Shkodrë

After I had spent 3 sad days in Žabljak, curing my poisoned stomach instead of hiking around Durmitor National Park, I took 3 frustrating busses to Shkodrë. 

Like with pretty much all Albanian cities, guidebooks don't really freak out about Shkodrë, but I only arrived in the early evening and was planning to move on to Kosovo or Macedonia the next day. But when I arrived and wandered through the pedestrian lane with hundreds of others, admiring all the different bars and cafés that had spread out their tables and chairs onto the street, I already knew that I should stay another night.

The contrast was really funny: the big mosque you can see on the first picture completely dominated the scene, you would here the Muezzin calling for prayer while walking up and down the street - but there was hardly any covered women around. Rather the opposite: I don't know how the women managed to walk on the partly cobbled stones with their high heels and tight dresses.

I finished the day with a banana frappucchino - not exactly what I had wanted, but I was glad that the waiter, who spoke no English but fluent Italian, at least understood that the coffee should be cold ("caldo" is hot in Italian) :D

I had planned to read, but couldn't resist watching all the people passing my table doing the "Xhiro", the traditional evening walk for which cars are actually blocked from entering the street. 

The next day, after a long and lazy breakfast, I rented a bike for an unbelievable price of 2€ from an organization called Kiri Adventures, and had a very nice chat with the co-founder, whose name I forgot and who's actually a pharmacist. Tourism isn't very well promoted in Albanian cities, but he and his friend thought that Shkodrë an it's surroundings actually have a lot to offer, so during high season they run different tours by car, bicycle or on foot.

I did a tour on my own though for this time, and cycled North, to the Old Bridge. I didn't got for the bridge of course, but to explore the outskirts of the city, an really wasn't disappointed: after only 5 minutes of driving, the image changed completely, and Albania's forth biggest city looked like a farmers' village.

After I had crossed the river, which dries out in summer, I cycled back southwards. The view of the city was completely blocked by some hills, and I got lost several times in the random

net of unpaved roads and narrow paths leading through the rural settlements following the riverbank.

(Bees, I suppose)

(The contrast between the huge amounts of trash everywhere and the beauty of the mountains in the background was striking.)

(Suddenly, a wild memorial appeared :D)

It was really hot, and the bicycle, although a mountain bike, wasn't the best for the terrain sometimes, so I was looking forward to the second part of the tour: south of the city and around Rozafa castle was lake Shkoder, which Alabama shares with Montenegro. 

My excitement only lasted until I saw a big river flowing into the lake, and remembered the piles of trash I had seen in the dried river bank before (I was later informed that it came out of the lake, though I'm not sure whether to believe that). It got worse when I started cycling around it and saw cows, goats and their excrements on the shores. I'm really not the most hygienic person, you know, but ew...

I ran out of energy and water some kilometers before the place I had wanted to go to, but saw a family swimming in the water and thought that should be the place to try it then. The water didn't give me the refreshment I had hoped for: it was full of small plants and super warm. 

So I got out again very quickly, dried myself, enjoyed the sun for a moment, and then cycled back. On the way I had a egg-and-lemon-soup, which was certainly interesting, and explored an unfinished building overlooking the lake. It was creepy.

Last but not least I forced myself all the way up to Rozafa castle. The legend says that three brothers were trying to build a castle, but their work was always destroyed over night. So the youngest sacrificed his wife Rozafa, which was built into the walls of the castle, with some holes left out so she could breastfeed her newborn child. (I was looking for a statue with golden boobs from all the people touching them, but couldn't find any.) The view was pretty nice, but one could definitely work on the information tables - Kiri Adventures does a tour of the castle as well though, I'm sure it's good!