Day 8 Elbasan, Lin, Korça
The road to Elbasan passes through some stunning countryside. There is a new road which gets you there in around 45 mins. The town is not as interesting as we had expected. The medieval city walls are impressive from the outside, but inside there wasn't much to detain us. St Mary's church was closed and the mosque is pretty but very simple. However, you can enjoy delicious traditional dishes in Elbasan for next to nothing.
After a lazy lunch, we set off in search of Shenesh, a few kms south, up in the hills, and location of the charming church of St Nicholas. Park at the junction and walk 100m up the hill. The church is kept locked, but the neighbour is happy to open it for you. Inside, the walls are covered with splendid frescoes.
The road from Elbasan to Korça is largley slow and tiresome, but does pass through some impressive scenery, particularly as you descend from the pass and Lake Ochrid comes into view. As you go up the pass you will witness a curious sight - loads of men with hosepipes who seem to earn a living washing cars using mountain spring water.
Lin is a delightful, tiny village on the edge of the lake. It is known for its mosaic, which in fact is pretty but not really worth the hike up the hill to see it, although the views are nice. There is only one narrow street, which is occupied by kids playing, sheep, goats, cows and people going about their daily business. A hotel and restaurant sits right on top of the water so you can have lunch looking out at the tantalising mountains of Macedonia on the other side of the lake.
Driving down the edge of the lake is pretty marvellous. Pogradec is an uninspiring town, but do stop for a lunch at the restaurant on the lake, which specialises in the famous Koran fish, which is only found in Lake Ochrid. Follow the signs to Korça, which take you up through more mountains and more tiring bends in the road.
The town of Korça has a few places to visit, but we came back because last year we really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere and regretted staying only 2 nights. It is home of the famous and delicious Korça beer. Korça is a good base for visiting the many small villages in the area. We opted for Voskopoje, which is a lovely traditional village with loads of churches, several with outstanding frescoes.
Oddly, the tourist information centre is a Mondrian-style modern building, which is cool but looks entirely out of place in the main square of the village. The information officer has keys to the marvellous churches and will show you around them. The most amazing is St. Thanas; however photos are not permitted. A torch is though and is highly recommended as the interior is dark and the best frescoes are on the ceiling.
Unfortunately we were caught in a severe summer lightning storm while there. The roads became rivers of muddy water which made driving back quite scary as in many places the sides of the road had been washed down covering the road with mud and rocks.
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| While a line of drivers stood scratching our heads, wondering how to get through the flood, an old woman in wellies marched through with her mule, completely unperturbed |
We were advised not to return to Saranda by the mountain road which we had travelled along last year; the only alternative was retrace the road back via Elbasan to the Riviera. Halfway, we stopped for the night in Lushnje in Hotel El Don Park. What an odd experience. The hotel is large, but we appeared to be the only guests and had the huge swimming pool to ourselves for the duration. Lushnje is a dull place although I loved the socialist statue in the main square.
All in all, it was a great trip; different in that we knew what to expect this time, but seemed to get closer to the Albanian people, had many interesting conversations over beers and raki, and saw some amazing sights. Gezuar!
check out my other blog Dawn's Bag, in which I record my travels:
https://dawnsbag.blogspot.com/2019/07/road-trip-in-romania-2019.html
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