We kind of got sidetracked... and ended up at the dentist office!

We got a decently early start for our drive to Berat. They were calling for showers in the afternoon, so we wanted to get to the River Side Campground early enough to get a load or two of laundry done. Our plan was to have a one night stay at this campground in order to do laundry, have showers, fill and empty our tanks, and fully charge our batteries. 

This way, we will easily be able to spend a few free nights at the hotel parking lot where we know it is shaded and don't know if we will be able to plug in.

Why are we going to be staying in a hotel parking lot? 

Well, it's the Castle Park Hotel and Restaurant that is owned by the same people who do the Albania Rafting Tours and we're hoping to do some hiking with them this weekend. There is also lots of walking that can be done right from the hotel, so we hope to stay there as long as the weather holds out. Also, they have a fantastic restaurant so we'll take advantage of a nice evening meal there.

Yesterday's drive.

Lots of citrus fruit being sold at the side of the road.

Not the most scenic part of Albania. Lots of farmland.

This town had a busy market on the go.

Olive trees.

We arrived at River Side Camping and there was one unit already parked up with German licence plates. Before we had even got ourselves into a space, a woman was out to greet us. This place gets great reviews, and it's easy to see why. Not necessarily because of the parking area itself, or the fact that it's right on a fairly major road. 

But the lady is super friendly and immediately takes you to show you around. They have a nice shaded outdoor seating area, a self serve drink fridge where you keep track of your own usage, a well equipped kitchen available for the campers use, spotlessly clean washrooms and showers, two new washing machines, and super fast WiFi. Oh, and several shade structures you park under because it gets awfully warm here in the summer.

Max, parked at GPS 40.706318, 19.935577

€15 ($21.50 CAD, $17 USD) per night, including one use of the washing machine. Not bad. €3 extra for a second load, which we will need to do!

The garden for the campers.

We were getting ourselves leveled and hooked up to electric when our host came over to see how we were doing...

She brought us a plate of fruit!

It's the little things that count. How nice is that?

After lunch, we walked into town. The idea was to find a butcher and pick up some meat, but we kind of got sidetracked... and ended up at the dentist office! 

Regular readers will remember when I had some dental work here in the spring. I've got a couple of small cavities I need to have fixed, and Ruth wants a cleaning and inspection done. I was really happy with the dentist, and it's so ridiculously cheap for us here... even cheaper than Mexico. So we wanted to take advantage of that while we're here in Berat.

So we went to the office and sat and waited for an hour until we could speak with him. He doesn't have a receptionist, and his assistant came out to hep us, but she doesn't speak English, so we had to wait until he was done with a patient before he could talk to us.

All of the dental certificates on the wall.

He was so happy to see us. Big smile, and handshake. We explained what we wanted, but he's really busy. His hand written appointment book was full for next week. But he said he would squeeze us in. We have an appointment for 6:30pm on Monday!

We never did make it to a butcher. We picked up a few fruits and veggies, and a roasted chicken and headed back to Max.

Berat is known as the city of  a thousand windows.

It never did rain!

When we arrived back at the campground, there was another German plated vehicle there... a single girl traveling alone in a mini van she converted to a camper.

We've woken up to beautiful sunshine this Friday morning. It's supposed to last through the weekend, so we'll be out enjoying it as much as possible!

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