A tale of two castles

The day started at 5:40 by opening the window and setting up the slow TV capture. As soon as the sun popped it's rounded body over the horizon the speakers on top of the Islamic tower just  down the road (so they're same level as us) started their warbling. The dulcet (not!) tones of the guy behind the mike echoing around the town and into the valley below. And then the singing (not always in any sort of tune) started. And then the sermons, and then more singing, and then more sermons. This went on for about 2 hours. Happy Sunday morning everyone. There are lots of lessons to be learnt here. One is the power of double glazing. Its also interesting that the locals rebelled against the communist regime in the 90's because they did not like being so tightly controlled e.g. how to behave, how to think, pay ultimate homage to someone other than thyself. My how things have changed....

There are a lot of these towers around the country, rising up from the places of worship below. Significant difference from other religious monoliths of similar ilk is all of this variety have loudspeakers pointing out in all directions. Subtle? ...not.
Breakfast was consumed sometime after they had run out of breath (albeit temporarily one assumes) on the terrace on top of our abode with the full view of the historical town perched on a steep slope as a backdrop to the omletes, coffee's, fruits, breads, condiments, juice etc. This is a tough situation, we're struggling with here.

Hoping you all appreciate the effort bring undertaken just so it can be passed on to you.
We felt obliged to visit the Castle of Berat. Everyone talks about it...you know..old stones sitting on top of a hill. Rich people used to lorde over the masses below whilst consuming their hard earned. Engineering marvels based on generations of slave labor. Views which have helped identify invading hordes from afar. All that was wanted was a decent coffee before accending the hill but once in the jalopy blogger took control and said nup, we're going up now. Old cars made in Kosovo do not seem to be made for this type of terrain. The cobblestones are slippery, the road very steep, very narrow thus being harrowing. We made it though. Parked outside the gates and walked up and on in. What a surprise, there's a whole community up here, slinging their wares and catering for the hordes. We could've driven in (glad we didn't though).

After a good look around, taking so many pics the device was running hot, getting vertigo from the heights (yep it's new thing...when you can't quite trust your legs 100% the brain says "whoa buddy - are you really sure you should be going there ?. Like what would happen if that twinge just there decided to say ... fail - just when you stood say - just there,  on the edge of that precipice? After all, they used to cast people to their deaths just there...and they had perfectly functional knees"). Anyway, after negotiating some slippery steps down in order to get to where we wanted ended up sitting in a perfectly placed position in the shade with cooling breeze and the aforementioned coffee being consumed. Beating the crowds on all fronts it worked out really well. Then off we went, threading the beast slowly  back down the tricky street and then hitting the road to Gjirokaster.
It was a long drive, saw some very interesting countryside. The land itself seems to want push up barreness from below while the vegetation on top is desperately trying to make it green from above, caught it this juxposition of conflicting forces is our desire to express what it looks like.
The most prolific thing on the roads are the police. They are everywhere, always talking so someone they have pulled over. We were told by a disgruntled waiter two nights ago is all they want us a cash payment and off you go. He was not happy about the corruption and the fact all his mates had escaped to other countries for work. So the hierarchy needs to fix these two at least ... suspect that's now what  the EU is waiting for before letting them in.
So here we are shooting along the highway, on average 10ks over the limit and we have all these lunatics kareening past , at speed, over double lines, blind corners, whatever it takes to get past (whilst we're being careful to give them space, move over when pressured - basically spending as much time watching the rear view mirror as in front - and just getting along with everyone, whilst being mindful the cops may pick on us). It was reasonably stressful. Too complicated to describe the issue in the petrol station, luckily avoided backing into a brand new Mercedes by about 1cm though. Yeech.
Eventually drove into Gjix=x,xx with TomTom well and truly dead again the Apple Esim maps took us into an industrial wasteland on the side of a hill that magically transformed into yet again old cobblestone alleys with high stone walls that are not designed for cars. Stress? Yes. Success? Yes. Our hotel is smack bang in the middle of another UNESCO protected locale.

Our balcony looks directly out at a stone roof which on one side we can the olde forte on the hill and the other down the valley we just came up. Needless to say across the valley looms another monstrous mountain. Dominating all - apart from the desire to escape the midday heat both externally and internally. Whilst doing both perched in the shade on prickly blankets (locally hand made so no right to complain) adorning the benches opposite the chairs across the tables strewn along both sides of the narrow bar lined street we made our plans.

This resulted in heading up the hill to yet another castle. This was not so salubrious as the earlier one...
1. We had to walk up (and down, and up slippery stairs due to works) to get there.
2. We had to pay to get in.
3. No cafés, people of interest
4. Needed to pay more to see the internal museum (we didn't and it seemed No-one else did either).
5. Had to negotiate the slippery stone steps back down again. (Keep in mind that when these steps first went down they would have had a really good grippy surface, thousands of years and millions of feet have worn them smooth and thus slippery - not sure how UNESCO can solve for that one).
Great photos taken so these can be consumed at a later date (pretty sure that's why we do it)
Two castles in one day is one castle too many (especially in this heat - which by the way is a sufferable 32, next week it will be 40 here - that's a whole other ball game), however we have cleared the slate for the morrows exploits.

We chose the closest joint for dinner, mostly for the views and had a great time being served by a young kid learning the ropes from his dad. And now back on the balcony of the pad listening to the kids playing, the locals yammering, and everytime a car goes past in the narrow street below a huge ruckus of noise explodeds as it is not possible to be quiet when passing over cobblestones. Its a small road but seems to be the major thoroughfare.
Yay for double gazing.