Balkans - Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia - 2016

What could be better after 37 hours of air travel than a 12 hour sleep in a good bed?  Answer = 13 hours sleep in a good bed, which is what I managed to get last night.  And I certainly felt much better for it when I woke this morning at 7am, two hours after sunrise.

Breakfast at the Ark Hotel was great, and so I was in a great frame of mind as I walked to the airport terminal, just a few hundred metres from the hotel, to collect the rental car I had arranged.  I didn’t expect to be greeted by name as I walked up to the Europcar desk at Tirana Airport, but then I realised that mine might be the only reservation for the day.

The paperwork took quite a while, mainly because I was intending to take the car across national borders into Kosovo and Macedonia — all quite permissible, but requiring extra documentation, insurance and, of course, additional fees to be paid, in cash.

Paperwork completed, the desk attendant (there was only one) abandoned his desk to accompany me to the car I had reserved, a diesel powered Dacia Stepway.  With 58 kilometres on the odometer, I was informed that I was to be the first renter of this fine example of everything one would expect from Romanian engineering.  Adequately powered it is not, but it has performed reliably throughout its first day of service, if you ignore its inability to ascend one steep hill (yes, we had to roll backwards, do a U-turn and take another route).

Our first stop for the day was Kruja, an old fortified town, backed by high, steep mountains with a ruined (and partly restored) castle dominating one hill.  Although Kruja was just 25 kilometres or so from Tirana, the drive was a slow one, as Albania’s roads are often in poor condition, with drivers in even worse condition in cars of tolerable condition trying to avoid animals and unaware pedestrians in various states of unawareness.  On the positive side, it’s not as bad as driving in Lebanon.

Walking around the castle was a great experience, offering superb views of the town of Kruja below as well as the ruins of the castle itself.  One part of the castle had been immaculately restored and now served as a large museum.  Other smaller, more humble buildings had been restored and were being used as an ethnographic museum, some restaurants and even some houses for residents who live there.  Other parts of the castle were in ruins, but were no less interesting for that.  The old watchtower at the top of the hill, with the small medieval church behind it, were especially interesting, and perhaps more enjoyable as the visiting tour groups and school students didn’t seem interested in climbing so far up the hill.

After a stay of an hour or so, we resumed our drive northwards along Highway 1 to our destination for the day, the city of Shkodër (also known as Shkodra).  We arrived at about 2:30pm and checked into our hotel for the next two nights, the centrally located but pretentiously named Grand Hotel Europa.

Shkodër  has a long history, and it shows in some of the town’s monuments.  It was capital of the Illyrian state of the Ardiaens before being conquered by Rome in 168BC.  It was part of the Venetian Republic from 1396 until it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1479, and all these phases can be seen in various parts of the town.  One of Shkodër ’s more recent claims to fame is that it was the birthplace of Mother Teresa, something that is now commemorated by a statue of Mother Teresa overlooking an intersection that bears her name.

Our first visit in Shkodër  was to Rozafa Castle, just 4 kilometres to the south of the main urban area.  Rozafa Castle dominates a large hill that overlooks the strategically important location of the confluence of three rivers, none of which I’m guessing you have ever heard of, but which for the sake of completeness are the Drini, the Kiri and the Buna.  There has been a fortification on the hill from Illyrian times, but most of the parts of the castle that can be seen today date from Venetian and Ottoman times.

Some parts of the castle were especially impressive, such as the 14th century ruined church that was converted into a mosque under Ottoman rule, and an elegant three-storey building from Venetian times that was the garrison commander’s residence.  But it was the views in all directions from the ramparts that were most impressive of all.  The views of the rivers, the surrounding farmland, the city of Shkodër, and the mountains in the distance were all sensational, more especially as we were blessed with bright, clear weather conditions. 

Our final visit using the car today was 11 kilometres to the north (7 kilometres north of Shkodër’s city centre) in the village of Mesi, the Ura e Mesit, more commonly known in English as Mesi Bridge.  This beautiful 108 metre long bridge was built during Ottoman rule in 1868.  With 13 arches and a curve in its pathway, the bridge was built to bring timber from the nearby mountains to Ulqini, then Shkodër’s port.  The bridge was used until 1965 when it was replaced by a much plainer, but apparently safer, bridge beside it.

We returned to Shkodër and spent the next few hours organising tomorrow’s activities, a fairly simple task once we located the office in the myriad of misinformation we had been given by various people and signs that had been turned to face different directions, presumably by local hoons.

A lovely dinner in the hotel finished off a surprisingly busy first day in Albania.  Perhaps the real miracle was that Di and I both stayed awake and alert all day, having apparently adjusted to the savage time zone changes we have endured with relative ease.

Day 2 - Tirana to Shkodër, Albania

Tuesday 31 May 2016