Location: Valbone Valley, Albania
Since our last guided tours of the Balkans and the Croatian Islands, we have been touring on our own, riding the buses around Montenegro and Albania.
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The Herceg Novi Bay at dusk
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Monday, May 18 to Sunday, June 2, 2024 - Herceg Novi, Montenegro: We had a nice two week stay in Herceg Novi. We took daily walks along the seafront promenade and up and down the stairs in town, ate at local restaurants and enjoyed our break from touring. We took two day trips to explore some of the other parts of Montenegro.
Our first day trip was to Skadar Lake, the largest lake in the Balkan Peninsula. The lake is on the border between Montenegro and Albania, with 2/3 of the lake in Montenegro and 1/3 in Albania. Our tour started in Herceg Novi. We took the ferry across to Tivat, then drove past Budva, the largest town on the "Montenegro Riviera". We stopped for coffee at a restaurant overlooking the island of St. Stefan, originally established as a fortress in the 15th century and most recently, a luxury resort for the rich and famous (it closed in 2020 during the pandemic and hasn't reopened yet).
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| St. Stefan Island, Montenegro |
We drove up through the mountains to the small town of Virpazar and the Lake Skadar National Park Visitors Centre. The center includes relief maps of all five of Montenegro's national parks and describes the flora and fauna in each park. We boarded our boat here for a cruise of Skadar Lake and up the river Rijecka Crnojevica. The cruise lasted about 2 hours and we got to see lots of different birds including the Dalmatian pelican, grey herons, several different cormorants including the pygmy cormorant, whiskered terns and horned grebes to name a few. While we were cruising, they fed us priganice (fluffy fried dough) with honey and fresh cheese plus wine and rakija (local brandy).
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| Small houses / fish camps on the banks of Skadar Lake, Montenegro. |
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| A small resort on the bank of Skadar Lake, Montenegro. |
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| A fisherman near the bank of the river Rijeka Crnojevica. Most of the fishermen we saw had four to six poles with lines in the water. They are fishing for pike, perch, trout and/or carp. |
We got off the boat near the town of Rijecka Crnojevica and ate our lunch in a local restaurant. After lunch, we took a short walk then got back on to the bus for the ride back to Herceg Novi.
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| The bridge in the town of Rijecka Crnojevica, Montenegro. This is where we ate lunch at the end of our boat ride. |
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A view of the River Rijecka Crnojevica, near Skadar Lake, Montenegro.
This is the river we cruised up on our boat ride. |
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| A view of the River Rijecka Crnojevica, near Skadar Lake, Montenegro |
Our next day trip was to the Montenegro Canyons. We left Herceg Novi very early in the morning and drove to Cetinje where we stopped for breakfast and a coffee break.
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| Our route map for the Montenegro Canyons day trip. We did a counter-clockwise loop of over 400 km and got to see most of the interior of Montenegro. |
From Cetinje we drove through the mountains and down into the plains surrounding the capital city of Podgorica. Back up into the mountains, we followed the road along the Moraca River Canyon and stopped to visit the Moraca Monastery, a Serbian Orthodox Monastery founded in 1252.
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| The Moraca River Canyon, Montenegro |
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| The main church at the Moraca Monastery, Montenegro |
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| The garden and wall surrounding the Moraca Monastery, Montenegro |
We stopped for lunch in the small town of Polja, then drove along the Tara River Canyon to the most famous bridge in Montenegro, the Durdevica Tara Bridge. The bridge was built in 1937 - 1940 to connect two parts of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia but was used by the Italian and German occupying forces during World War II. The link above has some great photos of the bridge during its construction and a good description of its history during WWII.
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| The view down into the Tara River Canyon, the deepest river canyon in Europe. The Tara River originates in the mountains of Montenegro. It flows south to north/northwest into Bosnia-Herzegovina where it converges with the Piva River to form the Drina River, which is a large part of the border between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia. |
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A kayak launch site on the banks of the Tara River, Montenegro
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The view up the Tara River from the kayak launch spot, Montenegro
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| The Durdevica Tara Bridge crossing the Tara River Canyon, Montenegro |
After having a coffee near the bridge, we drove into
Durmitor National Park and hiked along the shores of Black Lake (Crno Jezero).
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| The mountains of Durmitor National Park, Montenegro |
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| Black Lake (Crno Jezero) and the mountains above it, Durmitor National Park, Montenegro |
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| An alpine meadow in a mountain valley near Durmitor National Park, Montenegro |
From Durmitor National Park, we drove up and down through the windy mountain roads into Niksic where we stopped for a short break. From there, we drove down towards Boka Bay. We stopped for a quick break to take photos of Risan Bay, then drove down into Herceg Novi. It was a beautiful evening so, on our way back to our apartment, we had pizza and beer at a restaurant with a great view.
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| A view of the Risan Bay from the road that connects Niksic to Herceg Novi, Montenegro |
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| A view of the Risan Bay from the road that connects Niksic to Herceg Novi, Montenegro |
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| Looking out at the Herceg Novi Bay from the restaurant terrace. The Forte Mare (Sea Fortress) is in the center of the photo. |
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| Looking towards Old Town Herceg Novi from the restaurant terrace. Kanli Kula (the Bloody Tower) is at the top center of the photo |
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| Beautiful bouganvillea in bloom, Herceg Novi, Montenegro |
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| A hedgehog in the garden at our apartment, Herceg Novi, Montenegro |
Sunday, June 2, 2024 - Herceg Novi to Cetinje, Montenegro: We checked out of our apartment this morning and walked up the hill to the bus station. It was about a 2 hour ride to Cetinje via Tivat and Budva. Cetinje is the old royal capital of Montenegro. Ivan the Black made it the capital in the 15th century and it remained the capital until 1946. This link provides a good overview of the history of Cetinje. Cetinje is a beautiful small town, set in a valley surrounded by mountains. There are a lot of parks and green space and many historical buildings. We spent the afternoon drinking coffee and people watching near the center of town and reading in the garden at our guest house.
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| The Castle Square near the King Nicholas Museum, Cetinje, Montenegro |
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| Gate into one of the forest parks in Cetinje, Montenegro |
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| B sitting on a bench in Cetinje with Princess Xenia of Montenegro (Daughter of King Nicholas I) |
It was raining Monday morning, so we spent the first half of the day touring several of the museums in town including the Billiard Palace, built in 1838 and home to Prince-Bishop Petar II Petrovic Njegos (Njegos for short). The best part of this museum is the huge relief map of Montenegro created by prisoners of the Austro-Hungarian military in 1916/1917 during World War I.
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| The former French Embassy in Cetinje. It now houses special collections of the Montenegro National Library. |
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| The giant relief map of Montenegro outside the Billiard House. The bay at the bottom, middle is Kotor Bay. |
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| The Monastery of St. Peter in Cetinje, Montenegro |
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| Statue of Ivan Crnojevic (Ivan the Black) located on Castle Square, Cetinje, Montenegro |
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| The Castle Church, Cetinje, Montenegro |
We visited the King Nicholas Museum, built 1863-1867 and home to the Royal Serbian/Montenegrin family for more than 50 years, and looked inside the monastery and the castle church. The rain quit early afternoon so we hiked up to the Njegos Mausoleum with a great overlook of the city. We would rate Cetinje as one of the nicest towns we visited in Montenegro.
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| Looking down at the town of Cetinje, Montenegro from the Mausoleum of Njegos |
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| The Njegos Mausoleum on a hill above the town of Cetinje, Montenegro |
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 - Cetinje to Podgorica, Montenegro: We walked up to the Cetinje bus station this morning to catch the bus to Podgorica, the capital and biggest city of Montenegro. Our bus was cancelled, but we were able to get onto another one about 1 hour later than our original planned departure. It is a short ride, about 1 hour, down through the mountains and across the agricultural farmland that surrounds the city of Podgorica. Podgorica is a big sprawling city with lots of traffic and industry and not many interesting sites to see, but a good place to make a bus connection to Tirana, Albania. Even the front desk clerk at our hotel said there wasn't a lot to see. She gave us a city map, highlighted a few things and said it would take us about one hour walking to see everything.
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| The clock tower near old town, Podgorica, Montenegro |
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| Looking across the Moraca River, Podgorica, Montenegro |
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| The Blazo Jovanovic Bridge across the Moraca River, Podgorica, Montenegro |
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| The Old Ribnica River Bridge, Podgorica, Montenegro |
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| The walkway along the Moraca River. A view across the Old Ribnica River Bridge towards the Fortress Depedogen |
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 - Podgorica, Montenegro to Tirana, Albania: Today we rode the bus from Podgorica to Tirana, about 5 hours total including the border crossing and a restroom / coffee stop.
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| The view from the back of the bus from Podgorica, Montenegro to Tirana, Albania |
We'll cover the history and the sites of Tirana in the next blog.
Thursday we went to
BunkArt 1, a cold war bunker / tunnel system that was built in the 1970s to house the Albanian government officials in case of a nuclear attack from Russia.
Enver Hoxha was the prime minister of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. He was a communist dictator who ruled the country with an iron fist. He abolished all religion and declared Atheism as the official religion of Albania. Although he initially admired the leaders of the other communist countries, he eventually broke ties with Russia (1961) and China (1978). His legacy included a complex of over 173,000 bunkers throughout the country. The largest of these, near Tirana, is now BunkArt 1. Displays inside the bunker outline the history of Albania from World War II up until the end of the communist rule in the early 1990s.
Entering the bunker felt very creepy and gloomy. You enter through a series of very thick concrete doors, walked past the tunnel ventilation and water systems and climb down the stairs into a long hallway with branches leading to various rooms and emergency exits. Some of the rooms, including Enver Hoxha's "control room" still contain the original equipment. Some include art about modern Albanian views of the communist regime. Most contained photos from the World War II invasion by the Italians and the Germans, the liberation of Albania by the Allied Forces and Albania post WWII up until the death of Enver Hoxha in 1985. We didn't take many photos while we were inside the bunker, but you can take a
virtual tour here.
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| B at the entrance to the tunnel that leads to BunkArt 1 |
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| Dave walking down the tunnel towards the ticket booth of BunkArt 1. |
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| A typical Albania living room from 1973 on display in one of the rooms in BunkArt1. During the communist regime, most homes had similar furniture. |
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| Hard to see and read, but this map shows the numerous bunkers that were built throughout Albania in the 1970s to protect the people (mainly politicians and VIPs) in case of nuclear attack. |
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| The engineering plans for the construction of the bunker near Tirana. Most of the Albanian people didn't know that this extensive bunker complex existed until the end of the Communist era in the early 1990s. |
After we finished our tour of the bunker, we rode the gondola up Dajti Mountain. We had lunch up there and enjoyed the views of the city of Tirana below.
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| The view of Tirana from Dajti Mountain. You can see the gondola cars near the middle of the photo. |
Friday we walked along the lake and through the forest of the
Grand Park of Tirana.
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| Dave enjoying a gin and tonic, Tirana, Albania |
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| The Bell Tower at the Resurrection Cathedral, Tirana, Albania |
Saturday, June 8, 2024 - Tirana to Berat, Albania: We checked out of our hotel this morning, left two of our suitcases behind and took a taxi to the North-South Tirana Bus Station. The bus station is really just a giant parking lot for buses going to other cities and towns in Albania. You look at the bus sign board, find the city you want to go to and the times, then wander the parking lot to find your bus.
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| Part of the South - North Tirana Bus station, really a giant parking lot. You can see the mini-buses with the destination signs in their front windows. It felt a little chaotic but it worked fine. |
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The bus station sign board with the station number, city and times.
We were going to Berat - Station 10. |
Most of the buses are owned and operated by individuals so the more people they can load onto the bus, the more money they can make. We arrived at the station in time to make the 9:50 bus to Berat. We found the bus with the large sign BERAT in its window and approached the driver. His bus was full and he was ready to go. There were no available seats, but he had two stools so he set them in the middle of the aisle and we climbed on with our luggage. The bus ride was ~2.5 hours. A few people got off after the first two hours so we got a seat for the last part of the ride.
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| Dave sitting on his stool near the front of the bus. The driver let one more passenger on after us, the guy to Dave's right. He had to stand for most of the ride. |
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Dave sitting on his stool near the front of the bus. My computer bag, our HEB grocery bag and our day pack are between us in the middle of the bus aisle.
We made it safely to Berat, had lunch at a nice restaurant in the middle of town and made our way to our hotel. Berat was designated as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2008 and its architecture is influenced by several civilizations that have coexisted for centuries. It was originally settled by the Illyrians (ancient Greeks) in the 7th century BCE and was occupied by the Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans.
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| The view from the terrace at our hotel overlooking the Saint Demetrius Cathedral, Berat, Albania. |
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| The view from the terrace at our hotel overlooking the Lead Mosque, Berat, Albania. |
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| The Saint Demetrius cathedral in Berat, Albania. |
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| The Mangalem neighborhood with the castle above it, Berat, Albania. |
Sunday we went on a walking tour of the city which included the Gorica and Mangalem neighborhoods, the Church of St. Spiridon, the old medieval center and a climb up the hill to the Berat Castle. In most of the guide books, Berat is described as the city of 1000 windows. Our tour guide, Bruno, told us this description was really just a bad translation of Albanian. If translated properly, the description is window above window because of the windows in the houses built along the hillsides in the Mangalem neighborhood (see the above photo), and he told us not to bother trying to count the windows.
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| One of the narrow streets in the Gorica neighborhood, Berat, Albania. |
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| The door to enter the St. Spiridon church, Berat, Albania. The guy on the right side of the photo was sitting outside, listening to a soccer (football) game. |
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| Inside the St. Spiridon church, Berat, Albania. It was Sunday and there was a church service in progress, but only 3 people in attendance. |
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| Dave and B on the new bridge over the Osum river with the Mangalem neighborhood in Berat, Albania |
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| The well and some of the buildings in the old medieval center of Berat, Albania |
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| The view of Berat from the castle. |
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| The Holy Trinity Church inside the Berat Castle. |
Bruno also told us an interesting
story about the slogan "ENVER" written in stone on Mount Shpirag above the city of Berat. The monument was built in 1969 by a group of 600 volunteer students. It took 15 days to construct and was 80 meters long and 40 meters wide. In 1994, after the fall of communism, the people of Albania tried to destroy the monument by using napalm and burning it, but it was never completely eradicated. In 2012, a farmer living near the monument,
changed the position of the first two letters to create "NEVER" as in never again we will allow a leader like Enver Hoxha. You can read the history of the construction and destruction of the monument at the links above.
Monday, June 10, 2024 - Berat to Gjirokaster, Albania: This morning we rode the public bus to the Berat bus station for the ride to Gjirokaster. There is a pretty good website,
Gjirafa Travel, that provides the schedule for bus travel between cities in Albania. Every day, there is only one direct bus from Berat to Gjirokaster and it leaves at 14:00 and arrives at 17:00. We wanted to go earlier, so according to the website, we could leave Berat at 9:30, transfer in Lushnje and arrive in Gjirokaster at 13:10. Once we got to the Berat bus station, we found the bus to Lushnje and found the driver. Several of the other drivers found out we wanted to go to Gjirokaster and tried to convince us we were going the wrong way and that we should wait for the direct bus. While they were arguing, the driver for the Lushnje bus quietly loaded our bags into his bus and we got on and left. Although the driver spoke no English, he understood what we wanted to do. He dropped us off at the "bus station" in Lushnje. We flagged down the next bus to Gjirokaster and arrived on schedule.
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| Dave at the Lushnje "bus station" waiting for the bus to Gjirokaster. The station was really just a wide spot in the road next to a traffic circle. We had to watch for a mini-bus with the Gjirokaster sign in the window and flag him down. |
Gjirokaster is an inland city in Southern Albania located in the valley between the Gjere Mountains and the Drino River. It was part of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century. There is a fortress on the hill above the city, historical buildings from the time of the Ottoman Empire, a bazaar and museums, a cold war tunnel, and it is the birth place of the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha.
For our first evening in town, we hiked up to the
Zekate House for a tour and a glass of wine on their terrace. The house was built in 1812 in the tower style and is an "outstanding example of Ottoman architecture in Albania".
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| Dave making his way up the hill to the Zekate House. Our hotel was about 2/3 of the way up the hill from the city center, so it was a short walk from there to Zekate House. |
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| The view of the city of Gjirokaster from the Zekate House. |
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| The Zekate House, Gjirokaster, Albania. |
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| The grape vines above the terrace where we sat and had a glass of wine while enjoying the view from Zekate House. |
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| A baby goat watching us as we walked down the hill from Zekate House. |
We spent Tuesday exploring the Gjirokaster Castle, the cold war tunnel, the bazaar and the Ethnographic museum.
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| B wandering the grounds of the Gjirokaster Castle |
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| A cannon and a US Air Force plane at the Gjirokaster Castle. Read more about the castle and the plane here. |
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| One of the streets in the Bazaar area of Gjirokaster, Albania. |
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| An old generator in the Gjirokaster cold war tunnel. This tunnel / bunker system was built in the 1970s by the political prisoners that were being held in the Gjirokaster Castle and was meant to house the local politicians, VIPs and military in case of a nuclear attack. The general public wasn't fully aware of the tunnel system until the 1990s. |
Wednesday, June 12, 2024 - Gjirokaster to Ksamil, Albania: This morning we got on the bus from Gjirokaster to Sarande. The bus was full but we had seats and our luggage was safely stowed in the back. We left the bus station at 9:00 and drove up and over the Grere Mountains to the southern Albanian coastal city of Sarande. From Sarande, we rode the city bus south to Ksamil, a small town known for its beaches. The city bus was full to capacity and we stood in the center aisle with our luggage at our feet while we watched them squeeze even more people onto the bus. The ride was only 20 minutes along the coastal road so not too bad. We got off and walked up a small hill to our hotel. We spent the rest of the day exploring the town and walking the beaches.
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| Dave eating a gyro at a small restaurant in Ksamil, Albania. |
Thursday we went down to Lori Beach and rented lounge chairs and a beach umbrella. We spent the day reading and swimming and swimming and reading. The weather was overcast and we had a few brief rain showers but it was warm and the water was clean, clear and refreshing.
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| The lounge chairs and umbrellas at Lori Beach, Ksamil, Albania |
Friday we went to the
ancient city of Butrint, just south of Ksamil. Butrint was occupied by the Greeks, Romans, Ottomans and Venetians but was abandoned in the late middle ages. The city is now an archeological site and a
National Park (descriptions of the buildings in the photos below can be found in the National Park link).
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| The Venetian Tower, Butrint, Albania |
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| The center of the Greek and Roman settlements at Butrint, Albania |
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| The Baptistry, Butrint, Albania |
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| The Great Basilica, Butrint, Albania |
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| The Venetian Acropolic Castle, Butrint, Albania |
Saturday, June 15, 2024 - Ksamil to Tirana, Albania: This morning we rode the bus from Sarande to Tirana. It took about 5 hours and we got off at the same bus station where we started a week ago.
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| The ticket office in Sarande where we bought our tickets for the journey to Tirana. There are no computers involved, just a guy behind the desk with a pile of paper and envelopes, taking money and issuing handwritten paper tickets. |
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| The bus from Sarande to Tirana waiting at the Sarande "bus station". Because the bus to Tirana is a popular route, they actually have a parking spot and a ticket office. There is no official bus station in Sarande. The mini-buses to places other than Tirana park along this road and the road above and you walk along until you find the bus you want and pay the driver directly. |
In Tirana, we joined an Intrepid tour to visit northern Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. We'll cover those in the next blog.
