Adventures with Jack and Julia

Montenegro

Kotor

After a stunning 6 hour bus ride from Mostar through mountains and overlooking beautiful cliffs, we arrived to the rainy town of Kotor in Montenegro. We dropped off all our gear and after drying off, we immediately got to exploring. Montenegro was a suggestion of Izzy’s and it totally lived up to the hype. We really loved exploring the old town here, as it had a lot of charm with the cobble stone streets, stone buildings with green shutters, and plenty of adorable cats. While in Kotor, we took advantage of the time between rain showers to explore near the water and take in the beauty of the mountains surrounding the town on all sides.

On one morning, Julia did a quick hike up to St. John’s fortress. There are 2 main ways you can hike up to the fortress with the main way starting right from the old town but they charge 15 Euros per person to use the trail! Many people take the free route that leads to the backside of the castle, where you can climb a ladder and storm into the fortress! This was a much more fun way to go and you are likely to see some goats in your travels which is a huge plus in our books. The views the entire way of the hike are absolutely stunning as well. We only had 2 nights in Kotor but it was one of the most beautiful places we had been on the trip so far. Surrounded by water and mountains; what more could you want! Highly recommend making the trip here.

Budva

Less than an our away by bus along the Adriatic sea is the beautiful town of Budva. The weather turned around here for our 3 nights and 2 full days to explore which we were more than grateful for. The old town in Budva was full of Medieval architecture, more cobble stone streets and stone buildings, and of course, plenty of cats! We enjoyed walking along the coast from the old town to Fort Mogren one day, which offers breathtaking views of the town below, the surrounding cliffs and the sea.

The next day, we took the bus to Pržno, a small fishing village about 20 minutes away, to do a hike. The trail was mostly quiet except for a few adorable friends that we made along the way (see photos below)! We also stumbled upon a set up for a proposal that was imminent, although we didn’t stick around to watch since we wanted to give them some privacy. It was a very beautiful spot to propose though, so how could you say no in such a stunning location! The hike was definitely worth it and it wasn’t too tough. The first part in particular was a highlight for us as you get fantastic views all along the route of the town and sea below. Highly recommend.

Montenegro was such a stunning country, and we would both like to return one day to spend more time exploring all that it has to offer. We’re covering a lot of ground between these cities as we get to some heavy hitters in a few weeks that we’ve been planning for years. We hopped back on a bus after what felt like too short of a stay but alas, it was time to head off to another new country that we were equally as excited to visit: Albania!

Albania

Shkodër

Our first stop was to this city that we didn’t know how to pronounce but found out pretty quickly from the locals that it’s SHKOH-dur… We had a hotel right near the old town, so of course we walked it multiple times and checked out a couple of different coffee shops. The old town was full of colourful murals on the walls, cozy patios and lots of friendly pups patrolling the streets!

We knew very little about Albanian food so we decided to go out for a very delicious meal here of some traditional Albanian dishes: salsiçe (sausage), speca te mbushur (stuffed bell pepper), sallate greke (Greek salad) and tasqebap (traditional soup). All were great but Julia particularly liked the speca te mbushur and Jack loved the tasqebap.

A lot of these places are quite small in the old towns so we’re able to get a good idea of them after just a couple of days although you could of course spend much longer. Before we knew it, we were back on the bus heading south and into the mountains to visit another Albanian city called Berat.

Since we were travelling so often on these local busses, we learned pretty fast that they run on their own time and there is no real set schedule. We were used to booking our buses about a month in advance, but here, you just show up on the day and get on the next available bus. This added an extra layer or excitement (and a bit of stress) to our travel days but somehow everything worked out. The buses were also quite old school and the roads were quite windy so although we could’ve rented a car, we were grateful to the drivers for taking that job off our hands for only a few hundred Albanian Leke at a time.

Berat

We were very excited for the place that we had booked to stay in Berat. It was up a massive hill, which we didn’t know when we decided to walk from the bus station to our hotel with our big backpacks on in the rain. Needless to say we arrived quite sweaty and got our workout in for the day! Our place was super cozy and overlooked the old town of Berat on one side with a view of the castle on the other. It was operated by a really lovely couple who provided the best breakfast spread each morning. We wished that we had one extra night here just for the delicious breakfast and amazing views each morning!

We of course climbed up to the castle to explore and take in the amazing views. Something nice about this castle is it’s filled with small houses that locals live in and run restaurants out of rather than being some ticketed tourist trap. You can wander the streets and shops without paying an entrance fee and we loved checking out the architecture. Afterwards, we walked down the hill into the old town to check out the shops and restaurants down before.

Down in the town, we walked through Gorica, also called the city of 1000 windows and is a World Heritage Site, as well as Mangalem, a UNESCO world heritage site characterized by its white Ottoman-era houses beneath the castle. It’s a really cute little town and we were grateful to have been there (and everywhere in these countries) outside of full-blown tourist season because we got a look at them without fighting crowds everywhere we went.

We spent a couple of cooler and rainy days at these cities in Albania which we didn’t mind as Vancouverites but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t really excited to head towards the coast to see what the sunny Albanian coastal towns had to offer!

Himarë

Stepping off the bus in Himarë, we were blown away by how beautiful, clear and clean the water was! Our hotel was across the street from one of the beaches, and because we were there in the shoulder season, we pretty much had it all to ourselves throughout our stay. Our host told us that in a month, the beaches would be covered in sun beds and the streets and restaurants would be packed. It was pretty quiet and not everything was open, but we agreed that it was nice to visit when it was quieter as opposed to slammed with tourists. We quickly settled into our routine of exploring the town, but were grateful to add spending lots of time reading & relaxing at the beach watching some beautiful sunsets to our time here. We also walked up to the Himarë castle one day to take in some spectacular views.

For any geographers out there, you can probably see where our route is slowly taking us at this point. As we make our way south down the coast, we are getting closer to Greece, and we can actually see Corfu from where we are staying! We noticed a dramatic increase in the Greek influence in the food and the architecture in particular. We had a really delicious meal that was foreshadowing to our upcoming time in Greece (see photo below)!

As if we hadn’t had enough beach time, we were off to one last coastal town to soak up some more sun before heading off to our next country!

Sarandë

Sarandë is a busier and more tourist-y town than Himarë, so we definitely noticed more crowds here, but it was still not nearly as busy as the summer months. We soaked up some more sun, hiked up to Lëkurësi Castle and Julia finally tried a traditional Albanian delicacy called fërgesë. It’s a creamy dish made with warm cheese, bell pepper, tomato and onion and it tasted just as good as it sounds. Not too much else to report from here other than it’s also beautiful. Places have started accepting Euros along with Leke, and the prices are climbing to match. Still cheaper and Albania is a place we’d recommend to anyone looking to hang by the beach with delicious food. Plus, it’s not part of the Schengen Region so you can head there without taking any time out of your 90 days in the EU which is a big plus.

Albania has a ton to offer and we met some of the kindest people of the trip so far there! We really enjoyed our time there, but are both so excited to visit our next country, and one that has been on our bucket list for years. Stay tuned as we begin our journey exploring all that Greece has to offer!!

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