Spending a few days exploring the incredible city of Skopje had us reinvigorated about our travels throughout the Balkans. We were finally headed to a country that all 3 of us had heard great things about – Albania! Specifically, we wanted to go to the popular beach town of Sarande in Southern Albania, right near the border with Greece (and just a short boat ride away from the beautiful island of Corfu that we visited earlier this summer!)
The trek from Skopje all the way to Sarande would’ve been a long journey, so we decided to break up our travel day with a 1 night stop in Lake Ohrid, a stunning and historic lake nestled between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania. This lake is not only one of Europe’s oldest and deepest, but also a UNESCO World Heritage Site!
We had a very early start to catch our bus to Ohrid on our last morning in Skopje. We made our way to the bus station to grab our tickets and hopped on the bus. Luckily for us, this bus was pretty comfy, with loads of legroom and footrests. Michele ended up sitting next to an old grandpa who was extremely chatty, even though they couldn’t understand each other at all due to the language barrier.
It was a short ~3 hour bus ride to Ohrid, with beautiful rolling hills and lush mountain ranges in the distance. When we arrived in Ohrid, we dropped off our stuff at the accomodation and headed out for food! It was a short walk from our accomodation towards the lake, and we ducked into an Irish pub to grab lunch.
We had initially planned to enjoy a nice walk around the lake, but the weather had different ideas – it was chilly, and dark rain clouds overhead didn’t look too inviting. So, we raced back to our place and the skies opened up with rain just as we arrived back home. We spent the afternoon relaxing in bed, hiding from the rain. Once the rain subsided a little bit, Michele braved the inclement weather to check out a famous church in Ohrid, but we were exhausted from the early morning and decided to stay home and cook dinner.
Unfortunately the next morning we had an even earlier wake up call – our bus from Ohrid to Sarande was departing bright and early at 4 am. We woke up at 3, packed our bags, and walked a mile to the bus pick up spot.
Eventually a tiny little minibus pulled up that definitely didn’t look big enough to fit everybody that was waiting…and it wasn’t. There was not enough seats for the amount of people, and the drivers didn’t speak a word of English. It was too dark, cold, early, and confusing for any of us 3 to attempt to figure it out. We just waited to be told what to do. The driver loaded us all in and drove us in the clown car to another parking lot about 15 minutes away, where thankfully another bus was waiting to split the group. Finally we were underway.
We slept the whole ride to the border, where surprisingly, we didn’t have to go in person through any passport checks or get our passports stamped. We just handed our passports to the driver and he handled everything.
We were in and out of sleep for the rest of the ride, before finally arriving in Sarande around 11 am. It had been absolutely freezing in Ohrid so we were all bundled up, but it was scorching in Sarande. We hailed a taxi up to our accomodation and checked in. Our accomodation was so nice! It was enormous, with an absolutely massive outdoor patio overlooking the ocean.
After changing into beachwear, we set off to find some food, had a bit of a wait at a beachfront restaurant, and then enjoyed some fun in the sun on the rocky beach. We spent the whole afternoon lounging at the beach, soaking in the sun and dipping in the water.
We had been going on lots of active adventures in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, so we were excited to give our bodies a break and be in a laidback beach town for a recharging few days. It would also be Michele’s birthday while we were here, so we were looking forward to celebrating at the beach!
The next morning, I was hit with an inspiration to finally buy us some Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets. We had been talking about how we’d do anything and go anywhere to see her, but we didn’t want to live another day not knowing when the would be!! Thanks to Germany’s anti-scalping laws, we were able to snag VIP FLOOR TICKETS at face value for Taylor’s show next summer in Germany! The concert is only 30 minutes from where Saz’s friend lives, so we even have a place to stay while we’re there! As expected, Saz had an absolute mental breakdown, even though we have to wait 11 months for the concert!
After all the ticket excitement, we got ready and headed to the beach. We found a great spot and soaked up the sun for a while. Two random girls came up to us and gave us a beach umbrella they had bought for their trip that they couldn’t bring home.
Michele, being the foodie that she is, found a delicious seaside restaurant called Haxhi for lunch. The portions were huge and didn’t take too long to come out.
After lunch, we had an afternoon siesta on the beach, reading our kindles, soaking in the sun, and enjoying the beautiful day. We tricked Michele into thinking we were headed home early in order to pick up some secret birthday surprises for her. We had been coordinating with her long distance boyfriend Andrew to set up a nice birthday surprise, and so we hit up a local florist to pick out some lovely flowers, a birthday sign, and a birthday card. We planned to set up a cute birthday sign with all of her presents and a FaceTime date with Andrew for the next morning.
Back at our place, we hid our birthday surprises before Michele got home. When she got back, we took in the stunning sunset while enjoying some G&Ts. We realised we had some meat, cheese, and crackers, so we decided to put together a charcuterie board and chatted for ages, watching the beautiful sunset.
After a few G&T’s, we decided we were in the mood for cheeky night out. It was Michele’s birthday eve after all! We got ready to hit the town.
When we got down to the beach around 10 pm, the promenade was absolutely packed! We spotted a giant pirate ship in the harbour with a DJ and neon lights. For 10 euros a person, we could enjoy an hour-long boat ride through the harbour with a drink included, so we decided to give it a shot.
The boat was a fun vibe, but for how late it was, it was odd to see so many children on what seemed like a club/bar boat. We managed to score great seats on the top deck. We tried to redeem our “1 free drink” and asked for rum and coke, but something got lost in translation because the bartender just poured us each a full cup of Smirnoff vodka with no chaser. Not ideal, but free alcohol is free alcohol! The boat ride provided a gorgeous view of the harbour at night, even though the DJ’s song choices were questionable at best.
Once we returned, we scouted the area for a good place to dance but came up empty-handed. It was almost midnight and the promenade was still absolutely packed, but it was mostly family friendly restaurants rather than bars/clubs. Michele was in the mood for a cocktail, so we ended up at a bar called Tipsy. They made room for us by “politely” kicking out a group of guys in line (feminism!). The cocktails were great, and we people watched on the promenade as we chatted, chilled, and sipped our drinks!
The next morning, we woke up early to set up our birthday surprise! We set up a “Happy Birthday” sign and arranged the presents on the patio, then got Andrew on FaceTime. Saz went to wake Michele, who was a bit dazed and confused. She started by reading our card, and then we revealed another card with Andrew’s name on it. Michele was beyond surprised and couldn’t believe that we had secretly been coordinating together and he was in on the surprise. We left them to chat and catch up on the call.
Michele treated herself to a pedicure appointment for her special day, so we went for a nice walk through town before we settled on a place for lunch. We again spent the afternoon at the beach.
That evening, we enjoyed our last evening in Sarande with a movie night and ice cream. We had a very chill few days relaxing and recharging, and it was so wonderful to be able to celebrate Michele’s birthday with her in such a beautiful spot.