Last night was my first full night (4 hours) of uninterrupted sleep since I left Seattle. Flora’s house is super quiet after the last call to prayer from the Mosque one street above at 9pm and the barking dogs have settled down. The two balcony doors have screens and the apartment was my ideal sleeping temperature. Open screens also mean you don’t have blinds/curtains so I woke up as soon as the sun got bright enough.
My trek the night before of the entire street to find Flora’s place also revealed I was nowhere near anything in Sarande as far as shops, restaurants or even the water. The closest on offer was a tiny neighborhood market with a slew of canned goods and cold drinks/ice cream. I would have to walk about a mile and a half, per Google Maps, to get to the commercial/tourist district. I had resolved Albanian phone coverage the night before and now had real time navigation, so I declined Flora’s generous offer of chewable coffee and headed out on my first walk in Sarande.
I navigate more from memory than from my phone and remembered passing “Sofa Haus” while on the bus, so I used that as a starting point once I got to the end of the street. The gentleman at Sofa Haus pointed which way to walk for water once I mimed swimming, and I was off.
I didn’t quite remember the bus going down such a steep hill but given the traffic coming and going, I knew I was on a major street and could see tiny peeks of the sea far in the distance. It took me about an hour to get from Flora’s house to the water given the sidewalks were uneven, gone or had cars parked squarely on every inch.
My goal was to determine how long it would take to get to the ferry so I could buy my tickets for Corfu, Greece later in the week. As with all round trips, this steep trip down was going to mean a brutal hike back up to Flora’s house, during peak sun time.
At the bottom of the hill, a quick turn left put me right on the Promenade of Sarande.
It’s still shoulder season, so many of the bars I saw weren’t open for lunch, including this Tiki inspired one.
I hadn’t eaten since the chicken pot pie burek the day before, but I found a sandwich shop a few yards away and enjoyed my first gyro of the trip. I also noted I could get three bottles of local beer for the price of one mini Coke Zero so easy choice there.
I hadn’t found any banks in my hour hike, so took out money from an ATM I hoped had a reasonable exchange rate. I had learned the hard way in Germany that Eurobank ATMS have an insane surcharge and crappy exchange rate so I hoped the Finbank one was a little better. About five yards down from lunch was an OTP Bank and ATM, so I will be going to that one as I need more cash.A little further and I saw the ferry on the opposite end of the Promenade, past many small boat marinas.
Its definitely warming up and there were quite a few swimmers and sunbathers out.
Two teenagers were daring each other off the diving platform. Farther out, there was a net installed to keep out any sea creatures that might be nearby.
As I got closer to the ferry , I could see the skyline of tourist hotels and apartments facing the sea.
There is a slow and a fast ferry to Corfu but the travel agent I talked to wasn’t sure how long the rides were, so I decided to stall booking a ticket until I looked it up. I had seen a few taxis parked just outside the ferry entrance but figured I could get one a little further away once I got out of the true touristy area.
Just as I was leaving, I spied a real estate office and took a picture of the apartments on offer to get a feel for the cost of moving here. It looks like most studio/one bedrooms are going for just over 100,000 euro, which is a steal for such a mediterranean vibe and climate.
Much like my bus trips and bathroom/food breaks, it turns out in Sarande if you don’t take a taxi when you see it in the commercial district in the tourist area, it’s highly unlikely you will find an empty taxi making the trek back up the hill to Sofa Haus. I made five attempts at hailing a taxi only to find at least one passenger. Very much like my waterfall park hike of a million steps, I had no choice but to slowly creep back up the hill, in full sun, back to Flora’s place.
I spied a larger supermarket just down the hill from Sofa Haus as I turned on Flora’s street. I will head down there tomorrow and see what is on offer against a repeat of the upward daily hike to the commercial district for a hot meal during my stay.