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Saturday 28th June
We had to get the 8:00am bus this morning so it was another early start, which hasn't been a problem for us lately as our body clocks still haven't adjusted, although Mark was feeling a little worse for wear this time. The reception wasn't open for us to check out this early so we had to leave a note and the money, which we hoped was enough. We left it with two English girls we had met the night befre and were camping on the grass outside. They are driving from England to Greece. We then made a dash for the bus station, power walking there. When we got there, there were no buses. Out bus was meant to leave in 10 minutes!!! We found a local and repeated 2 words they could understand 'Bus' 'Saranda' It was on the other side of town!!! We managed to grab a taxi who understood out urgency, with only minutes to spare we managed to catch the bus This time we was on a mini bus, They are called furgons here.....it seemed like this was going to be a lot better then the bigger bus and get is there faster, however we didn't account for the lack of suspension and the poor condition of the roads, we were thrown around everywhere. Luckily we didn't start to feel sick until the end of the 5 hour trip! We arrived in Saranda and although it lacked Berat's charm it made up in beach proximity.
We decided to walk around to find our hostel. No one knew the street name. However after a bit of direction dominos we were greeted by our host Tomi. He was so friendly and gave us a plate of watermelon on arrival. We ate this changed into our swim stuff and headed to the beach for some R & R. It wasn't the nicest beach in the world, but it was good to be by the water at last. The rest of the day was spent here chilling in the sun and sea. That night we headed out for some dinner and a stroll down the promenade. The promenade was very busy with all the locals and holiday makers walking up and down in their best attire.
Sunday 29th June
We had a bit of a relaxing day. Today we headed up to the Ancienty city ruins of Butrint. The large ruins are a mixture of Greek, Roman, Ottoman and Byzantine. We decided not to venture into all the small nooks and crannies we saw a snake in one. So we made a quick exit and stuck to the paths. These ruins havny been open too long because in the Communist era this whole area was shut off.
After our moring of sight seeing, We decided to head to a local beach next to the ruins. We spent the rest of the day swimming in the sea and sun bathing.
That evening we sat on the beach and ate local Albania kebabs before heading off to bed.
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