Travels in Albania (2013)
Tirana
Entering Albania, we began looking for World War II bunkers – we were told that Albania was full of them. Well, it turned out that on this itinerary – there weren’t that many. The road from the boundary was mountains – we were coming down steeply.
After some time, we reached Elbasan – a town with about 70,000/80,000 inhabitants, with remains of a castle and castle walls, some of which we saw from the road. Previously, it was called Neokastron (New Castle) in Greek, Novigrad (New Town) in Slavonic. Started as a Roman trading settlement, near the very important Via Egnatia, the town grew fast into a real Roman city with walls and fortresses. Then, later, it helped spread Christianity down the Via Egnatia. However, it appears that the town was abandoned after many attacks of moving and warring populations through this area and was only restored after the Ottomans took over the Balkans and build a military camp here. After the independence of Albania, the first Teachers’ Training College was established in this town.
As we progressed on the road, I was perusing the various travel books we had in the car to learn something about the history of Tirana – it turns out that it was built on Illyrian land, with a few Roman and Byzantine remains still present (Roman house, temple, a castle form Justinian’s time, etc.). During Skanderbeg’s time it was only a small village and at the beginning of 15th century, there were about 7,000 inhabitants in the area, settled in 60 villages. The city of Tirana was only established at the beginning of the 17th century by the local Ottoman ruler, who built a mosque, a bazar and a Hamam in the middle, thus uniting the settlements together. The first Christians to settle there were the Vlachs, in the 1800-ies, but then later, other Christians followed them.
By now, we were travelling to Tirana on the brand new motorway, still being completed. After some time, we entered a new tunnel – 3.4 km long and sparkling – one of the best we’d seen. We moved back to the old road – obviously, some parts of the motorway were being finished, then on the motorway again, until we reached Tirana.
We entered Tirana, having decided to stop and have lunch there and look around for several hours with the trepidation of entering an unknown quantity. As we were driving towards the centre, we noticed that yhe city did not have the provincial, oriental look, which we expected. In the distance, we saw a mosque, here and there; a 
church, here and there (40% of the population of Albania are Christians) and the more we approached the centre, the more modern the architecture of the buildings became. Finally, we reached the main square, where the Parliament was and behind the old Mosque, we saw a parking. We started approaching slowly, while arguments brew in the car. We saw a policeman standing in front of it and some of us did not think he would allow us to park there, but on the other hand his body language was not negative, so we decided to proceed slowly. Seeing that we were hesitating – to our great amazement, he beckoned us in and pointed to a place.
We stopped and got off. I asked in Serbo/Bulgaro/Macedono/Slavic – “Един час?” (One Hour?). He replied – “Може, може!“ (Yes, you can!). I gave him my best smile and asked „Два часа?“ (Two hours?). He answered with an equally large smile – „Може, може“ – (You can, you can.). There was no mention of money for the parking and we quickly departed with our bags and cameras towards the main square.
We found ourselves on Skanderbeg square, which was enormous. A vast area in front of the Parliament was covered in grass; in the middle of which was a monument of the man himself on a horse. I later learned, that the Parliament building, which initially was used as an officers’ club, during the monarchy of Zog I was turned into a children’s theatre. The Soviet-style built Palace of Culture, had a large, but beautiful communist looking mosaic, with people dancing happily, which glittered on the sum – the weather was over 40C!.
We saw a modern 5 star hotel in the centre and went in to have a drink. On the terrace, looking at the people walking by, we could not but reflect on that fact that there was not a sign of head scarves, long trousers and overcoats, which the women in Macedonia were wearing – all were dressed in casual European fashions. What was more, we were pleased to notice how beautiful the women were!
We carried on walking around the centre in search of a suitable meal in a restaurant. After lunch, we carried on walking on the nearby streets, until the time, when we went back to the mosque and our parking.
We stopped to look at the central Mosque – which was completed in 1821 and looked beautiful and well preserved. We could not enter inside, but the outside had lovely muralsq, which attracted the eye. I remembered the interesting fact that when Bektashism (the Dervish order) was banned from Turkey in 1925, they decided to make Tirana their centre.
We went to our car, expecting to pay for the parking, but no – no money was required. The same policeman asked where we were going and took the two men to show them where to turn ahead, drew a map of Tianna of some sort and explained which roads we needed to take further. We got in the car and left the centre.
As we were leaving this city with a population of half a million and looking at the new and old buildings, I remembered that I had read some time ago an article in a British magazine about the former Mayor of Tirana Edi Rama, who was voted in 2000 and who proceeded to demolish all illegal buildings around the city centre and on Lana River banks, with the view of regenerating the area. He also had a bright idea to order the painting of a large number of the façades of Tirana’s buildings in bright colours. We did pass through bright and colourful oldish looking buildings, but also observed that many new ones were being built.
I continued to look up the history of the city. In 1912 Albania got its independence and shortly after that – in 1920, when it was proclaimed to be the capital of Albania, a number of Austrian, Italian and Albanian architects were commissioned to design attractive buildings for the new capital. In September 1928, Zog I was proclaimed as a King of the country. But in 1938, the country was taken over by the Fascists – a puppet Government was elected. Then in 1941/2 a joint meeting united the three separate Communist organisations into the Albanian Communist Party, with Enver Hoxha as a permanent leader.
In November 1944 the Communists won the battle with Germany and took power. In 1955 they joined the Warsaw Pact, but in 1961, they broke relations with Russia and decided to follow the Chinese model of Communism. China now provided 90% of the outside help needed by Albania. In 1962 the Soviets and East Europeans withdrew from the country and an austerity programme was introduced. They left the Warsaw Pact after the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 – they considered the USSR to be too liberal! 
Everything deteriorated and Albania became a country, cut off from the rest of the world. The railway lines and the roads finished at the boundaries. During this period, Albania went against religion, white-collar-workers, liberal writers and isolated itself from Europe in order to stop European influences coming in. It had links with and embassies in few countries in the world – China, Bulgaria, France and another one or two countries. Car and flat ownerships were forbidden, let alone business ownership! The country fell into great poverty. This allowed for the development of the Albanian Mafia, which until this day is an important player in Italy.
The relations with China deteriorated after 1970, but Albania turned again to her neighbours – Yugoslavia and Greece. In 1983, Enver Hoxha went into semi-retirement and died in 1985. In 1990, large demonstrations of students from Tirana University brought communism down. Albania accepted a western style life and private ownership. In 1992, the Democratic Party won the elections, but the Government collapsed in 1997, brought down by the people’s rebellion against the wide-spread corruption and the failure of many pyramid schemes, popular at the time.
But, not a trace of all this could be found in 2013. Our car was sliding effortlessly towards our next destination the town of Durres. Here and there on the road, in the villages and towns, large oleander bushes flowered in different colours – a joy to the eye!
Durres
Durres was one of the reasons for this trip – or my interest in the Bulgarian Tsar Samuil, who won the city in the Middle Ages.
Now, Durres is the second largest, the most ancient and economically strongest city in Albania. It has a population of over 110,000 inhabitants and sea transport links with the Bari and Brindizi in Italy.
Durres was founded in the 7th century by Greek colonists and has been inhabited for 2,700 years to the present day. Its Greek name Dyrrhachion was explained by its rocky coast line. It has also been known by its Italian name – Durrazo and Albanian one – Durres. The Bulgarians and the Serbians, who owned it, called it Драч.
Entering the city, we were again quite taken by the lovely oleanders, which we noticed growing almost wild, in the worst possible earth everywhere. We made our way to the hotel, which was close to the sea in the centre and left the luggage, washed up and went out. The afternoon was bright and the day – with a bit of luck would get a bit cooler.
We made our ways to the gre
atest gem of the town – its Amphitheatre. Being the only tourists at the time, we attracted the attention of the guide, who gave us a lecture and took us around.
An important city in Illyria for a long time, Durres was taken over by the Romans and soon became a travelling post on Via Egnatia and a major navel and military base for the Romans. The prosperity if the city was justified with its position on this important travel route between the sea and Thessalonica and Constantinople. Later, it became a colony of Roman veterans. After a powerful earthquake, which destroyed most of the fortifications, the Roman emperor Anastasius I (who was born there) rebuilt them to become one of the strongest on the Adriatic coast.
The amphitheatre, built in the 2 century AD appears to be the largest one on the Balkans, measuring 126X73X20 meters, with seats of over 20,000 spectators. Not all of it was excavated – may be 1/2 only, but plans were afoot to move the people, whose houses were built on top of it and resettle them, so that more of it could be revealed. It apparently is in the process of consideration to be added on UNESCO‘s list of World Heritage Sites. We walked in the passages under the seats and explored the corridors and the different entrances to the seating area.
When the Byzantine Empire originated from the split of the Roman Empire into an Eastern and Western Roman Empire, the city fell into the Eastern part and continued its existence. Under the amphitheatre, we came to a small chapel under the seating area, built and decorated in the 6th century AD, with mosaic depictions of St Asti – a martyr and the first bishop o
f Durres. On the perpendicular wall there were mosaic images of angels, St Sophia and Empress Irina Comnina. Beautiful, but damaged images!!
We then walked around the central area of the town – near the sea, where most of the city walls were – some of them – up to 8 metres high! How many battles had they seen?
The Bulgarian Tsar Simeon the Great attempted to take Durres over several times, but unsuccessfully. It was not until the time of the Bulgarian Tsar Samuil, that Durres became Bulgarian – in 989. In 996 Samuel defeated the Byzantines in the battle for Thessalonica, killed its leader Gregorios Tarronites and captured his son Ashot –both princes of Armenian descent. Ashot was exiled in the capital Prespa. In 997 the B
ulgarian Tsar Roman died in captivity in Constantinople and Samuil became Tsar of Bulgaria. As he was not recognised by Byzantium, he sought recognition from the Pope (Gregory Vth) and it is now assumed that he receive his crown from him.
However, according to the writings of a Priest form Djuklya (Bar), in the palace in Prespa, Samuel’s daughter Miroslava fell in love with Prince Ashot and demanded that she was allowed to marry him. At the same time, her sister – Theodora Kosara, was getting married to another captive prince – Ivan Vladimir. Ashot was made Governor of Durres, and he departed with his wife for the city, where they had relatives – Miroslava’s grandfather John Chryselios and the family of her mother still lived there.
So, in 1005, Miroslava and Ashot boarded a ship for Constantinople and appeared in front of the Byzantine Emperor with a letter from John Chryselios, promising that he would surrender the city to him, against patrician titles for his family. However, now, historians are beginning to think that this may have happened in 1015 – at the end of the Bulgarian Kingdom. Miroslava and Ashot received their titles and produced a generation of generals, politicians and administrators for the Byzantine Empire.
We decided to turn our back to the sea and walk into the town. Shops appear to open late in the afternoon and stay open until late at night. We saw the theatre building and understood that there was a puppet theatre, a philharmonic orchestra and several museums in the city. The centre was quite lively, full of people milling around and flowering oleander bushes again.
We decided to stop and have fish in a restaurant near the sea. The local wine and the fish were exceptionally good and modestly priced. After supper, we thought of having a walk in the seaside park, but were put off by the vast throngs of people with children and dogs, blockings the park’s arteries and decided to postpone our walk till the morning. In the hotel, I decided to look up further information of Durres on the internet.
It appeared that after 1205, the city came under Venetian ownership/rule, followed by that of several other rulers, until in 1273 a powerful earthquake demolished it.
Early in the 14th century, the city was taken over by the Serbs and remained in their possession until 1350. Since the 13 century, there had been both Catholic and Orthodox Bishoprics in Durres. After the death of the greatest Serbian Tsar Stephan Dushan, the city fell into the possession of the Albanian family Thopias, who retained it until 1392, when Venice again gained control over it. The Venetian Tower – part of the Durres castle, which we photographed earlier, was obviously a remain from this time. Finally, it fell to the Ottomans in 1501.
On the next morning after breakfast, we departed on towards the seas-side park. The area by the sea is now being developed and many new apartment blocks are being built, facing it. There were numerous coffee shops and little restaurants, children’s play-areas, etc. We sat on some wooden grids– no sand beach as we expected, and watched Chris, who rolled up his trousers and paddled in the water, attracted by its cleanness and the multitude of little fishes swimming in it.
In a coffee shop, we chatted to local people, who told us that after communism collapsed here, the port of Durres was used by people to hijack ships at gunpoint and order them to sail to Italy. Rumour stated that in 
the month of August 1991, over 20,000 people emigrated to Italy in this fashion. Later on Italy and the EU intervened with food programmes and other peace-keeping measures to try and vent the stream of migrants to the west.
They also boasted about the new cruise terminal in Durres, which would increase the number of tourists further. The beaches, which we did not see, were apparently very popular in the summer with the tourists from Tirana and also, many Italians came here too. They also pointed at a pink building on top of a hill, suggesting that this used to be a royal villa, used in communism by Ever Hoxha.
We concluded our walk as
the day was heating up and thought we should continue on our route. As we were getting in the car, I suddenly remembered, that somewhere I had seen that this was the birthplace of John Kukuzelis – Йоан Кукузел – the famous medieval composer.
We now drive out of the town, again passing by both churches and mosques. Passed the market and discussed the river banks, bull of rubbish. Then we got on the motorway and on the way to the next port of call – Shkodra.
Rozafa Castle
On the road, we were stopped by a policeman. S. opened the window on the driver’s side and was asked whether he know what speed he was travelling with. S. began to hum, admitting, that he was not very sure, but did not think it was very high. The policeman wrote in the dust of his mirror -58, when we could only do 40! S began apologising with concern, saying he had not noticed the speed limit. The Traffic cop put his hand on his shoulder and said:
– In the future, make sure you travel safely, within the speed allowed. Have a good trip!
We departed, greatly relieved and in less than two hours we reached a steep hill with a castle on top. In our travel books it was called Rozafa Castle. It is very close to Shkodra, 130 meters high, surrounded by the rivers Boyana and Drina.
We parked the car at the car park – up on a steep hill and proceeded on foot at about 11 am in the hot sun. The higher we got, the more often we stopped for a breath, but were rewarded by the fantastic views – better the higher we got. From the very top, there were views to both rivers, meandering, the Shkodra lake – the largest on the Balkans, and the city of Shkodra. It was easy to see from above, that the town was not on the banks of the lake!
The hill was occupied by fortifications from Illyrian times, the Romans also used it. The pre
sent fortifications were of Venetian origins and had witnessed many a battle and siege. However, legend (the Serbian epic poem the Building of Skadar), links the building of the castle with the much later period – the lat
e Middle Ages – the time of the Ottoman attacks over the Balkans and the three brothers from the House of Mrnjavich – Vulkashin, Uglesha and Goyko.
The three brothers were building this castle together, but what they built during the day, fell down at night – expected on such a hill, I’d say! An old man told them that the walls will stay put if they sacrificed someone and built them in. They were wondering who to use, and finally agreed that whichev
er wife brought them food on the next day, she will be sacrificed. They also agreed not to tell their wives about the arrangement.
The older two brothers – Vulkashin and Uglesha told their wives in the evening about the agreement, but Goyko did not. So no surprise there – Goyko’s wife Rozafa appeared with food and was told about the agreement of the three brothers. She did not object, but was concerned about her baby son and suggested that she would do it, if they allowed her right breast exposed, so that she could feed her so
n, her right eye open, so she could see him, her right hand – to caress him and her right foot – to rock her cradle. The poem obviously emphasizes the predestination, the life sacrifice of the young woman and the faithfulness and honesty of the youngest brother Goyko. We all thought – what a sad story! The three brothers all died fighting the Ottoman invaders and they and Vulkashin’s son Marko are very popular heroes of the folk epics in the Balkans.
Very few people were walking in the castle, but it was getting quite hot and we decided to continue to Shkodra.
Shkoder/Shkodra
Shkodra (Scutari in L
atin) is another one of the oldest and most important historical cities in Albania. It is situated at the most north-western part of the country, close to the largest lake in the Balkans – the Shkodra lake.
We arrived there close to lunch time and were impressed by the view of the town as we approached it. We found our hotel – Тradita – https://www.booking.com/hotel/al/traditageg-amp-tosk.en-gb.html?aid=311984;label=traditageg-amp-tosk-e_VqAaRhgRg0jTxAssdEJwS23734528993%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3Aap1t1%3Aneg;sid=d08b8c8f2120b709a2c0f3c7fd628d0a;dcid=1;srfid=191d57ef9f019c9323b33c30ca6904d6eed005d5X1;hide_back_to_sr=1, which appeared to be a whole complex of beautiful old and new buildings around a large courtyard. The rooms were also furnished in old Balkan style – spacious and very attractive. We had lunch in the yard and then after a short rest, we went out to look at the town centre.
Initially known as a capital of the Illyrian kingdom, Shkodra was taken by the Romans during the 2 century AD. Then, it fell into the hands of Byzantium and in the early 7th century, the Emperor Heraclius gave the land of the Western Balkans to the incoming Slav tribes. Shkodra became part of the principality of Duklja.
The Bulgarian Tsar Samuil, who by then had already taken Thessaly, Macedonia, Epirus and most of Albania, invaded Duklja. Its ruler – Ivan Vladimir initially retreated to a high mountain but eventually capitulated. He was taken prisoner and sent the Samuil’s palace in Prespa. There, Samuil’s daughter Theodora-Kosara fell in love with him and under pressure, her father agreed to their marriage. So, the enemy was turned into a cherished relative and sent back to Duklja with his wife and uncle to rule the Principality.
Those events were a small snapshot on the background of the epic wars, taking place between Basil II of Byzantium and Samuil of Bulgaria. Sometime later, after Samuil’s death and that of his son – Gavril Radomir, Ivan Vladislav took the Bulgarian throne. He was concerned about the popularity of Ivan Vladimir and demanded to meet him. Ivan Vladimir and his wife knew the outcome and resisted as much as they could, but finally, Ivan Vladimir went to the Bulgarian tsar and m
et his death. Miracles happened at his grave and he became saint, celebrated by all Balkan Christians.
Our first impressions from the central streets were very favourable – beautifully restored 19-century houses in Austrian style, painted in a tasteful combinations of colours, dominated the view. We passed by the large Catholic Seminary. Plenitude of bougainvillea and oleanders everywhere, adding even more colour to the streets. No beggars, well-dressed people and again many extremely beautiful women – many blond.
On one side, we could see a large and beautiful church, with many windows, on the other – a mosque. The central street was pedestrianized, with many umbrellas and places to sit down in. We had a drink in a stylish 5 star hotel Coliseo, then inspected an impressive fresh fish shop, which we passed by. One thing that we noticed was the lack of shops, selling Albanian goods for tourists – maybe there were not that many yet?
The ownership of the town went through Dukja and Zeta and came into Serbian hands and in the 1330, Stefan Dechanski appointed his son Stefan (who would later acquire the nickname Dushan for ordering the strangulation of his father later: душа= strangle) as Governor of Zeta Province and its seat Shkodra. But then father and son quarrelled and fought each other. This resulted in Dechanski demolishing Dushan’s residence in Shkodra. The two made peace, but shortly after this, the son had his father strangled.
After Dushan’s death, during the disintegration of the Serbian Kingdom, Shkodra fell into the hands of the Balshic family. Not long after this, they handed it to Venice in order to prevent it being appropriated by the Ottomans. But they only delayed the inevitable – by the 1485, after a siege by Mehmed the Conqueror, Shkodra became Ottoman. The citizens were allowed to leave the city unharmed.
Due to its position, Shkodra retained its importance during the Ottoman occupation, becoming a large trade and shopping centre. In the 19th century it had a large Catholic library collection and the first newspaper in Albania came out here. In 1913, Shkodra was given by Montenegro, who owned it then, to the new country of Albania. In the 1990ies, Shkodra was part of the democratic movement, which brought communists down. Its regeneration started in the year 2000.
We decided we wanted to eat some Turkish sweets – saralii, etc, and went looking for them in the shops. But alas – everything was Italian – cakes, ice-creams, drinks, pizza, pastas, fashions – they obviously looked west, not east! It was impressive to see how very clean the whole town was– gardens, attractive water features, streets, etc.
The evening was approaching – we decided to return to our hotel and to eat in the restaurant there. The owner appeared to speak Italian and English – there were several tables of Italian guests. Staff were courteous and spoke English – the food was excellent. We went to bed with the feeling of having had a superb day! No disappointments yet!
On the next morning, after a rich and nutritious breakfast, we started out on our trip to Bar – the old capital of Duklja – now in Montenegro.