Gjirokastra

June 19, Gjirokastra and travel to Berat

After a scrumptious and huge breakfast by our hotel, we explored the Gjirokastra castle with its tall ceilings and endless arches, a long corridor with guns from WW1 Italy and Germany, a shot down U. S. possible spy plane from the 1950s, a city history museum and arms museum, and a huge stage for their folklore festival. We then visited a couple of the classic Ottoman homes that have been preserved and are still owned by their original families after they were given back to them after communism ended. The first was the Zekate house. We paid our two hundred leke and then were free to roam about on our own and take photos. The top floor was most impressive with its open terrace and colorful fresco walled room.

In between homes we saw an ethnographic museum with rooms set up with items that were used in houses back in the 1800s.

The last home was the Skellic home and we were able to hop in on a fabulous tour about how the house functioned for serving guests, using the toilets and hammams, cooking coffee and food, keeping women out of sight of strangers, and how ceremonies were performed such as weddings in the home. The final room was also covered in frescos with a lot of pomegranate themed aspects. As we say on the corn husk and woolen benches the owner spoke to us about the specifics of the room.

We then walked down the cobblestone streets to the new part of the city to find a bus to Berat. We found that only one leaves at 10:40AM, but we were able to get tickets to a town closer to Berat, but actually north of it. When they let us off we did not see any other buses or furgons, but an old gentleman offered us a ride as he was waiting to pick up a friend or his wife and was heading to Berat anyways. I think he joked with her on the way that he had become in impromptu taxi cab. I think he would have driven us for free but we asked him a price. He charged us less than four bucks for a thirty minute ride.

He let us off at the main square and once again thanks to wifi at a cafe we could communicate with our next host and use google maps to find our way. Our host spoke very good English and let us know about the activities in the area. It was already evening, so all we did was relax on our amazing covered porch overlooking the city and the river dividing in two. We also FaceTimed my parents, and then crossed over the river to eat at a recommended restaurant overlooking the city of a thousand windows. We were almost the only patrons in the restaurant and tried to guess why.

Our question was answered when we decided to talk a short walk on the main pedestrian only drag of the city. There we found everyone--well, guys at least--sitting in front of massive screens. We found out that Albania was playing Romania in the European Cup. We found seats at one of the many cafes stuffed with people and joined in on the excitement. We were lucky to watch Albania score a goal and the Albanians go nuts all around us. We saw the entire first half in the cafe, than watched the second in our house. No one ended up scoring any more points and Albania won their first major tournament game in history. It was a big deal and fireworks, chanting, screaming, and honking horns went on for a good hour after the end of the game. Thankfully we were able to get some sleep.