Our accommodation in Permet, and exploring the town

There weren't a lot of Airbnb choices in Permet. It's only a small city of about 10,000 people. There were a lot of guest houses listed, which normally we wouldn't mind staying in shared facilities, but with the whole Covid situation, our preference is to have a place to ourselves. 

And normally when there are a lot of options, we try to pick a place that has a lot of good reviews. But obviously there's always a bit of risk involved because what some people find acceptable, others do not.

We're pretty easy to get along with though, which is why it works so well for us. As we like to say, keep your expectations low, and you won't be disappointed!

We also have a maximum upper limit to our nightly budget of 3,300 lek ($40 CAD, $32.50) per night here in Albania. And we have stayed in decent places for almost half that. Anyhow, there was only one suitable option showing up here and it was 2,800 lek ($33 CAD, $27 USD), and it does not have WiFi internet.

That's what I booked.

It's pretty basic for the price, but we're only here for 4 nights. The main reason for coming to this area is to go to the Lengarica Canyon which we will be doing on Tuesday.

So we got here, and it's a 3rd floor apartment in an old communist era building. The exterior is pretty rough in some of these buildings, but the apartments can be quite nice as they are individually owned.

The bed is not the comfiest.

Bathroom has been recently updated.

It has a washing machine.

Living room.

Kitchen.

View from the balcony.

It'll do. The kitchen itself is nice, but the cooking equipment was pretty poor. We've learned that when a listing says "fully equipped kitchen" you're still not sure what you're going to get. At this place, the larger frying pan should be in the trash. I don't understand how hosts can supply equipment that they wouldn't think of using themselves. And there was a big pressure cooker, but no decent pots. So we sent the host a note and he was quick to send over some decent pots and pans. One thing that will kill an Airbnb listing is bad reviews, so hosts are usually pretty good at trying to keep you happy.

It's Orthodox Greek Easter long weekend here. So today (Monday) is a holiday. 

Yesterday, we relaxed for the morning and then after lunch we went out to explore the town. It was pretty warm, and I think it got up to 28C (82F). But it was odd because there was hardly anybody around. I've said before though that the Albanians tend to be out and about more in the morning. But we figured on a beautiful Sunday there would be more people out enjoying the afternoon.

WWII Monument in Permet.

Central plaza area.

Bridge over the Vjosa River.

It's a pretty enough town.

Can you see the big rock in the center of the photo?

That big rock is called City Rock. It's just a huge boulder. From where we were, Ruth noticed people on top of the rock, so we headed over there to see how to get up.

Permet: Besides the sea, we have everything else.

Scenery along the way.

After seeing so much crystal clear water in Albania, it was odd to see this muddy river.

Ruth.

City Rock.

On the opposite side of the rock, they had built a metal stairway leading to the top. 

View of Permet looking south from City Rock.

And looking north.

And looking east.

Saint Friday's Church, built in 1776.

The nicely carved door was locked.

Saint Nicholas Church, built in 1757.

Another nicely carved door.

We needed a few groceries which we obviously should have bought the day before. The four larger grocery stores in town were all closed for Easter Sunday. But, we noticed that a few of the restaurants were open, so decided to treat ourselves to dinner out. I read the reviews on Google Maps and found one that looked promising. 

At around dusk (7:15pm) we walked down to the Hani Kikes restuarant. 

Menu in Albanian and English.

You can click on the photo to make it full size.

Click on it again to zoom in.

500 lek is $6.00 CAD, $4.90 USD.

It's just a small restaurant with a little outdoor patio. It was a really nice evening, and we sat outside. The owner spoke half decent English, and we asked him about getting a selection of things. He suggested the antipasto starter for 500 lek, and we ordered two of them having no idea whether this would be enough food or not.

This was definitely enough food!

We were stuffed. Along with a very full glass of red wine for Ruth, and a half liter bottle of beer for me, the total bill was 1,250 lek ($15 CAD, $12 USD). We are really enjoying Albania. Great scenery, friendly people, and reasonable prices.

Then we went for a walk back to the central area. It turns out that everybody comes out in the evening. The cafes were busy, lots of children running around... almost like in Mexico.

People in the central plaza.

Busy cafes.

We had originally planned on going up to the canyon and hot springs today, but we forgot that it's a long weekend. So we will put it off until tomorrow. Maybe we will go for a hike up the mountain behind us. The little heat wave that we've been having appears to be over, and they are calling for a pleasant 21C (70F) today.

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