Next day we returned to Vlora, on the road we saw Orikum, and the museum in the Vlora We went to Kruja, where we had a hotel near the castle with a panorama to the sea, 40 km far from the city. Our last day in Albania was a lazy one, In Shengjin we saw the beach, the weather was sunny, but cold. I saw there a huge died seaturtle too, I thought that these are extinct. But maybe this was the last one.

April 2004

Now I went to Albania with my brother István Dienes, and our trip had a special aim: making photos and slides about Albania. So we went thorough the whole country and we explored new places too.
The first night we spent in Montenegro in Plav, near the Albanian border. There is a new crossing point, because this part of the former Yugoslavia is mostly populated by ethnic Albanians. The way to the crossing point isn’t marked so we hardly found it. On the Albanian side there is only a container for the soldiers. There were two on duty, but one of them, when he heard that we were going to Shkodra, asked us for a lift to his home, because he hadn’t been there for a week and there is no official transport for them. Of course we took him, what was a good idea, because he knew the road and the whole history of this region, called Kelmendi.
The road to the first village – Vermosh – was short. It ended only some 300 meters at a wooden fence. This border region is part of a farm and the owner closed the road. Of course he opened it and invited us for coffee. After the fence the road ended, but we were far from Vermosh. There was only a runway for tractors, which drove us across a muddy hill and a river. Only for off-road cars. The road to Vermosh was better. This small village is like Theth, it has a big new catholic church and some shops and pubs in the center. The houses are on the mountainside, far from each other. The weather wasn’t really good, so we didn’t see too much of the picturesque landscape.

The way to Hoti wasn’t long in distance – only 70 km – but it took 6 hours. Our hitch-hiker knew the names of the settlements, the legends of this place and everything about its history. We spent the night near Durres.
Next day we were in Tirana. I met my friends there and my brother made a lot of pictures. On the following day we began our adventures. We saw Kruja, the city of the national hero Skanderbeg, but we didn’t return to the plain. We went thorough Qafa e Shtames, the mountain between Kruja and Burrel. There is a National Park, too.
From Kruja the road goes through a beautiful valley. Later, the road went bad. The center of the Park is in a pine forest. There is a small motel, some restaurants and a mineral water bottling plant. The pass is more than 1200 meters high, and a huge valley begins there. And at the bottom end of it you can see the next city, Burrel. The panorama ends with the high mountains of Lura.
From Burrel we went to Peshkopi. There is a fair asphalt road and the landscape is like in the far mountains of Albania, the houses are on the hillside and there are some old kulla-s too. On this road is Bulqiza a two part city on the two sides of a valley with a river in between.
Peshkopi is situated under the highest Albanian peak, Korabi and its mountain. It is a beautiful, tidy town with a long promenade. The highlight of the city is a spa – Llixha – with sulphur springs. You can smell the sulphur in the city too. If you don’t have an offroad car, you should return on the same way, because there is no other good road to this city. Happily we could travel thorough the mountains to Librazhd.
This is one of the most remote part of Albania. The emigration was more than 75 % after the collapse of communism, because the life is very hard there. It is a highland, therefore the winter is long. It is the best place to grow potatoes in Albania, but this isn’t enough to emerge from the poverty. We saw there women washing in the stream and men ploughing with horses. The landscape is wonderful, what a pity that there is no infrastructure for the tourism.
From Librazhd we went to Vlora, where we spent the night. Next morning we visited Zvernec, at the Narta Lagune. There are some hills and islands, and an old monastery, the place is worth for a visit from Vlora, it is only 15 km far. From Vlora we travelled at the seaside, thorough the Albanian Riviera. I have been here a lot of times, but my brother was amazed from the landscape, the high mountains, the blue water. The colourful flowers of the spring were perfect themes of his photos. We explored new beaches, places and finished the day in Saranda, with a delicious fish and mussel dinner.
At morning we visited Butrinti, the UNESCO heritage ancient city. There are a lot of change, we got for example a prospectus. We didn't return on the same way to Saranda, but we went thorough the river by ferry, to Konispol. At last I could visit the old castle on the other side of the river. It was built in the 15th century, and rebuilt by Ali Pasha Tepelena. It is empty and neglected now.

The road to Konispol is a dirt track, but the town has asphalted streets. The city has a very interesting position, near the Greek border at the high end of a valley. The dwellers always enjoy a beautiful panorama. In the plain valley stays a lonely hill, the Eagle Mountain, where is some ancient Illyrian ruins, called Çuka e Ajtoit. We returned to Saranda on the other side of the Lake Butrinti, on a very bad road.
We have made some photo about Mesopotam and Syri i Kalter on the road to Gjirokastra. Before the city we visited Labove, for its interesting old church. In Gjirokastra - because of the rain - we walked by car on the old narrow streets. It was a nightmare, never go by car to the old town of Gjirokastra! We spent the night in Bënça, where we ate delicious trout for dinner.
My friends there told us, that near is the most beautiful waterfall of Albania. I was there in September, and there was no water in the stream, but in April there is a high waterfall, from which rocks made some branch, and there was a natural bridge too. What a pity, that it is remote and periodic.
We follow our way to Berat via Këlcyre. I have tried two times to come this road, and now we succeed. It is in very poor stage, slow and there isn't any sight. Berat develops for tourism, there are information boards at the sights, guides at the churches. After Berat we saw Kuçova, - the former Stalintown. It is a communist-built city, in its centre stays the industrial plant, and there are a lot of oil-well too. Near the city is the base of the Albanian Air Force, their 40 years old MIGs are visible from the road. The night found us in Divjaka in the Karavasta National Park.
Next day we travelled to the Lake Ohrid. On the road we visited Llixha e Elbasanit, which is an another spa with sulphur springs. Near Elbasan we met an animal market, which is a good theme for photos. I have red, that near the lake is an ottoman stone bridge - on the ancient Via Egnatia - in Golik. Going there we heard sounds of loud music from a restaurant. At Sunday afternoon it could be only a wedding. We entered the local, and find there a huge crowd of guests. It was the wedding of the groom, because in Albania there is two weddings: on Saturday the bride's, next day the groom's. Of course the head of the family permitted us to make photos and invited for drink, food and dance. Moreover they wanted to found a woman for my brother too. It was the last moment to leave.

The Golik bridge is wonderful. Afternoon we visited Pogradec, Korca and the Small Prespa Lake before we finished at the Big Prespa. The two Prespas are a National Park. The small one is waterlogged, reedy, because of a stupid plan, after which they made reservoir from the lake, driving water from a river. What a pity, that with the water arrived a lot of sediment, which filled the lake.
On our last day - because Hungarians need visa to Macedonia, but we hadn't - we went thorough the whole country and via Montenegro we arrived at home next morning. I entered the European Union on my 37th birthday at the Serbian border.

My Albania trips in September 2003

This autumn, I have been to Albania twice. The first time I went there is between the periods 30th of August and 5th of September 2003, and the second time is between the periods 23rd of September and 2nd of October 2003.
I made these trips in my four-wheel drive car, so that we - me and my tourists - were able to explore and visit other remote places, as well as the conventional places. On the first trip we spent two nights at a beach, camping at Golem near Durresi. We visited the museum quarter of Kruja, where is museum of the national hero, Skanderbeg, - who unified Albanians against the Turk conquers in the XIV. century - an ethnographic museum, an old restaurant, some medieval houses and a bektashi mosque (tekke). Next we went to Tirana. The capital is a modern town, there is not too much to see. In the evening we went to Petrela, an old castle, located between Tirana and city of Elbasan. There was an asphalt road to the place, and we found that it does not lead to any romantic ruins, but rather to a new, expensive restaurant. Of course we saw only the castle.

The next day, we went to Berat, the most beautiful city in Albania. Berat is one of the museum cities of Albania, its "nickname" the city with thousand windows, because it has three old quarters with original albanian houses. In the castle was the christian quarter with some old churches, under the castle on the brae was the muslim quarter, with some mosques. As we walked in the old districts of Berat, we visited a few places of interests namely, the Museum of Onufri which housed the famous Albanian icon-painter, the museum of ethnography, a lot of old houses, and mosques.

We wanted to go to Kelcyra near Tepelena, via the mountains, but the road was blocked, so we decided to go to Tepelena instead. We reached Tepelena in the evening, after a 120 km - but 3 hours long - ride. Near Tepelena lies a small village, Benca, where we stayed in a small house-hotel called Eko-Villa. For our dinner course, we ate some fine trouts, from the river.
In the morning we explored the canyon of Benca river. It is a beautiful valley, with deep gorges and a huge Partizan monument and cemetery.

The road ended before the mountain-pass, so we returned to Tepelena. The road to Vlora at the sea was signed on the map as a first class one, but it was initially in very bad state, fortunately it later changed to a smooth and even road.Our destination was Vuno, a small village on the Albanian Riviera. The road thorough the Llogara-pass - wich divides the Adriatic and the Ionian sea - is a new one, only the roads to Llogara and from the pass are too narrow. We arrived to Vuno in the evening. My friend's cousin is building a small hotel there, so we spent the night in tents in the would be rooms of the hotel. We found some interesting animals in the hotel - a scorpion and a gekko. In the morning we were able to see the view from the hotel's balcony to Corfu and Jala, the beach at the hotel.

The Albanian Riviera is beautiful, filled with olive plantations, the small villages, the white beaches and the high mountains make an unforgettable landscape and a breathtaking sight to behold.
We visited the old town of Qeparo, the fortress of Ali Pasha Tepelena on a small peninsula in the big bay. We explored the ancient illirian city of Phoinike, which is on a hilltop between Saranda and Delvina, and the road is in such a shape that it can only be driven by four-wheel drive cars. The exploration of the ancient city just began, so we didn't see too much, only some ruins. We returned to Benca, via Gjirokastra, to eat some more trouts.
On our last day was a permanent travel to Fier - in the middle of Albania - where we visited Apollonia, the ancient roman city. Apollonia is the second biggest antique city in Albania, and there is a medieval monastery too. Before leaving the country we saw the artificial lake of Vau Dejes near Shkodra, and we eventually went home through Montenegro.

The second time our trip to Albania began with a long drive from Budapest to Shkodra, where we stayed in a hotel. Next day we visited the Rozafa castle, the shore of the Lake Shkodra, which is like a seaside. Of course we went to the sea at Velipoja, which comprises of a small lagoon, a National Park, and a long sandy beach. The first day ended with sea-bathing at our beach-camping in Golem.
The next day we visited Durres, the Museum of archaeology, where we are showed some historical records dating back from the past of this 3000 years old city. In the afternoon we went to Tirana, and we saw the sunset from the Dajti mountain above Tirana, from a height of 1,000 metres where we stand.
The third day we followed Skanderbeg, first we visited the Museum in Kruja which is built in dedication to the greatest hero of Albania. After Kruja, we drove to Kepi i Rodonit, where one of his fortresses is located. Unfortunately, the road on the seaside was forbidden to oncoming cars, so we finished our exploration at the end of the Ishim river where we found a desolate beach with some fishermen.

After leaving Golem we went to Llogara - which was in clouds - and through the Riviera. Before Vuno, I saw a sign-board of a campsite with the warning: only for high-built cars. And I thought: Yes, this is for me, we can drive through here. The road was in a very bad state, but we saw an old monastery on a hilltop. It was a very lonely place, the monastery was turned into a barrack in the communist times, but it was so empty, that nobody collected the fruits from the trees. The buildings were before the collapse, only one of the building was in a better shape, there was a small chapel. When we saw the view to the sea, we understood why the monastery was built there, and the reasons for turning it into a army observation post. The road to the camping was on the hillside, above the sea. It was so narrow that only one car can drive through. I do not know what to do, if I met another oncoming car. The campsite was at a small beach, at the end of a beautiful gorge. The campsite is very simple, with only a bathroom and a small restaurant. Everything was closed and there were only some cattle and a cat. It was calm, and beautiful, like a dream.

We spent the night at Ksamil, near Butrinti, which is an UNESCO World Heritage site. The ancient city at Lake Butrinti is a huge place, with ruins dating back from the 6th BC to 17th AD. After Butrinti, we saw Saranda where the ruins of a temple with a big mosaic, dating back from 4th AD, which may signify the presence of a synagogue.
On the road to Gjirokastra, we visited the old orthodox church of Mesopotam, and the Syri i Kalter - known also as the 'blue eye' - a huge, deep spring where begins a small river. Gjirokastra has a castle above the city, which was founded by the Illirians, and served as a prison from the turkish times till 1967. Now it is the Museum of the Arms, where a lot of artillery and an American spy-plane can be found. The rooms of the rifles were under construction. The prison is on the roof of the castle, and is closed with barbed wire, I think it wasn't touched since it was abandoned. We spent the night in Benca.
In the morning, we went on the way to Korca, via Permet. Near Permet is Benja, where some warm water springs and a bath awaits us. The bath are stone-made small pools, on the left side of the river, where we can go on an ancient turkish pedestrian bridge. The river is cold, but there are springs on the right side too, filled with warm and sulphured water, but there are no pools.

At a crossroad, I saw the Benja village, where a monastery is located. The road to the village is in a very bad shape. The monastery is 99 years old. It is a tall stone-building structure like the houses in the village. The life is very hard and tough there. There are not too much residents. Most of them already emigrated to the cities.
At Korca, we found the Hani Elbasani, a khan, which serves as a hotel. It is at the huge marketplace, where you can buy everything. The old mosque is nearby too. We spent the night in Pogradec, at the Lake Ohrid.
The next day we visited Lini, a fisher village on a peninsula, near the Macedonian border. It is famous for its narrow streets covered with vine-arbour, and the mosaics of a roman villa on the top of the hill. We returned via Elbasan to the camp in Golem, and in the afternoon we took our last sea-bath in the summer.
In 1st October, we went to Kosovo. The road goes via Kukes, the centre of West Albania. It is not a long distance, only 180 km, but the journey takes about 6 to 7 hours, because it is a narrow endless serpentine. On the road, we made a by-pass to Orosh. Orosh is a village famous for the Ismail Kadare's roman, The broken April. This was the centre of the blood feud system till 1945. There is a newly renovated catholic church on a remote mountain, a little bit far from the village.

Kukes was our last city in Albania. This is a new city, because the old one is in the valley, on the bottom of artificial lake Fierza. The town is built in a communist way. There is a huge central square at the end of the city, and a lot of block houses.
In the evening, we crossed the border to Kosovo. The situation is almost normal there 4 years after the Kosovo war, which divided this mainly albanian part from Serbia. We can go thorough the border without any permission. At Prizren, the director of the Hotel Prizren waited for us and invited us to a sightseeing and a dinner. He did it not because we were the only foreign tourist there, but he was a friend of my Albanian friend. So now, I have a Kosovan friend too.
Kosovo is calm, and the life is almost like everywhere. Only the UN cars and staff and the barracks of the foreign armies show, that there was a war. In the morning in Prishtina we saw the bazaar, where you can buy food, jewellery, smuggled cigarettes and manpower, because the unemployment is 40-50 % high. We wanted to leave for Serbia in the direction of Nish, which is on the highway between Greece and Hungary, but the Serb policeman stopped us, as we are illegal immigrants in Serbia. Because of we didn't have stamp from the Serbian authorities on the border of Albania. Of course there is no Serbian authority, but to theirs mind Kosovo is yet part of Serbia. So we returned to Kosovo, and via Peja, we went to the Montenegrin border. Near Peja, we saw some destroyed orthodox churches and Serb houses.

Our by-pass to Montenegro was a bit long, as a result, we only returned to Budapest at 3am in the morning. .

22th April and 2nd May 2003.

This was my 13th travel to Albania, but I am not superstitious. It is true, that my 4WD car was in service, but it was rather a luck. So we - two Hungarian botanist and my Polish girlfriend, Agnieszka - travelled by my small Suzuki. We start from Budapest on Eastern Monday, and next morning we were at the Albanian border at Hani i Hoti. We hadn't visa, so we had some problem with the entry. We were waiting 5 hours. We began the trip in Shkodra, where we changed money, and left to Tirana. From Lezha is built a new road, so the trip was only 2 hours long. In 2001 it needed 5 hours. In Tirana I met my friend, who helped us to get the visa and to find hotel and we went to Divjaka, where we spent 5 nights. In the National Park of Karavasta is an old workers holiday house, which is a hotel now. The rooms are partly updated - the bathroom, some furniture - but you can feel there the atmosphere of the socialist holidays. ( Of course if you are form an ex-communist country:-)

The National Park is famous of its virgin pine forest on the coast and the huge lagoons, where the pelicans live. The botanist found there a lot of rare plants and flowers. The lagoons and the forest is closed, only a part of the sandy beach is open for the tourists. The water is flat and warm from May till October. We have made two trips from Divjaka, first to Durres, which is the second largest city in Albania. There is the biggest port of the country. We visited the ancient amphiteatr, the old house of King Zogu and took a walk in the centre. We tried some Albanian cakes - bakllava, kadaif etc. Our second trip went to Elbasan, which was a famous industrial town in the communist era. It has a huge smelter, what was privatised, but only partly works, and a cement factory. The pollution is much lower than before, and the city preserved some of its communist wealth: the streets are clean and tidy, the blockhouses are well maintained. In the centre is an old wall with bastions, which encloses an old quarter. There are some old houses, churches and mosques. We stopped in Peqin too, what is a small town, with a beautiful composition of a mosque, a clocktower and high trees. Near Fier we visited the Ardenica orthodox monastery. It is situated on a hilltop, near the sea. When I visited it in 1990. it was a museum, but now it is back to the Church. On our last day in Divjaka we got a permit and explore the closed part of the Park, the lagoons near the sea and the endless sandy beach there. The water was warm enough to swim.

Our second aim was the Alpet, the high mountains of north Albania. We travelled through Tirana, where we saw its Botanic Garden. It was Sunday, so we met some brides, who made there photos and videos. This Garden is on a hill, so we could see the panorama. Tirana has a lot of newly built high building in blue, orange and other colours. We arrived to Shkodra at evening. We stayed in a hotel, and next morning we went to the mountains by a hired 4 wheel car. Its chauffeur-owner told us, that the journey to Theth will be 4 hours long. We have made 65 km in 6 hours, but didn't arrived our aim. He stopped in Bregu i Lumit, and looked for a private family home for accommodation, because there are no hotel and motel, but everybody like to have guests, because it is a honour for the family. Of course everybody would like to have us, but without the necessary conditions, and they wanted too much money. We met a man there, who have been worked abroad, and speaks English. He offered us his cousin's house, with running water bathroom. Yes, cold water from a spring through a tube. The village has a special structure: at the river, near the - unpaved - road are the service buildings: three pub and shop, the police and local government the school and the only new building: a big roman catholic church. The family houses are on the mountainside, on self-made terraces. There are no paths to the houses, we went on animal tracks, at or in streamlets.
First we drunk a beer with the local people in a pub, next we went to a hill to make a call home. There is no mobile accession in the valley, only at special places, with special antennas. Later we visited a friend of our host, on the hillside: we tramped half hour to the house. The tenants were happy to have a lot of guests. The head of the family wasn't at home, only his daughter - she has black hair and was in black, because of mourning - called Bora - snow - and his two sons - Gjoka dhe Gjergji. Later arrived home the father and the mother, and - after some hesitation - he accepted us. Of course we drank a lot of raki - a light spirit - and coffee. Later began the dinner, Bora served to the table some small plates with home made cheese, pickles, french fries, olives. After a hour we got some pasta and roasted pork, form a big salted piece, which hangs in the room. Because we drank home made wine-raki, I asked our host about his wine, and he was proud to offer us. We ate some cakes too. Bora cleaned our table, and only this time could eat his dinner, at another table, with her mum and Gjergji, who isn't married yet. After this dinner we got some yoghurt to calm our stomach. It was too late to go to the house, where we left our baggage, so we slept there. Agnieszka in the women's room upstairs, we in the dining room. The morning was beautiful, the panorama from the terrace before our house was great - the sun, the long shadows, the houses on the other mountainside and the fume in the valley. Our hosts asked us to stay there, and of course we were happy to do it.

This day we have made a walk on the road to Theth, with Agnieszka. The river valley was beautiful, there were a lot of interesting animals and plants. We didn't reach Theth, we walk only till the mountain, where is a pass. The botanist were staying in the village to play football. On the road we met them, they were in a minibus, which went to Theth. There are two roads to this beautiful places. The National Park of Theth is in a basin, between high mountains. Both roads went thorough passes, the second one is so high, that was under snow at the and of April! Our pass wasn't so high, but beautiful, because the river flows thorough a canon, and the road is narrow, between the mountain and the abyss. Of course it isn't paved, and no security accessories, no bridges so the streams run on the road. There are no word, how beautiful is Theth, the panorama, the flowers, the snowy peaks, the white trees.

Next day we wanted to hike the Biga mountain, which is 2100 m high, and not to far from our house. Gjergji guided us. I am not a hiker, so they left me at a stream. I had there a bathe, because in our house were no bathroom, only a spring in the garden. I found a place, where I could phone home, and took a sunbathe. I was waiting 5 hours, when I began to worry. I asked a local man, who had a house there, how long is the way to the top, and he told me, only two hours. I thought, when they had an accident, and wont return, what will I do there same? So I returned home. Of course I missed the way, but I found a road. When I asked a boy, which direction is mine, he told me, that I should make a huge detour. I started to go down on the road, but I met a fence. The boy followed me, and showed the way, which go round the closed part. Later he told me, that for some money he guide me to the main road. I agreed. We had a conversation about the ruins of some old buildings, and how to avoid bad people in the mountains. An hour before the darkness we reached the road at the river, where he returned, and I hurried to the village. I was a little bit afraid, I arrived to the centre in the last minutes of the daylight. In a pub the local people was very worry, why walk I alone, and where are the others. Later arrived Gjergji, because the whole family were worrying about me. He was happy to find me. Of course everybody told me, that walking alone there was irresponsibly. When we returned to the house, I saw, that our hosts and my friends were in desperate about me. At the dinner we told each other our adventures. The hikers had a very dangerous trip, because there are no paths to the top, and it was snowy. Gjergji didn't know the way, and they had some almost-accident. They were frightened, because in the case of emergency, there wouldn't had any help.

Next day we went with the van of our host to Shkodra. Before the start we met the only employee of the National Park of Theth, who went with us to Shkodra. The trip was longer and more tiring than with the four wheel car. In the city we made some shopping, and after a short night returned home, through Montenegro and Serbia. We started at 6 o clock from Albania and 14 hours later we were at the Hungarian border

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