If Berat was the ‘city of windows’ then Gjirokaster is the ‘stone city’. Everything was made of stone.
That made driving up the hill to the castle interesting at times. We just watched the entertainment: our car was parked by the apartment below the hills and wasn’t going to move for the two nights we were in town. One truck trying to navigate the narrow old town streets, after delivering supplies to shops, was enough to cause a traffic jam. And the number of cars having problems doing a hill start after a minor stop, with their wheels spinning as their tires failed to grip the smooth cobbled surfaces.
The old part of town, up the hill, below the castle had a unique feel.
The castle was definitely made of stone! And it is huge. There was a particularly good museum inside the castle that gave a good explanation about the history of the area. Because it was an extra cost to the castle ticket, very few people visited, but it was well worth the $1 or $2 entrance price.
There were the usual canons and ramparts, but there was also a WWII American Airforce plane. The stories about what it was doing in Albania, differ quite significantly. The Americans say the pilot was disorientated by bad weather on the way to Italy, having to land near Tirana and the Albanians say it was a spy plane. Regardless, it was moved to the castle as a trophy of the cold war.
We did a very interesting short tour of the extensive 80 room bunkers beneath the castle. The local population didnt know the elite bunkers were there until the 1990s. It is thought they were constructed in case Enva Hoxha was visiting family in the area – this was his birthplace.
And we finally saw the cutlery fences. In the past there were cutlery factories in the area, and the remainders of the metal sheets after the cutlery were pressed out were re-purposed and became garden fences.
We stayed at the bottom of the old town, which apart from having to trek uphill, was an excellent location for us. Jani studio Apartments. We found a lovely Italian restaurant, Focus, around the corner, where we we ate both nights as we could sit outside on the covered roof terrace and watch the day turn to night and the town start to illuminate itself.