• Kate CarraraBalkan backpackTraveler
    Lake Skandar, divided between M.negro and Albania..in the sunshine!The Accursed Mountains in N. AlbaniaSkhodër ciry centre, one of the oldest towns in Albania, on the edge of Lake SkandarRozafa Castle, ancient fortress above the cityLegend tells a woman was bricked up alive in the walls for good luck..whose??Many original inhabitants remainViews over lake, river, city, mountains..The castle is big - Illyrian, Slav, Ottoman, Venetian, Austrian, Italian, who wasn't hereMountains on way to Kosovo..

    Skhodër, Albania

    July 9, 2022 in Albania ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Today was our American-style luxury Balkan rush - from Podgorica, possibly the only flat bit of Montenegro, to Skopje in North Macedonia via Albania and Kosovo. Dizzying borders, flags, languages, religions, historical animosities and anomalies - a regional stew of nationalism, brotherhood, Great Powers meddling, suffering, corruption, hope, warm people and huge mountains. Our Montenegrin driver, Milo, has a Croat passport, international dreams and interesting tidbits: despite leaving rump Yugoslavia, spats with big brother Serbia and EU ambitions, cultural affinity wins out - when Montenegro plays football against Serbia, many of the 600 000 Montenegrins root for Belgrade...Albania is somewhere utterly foreign, non Slav, for and of itself on the other side of the lake and the mountains...Read more