Albania is on only a few tourists' wish lists for their next vacation - and wrongly so. The small Balkan country has fantastic coastlines and untouched beaches along the Ionian and Adriatic Seas, offering perfect conditions for a relaxing beach holiday.
Half of the Albanian territory is of mountainous terrain with altitudes of over 600 m above sea level. A small proportion of these are high-mountain regions. From Skadar Lake in the north to the south in Vlora a few kilometers wide alluvial soils partly extend along the coast, which expand to large Myzeqe level in central Albania. There are numerous lagoons and wetlands on the coast.
At about 1000 BC the Illyrians settled in the Western Balkans. Residential cities were Scodra and Rhizon. After the Illyrian wars in late 3rd century BC, the Western Balkans came under Roman influence and the Romanization of the Illyrians began. With the division of the Roman Empire 395th BC, today Albania came under Byzantine rule. In 591 the Slavs from the north penetrated into the area, followed by looting allover the Balkans.
Next to our content articles we publish blogs to certain topics. Please follow the given links to get to our topic relevant blog articles with couple of additional pictures about Albania.
The conclusion to do a trip around Lake Ohrid should include the peninsula and the locality of Lin (in Albanian Lini) . We could have reached Lin from the campsite in Kalishta easily as well by canoe, if it would not have prevent by the country's border with Albania in between.
Unlike the tectonic scale and geologically ancient Lake Ohrid, Lake Skadar in Albania, at least is geologically very young. Its present form as a flat but geographically large lake, has set more or less in the last 18,000 years.
Durrës was little to hardly developed in the field of tourism during the communist regime of Envar Hoxa, despite its proximity to the capital Tirana, which is only 30 kilometres away.
After the really interesting cave exploration in a side valley next to the road from Tirana to Elbasan, we finally wanted to visit the Petrela castle on the hilltop south of the river Erzen, about 500 meters above sea level.
Already at the beginning of our search for a secure and easy going camper route to the south, which is intended to show all-seasons camping sites or camper stops along Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece along the coast, we had found Hotel Baron in Tirana as a way to explore the capital Albania during a short stay before the traveler continues the way to the South (even for long term stay).
Some time ago, we had already published an article on the fortress of Kruja; now, within the part wise guided camper trip through Albania, Greece and Macedonia, we have got further impressions, which we gladly publish in another article, especially since the fortress of Kruja is such an historical sanctuary for the Albanian nation.
During our visit to the Skanderbeg Museum, the desire for more information about this fighter for independence and freedom as a ruler of the past had grown, surely affected by all the mythologies that still surrounds his personality.
During our tour through the city through Durres, we decided to take a stopover on the waterfront of Durres, also to consume our lunch packages.
As one of the two starting points of Via Egnatia on the Balkans and as a possible arrival point by ferry from Italy, the city of Durrës was always in the focus of our interest.
Whenever the name of Albania falls in talks, two theses emerge, which we can not share without contradiction, because of our experiences during the travels through the country: "mafia structures in politics and economy" and "everywhere bunkers".
Tirana, the capital of Albania, lies on the west side of Mount Dajti on the transition from the coastal plain to a hilly landscape in central Albania. To the coast of the Adriatic Sea at the port town of Durrës it is only about 30 km of air line.
After our visit to Durres we were driven to mountain town Kruja by passing Tirana where today a living museum reminds Albanian freedom fighter Skanderbeg and which increasingly ensures tourist interest from abroad.
After the visit of the Skanderbeg Museum which is inside the fortress of Kruja, a tour of the castle grounds and the local buildings should follow, in spite of the threatening dark sky, which was part wise looking like strong rain could appear, but we were lucky.
There are only a few destinations in Europe that can be reached by motorhome as part of a summer holiday that are considered to be little discovered and therefore offer not only rest and relaxation, but also a little adventure and lots of new things to discover: Albania is undoubtedly one of them.
In some of our topics along the journeys along the Roman road system, the old, partly Greek or Roman names of the settlement areas of the tribes or settlement areas that have long since disappeared today also appear.
In our article about the Rozafa fortress, we had already mentioned the first settlement of the Illyrian tribes, which settled here in Shkodra in ancient times. The earliest traces of human settlement date back to the 2nd millennium BC, they were found south of today's town at Tepe and can be classified dating back to Bronze Age.
Our first stay in Shkodra already had surprised us because of the huge Lake Shkodra, the dams and rivers of the Drin, the Kir and the Buna not only with regard to the huge water surfaces but also the related ecosystems.
When two people celebrate wedding, this is always a special event, not only for the two main participants. Family and friends usually enjoy it at least too, it is celebrated, danced and laughed.
It was early afternoon when we talked with the operators of the Legjenda campsite about the Ottoman bridge Ura e Mesit, which ended spontaneously in the approach to the bridge.
In and around Shkodra, the Albanian habitual right, often referred to as Kanun, was revived with the beginning of the 1990s together with the decline of the dictatorship of Envar Hoxha.