A lot of ground to cover today, thus we made our way by 8.30am, and saying goodbye to the last of the river.
Our first stop for the day is Gjirokastor which is about 40mins away.
Gjirokastra has a historic upper town and a modern lower town built during the communist era.
It is also known as the Stone City or the City of 1000 Steps. I am glad we had a car and was able to find a parking spot very close to the upper town, as a fair bit of effort would be required if I had travelled on my own and to walk up the hill.
We took a walk towards the castle, cutting through the Old Town which was rather quiet while we were there. A number of shops were closed due to it being low season.
The castle at the top had a Musuem which had a good summary of the history of Albania.
There was also a great view from the top, which often is the bigger draw for anyone visiting Gjirokaster Castle.
We had a quick look at the old town, before making our way to check out the Cold War Tunnel - this can only be done through a tour with the visitor information centre. As it was low season, we had an exclusive tour of the tunnel.
The Cold War Tunnel was built by Enver Hoxha, a communist ruler, who ruled the country from 1946 - 1985, as he feared that a nuclear bomb would be drop in Albania.
The tunnel was built to be used by people working in the nearby government offices. It contained 60 rooms and can fit 200 people from the government offices.
We were first led through the doors which were made out of solid metal. We were told that most of the things inside the tunnel had been taken by the people when the tunnel was discovered, thus many of the rooms were empty.
There were only 2 rooms in the tunnel that had some furnishings, which were the rooms used by the mayor and the 2nd in command.
We were also showed the ventilation system in case a nuclear bomb was set off. No nuclear bomb was ever dropped and so the tunnel was never used.
The staff at the visitor information centre suggested we check out the Ethnography Musuem, which I later found out was where Enver Hoxha was born in. We didn't go in, but we were told it houses a collection of furniture and household items that were used in Ottoman times.
Back on the road at 1pm, to commence our 3.5hours drive to Beret.
We were wondering why Google maps says it takes us 2.5 hours to travel 50km.. And then we realised why.
It was gravel road like this all the way, so it was a very bumpy slow ride
And a very tiny road that can only fit 1 car.
Midway, there were 2 cars stopped on the road that prevented us from passing due to it being a 1 lane road. Within seconds, a guy came down from the hill on the side.
His family has decided to stop in the middle of the road to have a picnic, and he asked us to join them.
We just had lunch a few mins ago, so we politely declined but we stayed to chat for a bit before they drove their car to the side to let us pass.
You can probably see the windy path in this view, which is the road we are going to take.
On Google maps, this is marked as a highway, but it is a very bumpy ride highway with no paved paths
But the views through the mountain pass was really picturesque with ever changing views and snow capped mountains.
We finally reached our Accomodation in Berat at about 5.30pm, which was through even more bumpy roads.
After resting for about an hour, we headed out to the Old Town for dinner at Homemade Food Lili.
We got lost for a while within the narrow streets of the old town in the dark, because Google maps keep taking us the wrong way. But we finally found it.
Dining at Lili was one of the most amazing dining experience I've had.
The experience is made incredible by this lovely owner Lili.
He has so much energy and so animatic that it is too hard for anyone not to like him at all.
And best of all is his hospitality to make sure all the guests had a great experience. He made it a point to know everyone's names.
The restaurant only has 4 tables and on arriving, Lili told us where we were sitting was where his father and grandfather was born at. And this room was the entire house back in the days.
It got burned in a fire and had been rebuilt, with this section now used as a restaurant which was opened in 2016.
We were shown the menu which was on an A3 cardboard paper which looked like it had been around for a long time - A very tested and proven menu that had been served over the years.
We ordered Dolma (Tomato stuffed with rice), Tavi Kosi (lamb with yogurt), Biftek Berati (which had no beef but in fact made out of pork), and home made wine. Food was incredibly amazing.
And to end of the meal, we were given a jam made out of quince.
We also ordered raki, which is also home made. It's a hard liquor served in most Balkan places and can be an aperitif or digestif.
Most places you have to pay for it but at Lili's, he said this is never sold and given a glass complimentary when we end our meal
Our table had extra special treatment, instead of only 1 or just 2 rakis which the other tables had, we ended up having about 4 or 5 😂
Everyone was having a wonderful time interacting with each other at the other tables.
We arrived at 7.30pm, and never did we expect to stay till past 11pm for dinner in a small restaurant in a small town in Berat.
If not for a curfew that requires restaurants to close by 11pm, everyone in the restaurant would had probably stayed on longer because we were all having such a wonderful time and interacting with the other tables.
We were also the only table that got to meet his wife - I told Lili to give kudos to the chef because all the food was really good, and he said that I have to tell his wife personally otherwise his wife would not believe it if he passes the message.
Highly recommended to visit for a meal when in Berat.
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