Edessa to Profitis Ilias, to Arawissa - day nineteen 12/10/15

Edessa to Profitis Ilias then on to Aravissos and taxi to Giannitsa

12th October Monday

day nineteen Via Egnatia 

We walked two sections of the VE from the guidebook today.14.5km  to Profitis Ilias, then another 15 km to Aravissos - 29.5 km today! 

Forecast is for fine weather...  We'll brave it and start walking...

We have our last delicious breakfast at Hotel Hagiati , Edessa

We say goodbye to our helpful host Gregory,

Then, it's on with our packs and down the cobblestone path out of Edessa at 9 am

It's very sunny, and soon heats up, temperature definitively in mid to high twenties! 

A lovely walk down past the ancient Edessa site, 

So much history with every step!

through orchards. Kiwi fruit almost ready to pick, various types of olives, cherry, apples, grapes, stone fruits...

Looking back towards Edessa high up on the cliff top.

A few wet muddy places to negotiate, and streams to ford, but not too bad considering the recent rain.

Then up through some meadows with beautiful flowers! A lovely walk, with a stream burbling below, the sun shining, flowers blooming.... 

Alongside the railway tracks for a little while, 

then up along sheep meadows. We avoid a shepherd with a large flock of sheep and some dogs, 

head down past some solar panels, with more sheep eating the grass around them and keeping the ground tidy.

I wish I could grow olives like these!

Arrived Profitis Ilias at 1 pm

 We have a coffee - frappe and buy some bread, the lady says I have lovely colour eyes :) and gives us a huge pomegranate each!

I was admiring her olive trees while waiting for Patrick to put on his pack, the lovely lady came over to me and took my hand and led me into the cafe ... I wasn't sure what she wanted... Then she took a jar of olives, pointed to the tree ( her home made olives!) and put half a cupful into foil and a plastic bag and gave them to me! Yum, they tasted delicious! I'll look forward to snacking on them later!

We continue on after a 15 minute break 

There seem to be more cafes, tavernas and food options on Kali than Profitis Ilias

There's nowhere to camp that is dry, everything is very wet underfoot from the heavy rain on Friday and Saturday, we can see that there's also been some localised flooding, the stream looks as though it rose a couple of meters...

So, we head on for another 14.5 km to Arawissos...are we crazy, have I bitten off more than I can chew? Will 29.5 km be the end of me?

Through endless orchards, cherry, Apple, stone fruit ( all harvested) kiwi fruit on the vines... Persimmons... Lucky we have GPS. I feel as though we're going around in circles.... Might be fatigue delirium setting in...

Finally arrive in Arawissos at 5:40. Walking past a house, a lovely group of ladies are eating pomegranates, they give us one and cut it open for us, yum! So juicy, tangy and sweet!

We keep going hoping to find the bar / restaurant by the river as described in the guidebook and camp.

Both bar / restaurants are closed! They are perhaps summer only places, although they look as though they haven't been open for quite some time... they're quite big and have a lovely set up on the river... We might camp under a shelter for the night. 

Or maybe not...Mozzies are coming out, the sun is going down...man I'm so sweaty and stinky! 

Can't find anywhere to have a wash though... Unless I dunk myself in the river!

We decide to head into the Main Street and call a taxi to go to Gianitsa, hotel Pella.

We find a little 'men only' bar, Patrick goes in to organise a taxi.

The lady who runs the bar invites us in, peels us some apples and we have a coffee each while we wait for the taxi to hotel Pella in Giannitsa (pronounced Yiannitsa, the G has a Y sound) 

20 euro for the taxi to hotel Pella, yes they have plenty of rooms!

It's quite a big, modern hotel, a bit pricey at 70€ B&B... The owner is very friendly and helpful.

Lovely shower ! So nice to get rid of the sweat and put on clean clothes!

Dinner, 2 chicken souvlaki, beer and sour cherry juice (my favourite) 9€ 

The hotel owner suggests that tomorrow, we should stop at Pella for a while, look at the museum, and the archeological site then continue on to Chalkidona and stay at a small village hotel there... No hotels in Pella.  Sounds like a good plan! 

Good night, I'm exhausted... 30 km is about 8 km too many for this old duck!

Accommodation:

Taxi to Giannitsa from Aravissos 20€ 

Hotel Pella 70€ B&B 

Elbasan day four 27/9/15

Elbasan

27th September, Sunday 

day four Via Egnatia 

We've booked two nights in Elbasan to allow us a little rest, and time to explore.

We spend the day in Elbasan exploring the castle, relaxing and catching up on writing.

Beautiful surroundings in Real Scampis Hotel! 

There are gardens  and artefacts everywhere.

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of omelet, coffee etc.. 

Sunday is wedding day in Elbasan! There are processions, music, tooting of horns, even letting off firecrackers in the middle of the day!

We wandered around the castle area. Walked down the Rruga Egnatia, which goes through the centre of the castle.

Went on the hunt in the streets outside the castle for some socks for Patrick, and some inner soles for me, my left instep bones are quite sore... Think it's the total weight of the full pack, plus day pack and water must be about 15 kg... A couple of kilos too much! And I'm feeling a little old and worn out at the end of the day :(

Walked along the rough cobble streets and alleys and found the King's Mosque founded in 1492, the oldest mosque in Elbasan. I didn't have a head scarf with me, so we didn't go in.

Then we found the Orthodox church of St Mary within the castle walls. 

The priest (Father Nicolin) gave me a tour  in Italian after I paid the equivalent of 2 euro donation-, I understood about half of what he said... The church is very beautiful, lots of artwork, the frescos were painted over in the communist era.

Wandering through the castle  streets

We called into a bakery along the Rruga Egnatia, Patrick bought some sweet goodies, I got a byreck. There were lovely photos of children with disabilities doing activities around the walls, the owner explained she's a teacher of students who have Down syndrome. this is the first time I've seen any reference to people who have a disability so far in Albania.

Lunch at Real Scampis

Sallat shef - chef salad 600 leke

Qofte Te zgares- grilled Qofte 500 leke

Patrick

Bruskete me ton - bruschetta with tomato 200 leke

Supe zarzavate- Vegetable soup - 300 leke

Very generous serves! I'm ready for a siesta now...

I spend the afternoon writing and organising photos. Then we venture out along the boulevard for an evening stroll, along with most of Elbasan! There are so many people out and about, the coffee shops are full!

We had dinner at Lio, local food place just outside the castle walls, good street food and pizza.

These guys put on a bit of a show !

All sorts of bakery goodies! Very tempting, so I get a couple for the walk tomorrow. 

The hotel has done our washing and returned it all this evening, how good is that!

 "Good night" need to rest ready for the 21km walk tomorrow to Mirake.

Accommodation:

Real Scampis, in the castle  45 Euro per night  incl breakfast 

Blv:Q.Stafa, Lagja Kala, Elbasan, Albania 

PH: 355 54 525 575

Peqin to Broshka day three 26/9/15

Peqin to Broshka 

26th September Saturday 

day three Via Egnatia 

18 km

Peqin (pronounced Pechin) 

Ready to leave 8 am after breakfast of eggs, toast and coffee.

Stopped off at the market a couple of minutes up the road back towards Peqin to buy some supplies for lunch and dinner... Might be camping tonight, unsure of what's in store!

The walk this morning is mainly beside, or on the railway tracks.

Beautiful scenes, like a basket laden donkey marred by rubbish piles...

The locals graze their sheep, goats, turkeys and other livestock along the railway tracks. There's only 2 slow trains each day from Durres to Elbasan.

Just after leaving the railway line, and before crossing the Skhumbin river we stopped off at a lovely bar, there's no sign - it's called  "Bujar haka" (the owner's name), it's a lovely building with Clean toilets, and no smoking inside! 

One of the daughters, Kristina is learning English and speaks it quite well.  ( lucky we arrived on a Saturday and school is out!) Had a Turkish coffee. It's often a venue for weddings and events.

We ask for a menu, but are told no menu, but we're welcome to have what mother has cooked, a traditional lunch. Sounds lovely!

Pastice- pasta bake with butter and egg... Patrick also has some of their home made raki.

Speca me gjize- grandfather made this dish, it's large yellow long peppers with a yoghurt sauce..

Local white cheese, tomato and olives. Everything freshly made and local!

Wonderful generous hospitality, they wouldn't accept any payment for lunch, they said they  wanted to share their hospitality with us, so very welcoming, a genuine sincere family! 

Kristina with her brother and sister.

Was lovely to chat with Kristina and her father. 

The father cooks for weddings and celebrations, and has also worked in Greece for a number of years. Kristina is in year 9 and has plans to progress to university and study law or medicine.

We continued on walking after our lovely lunch. It's amazing how a wonderful experience like our lunch really raises our spirits after a fairly ordinary morning of walking, mostly along railway tracks.

After crossing a bridge over the river Skhumbin, the walk is lovely and rural. With the occasional Hoxha communist bunker...

The walk is quite scenic this afternoon, walking not far from the river Skumbin along farmland. 

I have no idea what this crop is!

There's a section of the walk with very strange rock formations! There are huge round / oval "eggs" in the rock! I've never seen anything like it!

A friendly shepherd

There's so many interesting rural scenes to watch, taking hay out of a haystack to feed livestock.

The village of Broshka visible after the fields

We arrived at Broshke 3:15. Found the "meadow" with bunker remains next to the shop, as described in the guide book, however we were told no camping, private property... No where to stay .. Oops... What to do...

we decide to walk to the main road across a wobbly suspension bridge

the route description from Broshke to Elbasan sounds very industrial and suburban, and as there's no accommodation or camping, we head to Elbasan. One of the ubiquitous taxi vans stops as soon as we get to the main road, he charges 1 € to Elbasan, off we go at 4 pm. He stops and picks up a few more passengers along the way.

We drive past a surreal looking semi abandoned industrial area on the way to the town centre. Mostly communist era industries that have now collapsed.

Arrived in Elbasan about 4:30 , walked to the castle to try and find our accommodation, Real Scampis... Finally found it, we'd walked through the wrong castle entrance gate! 

We've gone from nowhere to stay or camp at Broshke, to the height of luxury! With a bath... ( nice to have a soak in a tub!) Patrick paid for the room room for two nights and bought a bottle of vino to go with the bath. It's started to lightly rain too, so all in all a good outcome for us after all!

View from our balcony over the garden inside the castle walls, and the city skyline above.

Elbasan is in the centre of Albania. To give you an indication of the size of Albania, it's 4 days walking from the coast!

Dinner tonight at our hotel Real Scampis! Inside the castle walls.

Tave Kosi - local Elbasan specialty. Lamb cooked in a clay pot with yoghurt sauce  700 leke (Tave means the style of cooking in a clay pot) 

Sallat mikes zarzavate - grilled vegetables 400 leke

Karkalec Te zgares , Patrick - grilled shrimps 900 leke 

All very delicious! Two happy walkers! Goodnight 😊

Walking the Via Egnatia is very different to the Via Francigena we walked in 2013, there are no way markers that keep you confidently moving forward along the tracks, and no "pilgrim" accommodation. Definitely a little more challenging in some ways. But, at the same time still very interesting, and a great way to meet people and experience the culture, lifestyle and local food.

Accommodation:

Continued on  to Elbasan. As no accommodation or camping available in Broshka.

Hotel Real Scampis (previously may have been known as Vera Scampi) 45 Euro b&b booked through booking.com an hour before we arrived! Highly recommend this hotel!

Real Scampis Resort

Ph: 35554255575  tel:+355692347922

scampisreal@yahoo.it

Entrance to the hotel is either from inside the castle walls off the Rruga Egnatia or there is a pedestrian entrance through the castle wall, opposite a bakery on Blvd qemal stafa