Albania: Dhermi

Dhermi, Albania: a local at drymades beach
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Dhermi is Heaven.  Really.  Laid back and beautiful, unique and rustic.  It makes my top three chill out locations of all-time (Ilha Grande, Brazil and Olimpos, Turkey round out the list).  The water around Dhermi is so clear, you would swear it's fake.  I wish I stayed for weeks.

We took a long walk down the hill from the main road along with the four Albanian girls - Nela, Linda, Katina, and Olya - to find accommodation for the evening.

Paradise Regained

Dhermi, Albania: i think that's a honey stand
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Originally we planned on staying in Dhermi for the day, and then heading to Sarande so we could get to Corfu, but, having dealt with Albanian transportation already, we realized we should stay overnight and deal with it in the morning.

As we walked down the only road that led to Dhermi and the beach, we noticed many bizarre looking bunkers along the side.  These are quite common and are said to number 600,000 througout the country.

They were ordered built by the eccentric, paranoid dictator Enver Hoxha who feared an invasion of Albania by the United States or other western countries.  Unfortunately, I can't really think of any reason why a country would want to invade Albania.

Dhermi, Albania: rollin down the road past some albanian livestock
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Thanks to our Albanian friends, we were able to get a clean room near the beach for around 20 Euros (although cheap, it is much more expensive compared to the rest of Albania).  The mom and pop who ran the guesthouse were pleasant, and had their son fetch us each a Norga Beer from the bar across the street as the room was prepared.

The view from our bathroom looked straight up to the Llogara Pass; without a doubt, the finest bathroom vista I have ever encountered.  Our plan for the day was to roam through the Dhermi beach and then figure out how to get to Drymades Beach.  Dhermi Beach had its bleak elements - incomplete buildings, little shacks, fairly unclean and rocky beach; however, it was still quaint.

Dhermi, Albania: that's right yiatches
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Dhermi Beach also had a decent amount of people lying around, so we set off for Drymades.  We knew Drymades was directly north of Dhermi, but we didn't see any signs.  We ended up walking through some guy's backyard and he pointed us in the general direction down an overgrown path.

In a scene you would find in some Paradise Found-theme movie, we reached the shore to discover cove after cove of fine pebble beach, rocky outcrops, pristine water, and zero people.  Truly remarkable.

Dhermi, Albania: my bro being cool
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These coves were quite small and we could have spent days soaking up the sun and swimming 100 meters out only to look straight down to the clear floor of the sea.

As we plugged away through the sometimes difficult to overcome outcroppings, we finally reached our destination, Drymades Beach.  And it was massive.  It looked like it went forever, yet there were probably thirty people on the entire stretch.  There was a peaceful bar in the middle of the beach as well as a campground with rustic huts and bungalows.

Dhermi, Albania: dhermi beach
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The middle parts of the beach were quite sandy (rare in these parts of Europe), while the shoreline was slightly rockier.  There were numerous bunkers behind the beach to fight off the inevitable foreign invasion, but, if someone invaded, I don't think they would leave the beach because it was too beautiful.

Again the water was so clear and refreshing, it was hard not to stay in for hours.  The sea was calm and I felt like it was my own due to the lack of company on the beach.  As the sun began to set, we took a different route back to Dhermi.

Dhermi, Albania: pure
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The winding road offered us direct views of the epic sunset to the side of the Llogara Pass.  It was almost sad that, besides myself and my brother, there was virtually no one else to witness it.

We changed back in the room and headed out for a relaxing dinner near the beach.  Everything in Dhermi seems to be in slow motion, service included.  No one is in a rush to get anywhere, there are no worries, and everyone here takes the time to actually live.  It is rather refreshing.

Dhermi, Albania: view towards the llogara pass
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There aren't many options for nightlife, but there was one open-air club on Dhermi Beach called Havana Bar which is where we parked for the evening.  The Bar is dotted with couches and lots of pillows, a South Beach type atmosphere.  The place was actually huge, but there were probably fifteen people in the entire joint.

We hung out with our new Albanian friends who were great company for the night.  There was lots of dancing to American and European music, and interesting conversation lost in translation.

Dhermi, Albania: dhermi beach
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We retired around 3 a.m. as we had to wake up early for our next adventure, the trip down to Sarande, gateway to the Greek Island of Corfu.