Albania to Greece

Woke up in the amazing hillside town of Gjirokastra, with its steep stone streets and slate roofed houses, all overseen by a huge castle-like fortress and former Bektashi monastery. The Bektashi were the liberal sect of Islam that came with the Ottoman conquerors and made it easier to convert to Islam because they drank Raki (strong alcoholic grape product - Uozo in other countries) and didn't require their women to cover. (Sufiism would come later). We climbed up the hill to the monastery/castle and enjoyed the labyrinth of hallways, rooms, and cisterns. There was quite a collection of cannon, a tank, and a US spy plane, shot down in the 1950's, in and about the fortification walls. There is also an old stage for celebrations and cultural gatherins held every two years during dictator Hodga's reign. Gjirokastra was his birthplace and our second visit was to that location, now an ethnographic museum of costumes and household furnishings of the upper class of Albanians in the 19th and 20th centuries. After a hike back down the hill, we bid our Albanian tour guide farewell, boarded our bus for Thessaloniki, Greece and began our scenic adventure through the mountains of southern Albania and northern Greece (old Macedonia). While splendidly scenic, most of our stomachs were at least mildly unhappy. At least it was light and we could enjoy all the sights.....

We were into Greece by lunch time and our food blogger, Abbey, found us this amazing family restaurant where the food was either fresh from the garden or the farms nearby. We ate family style of home baked bread, fresh goat cheese, green beans, chard, potatoes, carrots, and roast beef, followed by what we were told was candied zucchini, but tasted more like candied sweet potato. It was the best food of the trip, I think. And the atmosphere so perfect, on picnic tables under a grape arbor.....a perfect Grecian lunch.....Alexander would have approved. But, the road called us on.....

Our bus driver was amazing and got us right into downtown Thessaloniki where we only circled downtown twice before finding the right one way streets to get us to the Hotel Aegean. There we were met by our lovely Turkish tour guide and friend, Arzu, who got us settled in quickly and got us to a nice restaurant a block from the hotel for dinner. She is an amazing woman and really works so well with our group (we are worse than a group of school kids). Bedtime beckoned and 7:30 breakfast was going to come too quickly. A few walked to the waterfront, but I needed sleep!