Back to Albania

Once we’d made our decision to leave Montenegro it was all systems go! Back to Albania! We started to feel a bit excited!

By the time we’d crossed the border and sorted out insurance and topped up our Albanian sim card it was late afternoon and we hadn’t actually had lunch yet. We decided to head back to the restaurant park up at Lake Shkoder where we’d stayed the night before going to Montenegro.

After a very late lunch at around 4pm in the restaurant we went back to the van to relax.

The following day we decided to leave early. I didn’t swim in the lake again as I knew it would only be a quick dip based on last time.

I looked on our park4night app and found a beach park up on a peninsula that was close by and had great reviews. It turned out to be the best find ever! A piece of Albanian paradise!

It is a bar/restaurant right on the beach. It’s called Bar Ledh. The owner is called Mario. When we were there it was out of season so the restaurant part was closed but the bar had drinks and an honesty box. It’s a hard place to describe but definitely one of the best park ups we’ve had.

We were told to treat the place like our home which was lovely. There were quite a few vans there, mainly German and Swiss people. Everyone was really friendly. There were a lot of stray dogs being looked after, fed and even taken to the vets. There was also information to help people adopt them.

On the beach was a pedalo that we were told we could use if we wanted to.

Here’s some photo’s looking back from the beach.

Whilst there I got to do some art, there were a few of us who painted things on the wooden tree trunk bits. Mine was a mermaid 🧜‍♀️

Of course Being by the sea I went swimming every day. There was even something there to hang my clothes on! Perfect, I hate getting sand everywhere!

We spent about 5 days here, we loved it, in hindsight we wished we’d stayed longer.

It was a great place to chill, the people from the other vans were all super friendly and we’ve kept in contact with quite a few of them.

We were able to cycle to the town of Lezhe, there was a laundry there. We were able to drop our laundry off and pick up the next day, all folded up neatly, a fabulous service.

The weather was mainly dry, which definitely made up for all the rain in Montenegro. There was one particularly sunny day. In the afternoon we sat with the German people drinking wine and beer and chatting. As it got close to sunset somebody suggested that we take the pedalo out!

We went with beer and wine and music. It was just magical. Initially one of the dogs jumped on there with us, she got a bit scared and we took her back to shore. Whilst we were getting her off the boat we managed to get soaked. It was great fun, honestly we laughed so much.

We were back in time to see the end of the sunset on dry land.

The following day after a swim we decided to go for a walk. We went further along the penninsula and crossed a bridge. The bridge was not in a good state of repair as you can see below! You had to walk strategically when you walked across it! There were some bits further along where you had to walk through the water to get to the next bit! You can see Dee ready to enter the water and then walking across! He did say the water was cold, but he also said that he got used to it! Still wouldn’t make him get right in though!

We went as far as we could but eventually we were faced with too many trees and stinging nettles and decided it was time to turn back.

That day all of our German friends left, some new people came but we made a decision to leave the following day.

We woke up to find another van from the UK had arrived . We did of course chat to them before we left. They’d come from turkey and gave us lots of recommendations. Later we heard that Mario fixed a new clutch for them and they stayed for about a month.

This park up is a must if you’re in the area and it also features on our ‘Best Park Ups’ in Albania post.

Click here Albania-Our Best Park Ups

It was a very hard place to leave, we actually only went half an hour away to yet another excellent place.

Mrizi i Zanave Restaurant

Some French people that we met at Bar Ledh told us about this place. It’s a restaurant, farm and vineyard. As long as you eat in the restaurant they allow vans to stay the night and even have a separate area for vans which includes electric hook up (EHU) and water.

On the way in we saw an Ostrich in a field!

We parked up and as we were walking towards the restaurant we saw all the goats. The man looking after them absolutely made my day when he allowed me to cuddle a baby goat

Like Albanica restaurant which was featured in an earlier post and in the “Best Park Ups in Albania” post, everything here is homegrown and home cooked. If you are wondering weather to go to both places, absolutely yes if you have time. They are both very different and unique in their own ways

We later found out that it is famous throughout Albania. Here’s the entrance.

The restaurant was very busy . We went for lunch, I believe the menu is the same for lunch or dinner .

It is a tasting menu. Everyone is immediately given a glass of fresh pomegranate juice which was really refreshing. There was a big pomegranate theme, I believe they are one of the things grown on the farm.

Then came the starters. There were loads 🤣 they just kept coming!

It was all delicious and the photo’s just show a selection. Honestly just the starters would have been more than enough.

For main course Dee had chicken and I had mushroom pasta. It was all cooked very well.

When they offered desert we were so full that we had to say “no thank you”. They said they would just bring some fruit.

All this food and half a litre of wine and coffee’s cost around £23 or €26!

After all this food we went back to the van to relax. We didn’t eat again until the following morning.

They also did a breakfast menu so we decided to take advantage of this too. It was a buffet style continental breakfast and was €10 per person

I couldn’t quite face a chocolate bomb like Dee that early in the morning but the pomegranate cheesecake was amazing.

After breakfast we were given a tour of the farm. This is available to everyone but you do have to ask. Below is just a few photo’s there were loads more too. It was amazing being amongst all that cheese and wine!

The last place to go to after the tour was the shop on site. We bought wine, olive oil, pomegranate juice and pickled onions! All made on the site.

Mitzi i Zanave is also featured on our ‘Best Park Up’s in Albania’ post

Click here Albania-Our Best Park Ups

After leaving here we headed to a health food shop we’d noticed. It was a lovely shop an full of things we hadn’t been able to get since we left the UK!

With our van full of nice things we were on our way again, heading South.

Our next Albania post starts at Turtle Farm, another great park up on the outskirts of Tirana.

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