Sarande (Saranda) Albania

We caught the fast ferry from Corfu, Greece, arriving in Sarande, Albania about 40 minutes later.
Just before departure a police car pulled up, two guys got out of the car and boarded the ferry. Laura said they must important people, getting a lift from the police to the ferry port. I laughed and said they’re probably being deported.
The two guys sat down, and began rummaging in their pockets. They pulled out shoes laces, and began to re-lace their trainers.
Yep, they were not V.I.P.’s, but Albanians being deported from Greece.
Some of the other passengers were eying the two blokes suspiciously. The guys were looking a bit sketchy, but I guess they would be, having clearly spent the previous night banged up in the police cells. They were met at the port in Sarande by Albanian police who took them away.
The journey felt like being on a convict ship.

We had not booked a hotel in advance, so after clearing immigration, which was very quick, we walked out of the port and towards the beach. In a few minutes we had found a suitable hotel. By suitable, I mean inexpensive.

Eating in Sarande

Limani
A cafe restaurant right on the water, harbour.
For our first meal in Sarande we ordered a chefs salad to share. It was quite large, and we were given a basket of toasted bread with it. The salad itself was interesting. Interesting because it was a blast from the past for our taste buds. Along with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, small cubes of cheese, and boiled egg, it contained spam, or pork luncheon meat if you prefer. Strange but true. But we were hungry and too tired, by tired I mean lazy, to pick out the small cubes of scary looking bright pink ‘meat’, so we scoffed it, washing it down with beer – in a bid to appease our disgusted stomachs. ;d

Royal Saranda Hotel
We ate dinner on the terrace overlooking the beach. I ordered seafood spaghetti. Laura ordered chicken fillet with tortellini. Although neither of us remember, we must also have ordered a long wait. A very long wait. It took about an hour for our food to arrive. Was it worth the wait? Possibly. But by the time it arrived we were so hungry we’d have eaten a scabby horse. That said, the portions were large, and the view was lovely.

On our last evening in Sarande we ate dinner at a restaurant next to the dodgem cars. Unfortunately we can’t remember the name of this place, which is a shame as the food was good. I ordered meat with vegetables, Laura chose vegetables with rice. The dishes were really tasty, my meat, beef, was tender and falling off the bone. Our vegetables were a good mix of aubergines, carrots, pepper, onion, and potato, all well cooked and yummy. Sitting overlooking the sea made the meal a very pleasant end to our stay in Sarande.

Summary
We’re not beach people, but having said that we really liked Sarande, which was surprising as it’s a beach resort.
Sarande (Saranda) is a pleasant town with nice beaches, lots of cafes, and friendly people. We enjoyed our short stay there.

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