A Coupla Lost Legs Of Lamb: Kalymnos to Athens to Tirana

All we managed was an evening jaunt as we passed through Athens, so we were lucky that our Airbnb host provided some great imbibination and eating suggestions for the evening - we only had a few hours before our bodies caved in with the trip from the islands, driving through Athens (eeek!) and the close to 40c degree heat. Expensive beers (well, in comparison to the Greek beers prior and the Albanian beers post!) on top of the Stanley Hotel overlooking the Acropolis, followed by some yummy food down at a local taverna. Never heard of tomato fritters before, but they sure are delicious - it was one of those meals where everything you jam in your gob makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)

A seven AM start the following morning in Athens was going to put us in good stead for a mid-afternoon arrival in the village of Vuno, on the Southern coast of Albania. Aye. Riiiiiigght, so what was supposed to be a circa eight hour drive ended up taking close to fifteen hours... yaaaaay. Thems the breaks eh.

It didn't help that we forgot our car registration documents, so almost didn't make it through the Greek/Albanian border with the car. I think they just got bored and let us through in the end. It also didn't help that in some cases the Albanian roads have no road left: all that's left is 100% pothole patches. A true sight to behold - particularly when the other side of the road is in the worst state of repair, and so all the oncoming vehicles are driving towards you on your side of the road! The driving isn't too bad though, once you get in the groove of forgetting every road rule you ever learnt, driving double, triple or quadruple the speed limit and overtaking on blind corners, double or triple parking, reversing anywhere, including on a multi-lane highway... then you fit right in. Just watch out for the free range goats, pigs, donkeys acme cows. It's like Carmageddon over here, it truly is.

The river in the photos isn't actually a river at all - it's the amazing Blue Eye Spring in Southern Albania which pumps out 18,400 litres of water a second!

Close to ten PM at night saw us unfold our crinkled limbs out of our climate controlled metal box. We had finally reached Vuno. It was a long day, but we had made it and so we set about erecting the tent and cooking some much-needed sustenance, with the fervour of two people that had stopped giving too many f**ks about five hours ago :)

The hostel is in a ramshackle falling-down old school at the centre of the old town of Vuno and is nestled in with the old church and other buildings. It also has a bunch of resident donkeys (this made Inga very happy!), dogs and other wildlife to keep everyone company.

We took the day off the following day at a beach in Lukove village, only accessible via a dirt/shingle road that was very obviously made for tractors, or at least not made for little 2WD Ford Fiestas! No worries mate - few rarkies and she was sweet as. The reward was grilled fish straight out of the ocean for Inga and the boys from the hostel.

Today we headed up to Tirana via some the Apollonia archaeological ruins (of the Roman city of Illyria) in what is today known as Fier, as well as the Berat castle and old thirteen century city of Berat. The castle covers much of the hill and encompasses more than twenty churches and mosques! On the way a few wrong turns ended up giving us the tastiest and cheapest bread and some delicious cheese pastries from some very friendly local shops.