Albania 5 – Travels with V

Albania’s capital Tirana is not particularly old, other cities in the country have a much longer history. Shkoder for example was once the capital in the antique kingdom of Illyria, a historical land that many Albanians even today relate to. Shkoder is still the major city of the north and here the resistance against Hoxha’s dictatorship was the strongest. And therefore the repression was particularly cruel here. Hoxha is also said to have ordered the removal of the clockwork from Shkoder’s famous clock tower and have it installed in Gjirokaster, his hometown in the south, instead.

SKODËR FRÅN BORGEN — SHKODËR, VIEW FROM THE CASTLE

SHKODËR ÄR EN CYKELVÄNLIG STAD — SHKODËR IS A BICYCLE-FRIENDLY CITY

SHKODËRS VACKRA MOSKÉ — SHKODËR'S BEAUTIFUL MOSQUE

ÄVEN HÄR FÅR GAMLA NEDRASADE HUS STÅ KVAR — HERE ALSO OLD RUINED HOUSES ARE LEFT STANDING

Modern day Shkoder gives the visitor an impression of a youthful and dynamic city. There’s a particularly busy area along a traffic-free street leading across the city centre, with bars, hotels, restaurants and shops. Here we also find the city mosque and right next to it a big orthodox church. A park at the other end of the street is where we find a memorial for the victims of the communist repression.

Like most of the cities in Albania Shkoder has a castle guarding the city from a high hill. This one is quite large, but many buildings are nothing more than some blocks of stone on the ground. Still you can see remnants of walls and guard towers and a church that in the Ottoman occupation was transferred into a mosque. A Venetian house is mostly intact and is now a small museum. The views from up here are astonishing with two rivers on one side and the great Shkoder lake on the other.

UTSIKT FRÅN SHKODERS BORG MOT LAKE SHKODER — VIEW FROM SHKODER CASTLE OVER LAKE SHKODER

ÖSTER OM BORGEN FÖRENAS TVÅ FLODER — EAST OF THE CASTLE TWO RIVERS ARE JOINED

KYRKAN SOM FÖRVANDLADES TILL MOSKÉ — THE CHURCH THAT WAS TURNED INTO A MOSQUE

DEN INNERSTA BORGGÅRDEN — THE INNERMOST COURTYARD

We’re in for a surprise in Shkoder. A twenty minutes walk to the outskirts of the town leads us to an elegant and shiny white house by the road. Inside the place is full of masks, of all sizes and forms imaginable. This is Venice Art Mask Factory, where they design and and make extravagant carnival masks, mainly for the Venice carnival. Astonishing colourful pieces that you can decorate your walls with if you’re not a party animal. The masks are for sale here, much cheaper than in Venice.

2. Berat

Berat is an inland town southwest of Tirana. It’s sometimes called “The city with a thousand windows”, because of the old town’s Ottoman houses that seem to lie on top of each other, climbing up the slopes on booth sides of the river Osum. Berat has a castle too, of course, and this one is so large it contains a whole city district within its walls. Complete with restaurants, cafés, narrow winding streets and a museum.

DEN OTTOMANSKA "STADEN MED TUSEN FÖNSTER" — THE OTTOMAN "CITY WITH THE THOUSAND WINDOWS"

BRON ÖVER FLODEN OSUM, PÅ ANDRA SIDAN FINNS FLER OTTOMANSKA HUS — THE OLD BRIDGE OVER RIVER OSUM

GATA I BORGEN — NARROW STREET IN THE CASTLE CITY

UTSIKT MED DEN MODERNA STADEN I FONDEN — VIEWS TOWARDS THE MODERN CITY

PASCHANS PORT, INGÅNGEN TILL DEN MÄKTIGE MANNENS RESIDENS — THE GATE OF THE PASCHA'S RESIDENCE

PASCHANS HAREM — HOUSE OF THE PASHA'S HAREM

DEKORATIONER PÅ VÄGGEN VID PASCHANS HAREM — DECORATIONS ON THE HAREM WALLS

If you follow the river Osum upstream and eastward you’ll reach a deep and narrow canyon where the river flows between high vertical cliffs. The canyon is a popular destination for tourists and holiday campers who love to swim in the river’s warm water. We joined a group that swam and walked upstream and floated back on life jackets.

Along the river in Berat there is a nice pedestrian street lined with bars and restaurants. When we’re there some kind of festival is going on. In the evening the place is packed and a live band plays rock music.

3. Gjirokaster

As the bird flies the distance between Berat and Gjirokaster isn’t long, but to actually get there you have to drive a long way to get around the high mountain range that separates the cities. Gjirokaster is about one third of the size of Berat, and Ottoman houses are found here as well. One that is open to the public is Skenduli House, that has been owned by the same family for many generations. It’s a grand house that was used for ceremonies and meetings, and of course home for a rich family of some 30 persons.

Hoxha confiscated and closed the house but after democracy was restored it was given back to the family, and it’s now a museum.

The three-storey house is a labyrinth of of rooms and secret passages, necessary when male guests were in the building and the women of the house must be invisible to them. In the basement there’s a windowless room with a vaulted ceiling, actually a “panic room” where the family could hide if the house was under attack.

Enver Hoxha was born in Gjirokaster, and so was the respected author Ismail Kadaré, who has written many books about life in Albania before Hoxha. The town, like Berat, has an old and a new district, but the old one here is partly in a sad state. There’s lots of abandoned and ruined houses, and in the famous bazaar district some shops and restaurants are permanently closed. But where they remain open bars and souvenir shops are full of tourists.

GJIROKASTERS BORG — THE CASTLE AT GJIROKASTER

GAMMALT HUS I GJIROKASTERS BAZARKVARTER — OLD HOUSE IN THE BAZAAR QUARTERS

TYPISKT FÖR HUSEN I GJIROKASTER ÄR ATT DE HAR TAK AV STEN — TRADITIONALLY GJIROKASTER'S HOUSES HAVE STONE ROOFS

IBLAND ÄR LANDSKAPET MYCKET LIKT ITALIEN — SOMETIMES THE LANDSCAPES REMIND YOU OF ITALY

In the evening the bazaar quarters really come to life:

4. Dürres

This city has the biggest port in Albania and it’s almost like Tirana’s suburb. Here you can see the country’s last railroad, but these days it’s only carrying goods. Dürres is a modern and lively city with a couple of skyscrapers and intense traffic. Its main attraction is a huge amphitheater, the biggest in the balkans with seats for about 20.000 people. It was built for gladiator fights but was destroyed by earthquakes and later covered over and forgotten. It was rediscovered in the 1960’s and is now almost fully uncovered.

There’s a beach in the middle of Dürres but it’s quite untidy and not many use it. There’s also a long jetty with some futuristic restaurants.

STOR ROMERSK AMFITEATER SOM NYLIGEN GRÄVTS FRAM — BIG ROMAN AMPHITHEATER, RECENTLY EXCAVATED

STADSBILD. SKYSKRAPAN ÄR BARA HALVVÄGS FÄRDIGBYGGD. — DÜRRES CITY. THE SKYSCRAPER IS ONLY HALF FINISHED

DÜRRES VARIANT PÅ PIREN I BRIGHTON — THE DÜRRES VERSION OF THE BRIGHTON PIER

In the northern end of the Albanian riviera lies Vlore, a city that we sadly only had time to pass through. But what we saw driving along the coastline was impressive. Shiny new hotels, restaurants and bars, and nice beaches. Mostly built for tourism this looked definitely more attractive than Sarandë and the other seaside resorts.

It was Vlorë that saw the most violent protests that followed the breakdown of the pyramid schemes in the 1990’s. A fraud that robbed millions of Albanians of their life savings. The protests turned into “almost civil war” and around 2.000 persons were killed.

Up next: History pops up all over Albania and we soon walk the same streets as people did over 2000 years ago.

Albanian cities top 5:

Eat:
- In Shkoder we recommend Vila Bekteshi that has balconies open towards a green courtyard. Good food and great service.
- In Berat we had the best meal by the river. In a simplistic place with the incredible name “City-Grill“.
- In Gjirokaster we just couldn’t find any good restaurants. But we strongly advice against the Odaja, that others have recommended. The worst service and tasteless food.
- Dürres: We enjoyed a perfectly ok dinner in “Rooftop XV”, a restaurant on top of a high building, with great views of the city. Service was very good, too.
Experience: From Shkoder go to Lake Koman, described here. The boat ride Koman – Fierzë takes two hours and after a one-hour stop the ferry returns to the Koman ferry terminal. Ask at your hotel to arrange a package with transport, avoid parking a car at the Koman Terminal.
Shopping: Venice Art Mask Factory in Shkoder makes fanciful hand made Venetian carnival masks of papier-maché painted in imaginative colours.
Histoy: The amphitheatre in Dürres, the biggest in the Balkans. It is in quite poor condition and there is conservation going on. So you can only see it from behind a fence.
Castles: Found in almost every town and city it seems. Always on hilltops overlooking the city. Can be visited, the largest ones are in Shkoder, Berat and Gjirokaster.

Cities:

1. Shkoder

2. Berat

3. Gjirokaster

4. Dürres

Travels with V

Albania

Cities:

1. Shkoder

2. Berat

3. Gjirokaster

4. Dürres

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