Hidden treasures of Shqipërisë
Hi Fellow Steemers!
Today I would like to share my experiences travelling through Shqipërisë, the country commonly known as Albania, situated in the south-east of Europe.
A relatively unknown but very beautiful country in many many ways.. ancient cities, pristine nature and best of all; unspoilt by mass tourism! The fact that the country it relatively unknown is partly because of it's relative poverty and lacking infrastructure. But mostly because of it's communist past, when it was completely locked down by the xenophobic ruler, Enver Hoxha. After freeing themselves from this in 1989, the friendly Albanians have been struggling to leave this behind them, but not meeting the requirements to join the EU and having not much to trade internationally, Albania remains more or less in the shadows..
The capital, Tirana, is the only place that has a bit of an international feel to it. This is a good place to start a journey. Rental cars are available here and it is a nice place to look around:
Driving around Albania can be a challenge since the common navigation devices often do not work (yet). Roadmaps also seem to be unavailable and signpost indicating the way to other places are scarce and hard to decipher..
Except for some stretches of highway, the roads are often in a bad state. the pluspoint is that travellers are forced to interact with locals in order to find their bearings, leading to unexpected encounters :)
While getting around, you will also see many traces of the communist past, like these one man bunkers that are scattered all over the country. The citizens were forced to build these during the communist era, so they would be protected from the unavoidable attacks from the outside world. (which never happened ;)
Another sign of of times past by are the decaying industrial complexes, probably also a remainder of the communist era. More than enough to entertain the average urban explorer :)
During my visit to Albania I saw 3 main attractions I would like to share with you; the ancient city of Berat;
The ancient city of Gjirokaster with an amazing castle on top of the hill:
And, last but not least.. Syri i Kaltër, the Blue Eye.. a high pressure mineral water source more than 50 meters deep. Beautiful colours!
All in all I intensely enjoyed this short trip to Albania, meeting very friendly locals and many interesting surprises along the way the way.
To finish here are some funny pictures of a leach vendor and the local menu :D
I hope you enjoyed this post! feel free to ask any questions and follow me, many more stories to come ;)