In the city of bling-bling

The question was where to go from Bajram Curri. There are only one road to the other parts of Albania, a mountain road named SH22. A few days later I met people who drove it with their own car and they said it is an small adventure but the landscape must be amazing so that on didn't want to drive fast. However, Bajram Curri is only a few kilometers from the border to the Kosovo and it was therefore a simple decision to go there. The first bigger town where our Furgon stopped was Gjakova and I stayed there while the Italians went on further to visit other places in the Kosovo.

Yes, this Norwegian HipHop song doesn't fit to the topic. You can nevertheless enjoy it while reading:
Multicyde - The Claptrap

Gjakova has a long and interesting history. Its inner city is beautiful and there are many things to discover. Because of the long period under the influence of the Ottoman culture you find there typical Ottoman houses, mosques and also some Tekke. The most impressive part of the city is the old bazaar which consists of several streets. After its heavy damage during the Kosova war the European Union funded its reconstruction and even rebuilt some parts that were damaged before the war. For example the clock tower was once destroyed in 1912 by the Montenegrins. The rebuilt result is impressive, despite that there are still some parts under construction:

The clock tower

There are a lot of stores with wedding background.

Parts of the main road through the bazaar were still under reconstruction.

Some streets in the bazaar are not yet filled with live because most houses had to be rebuilt from scratch and they try to re-animate the former structure where certain artisans were made and sold in different streets.

One of the "empty streets" All shops are closed and some houses empty..

Inside the bazaar area is the Hadum Mosque:

I liked are the many nice courtyards in the town:

This is the courtyard of the Hani i Haraçisë ("the new inn").
Here you can try out delicious traditional food.

When walking through the streets you will notice that there are many shops selling wedding clothes, hairstylists, agencies specialized in wedding photos and videos, jewelers and shops selling all kind of bling-bling. The reason is that Albanian wedding entourages consists of several hundreds of persons and the largest hall in the Kosovo is in Gjakova in the Pashtriku hotel. I stayed in this hotel (I can recommend it) and they managed to host 3 weddings a day. I could talk a bit with the son of the owner who explained that Kosovars marry mainly in July and August. Of course because there is good weather but also because this is the time where the relatives from abroad are in vacation and can join the wedding. There are for example about 100.000 Kosovars living in Switzerland. (I will come back to the reasons in a separate post about the history of Albania.)
The Kosovars from abroad are special. They of course have much more money than the local people but they think they have to show their prosperity all the time. There are countless big cars with Swiss and German license plates circling around in the city. Some drivers do this in a ridiculous way: tires are burnt, senseless full stops and kickstarts are made etc.. Moreover these persons prefer the bling-bling style: jewelry, pink plastic Kitsch, mobile cases with fake diamonds etc. As most of them speak German I could talk to some of them and it turns out that they are often not confident with their situation. They believe that the local relatives expect that they are rich but they live in small flats at home. Some of the big cars are only rented or they are bought on credit to sell them soon after the trip to the Kosovo. On the other hand the locals don't like that their relatives from abroad show their money at every occasion. Nevertheless many locals depend on their money. The situation is like you own a car but you depend on your brother to give you money for its gasoline.

A typical bling-bling shop.

The problem of specialization on a certain market is that one depends on it. The locals told me that in the non-wedding season the city is kind of dead. The unemployment rate is dramatically high and unemployed people don't have money to buy things. That is why there are also abandoned places like this one:

A former market in the inner city.

A good place to relax is the Çabrat hill. There are some restaurant where you have great views to the city and the surrounding hilly landscape:

View to the old town.

View to the northern, modern part of the city.

View out of the Pashtriku hotel.

The churches of Gjakova were destroyed in the Kosova war but are already rebuilt. This is the catholic cathedral of St.Peter and St.Paul which is a complete new building and which was opened a few weeks after my visit:

The town still hosts an Italian KFOR military station. You also find some monuments concerning the fight of the UÇK and earlier riots, like the protests in 1981. For example this one:

The girl in the image lives in Germany. She therefore spoke  German with his brother which the locals didn't like. The man in the image ranted at her that she should speak her mother language Albanian and that she should be proud of it. She replied in German that only poor people speak Albanian - ouch!

At last some travel tips: Going from Gjakova to Tirana is only possible once a day at 6 AM. The buses start in front of the closed main bus station. In summer it is recommended to reserve a seat because the buses are often full. Going from Gjakova to other cities in the Kosovo like Peć or Prizren is possible several times a day.
If you have your own car or could catch a Furgon, make a stop at the famous Ura e Terzive.

Rising high

We found a large and hotel at the end of the road of the valley. At first I wanted to hike from there over the Valbona Pass to go to Teth. Fulvio wanted to climb a peak and although I was still taking antibiotics and not completely fit I of course used that chance.
In the hotel they only had one! hiking map of the valley which was glued onto a table and which was obviously outdated. But OK, one can take a picture of the map:

House 15 in the map is our hotel and the red triangle number 5 was our goal. One can see that this map is not very helpful but we thought that there is only one path so one cannot loose it. There is indeed only one path but it was sometimes very hard to find it. There are only very few way marks and especially in the upper part the track is not visible. Obviously there are not many hikers.

You might continue while listening to

The Sound Stylistics - Polariser

The sun is rising

The farms in Kukaj

The weather was perfect. The way up is nice since one has always great views and the beginning is not very steep. At 1700 meters altitude is a small mountain farm where we met a hiking group from Germany and Austria. The old lady in the farm served them Turkish coffee and I wanted to refill the water bottles. There is a tarn behind the farm and when I arrived it a viper came out of it. Wow. I was so shocked! I read that the vipers are poisonous but I did not know that they are so big.

The old Germans at the farm

Although it was hot these days there is still some snow

Some of the tourists joined us a few kilometers and then we were alone and the path was invisible. We often just climbed up the hill as we think. Although the images imply that that the surface is very rocky, it is not. There are so many flowers. Even more impressive was the amount of insects and how large they are. So many bumblebees, beetles and the like. While swinging the arm, it was impossible not to hit some insects. They don't bite or sting so you can enjoy this.

Now you can imagine how many blossoms there are.

Some of the flowers

After reaching the saddle (border to Montenegro) of the valley the track becomes very steep. Fortunately this last part has many trail blazings thanks to the Montenegrin alpine clubs. Eventually we made it to the top of the Maja e Rosit. From the top you have great views because this is one of the highest points in the entire Dinaric Alps. I am still a bit proud that I made it up to the top.

This is the saddle to Montenegro

In the steep section below the peak

The beginning of the Valbonë valley.

View into the valley of the Lim and the town
of  Gusinje in Montenegro.

View to the north-west.

The highest peak in the image is also the highest
one in the Dinaric Alps - the Maja Jezercë.

The Valbonë valley once again

While descending I accidentally kicked a larger stone down the hill that almost hit Fulvio - the steep section was not that easy to climb. Further down in the mentioned farm I met the grandchild of the owners who was learning German. I wondered that he told me that German is the first foreign language at his school. Now I know, see the next blog post. His grandmother told us to hurry up before the dawn begins because that is the time when the bears awake. With the last sun rays we reached our hotel - after about 10 hours and 3000 meters of altitude. Respect to Fulvio who made the tour with normal athletic shoes leading to blisters.

Looking back to the peak.

In the Albanian Alps - Valbonë valley

The landscape from the Koman lake to Bajram Curri is also breathtaking. Pure nature with wild rivers, deep valleys - all one wants for hiking. So let's do this. Fortunately Roberta and Fulvio planned to go hiking in the Valbonë valley and already organized some info and also that there is a furgon from Bajram Curri.

Bajram Curri is a small town but the largest one in this region of the Albanian Alps. So in case you go there you should buy all you need there before entering the high mountain areas. As this region is a bit out-of-the-way only a few people speak foreign languages. The best is if you can speak Italian and I also met some guys who once worked in Germany and therefore spoke German.

There are only 2 furgons a day to the marvelous Valbonë valley and they are used by the locals to transport pupils and goods of any kind. They are therefore very cheap but this also means that you cannot reserve a seat in advance. Only if seats are free you can jump in. The alternative is to hire a driver. Hiring private cars can be as expensive as taking a taxi in Westeren Europe. It is therefore sensible to negotiate a fair price keeping in mind that the unpaved roads cause high repair costs for the car owners. However, we could take the afternoon furgon. Despite that all windows were completely open it became so hot in the furgon whenever it stopped that I was close to collapse. (Thanks Fulvio for bringing me out of the car one time before this happened!).

Getting to the valley needs of course some time because all the goods from the roof of the furgon have to be delivered. This is perfect to enjoy the landscape. Last year the upper half of the road was paved while the lower half was under pavement. I expect that the full road should now be completely paved. These are good news for the locals and this will be the start of tourism. Last year there were only about 10 hotels and tenting places in the whole valley and the same amount under construction. So in a few years this valley will look very different.

It is now time for music:
Muharrem Qena - A thua
And for some impressions:

Our hotel - the largest one in the valley.

 

The Valbonë river changes its location every year.
The result are wide river banks.

The new road appears a bit unreal.

On the other side of the river at our hotel's site is a new built hotel. It is owned by a family who once lived in Berlin (the woman is a German the men is from Albania) later in Durrës and who hope that tourism will start soon in the valley. It was interesting to hear from them how it is to live there. Every single buy needs to be planned because the shops are so far away.
At our hotel Roberta could interview some people who once lived in Albania and left it close after the fall of the communist regime. The now live in Italy (like many Albanians) and only come back to see their family and of course for vacation. It was sometimes shocking what they told about the communist times. The border was hermetically closed and the regime one one hand did  not care much about the people living in this isolated area. One the other hand people were harassed because they lived so close to the border. While we were in the mountains (see next post) Roberta talked to some locals and found out a lot how people live and lived there. Some woman are afraid of strangers and always changed the side of the road when Fulvio and I walked along. It turned out that people there are still very conservative and that in some families it is not allowed for woman to leave the house without men when there are unknown men outside. A funny story was to hear how they found their husband in the past: A girl was told that it is time to marry and so she went to a family in the valley with a son asking for a marriage. That was it. (I cannot remember the details that made it so funny in my ears.) These times are gone since the borders are open and I think that the traces of the conservatism will quickly go away when more tourists enter the valley in future.

The hotel of the family from Berlin.

There are a lot of small fishes in the basin of the source.

This source is close to our hotel is advertised as a "tourist highlight".
Maybe because water is a rare good in summer.

The most exciting boat ride ever

Although the plan of the journey was not to have any plan, the plan was to use Shkodër as base for trips to some nice places in the surrounding. But where to go? There is a tourist office at the Sheshi Nënë Tereza ("Place of Mother Teresa" who went to school in Shkodër) but it was closed for an unknown reason. A taxi driver saw me and sent me to a kiosk that also offers hiking maps etc.. The guy there was very friendly but it turned out that he never visited places in the mountains. I nevertheless bought a map which turned out to be useless. But OK, if the gentle people cannot give information about touristic sites, the Internet should do the job. (As in most countries finding an Internet café is easy in the bigger cities while they don't exists in small towns.) I searched about 2 hours without success. In the past I used and contributed to wikitravel but this seems to be almost dead while the Wikipedia-project wikivoyage provides more information. Nevertheless, information in general is a very rare good in Albania. So what can one do? As I wrote, lesson 1 for Albania is that communication is the key. I read in the Internet that the Koman lake (even the Wikipedia has no valuable information about it) should be beautiful but unfortunately nobody knew how to get there and if it is possible to have a boat ride. They recommended me to stay at 5:30 (sic!) at the Sheshi Demokracia to ask for Komani. Damn, getting up that early only to have a chance to get perhaps the information I need. But OK, I stood there and yelled "Komani, Komani?" and within a few minutes I was sent to a minibus (called "furgon" in Albania) that drove me to another bus that drove me to another bus that drove me to another place in the town. There they collected the people and at 6:30 we left the town with 3 furgons.

The road to the mountains is not in a good shape because it was formerly the main road towards the region of Bajram Curri and to the Kosovo. Since a few years there is a new highway from Tirana to the Kosovo and the ferries along the Komani lake were taken out of service. So the road to the Komani lake was formerly stressed by lots of trucks every day and now it is no longer important for the country. However, the landscape is beautiful and I envied the tourist we saw who took used a bike to climb up to the lake. Finally we arrived at the embankment dam of the lake and got the information that there is only one regular boat per day in each direction. Good that I had only one backpack so that I always had everyting we me. Around 9:00 the boat started to the most impressive ride in my life. You might listen to
Gramatik - Chillaxin' by the Sea
while admiring ;-) the views.
As it was so exciting and as images cannot describe feelings I exceptionally post all images so that you can pick out your favorite:

One can book boats like this one.

This is our boat - the public one.

The public boat is the only public transport for the people living along the lake. It is therefore also used to transport all kind of goods people need - food, clothes, material to repair houses etc. With a closer look at the image of the boat you will notice they took a coach of a bus and welded in onto a hull of a boat. This looks a bit funny but is functional because this way it has good seats, a toilet and large windows.

Looking back to the embankment dam.

Looking forward. And now enjoy...

There are some houses scattered along the lake.
This one is part of a hostel-like site where you can book a room
or a small house to go hiking.

A small village.

Roberta and Fulvio from Bari who I met on the boat.

This wall has a height of about 800 m.
Many of the walls along the lake have never been climbed.

Incredible - there is a small path from the lower left to the
upper right at this wall. I the middle of this image you can
see an old man who came here wit our boat. He is about
70 years old and is still able to climb this steep path to his house!

To transport larger goods up the mountains they
use donkeys and even horses.

The end of the lake.

These are the abandoned ferries from the pre-highway times.

The whole breathtaking boat ride took about 4 hours (when I remember correctly). I still cannot imagine that I found by chance such a beautiful place on earth!!!

Finally some 2 furgons took us to the next city: Bajram Curri.

Lessons learned:

1. Forget about plans - enjoy what you find!
2. Albania is a land of early risers. In many places the last buses leave at 6:30. If you miss them you will have to wait a day!