Our next stop in Albania was the small and charming town of Berat. Berat is known as the town of a thousand windows because of the picturesque white Ottoman houses that line the mountain leading up to the Castle of Berat. Just getting here felt like an accomplishment because the transportation in Albania is honestly the most unorganized we’ve encountered since Peru. The confusion can be attributed to the fact that the country doesn’t seem to have traditional bus stations, but instead uses big parking lots with a lot of buses that have signs in their windows saying their destination.
Here is what we did so you have some reference. We left our apartment in Tirana, got on a public bus to take us to one of the bus yards mentioned above. About halfway through our public bus ride it started heading the wrong direction so we had to jump off and walk about 40 minutes with our massive bags to the bus yard. Once we arrived, it was pure chaos. About 10-15 dudes descended upon us because they can see we are tourists and are exhausted. We’ve learned to walk past them, which we did. We then had to wander among the buses until we saw one with a sign that said, “Berat,” get on, wait for it to be sufficiently full and then we were off!
Switch back to Berat! We’ve been staying in primarily AirBnb’s up to this point but we didn’t have much luck finding one here, so instead went with Booking.com and found a bed and breakfast (Olive B&B). I think we need to do these more often because the people were super nice and waking up to a nice breakfast in the morning is hard to beat. Not only did they provide food, but our host brewed his own moonshine which he was far too generous with.
The highlight of Berat is by far the castle at the top of the hill overlooking the city. Quick story and advice on the castle. We walked all the way to the top which takes a little more effort than you might think when looking up from the bottom. We assumed that you could freely walk around inside the walls and the actual castle charged an admission, but that was the wrong assumption (kind of). We got to the gate and the man said “100 LEK.” We had just been to the ATM which popped out some large bills so I handed the dude a 5000 to which he said, “no change.” I asked, “Card?” He replied, “No.” SOO we walked back down the hill to a supermarket to buy things and break our big bill. I don’t do well in these situations, especially if the person is rude (which he was) but luckily Caitlin is by my side to tell me it’s not that big of a deal. We then walked BACK up this big ass hill, got to the gate with the rude man and he proceeded to pat Caitlin on the back and said, “Go in, free!” It’s like he wanted us to prove our dedication and resolve to see his castle. Let’s just say I was filled with mixed emotions. All the sweat and anger paid off because the views and weather was amazing at the top.
The city of Berat has a large boardwalk leading to the foot of the mountain with shops and restaurants, but if you’re looking for a raging good time with bars and booze then Berat probably isn’t your place. If you’re sensitive to the treatment of animals then it might also be a rough place for you because there are a lot of homeless pups and cats. You’ll also encounter numerous groups of live turkeys tied together that are either taken home in plastic bags or put out of their misery right there on the street.
Overall though, we enjoyed our few days in Berat. The views the town offers made the hassle of getting there worth it for sure. Onto our last country in Europe!