Albania and Kosovo

At Rozafa Castle (photo by Cat)

I think we possibly only drove through Albania to get to Kosovo because of the newish motorway through there. We only had one proper stop, at Rozafa Castle (a crumbling fortress) and lunch in the nearby town of Shkoder.

Rozafa Castle

The castle is pretty huge, and up a pretty huge hill (of course!). The road up was enlivened by a gentleman singing and playing his accordion, who was very happy to see us. The castle itself provided amazing views and a fiercely flying Albanian flag that we’ve seen a lot around the Balkans – the Albanians seem a patriotic lot. It’s a pretty impressive flag, too.

C, A and our entertainment guy

Our lunch was in a traditional restaurant, which doled out huge servings of lamb and chicken slow cooked until it was incredibly tender.

Lamb and potatoes

In my head, I thought of Albania as the isolated country it used to be before the Communist government dissolved in the 90s. The reality, from the tiny snapshot we saw, was very different: for example, the new(ish) motorway is bringing a lot of people through the country, so there are huge fuel stations where 10+ massive buses can stop for fuel and their passengers for snacks. They look better provisioned than all of our regional stations, by far.

I wish we’d gone to the Accursed Mountains, purely because of the name, but it wasn’t near our itinerary. Next time!

Yarn bombing in Prizren

Kosovo, like Albania, surprised me. I’d vaguely pictured it as being war-torn and dusty, but the parts of it that we saw were holiday destinations for many people in the region, so were looking pretty good. I’m reading that Prizren wasn’t damaged too much in the war, so that might explain it.

The hotel we were staying at, the Theranda, looked nice and was in the middle of the action, but had bad amenities and even worse service. Amongst the group rooms, we had broken aircon, no hot water, no wifi, broken door locks, broken fridges, missing fridges, water cascading down from the bathroom light fittings… and the staff just shrugged when we asked about it. Maybe this was to be expected, but if the hotel is advertising services…

Pristina Library

Pristina was a day trip destination, and we saw the amazing Library, took a walk down the pedestrian mall to take a look at the city, stopping at the Newborn independence monument as well as the Bill Clinton statue.

Independence.

On our way back to Prizren we stopped at a traditional Serbian restaurant for lunch, munching our way through delicious sausages and other meats as well as cheeses, salads and chips. So much meat!

Meeaaaat…

On the way through we stopped at a craft brewery (Che’s Social Club!), and although they didn’t make their own cider, they did have Somersby blueberry cider available!

Cider!

We took a walk (climb) up the hill to reach the fortress on the summit, which like the previous fortress, gave a great view over the city. Dokufest, a documentary film festival, was on while we were there and the docos were being screened in the open air up at the fortress as well in more traditional cinemas.

M, me and C on top of the fortress

We also visited a number of monasteries and mosques – it feels almost like a religious tour rather than a food one at times! Here are some of the standouts:

The pedestrian areas in Prizren were a great place to have a drink and people-watch, and there was a real carnival atmosphere while we were there, even though it poured with rain the first night. It’s certainly a place I wouldn’t mind going back to.