Sarandë
Ciao
How are you — Mirëmëngjes
Good evening — Mirëmbrëma
Thank you — Faleminderit
If you spent a long holiday, you better buy a SIM card for your phone.
Also, most of the Albanian people don’t speak English, so conversation sometimes can be awkward in some cases. But I found a Vodafone place right in front of the port. An Albanian SIM card costs about 12 Euro.
Be careful: Taxis will approach you asking for rides but in Sarandë every place, hotel or hostel is like 10 min max by foot.
I spent two nights at Hasta La Vista Hostel; it was a brand new hostel, tidy, clean, young staff and super friendly.
I joined some a group at the hostel and went lunch at a traditional local restaurant called Te Bequa : I had casserole and meat with vegetables, delicious! Food in Albania is so delicious; it’s as if your grandmama would cook for you every time you went to see her 😀 but especially cheap.
After lunch, we headed to Mirror Beach
To get there, take the bus from the city centre. It takes about 20/25 min, asks the driver to drop you close to Mirror Beach so you can walk up.
You can buy tickets on the bus for 100 LEK which is less than 1 Euro.
After a long day at the beach, we came back to the hostel spent some time talking with travellers, had a few beers and went for a night out.
Go strolling around the city centre, have drinks and choose a favourite restaurant for dinner, there are plenty of choices all of them offer fresh fish and traditional Albanian food.
One cool club I liked for music and dancing you can go to is Orange.
My second day me and 2 Dutch girls from the Hostel, Miriam and Nika, we went exploring the Blue Eye.
Entrance costs 100 LEK.
Blue Eye is a water spring and natural phenomenon. It’s a popular tourist attraction, with many coming to see the clear blue water bubbling up from a depth of more than fifty metres. Divers have descended to fifty metres, but it is still unclear what the actual bottom of the hole is.
N.B: It can be overcrowded, especially in high season.
It was such a warm & happy day!
Do you want to do something FUN?
Make a jump in the Blue Eye (from a height of about 5 metres!) before you leave! And swim for about 100 meters downstream following the strong current that takes you all the way downstream to a restaurant where get out.
IT IS A breathtaking experience!
If you go, you MUST TRY 🙂
The day after I left Sarandë and Headed to Vlorë.
Ticket price is 1000 LEK – Duration 3 and a half hours.
