We dropped anchor in the beautiful harbor in the southern Albania town of Sarandë at 7:30AM with the sun shining brightly on a glistening Ionian Sea. The temperature was in the low 70’s and the air dry. There was not even a hint of wind as we settled in the harbor. The large Greek island of Corfu is directly across the channel 1½ miles away. Although in Albania we are still in the world of the ancient Hellenes and their ruined cities dot the landscape. Our first stop this morning is the archaeological site of Butrint, an ancient cityscape that has seen continuous habitation for 2500 years.
We bordered our buses to visit UNESCO World Heritage site of ancient Butrint at 8:30 for a pleasant 45-minute ride through Sarandë and the southern Albanian countryside. The many unfinished buildings testify to the legacy of the isolation and impoverishment of post World War II Albania. Today the average annual salary is about three thousand dollars with approximately 15% unemployment. The best five-star hotel in Sarandë is less than $100 per day.
Butrint is quite unique as it contains at lest four distinct archaeological levels: Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine and Venetian. The Greek theatre is surely one of the most impressive sites on the site as it is cut into the hillside, has quite good acoustics and originally sat 2500 in the audience. The 6th century Byzantine baptistery has the most wonderful mosaic floor and immersion baptismal font. It is interesting to note whereas today Butrint seems quite remote and isolated, Butrint during the Roman period had 15,000 inhabitants. Cicero’s closest friend Atticus had large estates here and Cicero visited him here.
We next visited the Ottoman fortress in Sarandë built during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. Immediately outside the entrance to the castle were two of the 750 thousand concrete bunkers built during the rule of the dictator Enver Hoxha. Hoxha ruled the country with an iron fist and Albania was isolated from the world until a parliamentary system was begun in 1991.
The views from the top of the fortress were spectacular. Corfu seemed so close that one could touch it. We were treated to a selection of Albanian wines and foods.
We left Sarandë and had a wonderful lunch on board. Tom Heffernan gave a lecture on the incredible debacle of the Fourth Crusade and following Tom’s talk we all had a refreshing swim in the Adriatic. The water was a refreshing 75 and it appeared that almost jumped in and some with cameras!
After our swim we had the great adventure of visiting the abandoned castle of the famous Ali Pasha, a friend of Lord Byron’s. The great staff of Sea Cloud set up a bar with chilled wines, and canapés. The real highlight of our visit to the castle was the musical performance. A flautist dressed in traditional south Albania costume played what appeared to be an ancient pan flute. His translator said it was in his family for 300 years. His teenage son who played a double wooden flute joined him.
We zodiacked back to our floating home and had a wonderful dinner at 8PM.
All of us went to bed with memories of a very rich day.
