It is odd to me, as an Englishman, to see men embracing but here they do it quite frequently. Often it is accompanied by sloppy kissing noises on both sides of the face. I don't have a photograph of this happening as I don't want to get a smack in the face.
Saturday, July 5
Nightlife
At night Vlore comes alive, although I suppose it is Saturday. Thousands of people walking around and not the slightest sign of bad behaviour. Compare and contrast with Warrington on a Saturday night.
Traffic
The traffic in Vlore appears chaotic, the main road has six lanes with parking on both sides, so that leaves two lanes in each direction. There is a constant flow of cars but no discipline. People are performing three point turns completely without warning. Then others stop suddenly to let a passenger out and the cars behind pull over to the other side, and all the time pedestrians are wandering across. The funny thing is that all this apparent chaos does not seem to be unsafe. I can step out to cross the road and the cars just stop or drive around me. I actually think that I could walk blindfold from one side to the other without any danger, although I am not going to try this.
The guy in the photo had double parked on a roundabout and that is, it seems, unacceptable. Single parking on a roundabout is okay but double parking is pushing it.
Vlore apartments
Mile after mile of apartment blocks all looking very similar but in some are much smarter than others. I think that they are slowly renovating the old communist era buildings
Hotel in Vlore
Found it on TripAdvisor. Its not bad, in the middle of the town but the town is a dump. I've made a mistake coming here, nothing to see really. I should have done some more homework.
The base at Orikut
I did manage to see the submarines but only from a distance of about half a mile. You can see them on the screenshot from Google maps.
Orikut
There is a naval base at Orikut with the rusting hulks of soviet submarines which I desperately wanted to see but after walking for 45 minutes the road was closed with a gate and a soldier with a rifle. However I had noticed that there was a sign for the Orikut Archaeological site and it seemed that it must be inside the base and so I told him that that was where I wanted to go. He looked rather surprised by this request but made a phone call and within a few minutes a man appeared with a book of tickets and charged me 400 lek. They both attempted to tell me where to go in a mixture of Albanian and Italian. I then set of down a long road towards the submarines but there was another gate and then it was obvious that I would not be allowed through it since I had already passed the archeological site. The site was worth about 3 out of 10 definitely not worth a total of about 2 hours walking.
Dhermi to Vlore
I hitched a lift with two men from Kosovo who are touring Albania. The road weaved back and forth up to a terrific height and the landscape changed dramatically. At the top they stopped so I could take photos and they could have a cigarette.
Mobile phone
I've now purchased a SIM card for my phone for 1000 lek (about £5.50) and I have unlimited data for one month. I got it from a dodgy looking guy in a phone shop who produced a huge mixed bag full of SIM cards. It's very handy because now I can use Google and Google maps whenever I want without having to find WiFi.
An alpine gorge
I walked up this gorge with mountains towering up to 1750m behind. I gave up at about 750m because the path petered out.
A nice shot of a fly
I suspect that it was a blood sucker though because it seemed very interested in my legs until I swatted it.
A Greek church
I walked up to this church and when I got there I was surprised to discover that it was obviously Greek. I like the obviously primitive style of the wall decorations
Threshing thyme.
This man was gathering wild thyme, laying it out to dry and then threshing it with a stick.
Dhermi
I've got a minibus up the coast to Dhermi. It's a holiday resort similar to ones we went to in Greece 20+ years ago, by that I mean that it is still developing and a bit tatty round the edges. The minibus driver stopped after about an hour for an impromptu game of football with some of the passengers. It's all part of the service!
No WiFi yesterday
But I've stopped at a little cafe and the boy who served me has set up his mobile phone as a WiFi hotspot. So I need to avoid wasting his data
Dhermi
I've got a minibus up the coast to Dhermi. It's a holiday resort similar to ones we went to in Greece 20+ years ago, by that I mean that it is still developing and a bit tatty round the edges. The minibus driver stopped after about an hour for an impromptu game of football with some of the passengers. It's all part of the service!