Himare Holiday in Albania

Considering no other countries are allowing American's in this year, the southern Albania coast isn't a bad option to have a relaxing beach vacation. Just finally needing to get away before the end of the summer, we miraculously find a wonderful apartment right night to the sea in the secluded part of Himare beach. Normally this would be a 6.5 hour drive but we detoured thru Tirane to pick up a mountain bike for Adi (have been looking for 1 year and impossible to find good quality ones in Kosovo). The drive is a mix between nice, fast and smooth highway strips balanced with tedious, crowded, winding mountain/coastal roads. But we made it one piece in time to catch a late afternoon swim and a celebratory cocktail as the kids barrelled into the surf. Normally the sea is crystal calm but for some reason we were initiated by almost meter high waves that took no more than 5 minutes to crash Pranvera and Rea into the shore leaving my wife with a lovely black eye hidden well by her sun glasses in every holiday photo (but I certainly got the look by folks noticing her in the evening time;-) 

Most of the days were spent right in front of our place on the pebble beach with hours of surf and sun but we took a full day speed boat tour up the coast to frolic on one of the rare white sand beaches only accessible by 4x4 or the water. Of course our day had to be spiced up by having a rather abrupt departure by the boat coming back to get us because of high waves. Then proceeding to completely overpack this small speedboat and nearly capsizing several times as we attempted to head back to our beach at a snail's pace. Then they tried to insist dropping us off at a pier 2 beaches away to leave us for a very long walk home but my stupid persistence convinced them to take us back to our beach but since they could not get the boat close enough to the shore, we had to toss our two kids overboard (good job mom insisting we bring our own life vests) and jump in after them with the backpack and all.  

We brought our inflatable kayak as well so did several family paddles and I soloed the boat out and around the rocky peninsula to find a secluded beach on the other side perfect for a day retreat. When we got tired of just sitting around Adi and I headed out on the trails to experiment with his new bike and explore the neighboring village. Needing a bit more exercise, I took my bike the next day on a 20km tour of the coastal highway and completed a peninsula circuit of an old abandoned military base complete with a submarine bunker and tons of mineshafts leading into the hillsides. Luckily it included several spectacular beaches and wonderful views while fighting off the 30C heat and smoky air coming down from several large forest fires that had been burning in the mountains for several days. 

Of course a seaside holiday isn't complete without fresh seafood every night and we had a nice variety of places right on the water in our town and couple of the neighboring ones. And much to our surprise, our kids just wanted pasta in their PJs with YouTube a couple nights so we left them and just walked out to some of the local eateries to enjoy 'date night' with a burning sunset. This was a much needed and welcomed chill break where we almost forgot about COVID and the uncertainty that the school year and our job situations hold for the rest of the year. But for now, we are recharged and nicely tanned to ready to tackle whatever is thrown our way.