Monday 17th October 2016
Alarm clock needed again today, this is getting to be a bad
habit.
Today's stop is Sarande in
Albania, this must be the most unusual port of call I could have imagined. Doesn't seem five minutes ago that I remember
this being a closed country, no access to anyone from the outside world and no
one from Albania allowed out!, and now we are calling in as an alternative to a
call in Turkey due to their troubles.
Tender operations today to get everyone
ashore, a slow job at the best of times.
Still at least being on an organised tour we don't have to wait for the
early rush to clear.
Once ashore joined our group's bus
and set off for Butrint National Park. A
tight fit for the bus through the narrow streets but soon out into the
countryside, pleasant and hilly and lots of flooded fields.
Butrint contains the archaeological
remains of the Greeks, Romans and Venetians, and probably a few more. Quite extensive and surprisingly well
preserved ruins including a very smart Greco-Roman theatre where we were given
a very interesting talk by the resident archaeologist.
Various other bits such as the
Gymnasium, Basilica and several mosaics (these being covered up for protection)
Lots of cyclamen growing wild to
rival those at Olympia, very pretty.
Back in Sarande went for a brief
walk round the town before getting the tender back to the ship.
Since 1990 Albania has been bringing
itself up to date and trying to develop tourism, lots of building going on and
the new Mayor of Sarande has started work on increasing the 2 hours of water each day up to 24!
Albania is hoping to join the EU when they
have complied with all the entry conditions.
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