From Shkodra to Permet 16th September

Travelling from Shkodra to Permet

Wednesday 16th September

We decided to lash out and pay Jon (our original Albanian driver who picked us up from Tirane airport) to drive us from Shkoder to Permet, otherwise we would have needed to catch 3 different buses, and we may not have made the entire trip in one day.

We put our clothes in to the hotel to get washed yesterday afternoon (5€) but, there was a little mishap with the washing, Patrick's clothes were eventually found this morning, washed, but not dried! We packed them up wet and hopefully we'll be able to dry them when we arrive in Permet.

Our last delicious, relaxing breakfast at Hotel Tradita.

We left about 9:30 am, after withdrawing some more Leke at Shkodra.

Jon was chatting in the car and said that the Komani ferry has stopped operating from yesterday due to the low lake water levels, it's a man made lake and there are a couple of old villages that were covered under the water when the dam was created, and now it's too dangerous for the ferry to run in case it hits some of the ruins. Lucky we went up the Komani Lake a few days ago!

Chatting about the cost of living and finances, apparently it's more expensive to fly into Tirane as the airport is leased by a German company that charges a lot for refuelling and travelling through the airspace.

Getting close to Permet.

Arrived Permet, at Hotel Alvero 2:45 pm. Great driving Jon! The last 25 km was along some rougher rural roads. Almost 6 hours driving, the majority along a fairly new (about 4 yrs old) motorway..

35 deg outside on arrival! Dry heat, so not too bad. Patrick's wet washing dried quickly! Way hotter here than I was expecting for Autumn and mid September!

The hotel Alvero is new, clean and modern, very different to our last hotel! It overlooks the river Vjosa and the village square.

Late lunch at Restaurant Antigonea, opposite hotel Alvero, it was very good!

Farmers salad, dolmass and Pilaf for lunch.

Sparkling water 70 leke

Tirane beer 500ml 200 leke

Farmers salad- tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, onions, olives, cheese 300 leke

Dollma- stuffed vine leaves with rice and local herbs 200 leke

Rice Pilaf with ,kime' minced meat, local herbs, tomatoes sauce 200 leke.

Once the sun started to go down we walked up to "the Rock" just near Permet. There was a watchtower up there years ago, now just the remains of some rock walls.

Beautiful bulbs flowering.

View of Permet and Vjose River from the top of the rock.

Looking away from Permet, olive groves, grape vines and crops.

The lovely river Vjose and bridge.

We met with Cimi, our guide for our Permet - Zagoria trek this evening at the hotel to finalise plans for the trek starting tomorrow. Endrit, from Zbulo was also there, great to meet them both and get organised. We've arranged to leave one bag here at the hotel so there is less weight, Patrick has volunteered to carry a big pack, so I will just have my day pack and water. Lucky me! We'll meet at 7 am for breakfast and depart for the starting point of the trek at 7:30 am

The Vjosë river forms a canyon called the Kelcyra Gorge

There is a local Slow Food movement here -Gliko is a specialist preserve created locally http://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/slow-food-presidia/permet-gliko/

Leaving Hotel Tradita, Shkoder 9 am 

100€ transport in car for both of us

Accommodation:

Hotel Alvero

30 € with breakfast

Piazza Abdyl Frashëri, Përmet - Albania

Tel: 0813 23 514

Cel: 068 20 81 334

       068 23 39 508

e-mail: vnikolla@yahoo.fr 

Leaving the Accursed Mountains And Theth 15th September

Leaving the Accursed Mountains and Theth

Tuesday 15th September

A lovely breakfast of bread, local preserves and honey! There are some large, very persistent bees keen to share our breakfast too!

The Theth church ahead, unfortunately we didn't have enough time to visit it.

Walking towards the Kulla, lock up tower. Traditional way of life -  and modern mobile phone technology side by side!

Theth Kulla

When men were embroiled in a feud, they'd be locked up the top of the tower, pull up the ladders and stay there until a solution was negotiated by their families.

Patrick contemplating the error of his ways in the naughty corner... 

We continued along the path towards the Grunas waterfall, mostly well marked with red and white painted way marks.

The path is very pretty, some of it wanders alongside irrigation channels

After about 25 minutes walk from the Kulla, we found Grunas waterfall, it's gorgeous!

A photo from the opposite side of the falls

Crystal clear water at the base of the falls.

Delicate flowers growing beside the irrigation channels, the water is incredibly clear!

Happy pigs

The river

I would have loved to keep on walking and exploring, but we had to head back to the guesthouse to catch the 4wd bus back to Shkoder by 1 pm.

What a journey up to the top of the Pass back to Shkoder, all gravel, very steep and narrow! There was a group of off road bikes coming down, one of them nearly ran into us!

Somehow we squeezed pass this car.

It's a long way down, and we're always very close to the edge! Somehow Patrick managed to read his book, I was mesmerised by the vistas and kept one eye on the road!

We stopped for a break at the top of the pass, thankfully our driver is excellent, and cautious.

Photo opportunity at the top of the pass.

Shortly after we start to descent towards Shkodra, the road is new and very smooth!

Still very steep, mostly one lane and winding corners.

We arrive back into Shkoder and the hotel Tradita- Our trusty bus and driver!

Accommodation:

Hotel Tradita again! We love it!

And, lucky us, we were upgraded to the suite! Amazing original ceiling timber panelling, fireplace and traditional furnishings!

A very quirky fireplace!

Albanian Adventures! 10th & 11th September Shkodra

Albanian Adventures!

10th & 11th September Shkodra

We arrive in Tirana, the capital of Albania on a flight from Rome, only about 1 1/2 hours. Tirana is a small, compact airport, getting bags and going through customs doesn't take long. Transport is pretty interesting in Albania, and I couldn't really find much information about late afternoon buses from Tirane to Shkodra, we're not sure we'll be able to catch a bus. So we decided to prebook a transfer from the airport to our first destination in Albania, Shkodra. Jon met us at the airport with our names on a sign. It was a great, easy start to our Albanian adventure, Jon's English is excellent and we were able to chat about Albania, our travel plans and get some useful and interesting information and insight into Albanian life. 

We're staying at  Hotel Tradita  transfer is 50 Euro from the airport, about 1 hr 15 minutes drive.

Love this place as soon as we step,out of the car!

Relaxing courtyard, lovely old bits and pieces, and original artefacts everywhere give the hotel a beautiful feeling.

All the food and produce is sourced from local villages and cooked as ordered! The amazing fireplace is both for cooking, and heating the water.

Below is a guest blog post from Patrick, outlining the intricacies of the amazing fireplace!

Arriving at the accommodation in Shkoder after a quick flight from Rome to Tirane, and a one hour taxi ride with Jon we were led to the entrance of a wonderful rock building. 
Shown to our room we scrubbed up ready for dinner. 
A couple of refreshing beers in the courtyard and then into the dining hall. 
The hall is about 20 metres long by 5 metres wide. At one end was a large open fire. A guy was standing there cooking at the fire. Having built a number of cooking fire spaces over the years I wanted to see how it was constructed. 
I walked over and was peering underneath the hearth which was about 1 metre off the floor. The cook and I had a conversation about the construction. 
The fire was about 2 metres across about 1 metre deep and there was a metal hood overhead to direct the smoke up a brick chimney. 
The base of the fire was concrete about 20cm thick. Cook them informed me that the base of the fire had copper piping running through it. He then led me to the side of the fire where a thermostat controller was fixed to the wall.  The fire apparently provides the whole of the hotel with hot water with the controller sensing temperature and adding any extra heat when required. The water is pumped through the slab and through networks of piping. In winter the fire goes constantly with a large storage pit for wood directly underneath. 
Around the walls of this dining space we could see behind the seating and next to the walls arrays of copper pipe like radiators. The heat from the pipes is transferred into the walls to keep the room warm. 
Apparently this process can also be reversed in summer with the heat being released through the pipework up the chimney. 
We also saw a handy little cooking tray made of two wire racks that were joined in reverse making a sort of waffle iron but meshed. The cooking space in this tray was about 40cm square. Pieces of marinated vegetables and meat were placed into this tray and the cook just kept turning it directly on hot coals. 
Needless to say the food was great, mixed with cold beers.

(Thanks Patrick, well done... Perhaps I may invite him to write another guest blog😉:) 

We enjoyed some live traditional music!

 

Friday 11th September

We spent about half hour in the vodafone shop, after handing over our passport, and signing documents, we were in possession of a SIM card, and data card 1300 leke for a month- SIM card for Patrick's phone and a data card for my iPad. 

We wandered through the centre of Shkodra, lots of bicycles, small bikes and locals shopping and mingling, nice atmosphere. 

Not sure where the ladies stop off for a coffee and chat, seems all the cafes are full of men! 

We walked up to Rozafa castle, about an hours walk from the centre of town

It's located on a very commanding position overlooking the lake and rivers, beautiful 360deg views!

Kalaja/Rozafa Fortress, (2km southwest of Shkodra, near the southern end of Lake Shkodra),Founded by the Illyrians, rebuilt by the Venitians and the Ottomans. Legend has it that Rozafa is a woman buried in the ramparts, who sacrificed herself to stop the walls from collapsing, the museum has fascinating displays arranged in chronological order.

Love these lights! The two headed eagle is the Albanian symbol, representing courage, bravery and valour.

Quite a few scary looking weapons on display!

I experienced my first Albanian squat toilet- luckily I had tissues on hand - no toilet paper 

We bought an espresso coffee at the castle kiosk, just as we were served the power went out, we sat in the dark inside the castle sipping our espresso, 5 minutes later the power came back on again.

Lunch back at hotel tradita.Delicious local tomato salad with olive oil and local vinegar made from blackberries! 

After lunch, we decide to use the hotels bicycles and cycle North to the Mes Ottoman bridge and viaduct at Mes, a village a few kilometers north of Shkodra. Called Ura e Mesit.

The famous Ottoman bridge – Ura e Mesit means „bridge in the middle“ – spans the Kir river and was built in around 1770 by Kara Mahmud Bushati, the local Ottoman pasha. Ura e Mesit is 108 m long, 3 m wide and it has 13 arches, of which the main span measures 22 m. It represents one of the longest and best preserved Ottoman bridges in the region. Ura e Mesit was built along the ancient trade road from Shkodra to Kosovo, which dates back to pre-Roman times. Much of the original route disappeared below the waters of the Drini valley dams, but in Mes you can still see how important this bridge has been, although the route was only a few meters wide.

We cycled in a circuit, and on the way back to Shkodra the cycling was lovely and rural, we came across cows, goats, lovely little farms... The whole cycling adventure was easy flat cycling, probably about 12 km round trip.

corn stacks

A lovely froendly farmer

The goats and cows were wearing bells, sounded beautiful!

The old historical centre of Shkodra has some lovely Ottoman style houses. 

As we cycled along the pedestrian mall, the mezuin started the call to prayer from the mosque at the end, such a beautiful sound!

Accommodation: Hotel Tradita 
http://www.hoteltradita.com/ 
2 nights 56 Euro per night including breakfast and bicycle :)

Hotel Tradita Geg & Tosk

L.Ndoc Mazi, Rr.Edith Durham, Nr.4 
Shkodër, Albania
Tel: +35522809683

Mobile: +355682086056 +355686263770 
web: www.hoteltradita.com 
e-mail: info@traditagt.com