You’ll have to wait for another upcoming Cruising World article to get the full scoop on our visit to Albania, but suffice it to say we leave charmed by this often overlooked Balkan nation. We initially decide to stop here as a way to delay our entry into Greece and thereby the EU, but in fact I am quietly looking forward to seeing a place where I have absolutely no expectations. Clare of course has already been to Albania with a hip-flask to prove it—even with a private boat it’s difficult to find places this girl hasn’t yet trod…get a life already, eh. Not like me, I’m losing my Old World virginity at every turn along the way, gushing over every history drenched cape and crumbling medieval castle. Probably why Clare keeps the flask nearby.

But anyway, we’re bound for Albania, the first country we’ve been to that requires the use of an agent to clear in, and just like a slice of hot apple pie isn’t it a wonderful experience. They are actually waiting at the dock (i.e. the concrete commercial port because there is no infrastructure for pleasure craft) to catch our lines before whisking us through immigration and sitting us in their air conditioned office, giving us a map of the area with suggested recommendations, and then processing our paperwork before going in our stead to the government official and returning our stamped passports, with which we are now free to roam. Yeah, I can get used to this agent thing–and if you’re ever in the area and in need of one, don’t hesitate to use Saranda Summer Tours.

We hire a car from them the next day and immediately head for the imposing mountains which loom in all directions behind the seaside town of Saranda. We see enough coastline while aboard, I want rocks trees and terrain, and wow, how surprised I am to learn that Albania has so much to offer in this department. The countryside is positively stunning. We drive for hours up switchbacked roads to find crystal clear natural springs engulfed in richly scented conifer forests. We make it over one mountain pass to reveal an entire other, even taller range on the other side of a river valley that was undoubtedly carved by a glacier some eons in the distant past. The scale and contours, the contrasts and colors, the textures and shapes–all of it the sweetest of candy to our salt-parched eyes.

We have a late lunch in a picturesque mountainside village and even get a tour through the enigmatic Cold War Tunnels before snapping some panorama photos of the breathtaking views from atop Gjirokaster’s well-preserved castle. Oh, to breath fresh dry high-altitude air, it’s like nicotine for my Alaskan lungs.

Having a car makes re-provisioning the boat a snap, and Albanian prices make it a delight. We check out one last site, an ancient Greco-Roman village still in good nick, before returning the car and enjoying a couple more days in town. Great place for dental work, we both get our first cleaning in years and Clare even gets a filling, 50-euros and an hour later we’re out the door and dirtying our fresh fangs on 50-cent freshly baked spinach pies.

Turns out we would have been happy with some more time in this lovely and hospitable country (home to Mother Teresa, in case you forgot), but we have another mother (and father) to meet, and for that we need to cross a one-mile channel to Corfu, where our summer tour of the Greek islands begins.