It is always now!: In the Albanian Alps

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.