Permet is only 1.5 hour hours down the road from Gjirokaster, so we made a couple of stops along the way.
1st was lunch at Ujë Ftoht Cafe and Honey for freshly homemade focaccia bread and goats cheese for lunch. Another area of natural springs with water pouring out of the hillsides and people collecting the spring water for drinking
Ten minutes down the road was the town of Tepelene. We stopped briefly there to check out the “castle” to find it was really just completely intact castle walls with normal houses and gardens inside – a castle subdivision. There was quite a clear view of the former internment camp, but we didn’t want to visit that site. Lord Byron had visited Ali Pasha at the castle here and there was a commemoration of him in stone on the wall
For us it was a drive out the back of the town through to the Ali Pasha aqueduct. It has been rebuilt after a 20th century earthquake. There isnt much information about it on the internet but almost every article has wording along the lines ‘it was rebuilt in a very inauthentic manner’ or ‘rebuilt with less refined engineering techniques’ Anyway, it was a nice walk and stop along the way to Permet.
Permet is a quiet town, located on the Vjosa river and is becoming famous as a adventure tourism hub (rafting, canoeing, biking) and as a home for the slow-food movement. We focussed entirely on the food-aspect in our 2 nights there. it was a very nice little town where we ate, and drank, and generally relaxed.
We made a trip to the thermal springs – just looking not bathing. The water was quite tepid and they were described in guides as “warm springs” rather than “hot springs”. The Ottoman bridge had to be crossed to get to one of the areas. It had no guard rails or other safety aspects, so you did need to walk carefully and watch where you were putting your feet. There are more springs further up the canyon, but to reach them involved clambering over riverbed rocks, and generally more effort than we were prepared to expend.
Everywhere we went in the country were very relaxed dogs wandering about. They were never aggressive, often sleeping in groups, and not a concern at all. Except for the day Andrew decided to photograph them. He ignored the dog looking daggers at him, as if to say, do NOT take my photograph! Andrew ignored that prompt, and in return got barked at in a most aggressive manner. It was very funny.
We had good meals at Trifilia and Te Kuli, where we returned to more than once.
We stayed at guesthouse Shtëpia Ime, which was very nice and on a quiet street and we walked everywhere.
