A dog barked all night so we woke up pretty grumpy. Also because last night the shower was pretty much just a dribble so didn't exactly feel nice and refreshed. Had an OK breakfast (eggs, bread, jam) and the owner lady is kind of rude, she wouldn't let us go back up the stairs we came down from our room, made us go outside then back in, and also when Ryan asked for a hairdryer she just said outright no. So we decided to move to another place up the road.
Turned out to be a great decision because we were the first guests ever to stay and the family running the hotel were so excited and happy to have us. They even called their relative in the UK to tell him to talk to us.
There was also a 16ish boy and his brother (9?) who stayed there the whole day to see if we needed anything. The room was super nice too, with an amazingly hot shower and stunning view of the village below and mountains.
So we dropped our bags in the room, and set off for the famous Gjirokaster Castle, hoping the overcast sky stayed dry. Unfortunately it started raining as soon as we got inside the castle which meant ponchos on. There's a great view from the castle, and also a museum which chronicles Gjirokasters past, and how WWII and communism affected the area. Most interesting was the cutouts of cutlery (leftovers from a communist era cutlery factory) that are now used by locals as fencing and bunkers which we've seen dotted all around the countryside (all civilians had to get to a bunker with x minutes and there would be regular training back in the day) . The castle itself was used as a prison and gained a notorious reputation, mainly because of terrible conditions inmates (mostly political prisoners) suffered. We saw the prison part and it was pretty creepy. But also bizarre because the first area when you walk in is just a huge collection of guns. The placards were in Albanian so we had no idea what significance they had, but from most of the pictures it looked like the guns were from WWII.
After we walked to the Dunavat area, got some fruit and walked up the hill. We reached the end of the village and Ryan kept climbing to the top of the mountain on a shepherds path where he met a local shepherd.
The climb down took us to the other side of the castle and back to the village where we had lunch and I had the thickest hot chocolate ever, it was like a mug of sauce. Then took a nap and came back out for a coffee and then nice dinner at a taverna. When we arrived back at the hotel around 7pm the family asked if we wanted dinner they'd made, they were so kind, but we'd already eaten.
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