Crossroads to the Adriatic - Tirana - First day, 15 Apr 2023

 

Crossroads to the Adriatic - Tirana, Albania

Flight & Tours by Locals Bovilla Lake & Kruje City Visit - 

15, 16 Apr 2023

Since our flight to Tirana was not until 3:30pm out of the Munich Airport, we got to sleep in a bit - had breakfast about 9:30am.  We sat with Randy & Marie and Dave & Nicole.  Birget & Martin were right beside us.  We had a leisurely breakfast - saying good byes to everyone as they departed the breakfast room  Finished our packing & back down by 11am.  Said a final good bye to Klaus & Evi and then in the car with Martin & Birgit.  Easy drive back to Munich.  Saw lots of deer and a flock of Mute Swans!  Saw a pheasant right at the airport!  Decided at the last minute to check my red carry on bag too.  Just as well because the Security line was a mess - machine was broken & it took forever.  Found a place to sit & have a beer.  Flight was delayed a half hour, but finally took off.  Front of plane was empty, so we had our 3 row to ourselves.  Beautiful scenery enroute.  Never expected it to be so gorgeous.  Both green taking off & the gorgeous Adriatic Coastline & then the Alps!!  Kept me mesmerized!  They brought stairs to deplane & the weather was amazing.  70's & clear.  The airport was small, but automated customs - ran through kiosk & it took our picture & we were done!  Our OAT taxi driver was waiting for us. 

The taxi experience was interesting.  He spoke no English, just had his OAT sign.  He motioned for us to follow him & was very annoyed when I said I had to use the toilet, but he led us to one & then was in a hurry for us to follow him to the outside road of the airport.  He motioned for us to sit on the cement wall, handed me the OAT sign & took off.  We were very confused, but sat for about 15 minutes.  In the meantime, lots of vehicles pulled up in front of us dropping off & picking people up.  We were starting to get really worried when he pulled up in a nice clean vehicle.  Apparently he had had to park off the airport grounds & didn't want anyone else picking us up.  He drove like a maniac.  It was about a 45 minute ride.  He even had to stop twice for further instructions.  We assume the issue was all the construction that was blocking the side road to get to our hotel.  Finally made it anyway.

Our check in at the Oxford Hotel was quick & easy.  Elizabeth was a one "man" show.  She checked us in, came to room to set up our safe, arranged for me to have laundry done, filled our water bottles, & organized our dinner!  Our room was small, but clean & neat.  Had a beautiful chandelier over the bed & a very interesting light at George's nightstand.  There was a small restaurant where they will also serve breakfast in the morning.  We went down to check it out & Elizabeth helped the waitress/bar tender get us our food & wine.  She ended up suggesting that we share a club sandwich & get a bowl of soup too.  It also came with fries & all was very good.  We got another couple of glasses of wine for our room.  Our bill was only $13 for the meal & wine!  Amazing!  Made an early night of it, no jet lag, but tired from the working week at Cham!  And early morning tomorrow with our Tours by Locals tour.  Got texts from Rich & Georgianne and Jan that they are on their way!!  Yeah!

After breakfast at the hotel, we were picked up by our Tours by Locals guide, Ari Hoxha.  George sat in front with him so I could bounce from side to side taking pictures!  I had booked this all day trip for us as we are not to meet our guide until 5pm this evening.  The others are to get in sometime this afternoon.  

Map of the day trip provided by Google Timeline.  What an amazing tracking program!!!

First stop is to the Bovilla Lake Reservoir, it is a bit north & east of our location.  Took about an hour to get to the base of the mountains & then another 45 to get to the top.  Ari spent the time giving us the first of what was to be many lectures about the Albanian history.  It was fascinating, but also very confusing.  The views were incredible as we drove.

When we finally reached the top, Ari took us in for coffee.  He is Muslim and it's Ramadan, so he couldn't eat or drink anything, but he happily sat with us while we enjoyed the coffee & the view.  There are places to rent up here.  It would be a lovely place to stay for a couple of nights.  There are hiking trails all around.  

Common Nightingale

Cirl Bunting

While having coffee, I told Ari that I was specifically interested in birds, so from then on, he kept an eye out.  He didn't really know a lot about birds, but he managed to point out a Common Nightingale & we stopped to hear it sing for a bit.  Got a fair picture of a Cirl Bunting.  He was definitely trying to please!  We continued our drive on to the historical city of Kruja.  The drive took a couple of hours due to the slow rate down the mountain.  It was interesting to see our first close up look at the local scenery too.  It was quite a nice day, cool - high 50's, but mostly clear & dry.

We parked with it's castle & medieval shopping district.  First went to look over the ruins of the castle.  Ari told us a little about the history, including our first George Skandenberg, the son of an Albanian soldier that was given to the Ottoman Empire and then after becoming a great soldier, he turned on the Ottaman's & helped Albania to become independent.  The castle was built in the 5 or 6th century and was the site on one of the battles.  At the height of almost 2000' there is a lovely view around the surrounding area.

We elected not to go into the museum about George Skandenberg, we just wanted to walk around & enjoy the views.

We great enjoyed wandering around the top of the mountain.  Not a lot of people around & we just wandered & enjoyed.

We continued down the mountain & got to the bazaar.  It has been there for centuries & was at it's peak in the 17th - 19th Century, with about 200 shops at that time.

We made one stop to watch a local weaving.  She was happy to chat with us a bit about how this is soon to be a lost art as the younger women don't have any interest in the hard work & long hours required to complete a project.  Will soon all be done by machines.  Can't blame them, I wouldn't want to do it either.

Now the bazaar is mostly filled with tourist crap.  We aren't much in the way of souvenir shoppers, so we just wandered & looked as we continued on towards Ari's car.

We enjoyed some final views as we discussed what to do with the rest of our day.  Ari offered to drive us up to the monastery on the top of the nearby mountain, but it would take a long time.  Our tour had suggested that we stop for lunch (price not included) here in the little town, but the places are mostly touristy.  Ari mentioned that his brother was a chef in a really good restaurant in Tirana near our hotel.  We elected to go there!

The drive back to Tirana was uneventful, Ari talked about political & historical aspects of Tirana & some about his personal life.  It was interesting & we definitely enjoyed it.  We compared his calm driving skills with our maniac taxi driver yesterday!!

We soon arrived at the restaurant.  Ari had called ahead to make sure his brother was waiting for us.  He came out of the kitchen to say hello & the young waiter was a gem.  The food (a chicken dish recommended by Ari as his favorite and a beef filet with truffle sauce that was a restaurant specialty) was delicious.  One of the most tasty meals we've ever had!!!  And including the glasses of excellent red wine, it was only $31!!!  Amazing.  Unfortunately the owner has sold out, so it will only be open for about a month.  Then his brother is out of a job!!!

He dropped us off at the hotel where I found my laundry had already been done!  Ended up only costing $12 for the 7 days of laundry & they had even ironed & hung George's shirts!  Just had time to get it all put away & then ran downstairs for our first meeting with Erion, Rich & Georgianne & Jan!!!  Jan couldn't get her TSA lock off, even with help from Rich & Erion, then ended up cutting it off!  So much for security!  Anyway, it was great that we were all together for our first adventure! 

We took a short orientation walk around the hotel for Erion to point out the nearest pharmacy, money changers, & market.  It was drizzling, but not too bad, so we enjoyed the walk.  Erion is going to be awesome.  We loved the amazing wall art & it was fun to see the interesting modern art sculptures around Skanderbeg Square, the main square.  The tiles looked very pretty glistening in the rain, but they were very slick!!  We didn't want to start the trip off with a fall!

We got back to the hotel & Erion presented us each with these delightful colored/painted eggs.  His wife had made them for us.  He said it was a tradition in Albania to throw either the entire egg or the shells into a river/creek to bring good luck!  We are to have them with us tomorrow & we can start our tour off with good luck!  Erion & the others headed off to find someplace to eat & since we were stuffed, we just got some more of the delicious cheap wine at the hotel & headed to our room.  We piddled on computers & made an early night of it!  So ended our first complete day in Albania!!