Farewell Greece, Hello the Balkans - Albania

It was time to leave Greece behind us as we pointed Kirrikie towards her winter destination. This time we had arranged a berth in Lazure Marina, in Bokor (Bay of Kotor) in Montenegro, where we could leave Kirrikie to wind and lots of rain while we returned home to the sunshine in Perth.

Leaving Corfu was bitter sweet, but we were ready for another change. To reach Montenegro you have 2 options - stay out at sea travelling for a few days to avoid the Albanian coast, or, travel via Albania which requires you to check into the country before proceeding further. Both have their pros and cons. The main deciding factor is the weather... we had a small window of opportunity which made option 2 the better one for us. 

So first up, check out of Greece - requiring us use up most of our 10,000 steps per day while negotiating officialdom at customs, port police, and harbour master who were either having a very long lunch or didn't want to deal with 2 sailors when they had huge cruise ships of tourists on day-trips.  You need to have patience for this process. We sat at the last office for such a long time that they were shutting up when they remembered us, and rushed us through so they could leave. 

Next morning we set off on the long voyage to the port of Sarande in Albania, the first place we could check in. A long voyage of... 15nm, or about 3.5 hours. Seriously. It takes longer for us to sail from Hillarys yacht club to Rottnest Island.

However, it is miles apart when it comes to culture. Albania was the first country we visited that had previously been a communist country. Tourism is an important but developing source of income for Albania, but there are few services or marinas to cater for visiting yachts. The coastline is also similiar to Western Australia - not in appearance of course - but there are few options for safe anchoring, and only 1 marina in the country. Port facilities are improving, but can be a little challenging for small boats such as ours. It is compulsory (and advisory) to engage an agent to assist with checkin and subsequent checkout, and they like to know where you are. As we were time poor, we approached sailing into and out of Albania purely from a functional viewpoint, to stop and shelter from coming storms (which plagued Italy, Greece and Adriatic countries from this time on).

But what a great opportunity to visit a country we would never have seen. I kept wandering around saying I'm in Albania! ( I did the same in Montenegro, except it was I'm in Yugoslavia!).  After checking into Sarande, which is part of the 'Albanian Riveriera', paying fees, handing over reams of paperwork to the lovely agent, who makes a pittance from this service in the hope you'll stay and book a car or take a tour, we stayed one night and sailed on. How rude....

Sunset lighting up Sarande, Albania

A quick stop for one night at the rocky and rolling  anchorage next to Vlore, stretching our legs and provisioning. We admired the colourful architecture of the old town, where unfortunately we had the only 'local food' meal we've had anywhere that we pushed away from us as politely as we could. We had a stroll around the wide boulevards and checked out the Independence Monument in Flag square commemorating Independence from the Ottomans in 1912, the 16th century Ottoman Moradie Mosque which is the oldest building in Vlore,  and the very pink Vlore City Hall. 

Independence Monument 

Vlore Old Town

Moradie Mosque 

Vlore City Hall

A storm was predicted in 2 nights time so we booked into Orikum Marina, deep into Vlora Bay, first anchoring outside the marina in the supposedly milder weather. Of course, the storm came early didn't it! Taking anti-lightning precautions, which are mainly putting spare electrical devices in the microwave and crossing our fingers,  we bobbed and strained in the wind, rain, lightning and thunder, while we watched the masts of boats already in the marina vaguely sway. Hmmf.

So we belatedly moved into the marina, where we stayed for 3 days, providing us with the opportunity to take a road trip (not to mention meeting new friends Vandy and Eric, who's company and friendship ever since has been an unexpected blessing). So far the vibe in Albania had been just a little strange and new, the remnants of a communist culture and system of government still in place. We are being very disrespectful of course, but we're quite certain a few KGB officers have retired in Orikum to run the car rental office or coffee shops. 

Change is coming.....

Our view from Orikum Marina, after the storm

Glorious views of the coastline near Vlore, the city port jutting out into the bay provides limited protection

The small but calm marina in Orikum

The big surprise - how lovely Albania is. Stunning. The steep hills behind and around the marina were like the peaks in Scotland, lighting up at sunset ( and presumably sunrise, but who's awake then??) and just glowed. There are a few outstanding places to visit in Albania,  there several UNESCO World Heritage Sites in this small country. While waiting for the swell to go down, we decided to visit one of these, Berat Castle,  a couple of hours away.

On our way, I spied a small sign pointing to the  'Apollonia Archeological Park'. Let's have a quick look I say... and doesn't Mike just love a deviation! It won't take long, it's just up a small dirt road, through a small village. Expecting maybe a stone wall or two, maybe even a tower, we were astonished to see a complex of ruins spreading across fields and slopes. Apollonia was an ancient city covering approximately 81 hectares, established by the Greeks in 6th century BC, first called Gylakeia, but changed to Apollonia after our good mate Apollo. The site has been recognised by UNESCO as a site of oustanding universal value, and includes the Temple of Apollo, cisterns, storehouses, Odeon (theatre), bouleuterion (city council), Triumphal Arc and Temenos (sacred area). 

A small part of Apollonia 

It is recommended to spend about 3 hours looking around, something I could have done easily, if only....  luckily Mike found a small cafe serving home made soup, which was dee-lish-ous. But wait, on our way back to the car I side-tracked again to have a quick look at a church on the site too.... oh no, it's the amazing Monastery of Saint Mary built in the 13th century, plus Museum of Archaeology with a collection of artifacts and sculptures from the city of Apollonia. There's only so much 'deviation' that Mike can take, so I was running around ooh and ahhing, trying to take it all in in 5 minutes. Such sweet torture. 

Monastery and Museum...

Artifacts from Apollonia 

For more information see:    Unesco information on Apollonia

 

We finally reached the town of Berat, lying next to the Osum River. The town itself didn't particularly impress us, as by now it was a grey and rainy day, the buildings were grey and the water was grey....    but the castle and surrounding buildings, which are still inhabited, were redeeming.  Berat Castle, established in the 13th century, is actually a citadel and fortress compound, containing the remains of both a Ottoman mosque - known as the Red Mosque - and Byzantine Churches.

Berat Castle

No idea.... but pretty impressive

View of the beautiful countryside from the Citadel

The buildings surrounding Berat are the reason it is called The City of a Thousand Windows, due to the many large and decorative windows included in their architecture.  We had a leisurely wander around, under a slightly grey sky, which only broke into rain when we were next to the 14th century Church of the Holy Trinity on the castle slopes - divine intervention perhaps? Mike tried to make friends with a horse nearby, I think it was his favourite moment of the day. The horse, however, was not easily impressed.

Minaret of the Red Mosque, possibly from the 14th century

Church of the Holy Trinity

Just a few of the thousand windows

We returned to Orikim nestled  at the base of the beautiful hills, very satisfied with our one day excursion in Albania. If you get a chance to go - do, and try the chicken and lemon soup.

As required by Albanian authorities we were not able to check out of  the country and then sail up their coastline; you must leave as soon as you have checked out. So we made out way back to Vlore and then to Durres in the north, where we docked for the night in the middle of a very industrial port. Not far across from us, was a sorry looking yacht with a tatty sail tied up to a much larger coastal cargo ship, which was quite an unusual set-up. It was explained to us later that this would have been a stolen yacht used to smuggle refugees across to Italy, and then abandoned. Then it was found and claimed by the operators of the cargo ship, and they were waiting out the period so they could keep it under salvage rights.

However, we were free to continue our journey. Like Albania, Montenegro has strict rules about your whereabouts while in the country, and we could not continue onto our final destination without reporting to the authorities in the first port we came to. In this case it was the city of Bar. We were slightly concerned about this port, as the dock and large black truck tires used to fend off boats are not kind to small white yachts. In addition, not long before, friends of ours from Finike (extremely experienced sailors) happened to be in the process of checking in, when a freak 100-year storm hit the city, badly damaging surrounding buildings, and their yacht which happened to be alongside at the time. In fact, as I write this, they have only just completed the repairs in Tunisia. I wondered if this weather might have something to do with why there seemed to be so many Bars in town. I am such an idiot, I confused bar with Bar...

But after this enforced overnight stop, we were on our way again, and today was the day we would finally enter the Bay of Kotor. All was predicted to be well, and off we set in a jubuilant mood. Not long after, the skies began to darken, with rain coming in sideways and the visibility reduced. Vandy, who was making her way on a faster catamaran and headed straight to Montenegro, bypassing Albania and Bar, contacted us to say, don't leave now.... Vandy is a weather guru, and if she says don't go, don't.  Ummmm... well, said I, we've already left, and yes it isn't looking so good out here.*  The rain plummeted down, the lightning was impressive but waaay too close. Kirrikie pushed on through the waves and we "joked" about our imminent demise.  Not far from us a yacht, just visible in the watery haze, battled on with full sails up - madness, and not, to us, the safest choice.

There's another yacht out there... somewhere

Safely inside Bokor , Bay of Kotor

Luckily it only lasted a few hours, and once we entered the Bay of Kotor about 2pm all calmed down, the rainbow appeared, we found a shallow anchorage in mud, and peace returned.  We celebrated with bacon sarnies which for some reason seemed to be the ultimate comfort food, tidied up, ready to join long-lost friends the next day and start exploring Montenegro.

*In our defence, this really was unpredicted: the famous CAPE index we use to check for storms showed nothing. Vandy was also flummoxed, and ended up contacting her weather friends in the US to ask why/how these conditions were not predicted anywhere. In other parts of the Adriatic and down past Corfu, yachts suffered badly and we counted ourselves lucky.

Corfu, The Ionian Emerald Isle

Mike had been obsessed with Corfu for months, pushing us on and on to this island of mythical proportions. The more he gabbed on about it, the less interested I was in going there. Yawn.... what's so special about Corfu, there are some lovely islands we are missing in this annoying quest to visit a place over-run with tourists. (cos of course, I'M not a tourist...)

I was an idiot. Just the once.

Corfu is indeed special, and was a total surprise to me. To start it's very green, in fact it is known (to everyone but me apparently) to be the greenest Greek island of all. The beautiful landscape is characterised by soaring hills, sparkling bays and outstanding views from the top of the many peaks.  Add to this Venetian castles and forts, cobbled streets and gardens. While it is a popular destination, it didn't seem at any time to be overun with tourists, there's just so many places to explore right around the island.

Having crossed over from the mainland in half a day, but expecting some winds and rain later, we stopped off at the bottom of the island in Lefkimmi Bay, a wide shallow bay where the landscape is a bit flatter than the rest of Corfu. While we had a bit of rain and wind, which required resetting the anchor 'to be sure to be sure', we watched with interest an intense lightning storm over Preveza, which we had left 2 days previously. We lazed around with no worries, until we tried to lift our anchor - we had dragged a little bit the day before - straight into a submerged plastic container, which was attached to a line attached to another container, attached to a rope that was tied to a (probably illegal) octopus pot. All of this was wrapped around and around our anchor chain. Long story short, when Mike jumped in the dinghy to sort out (cut away) the offending ropes, the outboard wouldn't start. This was just another  example of Sh*t happens, and we stayed another night while we sorted both anchor chain and outboard.

Might as well relax in Lefkimmi Bay

Preveza somewhere in the distance,  octopus pot lurking underneath us

Time for a little bit of civilisation, so our next stop was only 8nms away, at Benitses. Corfu offers the opportunity to stop at so many bays or towns, it can be a little hard to decide where to stop - too many choices. There are boats sailing or MED sailing (Motor Every Day) backwards and forwards between the mainland and around Corfu,  lovely boat-spotting as you go along. That evening we listened to a variety of Greek musicians and singing, the music floating across the water from the many bars lighting up the sea with flickerings lights. We even heard an excellent rendition of what we know as the music from Zorba the Greek. 

Beach side Bar, Benitses, Corfu

Again, time for a car trip. As we are sea-based travellers, we tend to drive around to see what the land is like, and only visit a few places. So there were many attractions or sites we didn't see in our limited time. Driving to the north-west peak of Corfu took us through the middle of the island to one of the 5 castles of Corfu, Angelokastro.  To see this Byzantium castle, which is really the ruins of walls, acropolis and church, you have to follow the steps up 305 metres, in the heat. Why do I choose these places?? But it was a lovely path, and the view from the top across to the mainland, and taking in the southern part of the Adriatic sea, was breathtaking. Or perhaps that was just me, unable to stop puffing for quite a while.

Beginning the climb...

Mike ready to catch me on the way down

Back down the steps, negotiate the tiny roads hugging the hillsides, and it's time for lunch. Oh look, a hilltop restaurant, with balcony views across the valley to blue sea and a great menu... don't mind if we do. (sorry....). 

Someone is looking pretty smug....

Just another view of more bays and (rocky) beaches

I heard there were some lovely gardens we could see at the Achilleion Palace, on the eastern side of Corfu, so that was our next stop.  We expected to see sumptuous well-planned gardens filled with flowers; surprisingly the gardens were a little sad and forgotten. However, the palace and statues were absolutely amazing, not expected at all. The Achilleion Palace was built for Empress Elizabeth (Sissy) of Austria in 1890 as a summer residence and refuge from her unhappy life at court. Unfortunately she was assassinated in 1898,  and the palace lay empty unitl 1907 when it was purchased by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. 

At the entrance of the grounds of the Achilleion Palace 

Unfortunately many statues did not have an explanation, and I have been unable to identify these while researching...

The palace is closed for renovations so we had lots of time to appreciate the of many classical statues honouring Greek gods, goddesses and muses, which are placed strategically around the grounds. Sissy, also known as the Melancholy Princess (unfair, she really had a bit of a rough time before being murdered), had a particular fondness for Achilles, hence the name Achilleion Palace. She commissioned the statue of Dying Achilles, lying down attempting to remove the arrow from his heel.

Apparently the Kaiser was't impressed, and removed it at one stage to build his House of the Knights for his garrison. He then had a more heroic depiction of Achilles created,  which stands majestically on the tip of the garden looking down onto the sea below. 

Among the many other statues are the Three Graces or Charites - Thalia, Euphrosyne and Aglaea, who represent Beauty, Grace and Charm,  and the Nine Muses - Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomeni, Terpsicore, Erato, Polymnia, Urania and Calliope (see my note at the end for more information).   If you want to see more of the palace, it was the location for the movie 'For Your Eyes Only', yes a James Bond movie, so Mike was having a great day...

My favourite, the Charites Euphrosyne, stood a little bit differntly to the others and is responsible for joy, mirth and merriment

Strategically situated in the Ionian Sea while looking over the Adriatic Sea, Corfu started out as a Byzantium city in 8 century BC, but since then has seen the Ottomans, Venetians  (for 4 hundred years) then the French, British and Germans, before Greece claimed it. All this I didn't know, and so was stunned to see how beautiful the location of our marina in Corfu was - right under The Old Fortress (called that because there's a newer, old fortress). It was constructed and amended over a period of 15 centuries. To reach the city, we had had to walk a cobbled stone path under an ancient arch, through the fortress grounds, past the building now housing the university music school (queue students practising the piano..), and over the moat. And because we were in the marina, we did all this for free! Magic. Combined with the New Fortress, the Old City of Corfu, the Old Fortress is a UNESCO heritage site.

Rounding the peninsular looking at the Old Fortress, marina tucked in on the right

The view as we walked (tottered) along the marina wall towards the Old Fortress and the Old Town of Corfu

Looking back over the moat bridge

The moat - with massive, unscaleable bastion walls, the city of the right hand side

The Church of Saint George inside the fortress complex

The old town section of Corfu is a joy to explore. Wide promenades, meandering laneways and staircases, beautiful buildings more like Italy than Greece (in our limited experience). I saw somewhere Corfu town described as an open air musuem, and it is, with the addition of many cafes and shops to savour as well. So naturally, I spent valuable  tourist time finding a phone shop to unglitch Mike's phone. Such is the life of a cruiser, that while on land, you have to deal with real life as well. Ce la vie. But we also had time to enjoy some lovely food, swim off the walls of the marina, contemplate our journey so far and prepare for our next adventure.

Corfu was the last stop of the Greek part of our Odyssey. Up to this point we had sailed, or 'MED' sailed, 1237 nms since leaving North Cyprus. We revisited favorite spots in Turkey, had a hiatus while I returned to Perth for a month, then crossed the  short distance over to Greece, travelling onwards through the Agean, the Saronic Gulf, Corinth Canal and Gulf of Patras and finally the Ioanian. 

Now it was time to leave. We had booked Kirrikie into a marina for winter  in Montenegro, a non-Schengen country, where we could leave her and spend time with family in Australia. To get there we needed to travel via Albania - less than 30nms away, but almost another world away from Greece. The adventure continues....

Our journey through Turkey and Greece in 2024:

And a little extra info:

The Nine Muses each guided and inspired a specific creative or intellectual field:

Calliope: The Muse of epic poetry and eloquence. She is considered the chief of the Muses and is said to have inspired Homer in writing The Iliad and The Odyssey. She is often depicted with a writing tablet, scroll, and pen.

Clio: The Muse of history. She is responsible for preserving memory and the knowledge that comes from discoveries and investigations of the past. Clio is often depicted with a scroll or a book. She is also credited with introducing the Phoenician alphabet to Greece.

Erato: The Muse of lyric or erotic poetry. Her name means “lovely,” and she is said to make those who were guided by her desirable and worthy of love. Erato is often depicted with a lyre, hymns, and a wreath of roses.

Euterpe: The Muse of music, specifically lyric poetry and flute playing. Her name means “giver of pleasure”. She is credited with developing various musical instruments, including the aulos (a double flute). Euterpe is particularly associated with wind instruments. She is often depicted with a flute.

Melpomene: The Muse of tragedy. She is often depicted with a tragic mask, leather boots, and a knife or stick in her hand.

Polyhymnia: The Muse of sacred poetry, hymns, and religious ceremonies. She is also associated with geometry, meditation, and agriculture. Polymnia is often depicted wearing a tunic and veil, appearing thoughtful and serious. She is credited with explaining the origin of the name of the month of May.

Terpsichore: The Muse of dance and choral song. She is often depicted with a lyre.

Thalia: The Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry. Her name means “rich festivity” or “blooming”. She is often depicted with a comic mask and an ivy crown.

Urania: The Muse of astronomy and astrology. She is often depicted dressed in blue, holding a globe and compass, and wearing a star diadem or having stars on her dress. In some accounts, she is identified as the eldest of the Muses.