was starting to nod off, so I decided to have a siesta before dinner. Once that was done, we walked down to the promenade in search of a nice place to eat. Many places here have menus that are big on seafood, which doesn’t suit us. But we found a spot with a lovely outlook over the water and a mixed menu. It had good reviews as well. It was called Krahu i Shqiponjës—don’t ask me to pronounce it. 😮

We enjoyed a vegetable risotto, a chicken fillet with fries, and a green salad, plus two big Korça beers. Total cost: 2,650 Lek, or about $53 NZD. Good value.

A nice walk along the waterfront to round out a great day.