Still unsure where and how to get the bus to Gjirokaster tomorrow me and my friend decided to climb up to the castle to see if there was a way round the back to get to the main road and the bus.

Entrance to the castle was 100 Lek ($1). There were supposed to be several churches inside the compound.

We didnt see any churches and they were probably referring to all the different ruins. We could see city views from the summit.

Locals still live inside the city walls and many were selling woven linens for the tourists, though this was low season and not many of us.

There was also a church museum that opens at 4pm for 200 Lek ($2). I decided to wait outside as I was budgeting my Albanian currency and didnt want to exchange any more while my friend went inside.

In the ticket office they were selling town maps. My friend then said he knew where the bus station was and started heading out down a mountain road to nowhere. I was sure this was the wrong way and didnt want to walk all this way down only to get lost, walk back up, or end up taking a taxi home.

Really, is this how I wanted to spend my birthday as my friend headed off and left me walking further behind trying to catch up!. Luckily we did eventually find our way to the bus station so all was forgiven. A local who spoke english told us to take the Sarande bus tomorrow morning to get to Gjiorkaster.

We then took a crowded city bus back to the other side of town for 30 Lek ($0.30) so we would also know how to get back here tomorrow. Not used to foreigners everyone on the bus was looking at us and talking about us amongst themselves.

Dashing off after we arrived we hadnt actually explored the old town itself. Berat is known as the city of a thousand windows and has Unesco designation status. It's actually reminiscent of Gibraltar with its mountain peak.

We crossed south of the river where we could see some churches. The first was small but we wandered thru the cobbled streets to the larger one. This had decaying wall artwork but no heads.

We were allowed to take photos for once. Across on the cliff I had also noticed cave churches but wasnt in the mood to try climbing to them with our long climb to the castle and back down already today.

Back on the main street we looked for some food. We found a restaurant and I got a chicken salad, some nourishment and energy after a long day for 300 Lek ($3).

Back in the guesthouse our owner Papi had told us he was going to sleep over to provide breakfast the next day as we were leaving early morning for the bus.. um, ok, this might seem a bit creepy to others when we had paid for the guesthouse. He was going to sleep in the kitchen which had its own entrance, tv, and bed like couch.

I also went in the master bedroom to be away from my friend for one night and a better view. I didnt know at the time but we didnt actually have the run of the house. After the trip when I checked the booking site again its actually a shared house with different guests in each room. As it was low season, nobody was here, Papi the owner said it was ok and he didnt speak much english anyway. I think it was his bedroom when I looked in the wardrobes!

Later I signed the guestbook which was full of entries from around the world including the UK Ambassador. The house is called 'Guesthouse Berat' on any number of booking sites.

In all the running around today, taking the morning bus from Tirana and then trying to find tomorrows bus to Gjirokaster, I'd mostly forgotten today was my birthday. I'd also wanted to sleep in but had to be up early for our next leg to Gjirokaster tomorrow.