A walk around downtown Vlorë, Albania

Beautiful sunny day yesterday here in Vlorë, Albania, but a bit chilly with a high of only 14C (57F). Still, if you were in the sun it was quite pleasant. A warming trend is in the forecast though, with the sunshine maintaining a presence. We'll take it!

Yesterday, our first day in Vlorë, we went for a walk into the downtown section. There is a grocery chain here in Albania called Conad, and they do some of their own store brand gluten free products, including bread. But not all Conad stores stock all the products, so we wanted to see what selection they had at the Conad store here.

It was about 3.5 kms (2.2 miles) one way to the Conad store from our apartment.

Outside of our building.

Outside of our building, and most of the buildings along the promenade, there are a lot of patio restaurants and cafes. Then there is a wide pedestrian walkway, then a two lane bicycle path. Then the roadway with a single lane in each direction. Then another walkway, then the beach!

I can imagine that this is very busy during the summer season.

We found the Conad store, and sure enough they had the gluten free bread in stock that we were looking for. We bought four loaves. They're a bit pricey by local standards, at 449 lek ($5.40 CA, $4.30 USD) per loaf. In a country where bread is very cheap, this is some expensive bread! Anyhow, we splurged and will likely stock up a little more when we leave here just in case we can't get it at our future destinations. It's sealed, so it keeps fresh for a long time.

We made our way to an old mosque.

Built in the 16th century.

This big building is just sitting unfinished with no work being done.

I always wonder what the story is when I see building like this.

There are probably 4 or 5 larger unfinished buildings in this city, but this is the largest.

The Albania Monument of Independence, from 1912.

Vlorë is one of the oldest cities in the region, dating back to 600 BC. But the most recent claim to fame is from 1912 because the Albanian Declaration of Independence was signed here.

This city park is well kept.

Clock Tower.

There was a big market going on at the base of the building.

The old downtown area has been made into pedestrian streets and coffee shops. 

The Albanians love their coffee shops!

Colorful street.

We walked up a hill to get to this WW2 graves monument.

Large parade area.

Most of these were young men in their twenties.

Then we carried on up another hill to get to the best view of the city.

Yet another bunker.

Views of Vlorë.

On the way home, we stopped in at a local grocery store that has a really great butcher section.

Ruth, doing some meat shopping.

We bought 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, a half a kilo of lean ground beef, 4 pork chops, and 300 grams of sliced ham deli meat. Cost was 1,680 lek ($20 CAD, $16 USD).

Pork chops for dinner.

You might notice that my pork chop has a slight purple look. Ruth had marinated them in red wine and they turned a shade of purple.

Sunset from our balcony.

Another great day in Albania.

We booked our next location. We will be headed further south down the coast to the beach resort town of Sarandë near the border with Greece on April 14th.

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Nice deal on this Coleman folding Camp Shovel.

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