Travels with Kathryn

This morning (Monday), we crossed the border back into Albania – still no stamp, so I will never know what it looks like (sigh). I did, however, remember to take some photos to demonstrate the loveliness of Albania:

Our final stop on the tour is the small hilltop town of Kruje. This is the most visited town in the whole of Albania, so my expectations were high. As well as being beautiful (which it is), it is famous for its fortress castle, 17th century bazaar, and the Skanderbeg Museum.

We started by climbing up to the fortress (see above) to visit the Skanderbeg Museum. I wrote briefly about him after my Tirana tour, but having travelled a little throughout this region his statute really is everwhere (he has the most of any individual across Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo) and this was my opportunity to make sure I really did appreciate just how important he was.

So, as we already know Skanderbeg was born in Albania but taken as a hostage by the Ottomans, served in the Orttoman army, but then deserted and brought together Albanian principlaities (in the League of Lezhe) and spent the next 25 years resisting the Ottomans. It was only on his death that the League of Lezhe failed to hold, and his family fled to the Callabria region of Italy, where they still live today. The museum gives a history of Skanderbeg’s life, focusing on the League of Lezhe and then what happened to his family after Skanderbeg’s death. What was particularly interesting is that the museum opened in 1982 during Communist times and therefore labelling is only in Albanian (as no foreigners were allowed!) and there is nothing actually original in it – its all replicas, murals, a record of the number of books written about him, and everywhere internationally where statutes of him have been errected (including Geneva and London?).

The museum does also give a beautiful view across Albania (you should just be able to see the sea):

Back on the road, and back to Tirana where I said goodbye to Daniel and checked back into the same hotel – although I rejected the same room as I know from experience how dreadful that mattress is, and my new room so much nicer including a nice firm double bed! I have done laundry and am now ready for a lie-in tomorrow.

Yesterday, I did indeed have my lie-in, rocking up to breakfast just before it finished. My plan for today was to visit the sites I missed on my previous trip to Tirana, in particular the Grand Park of Tirana. So, the park may not be “grand,” but it certainly is big (289 hectares including a 55 hectare artificial lake). The park was created between 1955 and 1956 and contains 120 species of trees, bushes, and flowers. I thought it was a rather nice place to walk on a nice sunny day, but various construction projects (including a new ring road) are set to drastically reduce its size, so it was good to enjoy it while it is still here!

I then waddled back to my hotel before having an early night as I knew I had an early bus this morning.

This morning I caught a cab to the bus terminal in the TORRENTIAL rain, I am not sure the photograph below quite captures it, but I had only actually been exposed for about 2 minutes and this was before I had to wade through ankle deep water to actually borad the bus. It was also abundantly clear that the bus driver was not enjoying his life as he proceded to get more and more angry with all the foreigners who did not we had to pay a 2 euro baggage charge for every hold bag (euros not being the currency of Albania). Anyway, luckily, I had the change and proceeded to assist others on the bus who needed it – I felt this was my good deed for the day.

The rain did eventually ease off and was only very light when we reached the border. Obviously, there was no exit stamp, but Montenegro did stamp me on entry – albiet very lightly. We arrived at Podgorica only slightly behind time (it has taken some time to get out of Tirana). Podgorica is the capital and largest city of Montenegro, and let us be blunt, not very attractive. During Ottoman times, Podgorica had a large fortress, but it was never an important city for the empire, and it continued to decline after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. During WW2, the city was heavily bombed – Yugoslavia’s coup d’etat led to the country turning against the Axis powers who subsequsequently dropped 80 bombs on Podgorica and invaded. After the war, Tito promised the city would be rebuilt, and it has in classic Brutalist style, i.e. there are many, many, many apartment blocks… I have attempted to photograph some of the non-Communist sites:

The highest recommended attraction is the Cathedral Church of Christ’s Resurrection, which is a bit of a way out of the city centre, but I am glad I made the effort. It is an Orthdox church built in 1993, and the interior is completely covered (all 6,200 square metres of it) in gold icons. It really is something to behold.

However, as I walked back to my hotel, I did reflect on the fact that here we have a brand new and obviously very expensive church, in a city and country that is struggling financially. This is something I have seen across the Balkans – huge, brand new, religious buildings (both Christian and Muslim) in countries where maybe a school or hospital, or even better infrastructures would be more appreciated. I do realise that the money comes from different places, but perhaps religious institutions could use their charity in a more useful way…

Anyway, far be it from me to judge. I ambled back to the hotel and formulated my plan for a scenic railway journey to Bar tomorrow – wish me luck!

PS: You may have noticed that I have updated the homepage because I am now (drumroll, please) fully planned! Whoop! So, if anyone would like to join me, who isn’t already signed up, please just let me know. Stage 5, in particular, is very available.