Albania- June 7th
Woke up early... Had breakfast on the 5th deck aft's outside restaurant. Beautiful!
Took watercolor painting class mid morning from the guest artist, Janet Walsh. Have always said that I'd love to learn how to paint. Luckily most of us are newbies so I didn't mind when my red ship on the ocean bled into the sea... I'm learning.;-)) there will be a couple more classes on this trip & am now really looking forward to them.
The adventure begins...
Janet Walsh gives a demonstration
Just before lunch we had a lecture by Elizabeth Bartmam( the President of the Archaeological Institute of America ) http://www.archaeological.org/tours/leaders/elizabethbartman on "Tales of Butrint" in preparation for what we would see later today.....
After lunch aboard the ship, we anchored just off shore at Saranda, the southern most city in Albania. Just across the Ionian Sea's channel is Korfu, the most northern of the Greek Islands.
Our ship is carrying 51 guests (plus a few leader/tour managers) so we comfortably fit on a couple of buses. Our destination today is the ancient archaeological city of Butrint.
View of Corinthian 2 at anchor
We were told bu our guide that the most jobs in this area of Albania are fishing & construction of new buildings. Very notable on the hillsides around Saranda are many many buildings in a state of construction (but not many workers in sight). Our tour guide said that many building take a long long time to build because they are waiting for more money to continue. They are hoping for much more tourism here.. The main road to Butrint is in a state of construction & disrepair, with several sections of narrow dirt road, quite an adventure (don't look down....lol).
Unpaved road on way to Butrint
Butrint is located on a peninsula & we saw many areas where mussels were being farmed in the lagoon there. I had some mussels at lunch today.... I wonder if they were Albanian? BTW, the food has been excellent so far on this trip.
Butrint was first occupied around 500AD. They are still in the processes of digging & we saw a group of archaeologists ( the leader is from Notre Dam Univ in the US) working on a new area. They believe that they have only uncovered 40% of what is here & right now they are working on the Roman forum. The lower areas are slowly sinking so there is an issue with water and the preservation of some of the beautiful mosaics. (There are many turtles here!... ) We were greeted on the site and given a short lecture presentation by Raimond Kola, the current director of the Butrint site.
The green is where there is water....
Butrint's current inhabitants
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Unfortunately, the mosaics are covered for protection
After climbing to the top of this peninsula to see the castle, we enjoyed the museum & saw many of the statues & pottery that have been uncovered over the years.
Looking south, we are very close to Greece
Albanian flag
At entrance to Butrint
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Returning to our ship we hung out for a while at one of the tables on the aft of the ship with a glass of wine (BTW, the wine is all included on this trip...) & waited for the 2nd tender to come in.
This was the night of the captain's welcome reception & welcome dinner. A couple on this trip ( from Houston- Rice Univ people) lost their luggage on the way here. Gary loaned Don one of his shirts so they could come to the welcome dinner. We had a lovely evening and met some more of our travel companions, Clark & Vicki. This is one of the very positive reasons to go on small group trips like this.... you get to meet some very interesting and like minded travelers.
I have slept very well so far on this journey. The slight motion of the ship as we travel from one stop to the next, rocks me gently into a very restful sleep. :-)
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