Leaving the coast behind us, we visited another Hellenic hilltop settlement called Finiq, with only a few ruins and an amphitheatre so far excavated.
More interesting however was this series of 5 linked bunkers on the hilltop. Following WWII, the communist government of Enver Hoxha took control and thus began a regime that lasted until 1991. During this time 168,000 bunkers were built of the originally planned 208,000 to protect against possible invasion, although they were never used.
We were able to enter and walk through …
… and look out through the small openings to the valley below.
The next attraction was the natural spring called The Blue Eye of Sarandë, reached by quite a long walk, but it did have very blue water as it bubbled up through the ground.
One more morning stop was at the C13th Orthodox Church of St Nicholas in Mesopotam …
…which incorporates some Hellenic temple walls with carvings of a lion and serpent dragon linked to the Finiq site.
Quite a long drive across the plain and through the mountains …
… brought us to the main attraction of the day, Gjirokaster, another UNESCO listed town and known as the Stone City.
We shared a spinach filled byrek pastry and took a quick look in the mosque …
… then wandered the quaint cobblestone streets of the Bazaar with their cafes and giftshops and chose one of the many ceramic pomegranates which will look perfect on our kitchen windowsill to remind us of our trip.
In the afternoon we had a tour of Gjirokaster castle which was huge, with this hall filled with old guns and canons …
… a courtyard used for various festivals in the summer …
… and a clock tower
From the castle, it was possible to see the distinctive style of the stone houses clinging to the hillside …
… and also the distinctive slate roofs radiating from the centre of the bazaar.
The Bineti Hotel was family run and our room had a castle view and was traditionally decorated.
Gjirokaster is also birthplace of the author Ismail Kadare who has written several novels set in Albania, and I was recommended one called The Fall of the Stone City set during WWII by one of the group and now just need a chance to read it!
The evening was distinctly cooler than by the coast and all the travel was catching up with us so we found a cosy little restaurant for dinner where we could sit indoors then had an early night.
In the morning, the atmosphere was quite different as on an October morning the town is slow to wake up as we headed back to the bus.
Off Travelling Together 