Beautiful Sarande and Butrint

Our second day here in Sarande, we took the bus into the centre of town: a beautiful beachfront crescent of cafes, shops, and ocean. From there, we were free to go off exploring on our own, and four of us hired a guide to drive us around to see a few of the local sights.  The four of us were driven up the hill to see Lekursi castle-- formerly used by the military, it has now been privately fixed up as a restaurant with a spectacular 360-degree panorama view of the region.  Our guide mentioned that the castle also doubles as a venue for live traditional Albanian music at night.

From there, we drove further out into the countryside to see 'Blue Eye', a natural spring in a beautiful forested region.  The spring is also the water source that feeds into the local river, providing hydro power as well as fresh drinking water for the region.  I dipped my toes into the spring, and filled up a bottle straight from the source.

We then came back into town and had a delicious seafood lunch, followed by a drive to Butrint, a UNESCO Heritage site with some fascinating ruins dating back to the 4th century BC.  (The last photo below shows our tour guide and our violinist David Clark standing in the footprints of the guards, at the entrance to the old city).

Tomorrow, a group of us are heading to Corfu, Greece to explore for the day!

-Elizabeth