Friday, 28th June, 2019
We are spending 3 days driving through Albania’s coastline. Today, after going into shkoder’s town centre, we attempted to climb up to the Rozafa Fortress but due to the heat, we decided to take in the views from below the fortress.
Shkoder is one of the oldest cities in Europe, and while houses and mansions are still being restored to their former glory, it was pleasant to wander around this town and take in the sights and sounds – church bells ringing and the muezzin calling from the minaret. This old town is wedged between the Accursed Mountains and Lake Skadar and is a gateway to the Albanian Alps or southwards towards the coast, the Albania. Riviera.
I must say that up to now, we have encountered only pleasant Albanians – everyone is helpful and want to have a chat with you; for instance as I was taking pictures of an old dilapidated building, a shopkeeper on the other side of the road come across to talk to us. He did tell us that most buildings that haven’t been renovated are often due to disputes in the family inheritance plus the fact that to restore these buildings it would cost a fortune. The building which housed his shop was beautifully restored. He also suggested we visit the Cathedral and we said we would be walking around to take in the the prominent sites.
Another experience we had was when I saw an ATM and decided to withdraw some local cash – Lek – but first checked what the currency is worth – 100 Lek is 80 euro cents. Anyway at the ATM machine a bank employee stood there helping clients to use the ATM. She was actually given both debit card and PIN code so that she could withdraw the cash for the clients. I can understand when some of the clients were elderly people but there were also younger generation with their teenage daughters using this assistance……. well when it was my turn to withdraw cash, the bank employee politely stepped aside and smiled at me as though to let me know that of course she knew that I was more capable of withdrawing cash!!
Well further with our sightseeing x it’s incredible that within 300 square meters, we found 3 different houses of worship – the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Catholic Cathedral and the Moslem Mosque.
We also walked down the main pedestrianized street filled with shops, cafe’s and hotels – Rr. Kolë Idromeno – it was interesting to see that bicycles are heavily used in Albania – apparently it was illegal to own a car till the 1960’s …….
Back at our hotel, The Rose Garden, we picked up the car to make our way to the Rozafa Fortress – a most impressive site founded by the Illyrians in antiquity and rebuilt by the Venetians and later by the Ottoman. The name is derived from the woman who was allegedly walked into the ramparts as an offering to the gods so that the construction would stand!
Well as I said earlier, we arrived here at noon and it was too hot to make the climb all the way but I did manage to take some good pictures and we have to do with that!
We then started on our 2 hour drive down to Durres. Sometimes we drove on a two lane road where we had all sorts of traffic, bicycles, donkey carts, busses and speeding BMW’s and Mercedes. For a few kilometers we were on a sort of a four lane motorway but within minutes this luxurious strip of motorway ended and we were back on a two lane road……. anyway we arrived in Durres just after 2pm and we could immediately check in to our hotel just across the beach.
We had access to the beach so we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach and swimming too till early evening. Back in our room (with sea view), we checked our social media and showered and were ready to take a stroll along the beach front. Actually Durres is also a sea port and we were able to see this when we went out for our stroll before dinner.
Through TripAdvisor, I chose a good restaurant to have dinner as we fancied having fresh fish – my choice fell on Gusto di Mare. While we had a fantastic meal made up of fresh green salad with avocado and shrimps, fresh sea bass baked in the oven with vegetables and very good local white wine from the Berat region, the prices were very Western European. Actually the restaurant manager spoke very good Dutch with a Flemish accent as he used to live in Belgium.
We strolled back to our hotel and welcomed the pleasantly warm sea breeze. All the way, we could hear music and singing in different seaside resorts. I believe half of Tirana is out here in Durres for the weekend. This is the summer resort for the Albanians living inTirana as it’s only some 36 km away. Mind you it’s not the beach front of my choice – it’s more or less like Benidorm; huge apartments built along the coast and some other buildingslook quite worn out and are need of a paint makeover…… tomorrow we are travelling further south to Vorle where we will also be pending the night in a beach side hotel.
