Shkoder, northern Albania

Heading out of Tirana

I met my 11 travel companions and tour leader in Tirana. They are all very well-travelled, and include three people who will hit their 100th country on this trip! (In case you’re wondering, I don’t know what my country count is, but I think it’s between 50 and 60.) (Update – I made a list and it looks like 82!)

Travelers from UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, USA, and Canada are in the group. Our tour leader is a guy from Serbia who seems to always be happy.

We all went out for dinner to a big touristy place with local food and singing by locals in traditional costumes. It seems like that must be done once per tour and then we’re good! Lamb heads and lamb insides were listed on the menu. I could only hope this is not a sign of things to come!

Shkoder

The next day we piled into a minibus and headed north towards the Albanian Alps, known as the Accursed Mountains. No one seemed to know exactly why that name, but consensus was that it had something to do with how hard life is there.

On the way out of Tirana is a massive building identified as a private residence, or a casino. I’m guessing casino. There are various massive building like this in Tirana, some in use and some strangely abandoned, possibly due to construction ending when communism and its projects fell in the 1990s.

On the drive from Tirana we saw crops scorched from the 45 degree heat that summer, and casinos and nightclubs in the middle of nowhere.

We stopped in Shkoder, one of the oldest and most historic towns in Albania, and all of Europe. Lunch was at a pizza place, where you can taste the Italian influence in the excellent thin crusts. Italy is just across the Adriatic sea and occupied Albania during most of World War II, 1939-1944.

There was one of many monuments to Mother Teresa, the famous humanitarian, that we would see. She is claimed by Albania as their own, but was born in neighboring Macedonia.

Rozafa castle

In the late afternoon we drove to the edge of town and hiked up to Rozafa castle for sunset. From the castle and fortress at the confluence of three rivers, you can see for miles. This made it a strategic military base to the many empires that ruled Albania since ancient times.

Legend has it that originally three brothers set about building the castle, just to have the walls collapse every night. They consulted a “wise old man” who told them one of their wives must be sacrificed and buried within the walls. The youngest wife consented to this, as long as her right organs and appendages were left outside the walls to help raise her young son.

We stayed at the castle for sunset, then picked our way down in the dark, with only Josh from Australia missing the group and not showing up at the bottom. Our tour leader Dusan went back up to find him and all was well.

We ate dinner at our hotel, built in 1694. The courtyard echoed with the voice of a lone singer of traditional songs. Our rooms were not the fancy ones with balconies, but were just around the corner in the courtyard.

Early to bed for an early morning the next day, on the way to Valbona in the Accursed Mountains.