Visiting Shkoder

My second destination of this mini backpacking trip was to the Albanian lakeside town of Shkoder!

I arrived by bus from Tirana at around 12.30 pm which gave me the rest of the afternoon and the evening to explore.

With a population of around 95,000, Shkoder is the 6th largest city of Albania and due to its proximity is often known as ‘the gateway to the Albanian Alps’. It is located close to Lake Shkodra but, as I discovered is not next to it!

Having spent around 2.5 hours on a bus from Tirana I headed towards the Grand Hotel Europa where I had a decent coffee (which came on a little tray with a piece of Turkish Delight and a glass of cold filtered water) and a chance to logon to their wifi.

I sat in their delightful garden terrace in warm 24 degrees sunshine getting my bearings and figuring out what was nearby.

The Grand Hotel Europa is next to Shatervani Park, a small and pleasant green space with a few features of interest.

Hazan Riza Pasha was the Ottoman Governor of Shkoder who was assassinated during the Balkan War in 1913. This monument was built in 2007 by the Turkish General Staff and Ministry of National Defense to commemorate him.

Luigj Gurakuqi was an Albanian writer and activist who was born in Shkoder but was assassinated in Bari, Italy in 1925.

While Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, North Macedonia, her parents were Albanian and she spent many years living in poverty in Albania before leaving for Ireland at the age of 18 then living most of her life in Calcutta.

Having found that Shkoder isn’t a lakeside town and that most of the places of interest are located just outside of the city, I decided to walk to the Venice Art Mask Factory thinking this would be something interesting and a bit different. This is located a couple of km away from the centre and it is a long and boring road!

I wasn’t too sure what to expect when I arrived, I was thinking it would be a museum where I would need to pay a small entry fee.

When I arrived at around 3.30 pm there were no other visitors however I was shown to the ‘factory’ and wow – it was a large room of opulence, glamour and colour!

I was briefly explained the history that this was set up by Edmond Angoni, an Albanian artisan who emigrated to Italy in the 1990’s to learn about making the famous Venetian masks. He set up this workshop where each mask is created as a piece of art and some of the masks have been designed for films.

There was no entry charge and as this place is also a shop you can buy some of the masks and other souvenirs. These are made by local people who are employed to work there.

This place was fascinating and well worth the long(ish) walk there and then back again to the centre of Shkoder.

I walked back to the main pedestrian street and decided to visit the Photography Museum but unfortunately at 4:15 pm it was closed. Instead I had a small tub of ice cream sitting outside at one of the shady tables.

As I was walking past the Hotel Colosseo I noticed they had a roof terrace and found myself doing a sharp left hand turn and entering the reception area of this 5* establishment without a second thought!

A little reminder that Easter Monday was yesterday!

I found a comfy seat up on this lovely open air (but covered) 5th floor terrace and settled down… but not without taking some pictures of the great views of the centre of town!

First and next to the Hotel Colosseo is the Ebu Bekr mosque. The original mosque was destroyed during the communism era and this one was built between1994 to 1995.

Shkoder isn’t exactly a lakeside town… earlier I had asked the lady in the tourist information centre if there was a bus to the nearby lake but she said the only way to get there would be  to rent a bike!

By this time it was nearly 3 pm and with a rumble of thunder over the distant mountains I decided not to bother. As it happened the thunder stayed put over the mountains and Shkoder remained a pleasant and sunny 24 degrees for the rest of the day.

So despite staying in what I had thought to be a lakeside town I didn’t even get to see the lake!

Many hotels and hostels have bikes you can borrow so this might be an idea for a longer visit to Shkoder.

Anyway… back to the wonderful views from the 5th Floor roof terrace of the Colosseo hotel.

Aother budget tip!

Many a time have when Chris and I have stayed in lovely dream locations such as Antigua, Seychelles and St Kitts we tend to hire a car and drive around these tropical paradises. As we drive around we’ve visited several 5 star hotels for a drink or for lunch.

You get excellent food, service and use of facilities including perhaps a gorgeous stretch of beach or a welcoming pool. Sometimes we’ve been given cooling welcome drinks, been driven around the resort in a golf cart and even provided with towels!

This enables a lovely experience for a few hours but without having to spend £500+ per night to stay there.

On a lesser scale, in decent hotels you usually at least get snacks to go with your drinks! Up on the terrace of the 5* Hotel Colosseo I stayed for a while in the late afternoon generally chilling, uploading pictures to draft blog posts and looking at ideas for the rest of this trip.

And yes! I had a local Albanian beer called Korca and a dish of salted peanuts. A lovely experience with a comfortable seat, excellent views and a relaxing vibe all for just 250 lek which is a little over £2.

Dinner

Having spent quite a while up on the Hotel Colosseo terrace bar I decided it was time for dinner.

As a solo female traveller I need to consider safety aspects and as my accommodation was in a quiet part of a town I didn’t know and had only been in for a few hours, I didn’t want to be too late back.

I opted for the historic Hotel and Restaurant Tradita which dates back to 1694!

Many fascinating historic photos can be found inside the Restaurant Tradita.

I was shown up a rickety wooden staircase to the mezzanine floor and was told I could choose my table. I sat at a table in the top left of the above picture along a narrow galley which almost felt like sitting on a wide shelf!

I had a humble (but tasty) vegetable risotto for dinner together with a delicious and generous glass of Albanian wine and my total bill was just 800 lek (£6.94). A treat in such an atmospheric and historic setting.

Accommodation

I stayed in the Hotel Floga which was 25€ in cash for one night. I had booked a single room but upon arrival I was upgraded to a spacious double at no extra cost.

My clean and airy room was on 5th floor which had great views of the mountains from the small balcony.

Breakfast the following morning was excellent. Freshly cooked omelette, a triangle of local cheese, soft fresh bread, warm savoury pastries, fruit, cake, juice and coffee all presented to me on a tray. And as there was enough for two people I had snacks for the day ahead!

Getting to Shkoda

The main regional bus station is located outside of Tirana city centre which meant I had to get a bus to take me there. This was relatively easy having found the bus stop location on Google maps. I waited for bus 5B but many buses didn’t seem to have numbers so it was difficult to tell which was which! I got on bus 100 and the driver confirmed it would be going to ‘terminus’ i.e. the regional bus station. I paid 40 lek in cash for this short journey.

I found Tirana’s regional bus terminal was a large open air piece of waste ground with perhaps around 200 buses and minibuses of all sizes and colours going off to places all over Albania and beyond. Their destinations are clearly marked with signs in the front window of the bus so it was easy to locate one to ‘Shkoder’.

The bus filled up and left the bus station at around 10 am. The traffic throughout the journey was busy and it took over 2 hours to travel the relatively short distance between Tirana and Shkoder. However the seats were fairly comfy and the bus had air conditioning.

At about 20 minutes before arriving in Shkoder someone went down the bus and collected the fares which was 500 lek in cash per person (about £4.50).

Tomorrow…

I leave Albania and cross into Montenegro. I’ve loved my short introductory visit to Albania, my 100th country. There is so much more to see and as mentioned in the Tirana post I’m already planning another trip or two, perhaps to venture south to see some of the gorgeous beaches or up into the national parks to the rugged Accursed mountains, known as the Albanian Alps. Before this lovely country becomes overrun with tourists.