Seas less travelled
Beautiful, lesser-known Albania is just one reason to board a ship that can get into places larger vessels can’t, writes Roger Hall
Two questions: 1.) The north of Corfu is only a few hundred yards from Albania. Had you sailed between those countries during the communist regime (which ended in 1992), what would have happened?
2.) What huge engineering project was first conceived and started in 307BC and completed in 1893?
The answer to question one is that Albania would have opened fire on you. It was the North Korea of Europe, isolationist and jumpy. Within its borders, it had 170,000 defence bunkers, many of which still exist.
Its island of Sazan was used by the Russians for a submarine base and the Albanian Government turned it into a military base, now disused and open to visitors.
Visiting Albania was one of the reasons we were on Noble Caledonia’s Spring in the Secret Mediterranean cruise.
Noble Caledonia presents itself as “the world’s leading small ship cruising expert”, which means they can get into many places larger ships can’t and offer a huge range of interesting itineraries.
The passengers on our ship were nearly all from the UK, so the “sorries” flowed like champagne.
Despite our ages (late 70s), Dianne and I were two of the more spritely on board. But a couple of men who were doing back-to-back trips said: “If you think this lot is frail, you should have seen them on the previous trip.”
We went with some Kiwi friends and we were about the only ones on their first cruise with the line. Initially the main topic of conversation was comparing the number of previous trips with the company. “Three.” “10.” “41.” With that amount of repeat business, clearly the company is doing something right. And, as far as we were concerned, something wrong, of which more anon.
We embarked in Malta after several days there plus 10 days in Greece.
How pleasant to be on board and not have to choose where to eat at night. The hardest decisions were whether to eat on deck (mostly yes, to enjoy the passing coastlines) and for breakfast whether to have one eggs benedict or two.
On the first evening we had an excellent lecture about the history of the Mediterranean from a former director of the V&A Museum in London. This set the scene nicely for places we were to visit. As well as three ports in Albania, these included two in Southern Italy; one in Montenegro, one in mainland Greece and five in the Greek Islands.
First port was Crotone in Calabria at the bottom of the heel of Italy, a town that was prosperous between the wars, but now fallen on hard times and slowly picking itself up.
We were taken by bus to a hilltop town, Santa Severina, a spectacular site. Here was the first ceremony of fitting the audio guides into our ears. One man struggled to fit his earpiece into his right ear. It was pointed out that it was designed for the left. “I know,” he said, “but I can’t hear in my left.” Once mastered, the earpieces are worth it, as the guide can be heard quite a long way off. The guides varied. That day we had one who talked far too much in poor English, so after a time, many of us switched off, literally. Santa Severina was a fortified town, one of 178 such places in Calabria and our first reminder that places in Southern Europe on The Med had constantly to be on the defence as different powers came and went. Calabria was a Greek-speaking area for many years (Pythagoras had a school here) and there is still a group of residents who speak a Greekinfluenced dialect. Next day we landed at Otranto for a 30-minute drive to Lecce, “the Florence of the South”. Mmmmm, hardly. But very pleasant with its narrow streets and squares. And an excellent guide. Then on to Kotor in Montenegro. To get there, we sailed through the most beautiful of fjords, famous for two churches built on islands, one artificial. Another small ship was there, which meant the tiny town (a Unesco treasure) was semichoked with our groups and theirs. We had to be back to our ship by noon as it had to leave the wharf and anchor in the bay to allow two huge liners in for their brief visit. How crowded the streets would have then become beggars belief. Once the big liners had gone, we returned to the berth, allowing some of us to slip back ashore, not so much in search of nightlife but for free Wi-Fi (on board it was poor and expensive). But Kotor was the only port of call where we were affected by other cruise ships.
Next day, Albania, and I opted out of the day’s driving from Montenegro into Albania and stayed on board to avoid several hours in a bus and a border crossing. Wrong decision, as among the day’s attractions was a nine-course slow food lunch, which people raved about. Clearly the Albanians were making a big effort to impress tourists and this certainly did.
While the others were stuffing themselves, the Island Sky sailed along the beautiful Albanian coastline to berth at Shengjin (for a time called Wilson after President Wilson who had backed Albania’s independence).
In time, Shengjin could well become a popular resort for young Europeans seeking the sun, beaches and cheap alcohol. Certainly the thrownup hotels and apartments, bars, the mass of beach umbrellas and loungers (all empty at the time of the visit), indicate that’s the market they are anticipating.
The same sort of development was happening at Sarabande, Albania’s most attractive port. As someone observed, “This is like the Spain of the 1960s all over again.”
Inland Albania has many attractions (apart from bunker-spotting) including fine remains of castles, theatres and temples, in particular at Butrint. The director of the area spoke passionately and proudly about what the country was