After a hard week of pre-prep for the movie our local buddy (and assistant director) invited us, or maybe we invited ourselves for a Sunday trip to some waterfalls they had never visited (and really didn’t know how to get to).
We were duly picked on time at 7.30 am before driving a whole 10 minutes and stopping at a café. Mediterranean time kicked in as drinking Raki did. It took about an hour for the other car to arrive, at which I joined the Albanian car, where you guessed its Albanian Raki, or as they called Albanian champagne was duly served homemade, and direct from a water bottle. Raki made the initial 3-hour journey go quite quickly.
Part 2 of the journey and getting to the waterfall was the kind of journey where you genuinely wished that you had a 4X4 as the last 30 miles duly took another 90 minutes driving VERY slowly down on dirt roads. We were then greeted with a weird shop on a hill that sold one brand of cigarettes, Albanian Raki, and water. We did a shot, stocked up, avoided the straw toilet and embarked on the hike.
Not a huge fan of hikes, but at the end of it we were greeted by the stunning Sotras waterfall (Ujvara e Sotres). Albania and the Mediterranean, in general, are currently being pummeled by a heatwave, so a freezing cold waterfall and swimming area was much very much a treat for the day. It is also nice having nature’s fridge cooling your beers.
With cold beers, a few pretty girls, and a waterfall, there’s pretty much only one ingredient left for a great day, BBQ and Albanian BBQ cooked lovingly by our local friends showed me right away that I was no longer in China. REAL sausages served in real bread, Mediterranean style spices, and of course the ever popular Albanian Raki. Albania is one of the most meat obsessed countries that I have ever been to and Albanian BBQ did not disappoint.
The journey back from Sotres waterfall to Tirana was another long one, but the day was genuinely so good. I think the end justified the means.
Overall a big thumbs up from the Street Food Guy on the Sotres waterfall.