6.9.22

I had a massive sneezing fit at 5am and gave up on my cpap and then slept a further 3 hours. John was laying with his head at the other end of the bed because my machine had been blowing air on him.

I forgot to take photos, so these are from booking. com. The Albanians make seriously good mattresses and coffee.

We paid our parking fine at the post office, bought börek and chocolate croissants and set off to Narta lagoon, 17km away.

It was beautiful, salf flats one side and huge lagoon the other. We saw storks, kingfishers and flamingos as well as many other gulls and little birds.

There is also a monastery but we’re on the wrong side to get there, so we drove to see the beach before turning back to the main road to try again.

The detour to the monastery was worthwhile, it’s a very pretty setting.

As we arrived we saw the very tragic news that a friends husband has died leaving her and 2 young children. So very, very sad for them.

We lit candles for them, sent healing thoughts and reflected on how precious life is and how important to remember how blessed our lives are and to make the most of our unpredictable journey through them.

Kruje is a recommended must see, so rather than head to Durres we opted for Kruje with its historical sights. It’s another pretty cobble stoned town selling traditional wares which are almost identical to those in  Turkey.

I’m now addicted to tuna, cheese and mushroom sandwiches, had a great one today in a ciabbata roll, John had a mexican crepe. Excellent coffee too.

The site of the original fort now houses 2 museums, remains of a mosque and some stone walls.

We then made our way to our next overnight stop, Sebastiano resort in Lehze, en route to Shkoder. At £22 a night with breakfast it definitely wasn’t Brett Class.

However, the fridge and wifi didn’t work so they moved us into Villa Sano which was even more lovely.

We vaguely contemplated an extra night, but John said chilling is boring and there’s things to see, places to go. He’s right really although the pool and sunbeds looked inviting.

We were well after 6pm, and pool only open between 10 and 6. We drove a couple of km to the nearest market shop for beer water, yogurt and fruit juice and chilled on our private terrace until the mozzies. arrived.

John is current Phase 10 champion, close though. A bit more research about Komani lake and early panic about the hair raising mountain drive to get there 😳

John’s pretty chilled about it, I’ll just have to hope it’s not as bad as it looks on the map.