Butrint, Home of the COOLEST Roman Ruins + Arrival in Corfu, Greece!

We woke up early. Oh god, did we wake up early. OHH GODDD.

But we were on a mission. Our guide, some others, Nina, and I were off to Butrint, an abandoned Roman City which was also a UNESCO World Heritage site. We all know how much I love ruins, right? I couldn't pass this opportunity up. So we set off towards the bus station. We were told a public bus would take us directly to the site. 

After some searching, we were able to find the right stop. Nothing here was easy, lemme tell you. One had to be open to asking the locals for directions. They were always friendly and helpful. Plus, we'd oftentimes get the inside scoop on the best places to go in the area. 

So we found the stop, paid the fare, and got on the bus. This bus was... a little different from what I expected. 

Not quite the magic school bus, but it'll do.

It was a large coach bus with no doors, and most of the windows were locked open. There appeared to be no temperature control systems in the vehicle. The bus made a lot of stops, and people got off and on at various points. It seemed to take forever to get to Butrint, we didn't realize it was at the end of the line. That worried us. The bus ride took much longer than we had anticipated. We had to be back in Saranda at an exact time in order to catch the ferry to Corfu. When we got to the site, we spotted a taxi. Our guide went over to him and asked if he could come back in a few hours and pick us up. He said he would. He PROMISED he would. The taxi was our best option. It would maximize our time here and minimize our commute time back to the hotel. Plus, the price he asked for was ridiculously low. It was a win-win. 

We walked to the entrance to the ruins. We were told beforehand that the entrance fee was 700 Albanian leks. Nope. The price had jumped to 1400. A significant price hike, but in U.S. dollars that came out to be around ten bucks. We purchased our tickets and entered the park. FINALLY. We were first greeted by this stunning Venetian-style watchtower.

The Venetian military did NOT believe in floor-to-ceiling windows.

To signify our travel back in time, a single Roman column stood guard at the entrance to the city.

What if I just... ... knocked it over?

We passed several ruined buildings.

This was the site of the first Taco Bell.

We continued towards the past as we walked through a small forest. Suddenly, our view opened up to this:

The ghostly town center, perfect for monsters, minotaurs, and centaurs.

Butrint was located on a peninsula close to Greece, and its geographic and strategic position was perfect for a city and fortress. According to UNESCO, evidence of human habitation dated back 50,000 years. Fifty. Thousand. Years.

Now, there's a bridge so my toes don't get wet! Yay progress!

During prehistoric times, various tribes inhabited the area. It then became a Greek colony, then a Roman colony, then an early Christian bishopric, then the Byzantines had some fun around here, then the Venetians, and lastly, the Ottomans.

The structures here exhibit influences from every period.

As you can see, there was a lot of water in and around these ruins. That became the primary reason for Butrint's abandonment. The water table became too high for habitation, and marshes developed. Eventually, mostly during the middle ages, everyone was just like, okay bye!

And that leaves us with a preserved ancient urban hub.

Although a lot of the structures had fallen apart, many of the arches were still intact. This was undoubtedly attributed to the ingenuity of Roman engineering.

They just don't make arches like they used to, huh.

As we walked through the ruins, we discovered the amphitheater, a throwback to the Greek colonial period.

From the sound of Nina and our guide's yammering, the acoustics definitely still work.

The back of the arena provided a great view of the surrounding ruins.

I can't deny I may have stood in the center of the stage and sang Michael Buble. I CAN'T DENY IT. I DID IT I'M SO SORRY. #sorrynotsorry

We could see that the urban sprawl of this city continued into the forest. We climbed over the ruined walls and through various doorways to explore it more.

Of course, we didn't break or disturb anything. We're experts.

We ventured into the forest. Sporadically, we would see immense stone structures.

This. All the this.

There were no ropes or boundaries. The amount of freedom we felt because of the ability to climb and walk where ever we wanted was unparalleled.

The forest had overtaken the ruins for hundreds of years.

We explored more of the buildings. We found various altars.

Now in a foot of water...

Each had incredible mosaics.

I couldn't believe this wasn't in a museum somewhere.

Seeing these ruined buildings and columns jutting out from perfectly still water was surreal.

If I were to film a movie, I'd do it here. Even if it made no sense to the plot. It would be the COOLEST MOVIE EVER.

We walked towards the end of the peninsula and the old governor's mansion. On the map it had a specific indicator for his dining room. I wanted to see how a Roman governor would live! When we arrived, a section was blocked off.

This was the first barricade I had seen all day.

When we walked closer, we could see there was a group of archaeologists excavating the mosaics.

Hopefully trying to save them from the rising water table.

From the governor's mansion, we followed the path towards the Baptistry. Once we got there, we saw an eerie circular pattern of columns.

I bet this would've looked SO COOL back when it was... ya know... like... an actual building and stuff.

We walked further towards the coast, and saw the lower levels of various palaces and villas.

Looks like the basements always did fine structurally. The rest of the building? Eh, not so much.

We got to the river/channel. The surrounding landscape had not changed much over the past 50,000 years.

That was mind boggling to think about.

From there, we turned back towards the city. On the map there appeared to be the ruins of a huge Byzantine church, and I wanted to see it ASAP.

Clearly, it didn't take long to find.

These ruins were breathtaking. Yet, there was virtually no one else around. This made Butrint even more exciting. It felt like we were alone here in this vast and ancient Roman city.

WE WERE THE RULERS OF BUTRINT NOW BAHAHAHAHAhahahhheheheteehee.

We walked towards the front of the church and discovered the altar, which had coins placed in it.

I put a coin in the slot!... hopefully it was for good luck, and not for... bad luck. I mean, why would it be for back luck, right? ...right???

Then, in the back corner, we spied a beautiful mosaic underneath the sand. We brushed away some of the dirt to see it clearer.

We were actually uncovering mosaics in a ruined Byzantine church!

From there, we looped around the outside of the old city walls. We wanted to find the path to get to the top of the hill. As we walked, we noticed wooden support beams holding up the bricks.

Clearly structural stability is still an issue here.

We thought we could take a shortcut through this passageway to get to the top of the hill, where a fortress was indicated to be.

This doesn't look AS dangerous... does it?

But the shortcut led to a dead end. We had to double back and walk around the entire city wall. At this point, we were getting nervous. We had to see the fortress at the top of the hill before our taxi arrived, and time was running out. Finally, we walked back towards the entrance of the city, and saw a pathway up.

And there's the fortress!

We climbed up to the tower. This section was most likely built by the Venetians and the Ottomans. Oh yeah, by the way, Butrint was also occupied in the nineteenth century by Ali Pasha (that Albanian ruler I mentioned in an earlier post). The view from the fortress was amazing.

Bowser Castle Level... is this 3? or 4? Ugh. So many Bowser castles!

Also from the tower, we could see the ruins across the river.

These were built by the Romans when they occupied the territory.

We noticed a large body of water in the distance. It was the Adriatic. Not too far from here lay the Greek border.

Might as well just like, walk there from here, right?

Our guide looked at his watch. It was time. We walked back to the entrance to find our taxi driver.

He wasn't there.

Thankfully, a customer service agent at the site had the taxi driver's number and called him. He said the driver was on his way. We let out a sigh of relief. The agent said he would be here in five minutes.

Thirty minutes later the taxi arrived. We jumped in and told him to step on it. We HAD to get back to the hotel. We were already going to be late, and we needed to make that ferry to Corfu. After a tense ride back, he dropped us off at the end of the beachfront.

Hahah that's where we went skinny dipping the night before!

We walked briskly, and made it back to the hotel only a few minutes late. We got our things, checked out, and made it over to the dock. Thankfully, we had about twenty minutes to spare before the boat set off. We were safe.

Can't say the same for my nerves, though. 

We climbed aboard and the boat set sail. We were less than an hour from Corfu. So the gang and I got some wine and beers and played cards.

No gambling. This time.

I could see Greece in the distance. You guys, I cannot emphasize how excited I was to go to Greece. I had never been before, and it was a country I had always wanted to visit. Now, I was getting my chance!

And right in the middle of the Greek financial crisis, too!

We docked, passed through customs, and took taxis to our hotel. Once we were settled, our guide took us on a walk to the center of Corfu town.

We had only been here an hour and I already knew, I just FELT, I was in Greece.

Our guide gave us a brief orientation walk of the city.

A walk around Corfu at sunset? Yeah, okay, I guess.

From the center we walked towards the coast. Along the road bordering the water, we found a restaurant that was highly recommended.

Let's hope the food matches the view.

It did. Oh my, it did.

Moussaka with french fries oh man I want it right NOW IN MY MOUTH.

After dinner, we walked further along the coast, and found several bars/nightclubs. We all decided to stop in and have a drink or two or five.

OooOOOO Light up bars with bartenders wearing superman shirts fancyyyyy.

We took a few shots here, then moved on to another place. This second one was packed with tourists. I remember a group of Australians walking on the bar and dancing terribly. Oh and I remember one girl trying to swing on the tent the bar was under, and she slipped and crashed onto the pavement. Kids, when you're in another country, don't be a dumbass. Ever.

Thankfully, this great view was facing away from the crazies.

After a few more drinks here, we headed back towards the center of town. While most of the group rampaged the downtown area, Pat, Alison, and I decided to head back to the hotel. There, we saw the hotel bar was still open. After talking a while with the very friendly bartender, he gave us free beer and shots of... I don't know what. Then we talked on the patio in our drunken bliss until the desire to sleep took over. I made it back to my room, and passed out on the bed. This was a freakin' fantastic day.

Tirana to Saranda: A Castle, the Albanian "Blue Eye", and a WET NAPKIN OH GOD NO!

Oof. Another early day. We were to travel from Tirana to Saranda, a coastal city on the opposite side of the country. Our guide approximated our travel time to be eight hours. EIGHT. HOURS. ON. A BUS. WITH NINA. GAAAHHHHHHHHHAHA:DSLHg:SLDKGH:l

So I stocked up at brekkie. I got a ham and cheese pancake thing, an omelet, feta cheese, and a melon. EGG, MEAT, CHEESE, AND FRUIT. A poetic way to describe ME through food.

After the meal, we gathered our things, climbed aboard our private magic school bus, and set off towards southern Albania. Our guide said that depending on traffic, we should be able to make several stops along the way, so that we wouldn't be cooped up in a bus for eight hours straight.

After a much needed nap, the bus let us off for a quick rest at this epic statue.

I took a picture because I liked his shoes.

The statue above is of Ali Pashe of Tepelena, a Muslim Albanian ruler who served as an Ottoman Pasha. Ali Pashe, through skill, cunning, and perseverance, started as a leader of brigands but was able to rise through the ranks to eventually become the ruler of the westernmost territories of the Ottoman Empire. Though he achieved many things, including relative stability in the region, he was often criticized by contemporaries and historians for his brutality. And we were in his hometown! HOW CUUUTE. Then we hopped back on the bus and continued towards the mountains. We drove to the center of a small city, and the bus let us off again.

Hello, little mountain city!

From the drop-off point, we walked up a large hill. Our guide told us that our lunch would be served at a restaurant nearby. We knew we were in for some home-cooked authentic Albanian cuisine. Once we got to the restaurant, we sat down at a long banquet table. The waiters for this "mom and pop shop" brought out our food and drinks. It was a set menu, so we were gonna eat EVERYTHING THEY PUT IN FRONT OF US AND WE WERE GONNA LIKE IT.

We had a seemingly endless spread of grilled veggies, salads, cheeses, meats, savory pastries, and a ton of other things I don't even know how to describe. They were all DELICIOUS. There were a lot of homeless cats running around though...

We were told that there was a castle just a bit further up the hill. Looking at our watches, we saw we had time to kill before we had to meet the bus at the drop-off point. So, of course, we went to explore!

The somewhat unnerving entrance to Dracula/Bowser Castle...

We were actually entering the Gjirokastër Castle, a fortress dating back to before the 12th century.

There were endless corridors and stairs leading to... um... hell?

There was also an artillery museum within the castle. Various war artifacts littered the cavernous halls, many of them from the Communist era.

If you weren't paying attention you could thwak your face on a cannon barrel. Yeesh, buy me a drink first, cannon.

We continued on through the fortress while also trying to make sure we could find our way back.

But man, the layout for this place was confusing... Oh, also, it used to be a prison during the Communist regime...

At a certain point, we reached a large terrace. It had a dazzling view of the city below.

Who knew I'd be climbing so many mountains and castles on this vacation??

Suddenly we noticed the wreckage of a fighter jet on the terrace. We thought that was odd, so we walked over to check it out.

Yep, definitely a hollowed out fighter plane from... I'd say the sixties or something?

According to the descriptions, this was an American spyplane which had been forced down. My heart stopped. My first thought was what happened to the pilot? Fortunately, the crewmen were returned to the U.S. However, the jet was confiscated and torn apart for research and intelligence purposes, and then put on display. As an American, I was unsure how to feel about this exhibition...

According to the U.S. though, the plane was never "forced down". The pilot requested an emergency landing due to several mechanical complications.

Who do you believe?

All I know is that I'm full of Albanian beer.

From the creepy spyplane exhibit, we saw an entryway into another area of the castle. 

While Alex was busy taking photos of dark rooms.

We went through an arched tunnel, and found this huge expanse of ruins.

Needless to say, this place was gigantic.

At the end of the field there was a huge stage. During the summer months folk music concerts would be held here.

Kinda makes you wanna look up Albanian folk music, right? Do it! DO IT I DARE YOU.

Further beyond the stage there was an ominous yet picturesque clocktower.

Is this real life?

That's when we noticed the time. We were running late! We had to be back down at the drop-off point in ten minutes! We saw a few others from our group, and together we rushed back through the castle, down the hill, and into the city.

On our way I spotted various clothing and artisanal shops.

We got to the drop-off point and saw the rest of the group. Whew. We hadn't been left behind. The bus pulled over and we got inside.

After a few more hours of driving, we arrived at our next stop.

A bar/restaurant??

The bus dropped us off at the entrance, which was rather far from the actual "Blue Eye". We walked for about 3/4 of a mile along an unpaved road. We were tired and hot by the end of the journey. Luckily, our destination was this:

A beautiful lake! AUGH AND A LAKE MONSTER RISING OUT OF IT... oh wait that's just some dumb kid.

So this was the Albanian Blue Eye.

A spring that originates from deep within the ground.

The water was stunningly beautiful.

After such a hot, muggy walk through the forest, it felt like we had discovered an oasis.

And guess who was READY AND WILLING to jump on in...

That's right, our Nina, over here, posing before a swim.

Although the water looked fantastic, it was actually FREEZING. I cannot fully describe how cold it was. I couldn't stay in the water for more than a minute or two before my legs and arms started to feel numb.

This wasn't a, oh you'll just get used to it. No, this was a, OH MY GOD HYPOTHERMIA I'M LIKE JACK FROM TITANIC.

Then one of the crazy dummies from our group climbed to a wooden perch above the deepest part of the spring and jumped in!

And then he died.

Then we tried to peer pressure Nina into dunking her head in.

Didn't work so well. I got curious, and took my camera to see how deep into the underwater cavern I could go.

Answer? Not far. The current was surprisingly strong. Even when I was trying to swim my hardest into it, it would still push me back. 

After a while, as a group, we decided it was time to start heading back to the bus. Along the way, I saw the river that the spring turned into...

Not so much a river, more of a perfectly tranquil pond...

We climbed back aboard the bus and set off for Saranda, which was not far. Once we got to the city, we were, once again, lost. Turns out, there were three different hostels/hotels in Saranda all with the same name. The first two we tried were not correct. Finally, after much searching, we found the right one. Of COURSE it was the last one we tried. Nina and I grabbed a double. Our view was of the street below, and just beyond the buildings across the street we could see the Adriatic.

If you look closely you can also see a rainbow. How gay is that!?

We took a quick shower (once again, no shower curtains, so to be more accurate, we flooded the bathroom and got ourselves somewhat wet) and met the gang at a restaurant down the street. We sat down at a table and, oddly enough, one of the first things we were given was a wet napkin on a saucer.

Was this... an Albanian custom? We didn't want to be rude but... what??

After about ten minutes of staring at this wet napkin, we finally decided to ask a passing waiter what we were supposed to do with this. He looked at it curiously. He had no idea what it was or how it got there. So he smiled apologetically, and took it off the table.

Then we took a picture to commemorate that bizarre interaction.

As a first course, Nina and I split this delicious marinated octopus.

It was the freshest and most tender octopus I think I've ever had.

Then I got an entire pizza for MYSELF.

It had all the meats and veggies on it. HEY, AT LEAST THERE'S VEGGIES.

I looked at our table and noticed we all had a HUGE spread.

Everything looked and smelled delicious.

Thinking back, we did a lot that day! Even though it was essentially an eight hour bus ride, you CAN have a road trip and still have adventures! I paused from stuffing my face and looked up at the scenery. For the first time I noticed how beautiful it was here.

This is what I think of when I think of vacation. It was perfect. Especially that lady looking right at me with the cigarette. Lady, you do you. Keep on keepin' on. Now get the hell out of my shot.

We saw some of the others at a table nearby. After we finished our meal, we approached them to ask what they were up to. They were planning to head down the road. Apparently, there was a bunch of bars and nightclubs not far from where we were staying. We decided to join them, and quickly found a bar along the coast with cheap beer and an amazing view.

You can't really beat that, can you?

After a few rounds at the bar, we were getting all worked up. So we left and walked further down the road to see if there were any other places to stop.

Of course, all we saw was poopy tavern. Yeesh.

We saw that alongside a hotel there was a staircase leading to a small beach. Under the cover of darkness, we walked down to it. A few of us decided that this was a perfect time to go for a swim. So in our underwear, we jumped in, and had a past-midnight dip under the moonlight in the Adriatic.

Alyssa, shout out to you for being a great "skinny dipping" companion! "I'm chafin', I'm salty, and I'm gonna let it drip-dry!"

What a great day.