Wander More Work Less

Well, I have to take it back—Sarah did see the sunrise this morning! 😮 We got up at 6 am, which until yesterday would have felt like 5 am! We wanted to catch the 7:05 am bus into Corfu to go to the supermarket. Surprisingly, the bus was pretty much on time, and we decided to buy an all-day bus ticket in case we wanted to go somewhere else later in the day. Bit of a no-brainer really, as the one-way fare to town was €2.50 and the all-day ticket was €5. There was a big Lidl supermarket right near a bus stop, which we expected to be good value and easy to get to. It turned out to be perfect. We found everything we needed there for the next four days. Many of the items even had names written in the English alphabet. The store is set up for bulk buying, but you can still buy single quantities as well. They even had a self-serve mechanical bread slicing machine, which a local woman showed us how to use. The total shop cost us €63.25, which, for what we got, was comparable to hom...

A new day and a new country. We are heading to Corfu, Greece this morning. It’s a leisurely 8:45am departure from the apartment, with just a short 500m walk to the ferry port. The tickets recommended arriving 60 minutes before our 10am sailing, but we probably could have arrived much later. We had to go through passport control to exit Albania, which was straightforward—people even formed orderly queues! There were three ferries departing at the same time, but these aren’t big boats like the ones crossing the Cook Strait. They take about 12–20 cars and 300–400 passengers. Our ferry is the largest of the three. People are still running and boarding after 10am, but at 10:15am we finally leave the dock and head off. The crossing takes about an hour and 50 minutes. The sea is very calm, and the rocking and rolling isn't too bad—unless you're trying to walk around and take photos. Passport control in Corfu is reasonably quick, and soon we’re looking for a bus into the town centre. F...

A solo walk for me this morning—just 3.5 km to the end of the promenade and back. It’s going to be another beautiful day—not too hot. The forecast is for a high of 26 degrees. It was a nice walk other than the heart stopping moment when my feet slipped out from underneath me while walking towards the edge to take a photo. I almost fell straight into the harbour. That would not have been a good start to the day. Fortunately I somehow kept my feet and stayed upright but it was quite scary to think what could have happened if I had fallen in. Note to self, be more careful on wet harbour fronts!  Soon after 8 a.m., Sarah was up and breakfast was completed, so we headed to the beach for a swim. It’s a great time of day for it—not quite so busy and a good temperature. We might even get in two swims today? While we were swimming, we watched three large boats go by and pull into the nearby bay. Oh, to have that sort of cash! But alas, we’ll have to make do with a public ferry. ...

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 pe...

Another attempt to take a bus on a day trip — but this time, a successful one! We caught the 7am bus to Butrint National Park, an ancient Roman site just past the touristy beach town of Ksamil. The ride took about 40 minutes. Google said the park opened at either 8am or 9am, but it turned out to be 8:30am, so we had a bit of a wait. There were things to watch while waiting, including a woman in obvious pain who had called an ambulance and was picked up. We also saw a small ferry transporting cars and motorbikes across the harbour — a short 200m gap with no bridge. From the far side the Greek border is just 23km away. It cost 1,000 Lek each to enter the Park (about $20 NZD), but that was good value as we ended up spending almost two hours exploring. We started with a guided tour — led by a dog! He walked in front and waited for us as we checked out the Roman theatre, then wandered off when we headed up to the museum. The museum was actually really good — quite sm...

Our plan today was to take an 8 am bus to an inland town called Gjirokastër. It’s just over an hour’s bus ride away and it looks historic and picturesque. Just one problem: the bus that Google and a couple of websites said went there didn’t seem to exist. We checked with two different bus drivers—one going to Vlorë and the other to Berat—and they both indicated the only bus was at 10 am. Hmm… we might need to rethink that plan then. Plan B therefore became a walk up to the Sarandë castle, which is now a restaurant. It’s called Kalaja e Lëkurësit and sits on the hill overlooking Sarandë—the hill you can see in the photo below.  We walked along the promenade and then started up a street that was uphill. At that point, Sarah suggested she head back to the apartment as the walk would be too far and too hot for her. That ended up being the right call. She turned back and I carried on up the hilly street. It then turned into quite a busy road with terrible exhaust fumes—yuck....

In case anyone is wondering, we’re still in Sarandë. I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but we're here for eight nights. Because of the weather, it's curtailed any afternoon activity other than local grocery shopping. It's just too damn hot to go very far on foot in the afternoons. We haven't even gone to the beach after lunchtime due to the heat. This is all fine with us, but it does make for a slightly Groundhog Day kind of blog. It can't be helped—it’s just the reality of being here. I did consider not posting every day, and that might become an option, but for now I'm just posting brief updates of what our day involved. Remember, this travel journal is primarily for Sarah and I to look back on and remind ourselves of what we got up to and where we went. The fact that we’ve brought others along for the virtual ride is just a lovely bonus—to share the experience. That includes sharing the boring bits. 😂 If you remember back to the very early posts, t...