[Article] Sun and Sea in Saranda

Sun and Sea in Saranda
Posted by Ree in Albania; Beach on 28/Sep/2006

With $300 in our collective pocket, my future husband, his little brother, and I chased down the dawn bus from Tirana to Saranda, the southernmost city in Albania.

After traveling 40 miles in 8 hours (which tells you something about Albanian roads), I finally realized the strange noises coming from the back of the bus were coming from a (live) duck in a plastic bag carried by a respectable looking gentleman (which tells you something about Albanian buses). I took this in stride, in part because I have the blessed talent of being able to sleep on public transport and because, after all, the best way to travel in Albania is with an Albanian watching over you. Or two.

For the next 10 days we alternated between staring at the sea and staring at the sky, taking a break for a well-earned lunch...

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http://www.sitebits.com/2006/sun_and_sea_in_saranda.html

i think saranda's come up in the world since your visit...at least, the HB now charges 70 euros a night, and my hotel's shower worked ("worked" in the sense that it dispensed water when requested, not "worked" in the sense that there was any hot water between 8am and 8pm)....

70 euro a night??? I think that will cool Crimsonsky's enthusiasm for vacationing in Albania.

Jameson - I have a question for you. How's Albania in terms of getting internet access? Are you logging in from internet cafes? Do broadband providers exist? What about Wi-Fi?

well that's for the 5-star hotel.....which in all honesty is not that great. it has a pool and a restaurant and all, but the hotel itself is nothing special. there are smaller, nicer places for more like 15 euros a night (but yeah, you may or may not get hot water all the time).

as for internet, cafes are cheap (between 50 cents and an dollar per hour) and fast, and i hear residential broadband is cheap and good....wi-fi's a little harder to find, but a few of the downtown bars and cafes have it now. me, i abuse my work internet connection, mostly

and when i say all of the above, i mean "in tirana". elsewhere things are not so great for the net-addicted.