Note from the editor: Anjunadeep Explorations is an annual music festival and label showcase in Dhermi, Albania. Many dozens of artists – all associated with the label in some way – play sets ranging from two to twelve hours across five different stages.
Monday: Started off the week right by getting on a plane to Europe. It only took me 40 years to get there!
Tuesday: Pretty uneventful travel, other than the hassle to get a taxi from the airport to Angsana since there aren’t enough taxis to go around. Angsana is a beautiful property on the coast, with amazing views from the infinity pool and rooftop. Corfu beer is excellent. We split a bottle of white wine (seemed appropriate) and lots of small plates on the rooftop for dinner while listening to the hotel’s DJ spin deep house, accessorized nicely by the live saxophone.
Wednesday: Holy shitballs, this is the most amazing and complete hotel breakfast I’ve ever seen! What a treat to have bright, delicious Mediterranean food alongside eggs and potatoes and coffee. We ate so much that we skipped lunch entirely and didn’t eat again until dinner. Spent the whole afternoon at the pool, but also used the gym since it was mostly empty and very well apportioned. Really nice dinner by the pool and then a relatively early bedtime to rest for the next day’s travel to Albania.
Thursday: The ferry to Albania had a great vibe, with everyone excited and chittering and drinking and sweating and meeting new friends. We started chatting with a Finnish couple across from us and they became our BFFs for the week (Ville and Kristiina). The weather was thankfully overcast for the last hour of the boat ride, which probably saved a lot of people from sunburn and/or heat exhaustion. Passport control in Albania was slow and we all had to stand on the dilapidated concrete dock with only two officers checking passports. Most people passed out on the bus and we had a quiet, pretty ride through the mountains to Dhermi. Once there, we had to lug all our stuff up the huge hill and arrived at Elysium Hotel soaked in sweat. The 200 euro room deposit mostly wiped out our euros, but it was life-saving to finally have A/C and a shower and a bed to flop in. After unpacking, showering, and having a bit of a rest, we set out for the evening to catch Jody at Empire, a bit of Franky Wah (who was evidently staying at our hotel), a bit of VONDA7 (who we saw the next day at the hotel next door), and a bit of Richie Blacker before calling it a night after a very long day. However, even this abbreviated nighttime itinerary had one of the best moments of the trip: Paavo was at Splendor for VONDA7 and Lummi got to talk to him for a little bit and give him a hug. Achievement unlocked!
Friday: I honestly don’t remember much of this day, so my guess is that we slept in and took it easy during most of the day, though I do remember that we had our first Luciano dinner. In the evening, we saw a bit of Amonita at the Cove, James Grant at Splendor, all of Eli & Fur at Empire, and just a tiny bit of Luttrell before heading home a bit after 3:00. Eliza was staying at our hotel, and we saw her (and her girlfriend) multiple times on Friday, but evidently she left Albania the next morning for her next tour stop.
Saturday: This was our big Gjipe day and it did not disappoint. Yotto and Simon Doty were super fun the whole time and it was such a luxury that we could walk to the beach and take a cold dip in the ocean to cool off. The boat ride was really fun both ways and we had our first meal at Vasilika for dinner (still following the tried-and-true formula of one pizza, one Greek salad, and one seafood dish). After the customary late evening rest at the hotel, our evening itinerary took us to Yacht Club to catch Gareth From The Office (who was on fire, until he impaled himself later that night), then 16BL at Splendor, then Marsh at Empire for a bit, then back to 16BL on the way home.
Sunday: Another late start, another great Gjipe day, this time for Tony. He played a great set, ending with an emotional deep remix of Gratitude, and Lummi got to talk to James Grant for a bit and tell him about our upcoming wedding. There was a great moment of all of us (Ville, Kristiina, Daniel, and Nick) going to the beach for a refreshing dip in the water. We went to Luciano’s for dinner and coincidentally, there was a huge Anjuna “company dinner” at the same time and we saw lots of artists and employees at some of the long tables. We had a very good rest and then geared up for the biggest night of the festival for us: David Hohme at the Cove, Ben Bohmer at Empire, and then Yotto at Empire until sunrise.
Monday: Getting up at a reasonable hour was a bit difficult and we quickly ruled out Gjipe, even though it was James and Jody, since we would miss Yotto’s Yacht Rock set, which turned out to be the best sneak attack set of the week. After he finished, we made sure to get in line to get a photo of all of us with him. Amy Wiles was a bit too energetic for 6:00 – she never gets the time slot she really needs – so we left and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant close to Ville and Kristiina’s hotel. After our last evening nap of the trip, we had another great night: Cubicolor at the Cove (which was packed, so we got overlook spots instead), Paavo at Empire for one of the best sets of the week (all the music was new and unreleased), Sunny Lax at Yacht Club, then finally Dosem for the last Empire sunrise set of the festival.
Tuesday: On literally no sleep (there’s no time!) we showered, packed, and caught the early morning bus back to the docks. This travel day was much more brutal: no clouds, intense sun, no shade, the ferry was 90 minutes late, no shade on the boat, then our pre-arranged taxi never showed up at the port. We hailed another taxi at the port and our driver Giannis is now my favorite taxi driver in Greece: we used him again to go to the airport and I still have his card. We arrived at Eleals Hotel, had a nice snack, then a really good dinner, and then slept for about 18 – 20 hours.
Wednesday: Lummi had another bad reaction to shellfish, so she ended up staying in bed for almost two full days and ate only some fruit and toast. I managed to wake up and shower just in time for dinner: bread and olive oil, baked feta (my new favorite food), fresh fish, and quinoa. Then right back to bed.
Thursday: I managed to get up for actual breakfast and spent some time on the hotel’s private beach in the afternoon, before we met up with Ville and Kristiina in the evening in Corfu Town. We walked around a lot, had wine and tapas at a wine bar, did some shopping, had Corfu beers, ate a full Greek dinner in one of the many random alleys, and probably all secretly wished we had stayed in the town.
Friday: Our flight situation was touch and go for a while, since I had changed our flights through United, but we were flying with partner airlines. We said our goodbyes to Ville and Kristiina in Munich, had a long transfer between airlines and terminals, had a great German sandwich for lunch, and were thankfully rewarded with premium economy seats on our long flight back home.
Can’t wait to do it all again next year!
