The Beautiful Beaches of Vlore

Now that we have our car *Yay!* + a three day weekend *double Yay!* Sean and I decided to go on a trip.  Since we couldn't leave the country yet, and after looking at our options within Albania - seeing how far away things were and all that - our final decision was made.  We were going to Vlore! (or Vlora, depending on how you use it, I think???  The endings in Albania confuse me to no end).  Vlore is located on the Adriatic Sea in the western Albania, and the scenery is awe inspiring!
After looking up places to stay, and being a little wary of some of the websites where you pay for the hotel, we ended up driving down there with a hotel in mind, but no reservation.  The drive down was, well, we got there in one piece :)  My next blog will be about the driving here, so after you read that you will understand a little more.  We got to the hotel only to learn that they had one room left, the suite.  Fortunately, their most expensive room is about comparable to a decent hotel in the states, and we were tired and didn't want to look around further, so we booked it.  And it was really nice, plus there was little hallway where Asher could sleep with a door between his "room" and ours.  Totally worth the extra $.

And the view was amazing! 

After Asher took a nap and we had relaxed with our books for a little while, we went out to the private beach, all rock, not much sand.  Asher was enthralled!  I kept trying to get him to look up for a picture, but he wasn't having it :)  The water and rocks were waaaay more interesting than mom and her silly camera :) Fortunately, we got a few good ones of him looking up.

 

While the hotel was great, we came across some issues that had us laughing in astonishment.  After the beach, we had came back in and gave Asher a bath, hoping to get down to dinner right afterwards.  Unfortunately, Asher was being fussy and we put him to bed instead.  We decided we would order food from the restaurant and have it brought up.  Sean went down to get this taken care of, but 15 minutes later I get a phone call from him and he was fuming so much that I could almost smell the smoke through the phone.

Apparently, we were not allowed to order food and bring it up to our room.  Had this been the case for EVERY room, I wouldn't have any issues, but it wasn't.  Only the suite, the most expensive room, was not allowed to have room service.  ????  Why, might you ask?  Well, "Since it is the most expensive room, it has the nicest furniture and we don't want the furniture getting dirty."   .... Really people?

Sean's reply, "Ok, so let me get this right.  I pay the most money for your best room, and I have less services and privileges than people who are paying less for their rooms??"
"Yes," he was told, "that is the hotel's policy."

While I understand what they were saying, and would agree to it if it was someone's house or something, this is a hotel people!!  You are suppose to be on vacation, where things are convenient, and you can order food, and eat it in your room when your sleeping child doesn't let you leave to go eat dinner.  Argh.

Well, since we had to eat, and since Sean has some impressive Albanian skills, he convinced the restaurant staff to let him have his food to go (China plates, silverware and all) and he brought it to our room where we then enjoyed a quiet, delicious seafood dinner.  Yes, I was tempted to "accidentally" spill some food, but that's just not me.  We carefully ate our dinner, without making any messes and had this lovely view to dine by..

The following morning we promptly checked out, one day early... not due to the service, but because of a fussy little boy who decided he didn't want to be happy with anything we did, standing, sitting, walking, or playing.  So we saved some money, went home to a place where he was familiar, and relaxed the rest of the weekend. 

Next time, we know to do something in a city where we have things close by, not out in the middle of nowhere with not as many distractions.  Lesson learned Asher, lesson learned :)