Crossroads to the Adriatic - Shkoder - 20 Apr 2023

 

Crossroads to the Adriatic - Shkoder, Albania

Full day in Shkoder

Thursday, 20 Apr 2023

Enjoyed waking up to the lovely view out our balcony.  Had heard the call to prayer about 4am, but it was a pleasant sing songy voice, so just went right back to sleep.  Down for breakfast about 8am.  It was nice to have warm eggs & there was a nice mix of sweets.  And a tray of mixed vegetables?  But good coffee, so all is right with the world.

Took our walk around the pedestrian area.  Not a lot of people around - too early?  Lots of upscale shops & restaurants.  Some small markets with fresh veges.  Ended up at St Stephens Cathedral.  It was originally finished in 1868, but closed during the communist regime & reopened in 1990.  

Next came what was my favorite time of the entire trip!  The original plan had been to load into the bus & go straight up to the castle.  But Erion had a plan.  A friend of his had a Venetian Mask factory & he asked if we'd like to see it.  We all said yes & away we went.  The masks are all hand made there on site & they actually have 2 other stores, one in Las Vegas & one in Dubai.  And the masks were absolutely gorgeous.  We even got to go in the workshop & watch them being made (no pictures allowed.  It was an incredible stop.  

But that was not what made it the best stop of the trip!!!  While we were wandering around the show room ohhing & ahhing, we heard piano music.  We headed back to the entry & there was Erion playing a beautiful waltz on the piano in the foyer!!!  George & I started dancing & then he morphed into a gorgeous rumba - Besame Mucho.  We danced for about a minute and a half.  It was magical!  I had not mentioned before that Erion had told us that he used to play the accordian for the Albanian Theatre of the Arts - the Ballet!  He was not able to support his family on that salary unfortunately, so he gave it up & became a tour guide!  He played a video of his accordian playing for us, but to get to dance to his piano was awesome!!!  We asked him the name of the waltz & it was his own choreography!!!!  

Next stop was up the hill to the Shkoder or Rozafa Castle.  We had to park at the base of the hill & walk the steep slope up.  Erion had trouble with our entry tickets, but finally got us through.

Only ruins, but the views were spectacular.  The ruins are on top of the hill that rises 430 ft above sea level and is surrounded by the Buna and Drin rivers.  Most of the ruins that remain are from the Venetian reign, but folks have lived on this hilltop since any recorded history due to it's strategic location.

Here we all are!!!

I believe this is a Eastern Blackeared Wheatear - strange name, but best I could do.  Watched it quite a while, but it blends into the rock wall!!!!

The beautiful day helped us to enjoy this wander.  The city looks marvelous from this height!

We all just kept snapping pictures.  Such a beautiful spot.  Got a great picture of Georgianne!

So Jan became our niche angel.  Erion had told us a story about a soldier's wife that elected to get walled into the castle walls to protect her family.  Somehow that morphed into Jan stuffing herself into every niche we came upon!  She's definitely tiny, so she can fit into them!

We made our way back down to where our bus waited.  It was much easier to go down than up!!

The bus took us the short distance to walk across the bridge we had looked at from above.  Jan threw her red egg shells (she had eaten her egg!!).  

Common Cuckoo

Greater Crested Grebe

Another short bus ride to Lake Shkoder.  We got out to walk along the shore in a tiny fishing village called Shiroka.  We were really supposed to buy lunch on our own there, but couldn't agree on a place - mostly because Rich & Georgianne needed to use a credit card & folks were smoking at the larger restaurants along the lake.  No matter, it was still a nice walk.  Still not many birds, but managed to id a Greater Crested Grebe on the lake and a Common Cuckoo in a small tree. 

We drove back to our hotel & went our separate ways for a late lunch.  Erion pointed out the San Francisco a few doors down from our hotel that had a balcony overlooking the pedistrian area and had pizza & beer.  Sounded good to George & me.  And it was!  Spent an excellent hour enjoying the beautiful day from the balcony.  We were the only ones there & had an excellent waiter.  Lovely!!

We spent a half hour of so walking off the pizza with a short walk.  Just made a block.  Didn't see anything exciting, but found a store for buying a couple of bottles of wine & stretch our legs.  Then back to the hotel for a nap.  We both played a bit on the computer.  

About 6:30pm we met in the lobby to go to dinner. I believe the name of the restaurant was Fairy Arts & it was run by a woman to raise money for abused women. Unfortunately I didn't take a single picture!!! I downloaded these from the internet. My Google Timeline id'd this as the restaurant, Arti Zanave. The food was wonderful & presented in a very artistic manner! Walked back to the hotel & enjoyed a relaxing (but too full) evening. Can't believe it's our last night in Albania already!!! Tomorrow we meet the rest of the group in Croatia!