Llogara Pass and Himara

One of the reasons I chose to take a furgon from Vlora, was that I wanted to drive through Llogara Pass. The normal bus route goes further inland, which makes more sense, but I had wanted to experience the views and thrill of driving up a mountain and then back down again with breathtaking views wherever you look.

Currently the only coastal road from Vlora to Saranda goes through the mountainous area.

Porto Palermo

Llogara Pass is the highest point of the road, and at certain times of the year, the road takes you through the clouds. To my disappointment, this wasn't that particular time. The highest point of the road is over 1,000 meters above the sea level. The route also goes through a National Park, and there are hotels within the park for the nature lovers.

I was told that there are plans to build a coastal highway closer to the ocean, which will, of course, impact the beautiful beaches that dot the coastline. We'll see when that happens.

These pictures don't really do justice to the trip, as they were taken inside a rattling and bumping furgon that didn't really care about passengers taking great pictures. I'm just very happy that the lady from our earlier trip wasn't travelling on this one *shudders*.

Arjon told me that according to one story, the road from Vlora to Saranda was designed by an Italian engineer who had a donkey travel up first, then marking the way the donkey took. He based it on a fact that donkeys are essentially rather lazy, and try to find the easiest way anywhere. It makes perfect sense! However, the road is very winding, and not for those who get easily nauseous. 

I didn't find the driving to have been particularly dangerous. The driver didn't speed through the hairpin curves, and although there were cars passing us on the serpentine road, there weren't any dangerous situations I noticed. 

Honey seller's tent along the way

 There were a lot of honey sellers on the way, and usually they were right next to the hives. You can't get it any fresher than that! 

Eventually we descended from the mountains and started passing one beach after another. 

And finally arrived at a small beach town Himara. We were left at what seemed to be the center of the town, but had no idea where the hotel I had booked the night before was. I tried to ask some taxi drivers that were gathered at the city center, but no one knew where it was. I tried to call the hotel, but there was no answer. Finally a driver who already had passengers waiting called the number again, and this time got an answer. He quickly got the coordinates and explained them to another driver. Then all of a sudden he was gone, before I even got to thank him! 

Well, this other driver started us off, it was only about 55 minutes' drive from the town center, and we were greeted by the hotel owner, who loaded us with out luggage to his car, and proceeded to drive us a small dirt road to his hotel. It really was only about a minute drive, if that, but it was very nice of him. Especially when we were way early, and they hadn't have time to get our room ready yet. 

He was very apologetic about it?! I tried explaining that we were the ones who were too early, but he then proceeded to offer us coffee and I finally got the Mountain Tea I had heard so much about! I think I read about it somewhere, and finally the lady back in Vlora had told me if I came to Himara, they would sure have it. And she was right! 

The tea is made of particular flowers that grow up in the mountains... Of course. It tasted delicious, and it's only later on that I realized that is something I should've taken with me as a souvenir! Well, not the tea from the cup, but find the packages... 

Grapes at the hotel garden

The owner was also a lifesaver; there is quite a good Wi-Fi coverage all over the hotels in Albania, which was rather surprising, but sometimes you just need a bit of data on-the-go. I had bought a tourist sim for my phone, with calls, messages and data. The calls and messages worked fine, but it was the data that didn't. The owner called T-mobile service line, even though I didn't have the number, and tried to figure out what was wrong. Eventually he had to give up, and said they had told him I hadn't paid for the service, which certainly wasn't true. But just like that, a few minutes after that call I got a few installation messages, and after installing them, the data package started to work!! 

Of all the beaches I saw on my trip, the ones in Himara were my absolute favorites. Of course a lot of the beach towns have many beaches, hidden and not so hidden, and they could've been how beautiful ever. But I'm going with what I've got. 

It was obvious that the season was over in Himara too. So many restaurants had already closed, or working with a limited menu. More often than not, you got a 'sorry we're out of that dish' even if you ordered from the menu they gave you. It's a pity, as our hotel owner said that he was fully booked still for the whole week, and was going to stay open until end of September. I do think that was a smart choice from him. There's still lots of money to be made in September.