This is an interesting road because if you look on Google maps it is marked as a major route south. And between Berat and Drobonik the road is freshly paved and in beautiful condition. But after Drobonik it deteriorates quickly into a dirt road and apparently there are areas where it would be wise to have a high clearance vehicle, if not 4WD.
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Looking back at Berat.
I'm sure there are people in campers that have come this way expecting to be able to drive all the way through to Permet, or even the Greek border only to have to turn around. It's too bad too, because I'm sure it would be a beautiful drive.
Across the valley towards Tomorr Mountain where we were hiking on Saturday.
This guy has a great view!
Lots of vineyards and olive trees.
This region is also well known for it's cherry production.
The best time is May/June for cheap juicy ripe sweet cherries!
Ruth likes to say hello to the animals along the way.
And the people. We came across one boy maybe 10 or 11 years old and said hello in Albanian. He said "Where are you going" in perfect English! And then he asked "Where are you from". After grade 3, they learn English in school, and he was happy to practice with us. He struggled with a few words, even having to concentrate and think for a moment which word he was trying to remember, but he did quite well considering I'm sure they don't get to practice with a native English speaker very often.
This is the major road heading south.
And in fact it does end up going all the way to the Greek border, but it's like this for 60 kms (37 miles) before it becomes paved again.
If you look on google maps, it is that yellow road heading south from Berat.
Looks like it should be a major road, but it's not.
The white road on the opposite side of the river is actually paved.
The village of Drobonik.
We could easily live in this area. If we moved to Albania, it would be to a small village like Drobonik. Very rural, but close enough to the city if you need things. It's unlikely to ever happen, but if Albania ever ended up part of the EU, it might work out.
We ended up doing almost 13 kms (8 miles) so we had a good workout on a beautiful day.
And then it was time for a meal in the hotel restaurant. We had eaten there when we finished our rafting trip in the spring, so we knew it was good. It gets great reviews, and is often mentioned as being the best restaurant in Berat. Of course it's also on the higher end of the pricing scale, but if we are going to eat at an expensive restaurant, it is best to do so in an inexpensive country.
Roast vegetables and village salad.
Thick yogurt sauce.
This goes well with just about anything, and is served with many dishes.
Stuffed peppers.
Roast turkey.
All of the ingredients are fresh and local. Delicious. In fact, most ingredients are purchased from those two isolated villages we told you about yesterday.
Total bill including tip was 3,800 lek ($44.50 CAD, $35 USD, €31). I had a beer, and Ruth had a glass of red wine, and we each had a raki to end the meal. We were stuffed.
It would have cost double that in Canada. We don't often eat out in Canada or the U.S. because it's just too expensive by the time you add in the taxes and tip.
Besides, this may have been Ruth's birthday meal out. Her birthday isn't until next Saturday, but we have no idea where we're going to be then, and it may not be conveniently close to a restaurant!
Woke up to a cloudy day this Monday morning. It seems our nice blue sky has disappeared for the moment, and we're supposed to get some rain this afternoon and throughout Tuesday. We've got our dentist appointment in town at 6:30pm, so we're going to drive down there to an RV parking area closer to where the dentist office is in case it's raining at the time.
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Nice price drop on the Coleman Camp Chair with Side Table.And in Canada...
There's no Streetview on most of that road south of Berat. That's never a good sign. There are a couple of panoramas that show a very primitive road.
ReplyDeleteYou can't go by the assumption of the road not being good in Albania by the fact that Google Streetview doesn't show up. There are many roads that are perfectly fine to travel on, they just haven't been driven on and captured by Google, we aren't sure if some of that has to do with security as we have found that many roads in Germany also don't show up on Streetview. The road on the opposite side of the river that is a white road is a paved two lane "narrow" road but perfectly fine to drive on even for Max up until a small village called Rog. Yet the one we were walking on that shows up as a yellow road is only paved to the village of Drobonik and after that it is a gravel stone road which up to a certain area a normal car could travel on, just not sure it could travel the whole distance of the road.
DeleteThat meal looked scrumptious, and a great price indeed! I totally agree with you re. eating out. Mexico's prices spoiled us for coming back to the US. We have only eaten out once (other than a couple of two-for-one delivery pizzas) since returning in March 2020! It's just too expensive to do other than for a very special occasion.
ReplyDeleteThe lunch was delicious and so healthy. The restaurant sources most of their produce and meat from those two small villages that we looked down on yesterday from our hike. They want to help them out economically as much as possible. So the produce is always fresh and local. It's funny but many people at home in Canada think we are weird because we rarely eat out when we visit Canada but like for you, it is just too expensive! It is nice too be able to splurge a bit on a great meal here in Albania and know that we got a fantastic meal at a fantastic price. :-)
DeleteYou're too kind to prices in Canada. Think 3.5 times that you paid. Perhaps in a fast food place it would have been double... In a regular, nothing fancy restaurant, that meal with that amount of alcohol including tax and tip would have been easily $150-160CAD.
ReplyDeleteI guess we are really out of touch then! We were only basing it on the two meals that we had out at the pub that our daughter works at in Ottawa when we were there last. Both our meals with a glass of wine and a beer averaged out to be about $75 with tip and tax included and we were full at the end of each meal. Having said that I think that we got more food at our lunch yesterday here in Albania. Although the pub is a really good restaurant it wasn't quite as fancy as a proper sit down dining room in a fancy restaurant type of establishment. We haven't been in one of those types of restaurants in Canada in many years!
DeleteYou two are enjoying the eating out! Good for you two! Hope you two kept up! Rawn Stone
ReplyDeleteWe don't often eat out but yes, we enjoy it when we do, especially at these prices. :-)
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