Although the beaches, for the most part, are public, unrestricted development has created an environment where hotels and restaurants have encroached on the beach and then placed private umbrellas and chairs on the beach from the storefront to the high tide mark.  So, in effect, if you want to sit on that section of the beach you must rent their umbrella and chairs, which run from $3 to $10 per day.  So finding the best beach, which means cleanest and least crowded at a good price, requires some effort.  Thanks to the hard work of previous volunteers, the search has been completed and so the all that is left is to show the new volunteers the ropes.

The best beach seems to be a small beach north of Durres called Porto Romano Beach.  It is about a 15-minute furgon (minivan taxi service) ride.  The water is cleaner than the water around the Durres bay because this beach opens up to the sea and does not trap city runoff.  Also, because it opens up to the sea, you get waves.  There is a small restaurant that rents umbrellas for $3 per day or you can go to the public beach if you bring you own umbrella.  So far we have opted to rent rather than buy, especially since we have no place to keep anything and the private area is not as crowded as the public area.

We have been to several beaches, the Durres Beach, the Vogella Beach (north Durres) and Porto Romano.  One of the women Carol works with invited us to join her and her husband at the beach.  The day started at 9:00 when they picked us up at the house and drove to the beach.  Usually we just meet at the bus station and take the bus, so this was a treat by itself.  Then, Ibrahim had arranged through his friend who owns a restaurant to have a couple of umbrellas reserved for us.  We arrived, and ate a breakfast of fruit and cake, then, since we are in Albania, we must have a coffee.  After the coffee, we rented a paddleboat and paddled out to the deep water.  This also got us out of the water that was murky due to all bathers in the shallow water.  We swam for about an hour and then returned to shore where Ibrahim had arranged for us to have dinner at his friend’s restaurant.

The other beach experiences were more normal beach events.  A lot like going to the beach in the states.  You load up with food and drinks, go sit in the shade and then swim when it is too hot to sit any longer.  On those days you must remind yourself you are a Peace Corp volunteer.