Day 20 A Historical Perspective

Wildlife at Butrint

This morning we wished Leslie a fond farewell as she headed to the ferry to Corfu and eventually her flight back to the UK where she is studying.  Then the remaining students along with Dr. Begley, Lee, and the new student who arrived yesterday Katie, all headed to Butrint National Park.

Tile work at Burtint.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located 20 km south of Saranda.  Butrint is amazing, it has been a township through the ages, there is been evidence that people lived in the Butrint area from about 100,000 BC (the middle Paleolithic). It saw a lot of change over that ages, through Hellenistic, Roman, late Roman, Medieval, Venetian, and Ottoman times and has been passed around with control going to many different interests over the years, much like the rest of Albania.  We spent a number of hours exploring, taking in the sites, enjoying the heat, and admiring all of the different times represented in the ruins as we explored.   It was really centering and gave a great perspective to be somewhere that has been inhabited by humans in one form or another for such a long period of time. 

Long time Butrint inhabitant.

We returned to Saranda for lunch and then Effie, Dave, Cameron and I headed to our second UNESCO World Heritage Site for the day, Gjirokastra a town from the Ottoman times with a gorgeous castle at the top of the hillside. The castle began about the 12th century AD and saw a lot of work in the early 1800’s and in the 1930’s King Zog of Albania expanded the prison facilities. We spent our afternoon exploring the castle, it was very open and amazing. We were free to explore anything unlocked and to walk all over. Up on the top level is an American spy plane that was shot down during the cold war, it is weathered and old these days but clearly illustrates a different time in history.  Scattered throughout the land in Albania are small cement domes, pillboxes or bunkers, shelters for when the Americans attacked. Albania was communist until the late 1990’s and between 1945 and 1990, 700,000 bunkers were built, one for every four people in Albania.  It is not surprising that they are still a very visable part of Albanian history.   Today there really isn’t any liability in Albania so be careful because it’s your own fault if you get hurt.  Because of this we were able to hang out of open window ledges high up in the castle walls, to peer at bunches of bats roosting on the ceilings above huge drop offs, to explore unlit tunnels by the light of Cameron’s flashlight and our camera flashes. 

American spy plane.

I have to give Dave credit here for allowing me to cling on to his backpack for the first 10 meters or so, I have a fear of spiders and there were quite a few in these dark, unexplored tunnels.  I stuck to the back of the group and after I stopped clinging to Dave I walked down the middle of the path and tried to be my bravest me.  While we explored huge rain clouds rolled in and we could actually see the wall of rain headed our way.  We ignored it and continued exploring outside all splitting up, walking the top of the exterior wall, poking around sunken rooms, taking pictures of insects and having a grand time.  The sky opened up on us and we all scattered for cover reaching the same covered walkway about the same time.  

Effie explores.

We decided this was a perfect time to visit the military museum inside, it was mostly focused on the communist times and was very informative about daily life in the area through history.   We wandered through the town after the rain let up, found our cab driver and headed home, everyone napped in the car, tuckered out after our exciting day.  After dinner everyone else packed and went to bed early, they had a 15 hour bus ride ahead of them that would begin at 4:30 am.  I set my alarm for their departure and wandered bleary eyed in my pajamas down to wish everyone safe travels and say my goodbyes before falling back into bed.

Time to head inside to explore.

The town of Gjirokastra.